<p>I was accepted into Rice and love almost everything about the school, but I can't help but worry over the small school size. Rice is about the same size as my secondary school and after six years (7th-12th) I'm absolutely tired of seeing the same old people. I LOVE meeting new people and worry that Rice just isn't big enough for me. My ideal size would be about double that of Rice, so around 7-8k students. Am I making much ado about nothing or is it a legitimate concern? Please be as honest and unbiased as possible. I'll still strongly consider Rice no matter what, but I would like to make the most informed decision possible.</p>
<p>if you can attend owl days, you will probably be able to determine the answer for yourself. remember, rice is #1 for happy students, so i think the majority are going to say rice is nice!</p>
<p>I say nay! It isn’t too small. I feel it is the perfects size since you get to know the others in your major very well, BUT you are surrounded by people of other majors all interacting in activities, going to parties together, visiting the residential colleges, etc. that you would not have met and can really get to know them. Unlike highschool where people were marginalized to several groups and didn’t interact that much (at least at my large hs of 3000), here people are incredibly diverse, intelligent, friendly and REACHABLE. I feel you will get to know more people here than at a large school simply because everything here is very open to getting to know others whereas I feel most other schools limit interaction to only certain groups (like frats or dorm halls). Rice does such a great job promoting and giving opportunity for diversity that I doubt if you want to meet new people you will ever run into problems. Also since upperclassmen are very friendly to underclassman, if you somehow manage to meet EVERYBODY at Rice, just wait till a new batch of freshmen come in. One last thing, some faculty (mostly associates to each of the residential colleges) sit down and talk to students during lunches. If you want to meet them, just have lunch at the 11 residential colleges, befriend one, then meet the rest of the department through them even if not in the major.</p>
<p>This is just my opinion. I am a freshman and although I really like the feeling of seeing familiar faces at Rice, there is never a moment when I think I am limited in meeting people because of the small size. I hope this provides some insight!</p>
<p>I can guarantee you, if you attend Rice, you will know only a few of the people you walk by to class on a daily basis. The people you really get to know well within your college but there will always be many many many people you don’t know outside of it. </p>
<p>I never feel that the campus is too small and I came from a high school around the same size as Rice.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the feedback! SchoolAdvice your thorough and thoughtful insight really helped paint a better picture of life at Rice. I feel much better about Rice 's school size after reading about your experience on campus. If it weren’t for financial reasons, I’d commit right now. Thanks again to everyone!</p>
<p>No problem! Also, remember, you can call the office of financial aid/email them discussing circumstances that would merit them giving you more money in aid. I have a friend who successfully did this and is currently attending Rice because of it. Also, if it helps, I didn’t get any aid nor scholarships, but am still going. Depending on what you want to study, it might well be worth it in the long run given the opportunities you will receive. PM me if you need any specific help!</p>
<p>Just as an additional perspective in agreement with the above, I’ve found that no matter where I go at Rice, I see both people I know and people I don’t. To me, that’s the perfect size–there’s too many people to meet everyone, yet there’s enough to keep things interesting and fresh.</p>
<p>High school sizes work differently than college sizes, as high school tends to force everyone into certain environments more so than does college, thus increasing the percentage of people that you know. Also, since Rice isn’t all that cliquey from my experience, you aren’t as limited as you might be in a high school environment when it comes to getting to know people you don’t already know.</p>