<p>As a future applicant, I was wondering a few things…</p>
<li>Is there a women’s lacrosse team/club/group of people? Anything?</li>
<li>I’ve read on other schools’ boards about a PE requirement, is there such a thing at Rice? Is this common for most colleges?</li>
<li>I’ve read everywhere that it’s sooo hot during the summer and everyone stays indoors but I’m from Florida, is it that much hotter in Houston than Ft. Lauderdale? What about the winters? No snow, I’ve heard, but does it get chilly at least? Should I pack a (Floridian’s) winter coat?</li>
<li>Is the residential college you are placed in completely random or is there some commonalities among the residents? Obviously people will have things in common, but do you think Rice makes an effort to put people together who have more things in common or maybe less things in common to advocate diversity?</li>
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<li><p>I'm sorry I don't know anything more on the subject than lacrosse does exists at Rice on the club level, at the very least. There may be intramural and varsity lacrosse as well. Sorry I can't help any more.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a PE requirement at Rice. You must pass two semester-long PE classes (they're called LPAPs at Rice) to graduate. They do not count towards your GPA because they are 0-hour courses. If you take more than 2, they can start counting towards your GPA though. You get a ton of choices, from yoga to golf, swimming to ballroom dance, and run/walk/jog to basketball... about anything you could imagine. I'm a total klutz and I've taken 3 LPAPs already. They're pretty fun and low-key.</p></li>
<li><p>Houston is extremely hot and humid during the summer, but I doubt it's much different from Ft. Lauderdale. When you move in, be prepared to sweat a lot. However, you'll have help from upperclassmen, so they'll do a little of the sweating for you ;) Every building on campus is air conditioned, so you'll be just as likely to need a sweatshirt the first week as shorts and sandals. It does actually get cold at Rice in the winter, but for no more than a month or two. A coat will be necessary for probably about 2 weeks to a month. You don't need to bring a parka or anything, but a good winter jacket will serve you well enough. You might want to consider leaving it at home until Thanksgiving break and picking it up at home at that time so it doesn't take up room in the hot months.</p></li>
<li><p>The residential college system is completely random except for a few factors. If you have a parent who is an alum of one of the colleges or a sibling who is in one, you can request to be put into his or her college. Also, some colleges have better facilities for students with disabilities, so that might play a role in certain people's placement within the college system. However, by and large, each college is intended to be a microcosm of the university. You are not grouped according to major, interests, or any other factor. Each college is simply a randomly-selected and representative piece of the undergraduate population of the university.</p></li>
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<li><p>There is a women's lacrosse team, I'm pretty sure. </p></li>
<li><p>There are LPAPS, which are PE classes and range from latin dance to sports to weight lifting. </p></li>
<li><p>It can get pretty chilly during the summers, but not bitterly cold generally. The school year is nice in that it doesn't really get that hot after august and until the spring. </p></li>
<li><p>It's not completely random. As the above states, legacy kids and those with siblings can choose to join their relatives college or not, but they don't get a choice from them all. (unless they had a relative in each of the nine). Secondly, those with disabilities are generally put in the colleges with the best facilities for those students, yet every college has them. </p></li>
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<p>However, all the atheletes, musies, and archies are divided pretty evenly between colleges, so each of the colleges will have an equal but random assortment of those students in the special programs.</p>