<p>I’m going to give you a specific example to help out. I’m in Hanszen College. We have two sections, one with community-style living and one with suites. I am in the community-style section.</p>
<p>The rooms are really large and spacious, actually. I live with one other person, but a couple rooms have four people; the suites have eight people to a bathroom, four bedrooms with two people to a bedroom. My room came with two beds, two desks, two chairs, two dressers, two bookshelves, two closets, two trashcans, and a recycling bin. That’s to split between two people of course. </p>
<p>As far as gender goes, Rice is very lenient. I’m fairly certain you can even room with a member of the opposite sex, although it’s not very common.</p>
<p>Communal bathrooms are actually really nice. I was worried about it before I came to Rice, but I actually really enjoy them. They are really clean, you never have to wait for a shower, and I’ve actually had many good conversations while brushing my teeth or something with another. It’s unexpectedly nice. hahaha</p>
<p>If you don’t get along with a roommate, it’s very easy to get help. Most roommate pairings work out extremely well, as the O-Week Coordinators put a lot of time and effort into matching, but there are a couple cases in which they don’t (a couple people on my floor had issues; they ended up switching with each other).</p>
<p>I love the food here. It’s really high quality. I’ll admit, it can get a tad monotonous, but if you put a bit of effort into selecting your meals, you can easily avoid that. Simply put, the food at Rice is not just something that’s tolerable. It’s something to look forward to, in my opinion. haha</p>
<p>Amount of work for classes depends on the person. I personally didn’t have too much work. It was about the same as senior year of high school for me, but since I spent less time actually in class it was actually better. I know many people (mostly those in the intro science classes) who spent a huge portion of their lives in the library or at another work station during the later half of the semester, though. But no matter what, I assure you that you’ll find time to relax, have fun, go to parties and events, and participate in clubs and sports and all that. Somehow, everyone finds the time for fun and extracurriculars.</p>
<p>I was given work study but didn’t take up the offer last semester because I wanted to adjust to life at Rice first. I plan on getting a job this coming semester though. All my friends say it’s great. Hours and job opportunities are really flexible, and you get paid directly, so you can use that for tuition or pocket it and use it for other expenses at college.</p>
<p>I know a few freshman who don’t live on campus, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend living off-campus, especially your first year here. If you are doing it for financial or other important reasons (ex. taking care of a sick parent), that’s completely understandable, and you can still get along just fine. However, campus life is so unique at Rice; we are one of the few schools in which everyone wants to live on campus. We actually have terms for people living off-campus. There’s “OC” and “Deep OC.” OC is for someone who is living off-campus but still gets involved, while Deep OC is for those students who we never see around Hanszen because living off-campus makes it difficult for them to be around other than for classes and whatnot. There seems to be a lot more Deep OC people than OC people, which is a shame–I can’t say for sure though, as I haven’t met any Deep OC people yet. From the stories I’ve heard from sophomores, though, it feels like there’s a lot, because I hear a lot of names I don’t recognize. haha</p>
<p>Hopefully this helps answer your questions a bit further. Congrats on your acceptance, and welcome to Rice!</p>