<p>what was he doing there? I thought he is set for Stanford.</p>
<p>I visited Rice and I loved it. My daughter seemed a little hesitant. Several of the Rice students were saying that there was a significant degree of drinking, especially with the freshmen. And if you were housed in a residential college that was rowdy, you couldn't transfer. Did anyone else hear this?</p>
<p>She was also concerned that there didn't seem to be any fun activities. That students thought their idea of a good time was to sit around and get drunk.</p>
<p>DrMom- welcome to cc.
Hopefully Jenskate will jump in to address your question, and can lead you to previous threads that have addressed your concerns. While drinking is tolerated on campus, there is plenty to do that does not involve drinking. Music,theater, movies, clubs (lots and lots of clubs), IM sports, etc. The residential college system is like that at Yale. You are assigned to one your freshman year, and you will remain affiliated with that college for your 4 years. Because students are randomly assigned, you will have a very diverse group of students, and will have all 4 classes represented. There is a fierce loyalty that develops to your res. college, and no matter which you are assigned to, you will invariably think it is the best. There was some shuffling around of students when Martel opened a few years ago, but I believe this year's graduating seniors are the last students that transferred into Martel when it opened. I have heard of a few college changes, but it isn't very common. I would suggest you have your d. do an overnight at Rice to get a better feel. If she is a Junior, it is probably best to wait until next year to do an overnight, as I think most of the current overnights are for HS seniors trying to make their final decision.
Good luck!</p>
<p>addendum-
If you were just at Rice this weekend, you were there for Owl Weekend. There should have been plenty to do! Also, there are lots of places to study in each of the res. colleges that are quiet and quite conducive to studying. Rice students are serious students. It is not all party, party. Yes, Rice students can relax and have fun, but it is not a wild and crazy place. Now, if you were there during Willy Week, you might have gotten a different view, but that is the exception, not the rule, and Willy week is a week of planned fun and creativity.</p>
<p>I'm not set for stanford; although I'm heavily leaning towards it, I want to make sure I'm making the right choice. I live in Houston, so attending Owl Weekend was just a 35 minute drive.</p>
<p>Unclefeezus-
Tough choice-- Rice and Stanford!! Great options!! </p>
<p>DrMom-
Here is a list of the clubs at Rice. If there isn't one that she likes (doubtful) she can start one!! They are very receptive to that!<a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Estact/clubs.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~stact/clubs.html</a></p>
<p>Dr. Mom-</p>
<p>I must go study for an exam. However, I did want to respond. Your daughter is right in some respects, but wrong in others, i think. Drinking is a major part of life at Rice, no two ways about it. But not all students drink, and it is perfectly fine if you don't. There is a whole lot to do regardless, and you can still have a great social life if you don't drink.</p>
<p>I will tell you that I am a pretty quiet, non-drinker. I was placed in Lovett, known to be the most rowdy, frat boy style college at Rice (not to mention the ugliest). I cried.</p>
<p>But now I am here, and although I do not feel the intense loyalty to Lovett that some others feel, I must say it has worked out far better than I expected. </p>
<p>The thing is, everyone is placed randomly. That means that at every college you will have your partiers and your studiers, athletes and geeks, engineers and english majors, etc. At every college, there will be kids that you will just love and kids that you won't. So try not to worry about that too much. :)</p>
<p>It is difficult, but not impossible to transfer residential colleges. There is also the option of moving off campus, which a fair number of students do.</p>
<p>There are lots of fun activities at Rice (and in the city of houston) that do not involve drinking, and I'm really surprised that your daughter didn't see this. There are concerts at the shepherd school, movies at the angelika, sporting events, lectures, club meetings, places to volunteer, theater, ballet, opera, improv comedy, a capella groups, TONS of restaurants and shopping, the zoo, the museums, etc. I'm not sure what her idea of fun could be that Houston lacks (unless it is mountain climbing, perhaps!)</p>
<p>Use the search function to look for "rice" and "alcohol" or "drinking"</p>
<p>However, you have to admit that if most of your friends drink, it's pretty lame doing non-drinking things. I roomed with a few non-drinkers, and they spent their nights playing Halo with prospies. I respect them greatly for not drinking, but it seems that if there was less drinking, they would probably have much more to do.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying to me Jym626 and Jenskate. This is all new to me and my daughter has a big decision to make soon. After reading your comments my daughter and I feel much better. </p>
<p>Jenskate---I have been reading your comments for months. They are very informative. Thanks.</p>
<p>I was at owl weekend and I went to see a play the first night I was there, then the second went to a faculty recital and the improv comedy group Spontaneous Combustion. Neither night I was with my host; the first I got separated from the group of girls I roomed with because I had to move my car, but I just stumbled into a few friendly people who were looking for a talent show we couldn't find, so we went to the play. The second night I was with a friend from school and a few random people we picked up on the way to the concert. Some people did say they didn't enjoy it that much, but I think that the people who just went out and did the things on the schedule that interested them had a more enjoyable time than those who wanted their hosts to entertain them.</p>
<p>In all honesty, I do not know who your hosts were, but they sound ridiculous to me.</p>
<p>There was SO much going on last weekend, that using the excuse that "there's nothing to do if I'm not drinking" is actually absurd.</p>
<p>I'm sorry you had crummy hosts, but I'd like to offer a counter example.</p>
<p>I don't drink, and my prospective students did not drink either. We kept busy.</p>
<p>Thursday, we had dinner at my college, walked around campus, visited my friend at Martel, watched some of the Jones talent show, ate apple pie, went to the Philharmonics Concert, chilled with other prospectives and current students, checked out the view from the 6th floor of my building, etc.</p>
<p>Friday, we went to classes, went to those faculty panel discussions, went to Rice Village, walked around the medical center, took the light rail, saw the undergraduate research symposium, went to the activites fair and picnic, a string quartet concert, lecture by dr. debakey, lovett college play, improv comedy, late night pie club, etc.</p>
<p>NONE of those activities involved any drinking! And they weren't lame, they were packed. And there were activities that we wanted to do (PowWow, Brown College Play, Hotel Rwanda screening) That we didn't have time for. If you are too lazy or too addicted to stop playing halo, that's one thing, but it's not because you have no other options.</p>
<p>Jenskate1,
I know you have an exam to study for so this question can keep until there is a better time. What I want to know is can two freshmen request to be room mates? If so what are their chances of success?</p>
<p>Jenskate,
Thank you for all the great info on Rice that you have provided. It has been very helpful to me and my D in the past 4 months or so that I have been lurking on CC. Rice is still in contention as D considers the big decision that she has to make in the next 2 weeks. I can understand that you might feel that you have had enough of CC, but I want you to know that many parents and prospective Rice students have appreciated the community service you have provided in the past 12 months. Three cheers for Jenskate: hurray! hurray! hurray!!!</p>
<p>I read in the Rice literature that you cannot request a roommate as a freshman, but you can request to be put in the same residential college as one other person. Also you can request to be in or not in the same college as a family member.</p>
<p>This is a kind of random question, but how often and how many new people does Spontaneous Combustion take? Also, are they active? Because their webpage is two years old.</p>
<p>Thanks. :)</p>
<p>A friend of my s.'s is in Spontaneous Combustion, and he is a freshman. So, there is hope!</p>
<p>I totally agree with the host thing AND the drinking thing. my host was okay, but kinda awkward and lame, so i just got the map, got the list of activities and walked. that simple. i did so much, had a lot of fun, and even missed out on a few things like rice village (shouldn't have "explored" for it), the plays jenskate mentioned (why the f weren't these on the list of activities???? i would have so loved to go), Gather, etc etc etc because there was even better alchohol-exclusive stuff going on at the same time. And the parties/drinking sessions i dropped in on were all LATE at night, not at all conflicting with the myriad of other activities on campus (except jamfest, of course), so that is, like has been said before, no excuse to say that "there was nothing to do but drink or play halo."</p>
<p>DrMom - as far as I know, KrazyKow is right on the roommate thing. Then, after a year of being in the same college as your friend, you will have made new friends and will know who you want to live with for the next year (perhaps your friend from high school, perhaps not.)</p>
<p>And Aussie, you're welcome :)</p>
<p>that reminds me, i forgot to add, i concur with aussie too. Rice was all but thrown out of the equation already, taking a backseat to UC berk and Wesleyan. If it weren't for CC, and, more specifically, (mostly) jenskate's posts/views/insights/clarifcations, it wouldn't have bothered going to Owl Weekend, nor would Rice be at the head of my list now. I think she quite literaly altered the course of my future. I'm sure i'm not the only one who feels this way. Thanks, jenskate1!</p>
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I think she quite literaly altered the course of my future.
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<p>whoa. that's ridiculous. lol.</p>