<p>I'm just wondering about the general attitude of students/staff/faculty at Rice! I'm a little bit put off because every single time I've called the admissions office to ask questions about Owl Day, etc., the lady/ladies on the phone have been...well, just kind of rude, unfortunately. For example, when I asked if I needed to register again for Owl Day because I didn't receive the email confirmation, the lady on the phone said that if I was "smart enough to put a good email on there," I should have gotten an email. I don't think I made a mistake putting my email on the form, but it is still possible that I made the mistake. However, that comment made me feel very unwelcome.
This isn't the first/only time the people on the phone @ Rice Admissions have responded abruptly or flat out rudely (in fact, my counselor has even called Rice, and received the same sort of rude answer--she was not impressed), and I understand that perhaps they are extremely busy/stressed, but this leads to me ask what the general attitude @ Rice is. I still love Rice, but I definitely feel unwelcome.
Thank you for your responses in advance!</p>
<p>I know what you mean. I called the admissions office before and have talked to a relatively rude lady too. I think they’re just busy…I dunno. But the student body is nothing like that! The people I’ve met are really nice and willing to help. I’m not a Rice student, but applied for transfer. I’ve also spoken to the associate director of office of international students, but she was very nice and thorough.</p>
<p>Well, this thread has made me feel better. I thought maybe they just had it in for me or something. Over the course of about 6 months, I called Rice Admissions twice and the financial aid office once. All three phone calls made me feel like I was nothing but a bother to them. Short, rude answers, mostly and an attitude that made me feel like I was an idiot for asking my questions. I know they were swamped, but that’s no excuse to treat people who may end up paying your university lots of money for 4 years like they are a nuisance. It has really turned me off to Rice. My S and I made some phone calls to his other potential colleges over the same period of time to ask similar stuff and all of those people were super friendly and helpful and I bet they were all pretty busy, too. On top of that, the financial aid package my S received was the worst of his offers, so all things considered, he probably won’t be attending.</p>
<p>It’s because they’ve been putting people other than Miss Sandra on the front desk. The admissions office needs to stop thinking about reorganizing, remodeling, and rebranding and start thinking about personnel again.</p>
<p>Both my kids LOVE the school; but way back when dinosaurs roamed, DD was very turned off by the admissions folk. I don’t know what Rice is thinking putting people with those kind of attitudes out at the front desk!!! However - once you are attending the school, you never have to deal with those people again - and the REAL Rice people are extremely nice. :)</p>
<p>Yikes, I’m really sorry to hear about all this. Most of the staff I’ve dealt with are really nice… like NYSkins1 says, they must be putting new people at the admissions reception desk because they’re so swamped. Please don’t let this give you the wrong impression, though! This is not a reflection of how professors and the administration like to handle student affairs, nor accurate of interactions among students. I’m sure that if Dean Forman or people higher up in the admissions staff heard about this, they’d be appalled.</p>
<p>I was just going to suggest you contact anxiousmom, as she too had some less-than-positive experiences with the admissions office. Don’t let that initial contact dissuade you. The school is wonderful!! Our initial contct with the admissions office was not ideal (partly our fault, as we were hoping to get a last minute interview set up). We ended up arranging a later visit, and they were wonderful, even when we had a flat tire on the way to the interview at 9:00am!!</p>
<p>I hyave to agree with the negative perception the admission folks give (just in case Rice administration monitors this board). We’ve called twice with (I thought) reasonable questions and we got the distinct impression that they couldn’t wait to put down the phone. They weren’t nasty, just very curt.</p>
<p>;) You forget all about those curt admissions people when you pull into the Rice parking lot by YOUR college on Sunday morning of O-Week, and a group of Rice students wearing similarly colored T-shirts run up to your car screaming various welcomes, take one look at your face and shout, “IT’S ________ ! (insert your name here.)” They have literally memorized the faces of all the incoming freshman, know your interests, food preferences, etc, and are excited and delighted to meet you, help lug your stuff and get you all ready for the start of your Rice life. I’m so happy my son will be on the greeting end this year. (And, by the way, the o-week advisors actually PAY for the privilege of guiding/leading and greeting new students for O-week - that shows their dedication to the whole process!)</p>
<p>I highly recommend you folks write some letters to the admissions and financial aid directors. I have found that it is difficult to erase my first impression of a school’s staff.</p>
<p>I think a part of the issue is that the people grow a bit tired of simple questions being asked. It is somewhat like some of the questions students ask here on CC. Many times a very brief search will provide the answer. </p>
<p>In general super smart people are sometimes easily frustrated by those asking dum questions because they think anyone should know the answer to that. Be patient; most of the time when they realize that you have at least made some effort on your own they will quickly come around and help you tremendously.</p>
<p>I would like to thank the Rice parents like Anxiousmom who wrote me when we decided on short notice, at my son’s request…when he could get off of his summer job work schedule…to fly to Houston. I really appreciated the lovely Rice Moms who wrote me with ideas on where to stay and with offers of being available for further questions. You are great Rice ambassadors. Rice students also really won our hearts with their lack of pretentiousness and with those Oh-so-admirable Residential colleges. We had to come suddenly or not at all due to son’s commitments.</p>
<p>My son LOVED Rice, and so did I. He was admitted but was not selected for merit money in a year where personal family circumstances required that he have some merit to afford private college costs. Rice keeps costs down to an admirable level and delivers in my opinion…MORE that full costs in the first place…but nevertheless, we can’t afford Rice now. Congrats to those of you who got the merit dollars. And I do admire Rice for handing out merit to 30% of applicants in the middle of a recession.</p>
<p>He will be declining Rice, but he is a very lucky student because he has other great offers and will make his decision very soon.</p>
<p>Rice admissions…he was granted an interview (after first being told “no way” when he inquired before the open tour and info session of that day) without his proper notice that he was arriving, and the man on staff who interviewed him was also a great Rice personality: unpretentious, natural, intelligent, socially intelligent, gracious, welcoming. He was lucky to get an interview at all without a standing appointment.</p>
<p>anyway,the Rice trip remains a highlight of our last year. All respect for Rice, and best wishes to you new Rice students and to you “elders” here chatting with prospectives.</p>
<p>I got the same attitude as well! I remember calling earlier this year to check to see if my documents had arrived safely and that lady was so blunt and rude with her response, I hung up the phone thinking “What the hell did SHE eat for breakfast…???”.</p>
<p>One second … is this the Rice Forum? I’m really surprised …</p>
<p>Laura V. in Admissions was so courteous and helpful during our two chats … an admin asst sent out copies of Rice Magazine to my parents and inlaws, as soon as I asked… the cashier at Sammy’s went out of her way to help me … profs answered my questions in such a helpful way! I was so pleased throughout the admissions process and beyond.</p>
<p>I hope everybody’s as friendly at this year’s Owl Days as they were last year!
And I hope everyone has a great time! It’s been a terrific year!</p>
<p>HI JABBA
This is “christinewong”. I couldn’t find the thread about the people asking about where to “do things” at RICE, but HAVE mucho FUN at Rice and Houston!!!</p>
I’m so happy my son will be on the greeting end this year. (And, by the way, the o-week advisors actually PAY for the privilege of guiding/leading and greeting new students for O-week - that shows their dedication to the whole process!)</p>
Its wonderful to pay it forward!</p>