<p>I was interested in Rice, but The Princeton Review's "students say.." section on Rice really turned me off of the school. However, I don't want to cross a wonderful school off of my list because of a review that didn't accurately represent the college. I was wondering if their observations were at all accurate:
"Many female students agree that "the environment for women leaves a bit to be desired at times," partially due to the "politically apathetic" environment that tolerates some ongoing male-centric practices."
"students that are not rich, white, or straight are tolerated only superficially."
And also... is Rice a lot more pre- professional than intellectual? Would "learning for learning's sake" attitude be viewed as strange or uncommon? Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>Whoa- that is waaaaaay off the mark. Jenskate can speak directly to this, but as a Rice parent I can tell you, from my observations and reports from my s., nothing could be further from the truth. The campus was a hotbed of political activity this fall. When I went for parents weekend, dorm windows were filled with Kerry, Bush and Nader signs. My s. worked with the young Democrats and helped both on and off campus. Rice students are warm, friendly and accepting. They do want to learn just for the sake of learning. I don't know who Princeton review talked to, but they are way off the mark. And what male-centric practices are they talking about??? I am pretty sensitive to anything that smells of sexism, and I didn't pick up a whiff of it at Rice. Read elsewhere about Rice- you'll get a true picture. It is a great place.</p>
<p>People assume that because Rice in Texas, it can't be any good; personally, I think that's not a good approach at all.</p>
<p>You know, I recently reread that. I really think that I disagree with most of the statements there.</p>
<p>I don't know what the "male-centric parctices" are. I really have no idea. I do know that Rice has active women's sports teams, a Women's Resouce Center, a Department of Women's Studies, Rice for Choice group (and Rice for Life).</p>
<p>Some people are "politically apathetic." We are not protesting things everyday, like at some other schools. That said, students at Rice vote. We watched the presidential debates. There are active young republican and young democrat groups. Events at the Baker Institute of Public Policy are well attended. So we are not the most politically involved. But there are opportunities to be involved, and most people do have opinions on (both on and off campus) political issues and are educaed about the issues enough to have reasonable discussions with.</p>
<p>Disagree whole-heartedly with "the students that are not rich..." comment. I don't know who is on financial aid, and I don't much care. I don't think people know what kind of scholarships I'm getting. And no one is asking me, or not being friends with me because of how much money i may or may not have. There are minorities at Rice. I'm good friends with people who are black, white, asian, indian, etc. I never really think about my friends' races. Some groups self segregate, but I don't think if I were a minority I would feel compelled to only sit with kids of my ethnicity at meals, etc. There was a recent article in the Thresher about a girl who chose to sit with people of her own ethnicity. She was basically explaining why she did so, because a lot of people had been asking her about it. She felt more comfortable with people of her own ethnicity (more things in common, i think?), but other Rice students were constantly encouraging her to join them.
There are homosexuals at Rice, but that scene is very low-key/underground. I think some of them feel that they are not well-tolerated, but the university is really taking steps to solve this problem. We has a whole tolerance workshop during o-week, and it mainly focused on homosexuality.</p>
<p>In some ways rice is pre professional. Everyone seems pre-med, pre-law, etc. A lot of people know what they want to be when they grow up and are working furiously to get there. At the same time, I don't think that Rice students are only doing things to put on their resumes. We are interested in what we are studying. Advisors encourage you to broaden your horizons. There used to be a quote in PR about Rice rekindling a desire to learn that had been snuffed out in high school, and i really have found that true. I enjoy my classes and even my homework (usually!). People won't think you are a weirdo for loving to learn. You will be admired. If you also do social things and are involved on campus (that's pretty much expected).</p>
<p>I'd encourage you to visit. I think Fiske gives the most accurate guidebook representation of Rice, but even that is not quite it. </p>
<p>And why all the guidebooks feel the need to mention baker 13, i don't know. it's seriously not that big a deal.</p>
<p>If there was any problem with the environment at Rice for women, I would have heard about it from my D. She is also VERY liberal, and feels that she fits right in at Rice. It is a diverse environment. I really disagree with all the PR comments.</p>
<p>Jenskate1: The PR comments bother me too, because they would tend to reduce, rather than encourage, the types of students Rice tries to attract. PR has had that same "students say" comment on their website and in their book for YEARS. (O wouldn't be surprised if the person who said that is in his/her thirties by now!) PR does request that students at colleges submit comments, which they use to update their information for their books and website. If you feel the info does not reflect Rice, I would strongly encourage you submit a new comment, and encourage your friends to do so also. (It only takes a second to do so, and the link at their website is not hard to find.) My daughter, who LOVES Rice, initially did not want to apply to Rice after reading the PR blurb. They really are unfair comments. My daughter is very NOT pre-professional, and she is loving all the different things that she is learning. Students perform in plays, take part in lots of intermurals and club sports, sing with groups - all things that will NOT help them on their resumes, but they do it anyway because they love to. But I agree, that students are focused and some of them do have an eye for their future goals - but not in cut-throat kind of way. The broad distribution requirements, though, mean that most students get a chance to explore many areas of interest, and LOTS of kids double major.
Re: money. I think Rice is more diverse in income levels than many, many schools, and my daughter hasn't found snobbery in the money department. (And she's happy that somebody can afford a car. No way could we ever...) She also has plenty of gay, bi-sexual etc. friends. Rice is a pretty diverse place. That doesn't mean that there aren't some homo-phobes, or arrogant snobs. The way of the world is that there are some of all kinds; but it doesn't characterize Rice, like the PR comments would make it appear.</p>
<p>Princeton Review made pilaf out of Rice.</p>
<p>I've heard Rice is a pretty diverse school. When I went on the website a while back, I read that Rice was considered the 2nd best school for Hispanics. Afro-Americans seem well-represent, too, numbering close to 200. </p>
<p>But, I don't think Rice is diverse geographically-speaking since the majority of the undergrads are from Texas. </p>
<p>Jenskate, it's been mentioned that Rice Village( I think that's the name) is a great place for college students. Is it inexpensive to shop and visit there?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
But, I don't think Rice is diverse geographically-speaking since the majority of the undergrads are from Texas.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Are you sure about that? I heard Rice has a quota for in-state admissions.</p>
<p>Darn, i just typed a whole lot of stuff and then - <em>poof!</em> - it was gone.</p>
<p>OK. </p>
<p>In state students: Rice's student body is about 49% Texan. But they come from all sorts of backgrounds, life experiences, etc. Contrary to a popular northeastern belief, not everyone in Texas is the same. Despite the fact that Rice has a lot of Texans, the student body is very diverse in terms of thought and belief and background, which imo is WAY more important than geographical diversity or racial diversity anyway. There is no strict quota for Texans (or any other group) that I am aware of. Rice has so many Texans because that's who's applying, i think. That said, I recently discussed this very issue with the president of the university (!!!) and he is very passionate about extending Rice's reputation to areas where we have not been drawing a lot of students from in order to increase the geographical diversity of the student body.</p>
<p>On the whole idea of college guide books.. my opinion is that, while you may take into account what the book says, you should go and get your own feel for the school and look into schools based on your own interests and not on what a book might indicate. I personally looked at LOTS of schools, until late last year I had no idea where i was going to go ( I have a good in-state school so I wasn't all that worried at first), but after months of searching I found Rice which just fit... and to date, I have found very, very little about Rice that I dislike, although I have done all the reasearch I can do about the school (short of visiting it, which I havent been able to do because of distance).</p>
<p>Rice Village: It's free to go to since it's in walking distance and there are also shuttle buses on friday and saturday nights. There is a wide range of stores. There ae restaurants and clothing stores as well as drug stores, hardware stores, garden supply stores, furniture stores, gift stores, hair salons, etc. With this wide range comes a wide range in prices. There's a dollar store and some small clothing stores, but most of the clothes are expensive (There's a Gap, a Banana Republic, an Urban Outfitters, an Ann Taylor, a Talbots, an Eddie Bauer, Victoria's Secret and more like that.) Food has bigger variety in pricing. There's brown bag deli which is like $3.50 for a big sandwich, and there's Benjy's where you could have a gorgeous $50 meal. And there are a lot of places that entrees are like $6-10. There are about 3 Thai restaurants, a Chinese place, a few delis, 2 french places, and whole bunch of american ones. There's also a Haagen-Daaz, a Ben and Jerry's, a Cold Stone Creamery, and a Jamba Juice and a Starbucks. Plus lots of other places like bars and nighttime things. Yeah, it's a pretty good place to go, but have some self-control or you could blow all of next semesters tuition.</p>
<p>Rice-Obsessive is right - I visited Rice totally on a whim (we were flying from NY to CA and my dad wanted to stop in the middle and see a school that offered merit aid. So I went right down US News, found Rice, we visited, and the rest is history!) . But yeah, i thought I wouldn't like it. And lo and behold, I did. So, you never really can tell from these guidebooks.</p>
<p>Similarly, from reading the guidebooks I thought Pomona was like PARADISE. So I visited, and it was only so-so. Again, visit if at all possible, otherwise try to get your info from a wide variety of sources.</p>
<p>Similar story for me... I had a friend who applied who told me it was great, being a bit skeptical I picked up a course catalog from my counselor, read it and started to love Rice. It seemed to have everything I wanted all rolled into one, then, unlike other schools I had looked at, it stood up really well to further inspection.</p>
<p>I did remember one "male-centric" (sort-of) thing. They call women's touch football "powder-puff football". :)</p>
<p>True, but that is true at many other schools as well. We had powderpuff games at my high school.</p>
<p>Similar story for me as well...I was traveling from here in New England to California and randomly decided to stop at Rice to see it, having basically never heard of it (I don't think it's so well-known out here) and I absolutely <em>loved</em> it, completely out of nowhere. For some totally idiotic reason, a number of months later, I applied ED to Brown (though I thought it was my top choice at the time) and, of course, got deferred, because I'm not an incredible applicant. Currently, I'm kicking myself hard for not realizing that Rice is really where I want to be the most, because it's painfully obvious now. I had the chance to apply ID, but it was past the interview deadline when I got on it and I figured an interview was important, so I applied RD instead. I wish I could have somehow expressed that they're my top choice-- I don't think I stand much chance, because I'm just not that competitive an applicant. Oh, to have hindsight during the...uh...hind. ;)</p>
<p>Anxiousmom-
I sent an email to the folks at Princeton Review to ask how often they update their "students say" section. They said that they update it, and 3 other sections (student body, academics and college life) every 3 years, and Rice is up for a rewrite this spring! I forwarded their email to Jenskate. Hopefully she'll send in some more accurate info, as she does such a nice job in her descriptions of Rice on CC.</p>
<p>Thanks for the e-mail! I will check it out when i get a chance.</p>
<p>LOL, every 3 years, that's ridiculous. Whatever happened to PR being up-to-date and informative...funny.</p>