<ol>
<li>Grade deflation in engineering, is it bad?</li>
<li>If you want to do research, will you likely get that oppurtunity?</li>
<li>How well do you know your professors, and do you form good enough relationships for letters of recommendation?</li>
</ol>
<p>Parent here:
- Given a certain level of effort - no.
- Very easy to get research opportunities. My son just talked with a prof after the prof made a presentation of his work, and was hired right away.
3). DS did, DD did. DD had several mentors, one of whom morphed into a family friend, and the prof DS works for has been a great mentor. :)</p>
<ol>
<li>Depends on the major. For bioengineering, I can say this: if you can manage to go to class, do your work, and study, you can get a B (those may sound like a simple tasks if you’re in high school, but there are PLENTY of people who don’t). Any grades above that require exponentially more work, in line with the law of diminishing returns. I can work on a difficult problem set for five hours and get a B+ or A-, or work five more hours on top of that for the perfect score. A+s are all but impossible, but that’s what distribution classes are for.</li>
<li>Yes. Straightforward answer.</li>
<li>Again, it depends on the class and major. You likely won’t forge a strong relationship with your intro phys/chem/math classes, where there are 200 kids in the auditorium. After you hit junior year, it’s incredibly easy. I’ve had 12-student lab classes with two different profs twice, and it’s incredibly easy to talk to them now; one of them is an associate at my college, so I’ve seen her outside of class, too. If you do research with anyone a rec letter would be easy to obtain.</li>
</ol>
<p>thanks guys, Rice just seems better and better the more I know about it. Just need to convince my parents its worth the cost should I be admitted… btw I’m probably a Materials or ChemE major so it’d be awesome if anyone knew about grades there (but of course LEARNING is whats important!).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you try at ALL, you will be able to decently. This does mean you do HW and go to class and let the prof. know that you care and are making the effort</p></li>
<li><p>Yes. Find a professor you are interested in working with and email them. Everyone seems to be able to get jobs</p></li>
<li><p>I knew a lot of them well and didn’t know some at all. Depends on whether you go to class and make the effort.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Antarius do you mind telling me what your major is?</p>
<p>ChemE. Also took a large amount of the theatre majors classes.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Not really that bad, as long as you put in the time and effort.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes. In fact, three NSF representatives came to Rice yesterday, and were talking to the CAAM/STAT/MATH departments about their undergraduate research, and how undergrads would work on projects that profs, post-docs, and grad students were all working on. Overall, I got the impression that they were very impressed at Rice, because of how accessible research opportunities are.</p></li>
<li><p>It depends on major and which particular classes. For example, if you’re in a big auditorium, it will be tough to talk to a professor during his/her office hours. However, if you make the effort, and schedule an appointment with them, or come by their office while they’re there, you can certainly build strong connections. For smaller classes, it’s easier in the sense that you can just go over during office hours, but most of the professors I have talked to are really flexible for meeting with students.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hi–
Applying to Rice! But we are wondering about regional diversity…can anyone tell me what the geographic distribution of students is—are most Rice students from Texas? Is there a strong representation from the east and wset coasts? And so on…</p>
<p>Thanks much for the info! :)</p>
<p>paragpon - About 50% from Texas, but you have to remember that Texas is huge and diverse in and of itself. Many people from both coasts. My freshman year I (from Texas, but not Houston) had one roommate from Houston who grew up on the east coast, one from Seattle, one from TN, one from MD, and one from Indonesia. Two girls next door were from California, one from Seattle. You get all kinds, and it really isn’t a problem.
[Rice</a> University | Undergraduate Admission: Diversity](<a href=“http://www.futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Diversity.asp?SnID=116529397]Rice”>http://www.futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Diversity.asp?SnID=116529397)</p>
<p>Edit: Sorry, just to clarify the statistic - 51% of the total undergraduate population is from Texas, but 45% of the most recently admitted class is. From what I’ve heard from admissions this is a trend they intend to stick with.</p>
<p>Hey I have a few more questions</p>
<p>I heard that an engineering major takes five years at Rice because they want you to do other things at first. That would be bad cause it would be less time and money, is this true?</p>
<p>What exactly is the Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering? is this from the Wiess school, and what is the difference between those and the engineering majors?</p>
<p>Can you easily go from engineering to a hard science major even though you apply specifically to the engineering school?</p>
<p>The Wiess school is Natural Science. That includes Biology, Chemistry etc. (the pure sciences). Engineering is Mechanical, BioEngineering, ChemE, Ceve etc. The difference is that the former is science and the latter is applied science. Engineering is more geared to industry, while the natural sciences are better for grad school/research etc.</p>
<p>That being said, you can do anything and end up anywhere.</p>
<p>Next, you do NOT apply to a school (apart from Music and Architecture). You get into Rice. From there, you can go anywhere and switch majors 25 times if you want. The basic courses are often the same, so you can start in engineering and go to a pure science. Engineering majors often require more credits, so going to engineering is slightly harder in general.</p>
<p>Finally, the 5 year thing is not true. I did HS outside the country and got Zero transfer credit. I finished in 4 years comfortably and nearly finished a second major as well. Most people have some semblance of AP credit, which will test them out of some intro courses and some distribution. Some people can even graduate in 3 years.</p>
<p>DS spent time with friends who attend the state flagship university over this Thanksgiving holiday. Not a single one of his friends is graduating in 4 years; and the Engineering major kid will be taking an extra two semesters. He contrasted that with his friends at Rice, who will all be graduating in 4 years. He told me that it would be considered highly unusual and a bit unnatural to continue on at Rice for more than the 4 years.</p>
<p>"He told me that it would be considered highly unusual and a bit unnatural to continue on at Rice for more than the 4 years. "</p>
<p>To add to this - For a single major, generally yes. Some people do double/triple majors or do the 5 year BS/MS program and some go abroad and then take an extra semester etc. In these cases, people are around for longer than the customary 4 years</p>
<p>Continuing the study abroad thing, do pre-meds have the luxury of spending a semester or two abroad?
Also, what score on the AP tests constitutes an intro class waiver? And, it’d be unwise to use one’s AP score to jump into a more advanced class if he’s become fuzzy with the subject, right?</p>
<p>Pre-meds can, but you have to plan out your pre-req classes. The two semesters each of chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, and physics are set up as complements and meant to be done in succession (ideally) at Rice. If you finish up your science classes by the end of sophomore year then studying abroad is definitely doable. You can also study abroad senior year if you plan on finishing up sciences/MCAT junior year, or just do it over the summer.</p>
<p>If you’re fuzzy on the subject, there is no point in using the AP credit. Especially if you’re a pre-med.</p>
<p>Yeah I imagine orgo would hit you pretty hard if you’re fuzzy on gen chem</p>