Rice Junior Taking Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
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<p>As a current Rice junior as well -(Hi, Psychotropic! Do we know each other?) - who is in Rice/Baylor, I would encourage everyone who is interested to apply. They have to take someone, and it might as well be you! The official word is that the average Rice/Baylor SAT scores are no different from the average of Rice as a whole. I have no way to confirm that, since I only know my own scores. </p>

<p>Being in Rice/Baylor is great! It takes a lot of the pressure off. But most people in the program continue to do really well in their classes and do a lot of cool stuff while at Rice. For example, I'm studying abroad in Australia right now, and I've been doing research in the sociology department, giving tours, being on the owl weekend committee, volunteering at TX children's, etc. It's nice to kind of just do what you want to do, and not worry about how an admissions committee will view it. And it's nice not to be worrying about the MCAT!</p>

<p>At the same time, I applied early to Rice. I knew I wanted to go, Rice/Baylor or not. I think Rice is a truly great place to be a premed. It's so easy to get involved in research, especially if you are part of the century scholars program (<a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Ecentscho)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.ruf.rice.edu/~centscho)&lt;/a>, but even if you are not. It's also really nice to be able to get to know your professors on a first name basis. I've eaten dinner at a professors house, been invited over for ice cream by another, and have sent postcards from abroad to others. The profs at rice are so acessible if you have questions about their class, their department, or even if you just need someone to talk to. I think this is reflected in the fact that nearly all rice students who want to go to med school do so.</p>

<p>Someone asked about weed out classes. I think Rice is really good in this respect. I certainly know people who decided to stop being pre-med, but generally this is because they took a class in anthropology or french or earth science, that they found fascinating and they decided to pursue that instead. The classes at Rice are designed to teach you - the professors really don't want you to fail, and if you are willing to do the work and seek out help if you are struggling, there are lots of resources available to make sure you succeed. For example, one Rice professor who teaches General Chemistry, has a contract that you can sign at the beginning of the year, stating that if you study a certain amount, and come to office hours and such, no matter how you do on the exams, you won't fail. The professors and everyone else at Rice want to see you go on and do what you want to do.</p>

<p>And I'm going to agree with Misterme - major in what you love, not what you think you "should" do.</p>

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<p>Oh, oh, I know a music major pre-med!
I don't know how that's working out for her - it's hard because some of the required labs meet at the same time as required rehearsals.
It's definitely easier to be a pre-med musi than a musi/science major - i definitely wouldn't recommend expecting to be a double major.</p>

<p>It's just that most musis plan to become professional musicians. If that's not what you want, it might be more appropriate to be a science major and partcipate in music extracurreculars (campanile orchestra, symphonic band, rice chorale, philharmonics, crescendo, etc).</p>

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<p>Hey everyone, here are some answers:</p>

<p>To the guy who asked about music majors/double majoring/premed- ditto what other people already said. If you're at Rice as a music major, you're pretty much going all out with your music studies.</p>

<p>htj331: np with the questions. Getting involved with ECs are easy, everyone does em. Students for the most part are pretty tight with their professors. I have this one chem prof--we've ate out before and we're actually planning on playing some golf later this fall. I've even had profs facebook me. Also, pretty much what jenskate1 said. So I hope that gives you a good idea what things are like. Regarding med school admissions, you're right on the mark. Where you go does not matter. Now what's more important is what you do and how you do where you go. So sure Rice students get into med school-that probably has more so to do with the nature of Rice students, the opportunities they have and the atmosphere we work and live in. There definately things about state-schools that are appealing, but Rice is a great place. If finances allow you to come here, you should do it-just because of the experiences you'll have and the amazing people (profs and students) you'll meet.</p>

<p>Xwang90: Alright, a fellow clevelander! I'm an eastsider as well (albeit far east sider-Mentor) I have friends in shaker though (i'm a hawken grad). Anyway ditto what other people said about r/b and "pre-med." The difference is that you have take your MCATs work a lot harder (since nothing is guaranteed). Keep in mind, this is not a bad thing! By not being a rice/baylor student you will be pretty much forced to work hard. Believe me, after going through classes like orgo and bioch and being around other really smart, talented, motivated students you will be very prepared for med school. So don't worry so much about rice/baylor. Yes, it would be amazing if you were accepted to that program, but even if you aren't, it's no big deal. Med school is a far ways away and who knows, maybe you'll realize you don't want to spend nearly a decade in houston? I think for me Houston has been a great place to chill for around 3 years, but in the end I have to be where my family and my life-long friends are. There's no place like home and you might realize that as you spend time away from home. </p>

<p>jenskate1- Hey, you're a junior too, huh? I'm not sure if I know you-my name is kavi. I know most junior rice/baylors. I'm at Brown but I'm off-campus.</p>

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<p>Lol, thanks for answering. I didn't mean a plethora of loser ec's. I meant ones that I had leadership, dedication, passion for, etc.</p>

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<p>thanks for the advice guys!</p>

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<p>jenskate1, do you mind sharing your stats? Did you do any medical related research/volunteer/program?
thanks!!</p>

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<p>From an old thread:</p>

<p>SAT: 1540 (800V, 740m)</p>

<p>SATIIs: 790 BioM, 790 Math IIC, 770 writing </p>

<p>GPA: my school was on a really weird scale, but I had something like 5/5.4 (although the most anyone really could get was 5.2 or something...basically i didn't have anything other than A's and A+'s in almost all honors and AP, except for health, chorus, and a computer programming course that weren't honors.</p>

<p>Rank: top 10%, although i was really close to making the top 5%, so i think my counselor might have written top 6%, maybe...</p>

<p>EC's:
Science research (I've posted about what i did on other threads if you are interested)
President of my high school's science olympiad team, which went to nationals that year (and came in 10th!)
Academic team (like quiz bowl)
national honor society</p>

<p>Volunteer work:
Hospital Volunteer 300+ hours
Founder and assistant coach of special olympics long island figure skating program
NYC olympic bid comittee special events volunteer
historical reenactor (weird, i know)</p>

<p>awards:
national merit scholar
intel sts semi
ap scholar
bausch and lomb science award</p>

<p>Other stuff:
At the time of my application I was taking a class to become an EMT-B. I was also enrolled in 4 AP courses (BC Calc, Chem, American Gov't, and English Lit). I had previously taken AP European History, AP American History, and AP Bio (only one of two kids in my class of about 600 to double up on science junior year, and the only one to take AP Bio as a junior).</p>

<p>ok, i think that's about it. I hope that helps in terms of my stats - so you can see, they were reasonable, but not perfect, so fear not.</p>

<p>Those with questions about Rice/Baylor should check out this thread:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=7595&page=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=7595&page=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>wow, no wonder you got into Rice/Baylor
thanks again!</p>

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<p>not to be rude or mean, i am down here now</p>

<p>i will ask a question and answer it</p>

<p>how are the girls ???</p>

<p>on a scale 1-10, i would say, that most guys will agree that it would be a 1.5 or 2 at best</p>

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<p>Well I've been here a year....while this is no UT Austin or Vanderbilt, I wouldn't go as low as 1.5 to 2. I'd say the average is around 4 or 5. There are plenty of 1's and 9's. But overall the ladies are fine.</p>

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<p>my friends and i have our own way of scaling girls and such. we eventually stick to the 1-10 with half marks in which various rules apply. </p>

<p>1-4: unrateable. nothing is harder to distinguish than varying levels of ugliness. you wouldnt touch it, so no real demand to rate it accurately.
5: dead average. no serious deformities and little scarring. if you hooked up with one drunk, you would lie about it.
6: decent looking. never a goal for a girlfriend, you wouldnt lie about your drunk fling.
7: this is solid good looking. "hot" is a stretch unbiasedly. if you hooked up with her, she's hot.
7.5+: hot enough so that all your friends agree she is 7.5 or higher. if all your friends dont agree, she shouldnt really be here. skipping to...
9: there should be only 2 or 3 girls you have actually met here.
9.5: in group action of your 9's, this is the one you gravitate toward.
10: the hottest girl <em>you have met</em>.</p>

<p>use .5 marks at your own discretion. </p>

<p>that said, Rice is about a 5.5. as ive said before, it got a straight D on a college girl rating. UT-Austin by comparison received an A+. </p>

<p>it's also natural for personality to mess with your ratings. i personally dont find Rice girls that normal. maybe i dont understand them. no offense to the girls on this Rice board, since nothing is more attractive than fellow college students who frequent a forum predominated by chemically imbalanced high schoolers. hey, myself included!</p>

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<p>bball: </p>

<p>It's a shame I'm abroad. For your sake, you know?</p>

<p>I've got to say, there are plenty of pretty girls at Rice. Now, the guys... that's a whole other story.</p>

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<p>Umm..the guys don't look much better. Haha...I was helping out on campus last night, and oh man I say that they get 3's and 4's except for this one 7.</p>

<p>I think it depends on how you define hot or good-looking. Some people only see it as sex appeal and some people only see it as classic beauty.</p>

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<p>To be fair, there are a lot more pretty girls (not necessarily "hot") at Rice than attractive guys. Also, you really shouldn't care about something like that. Shame.</p>

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<p>to the OP - </p>

<p>Is Rice fun? Or is it like U of Chicago - "where fun goes to die"?</p>

<p>Do students study so much there are never any parties? How do you think it would compare to other schools (perhaps Wash U or Emory) with respect to the social scene? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>I was also curious to see why you chose Rice over UChicago...</p>

<p>Thanks...</p>

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<p>Rice has lots of parties, many nationally known. So many other fun things to do, as well. There is a real reason it was named the number one school for Quality of Life. Work hard, play hard...and then maybe study some more or go to a play or musical perfomance, a sporting even, a water balloon fight, play volleyball, enjoy the great weather outdoors, or go to a museum down the road in Houston.. The students do study a lot, but they all seem to love to learn. My son adores all his courses this year. dp although he works very very hard, he is having a super time and couldn't be happier.
My son also made an incredible number of great friends very quickly his first year, through the residential college system, which I'm convinced is the real secret to happy students. So no, fun does not come here to die!</p>

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<p>My cousin's D went to Rice and she thought it was loads of fun. Our D got in but decided to go to Pitt instead. Ironically, D also got in U Chicago so there appears to be some overlap in where the students are applying here which probably tells you something about the type of kid at each place.</p>

<p>When we were on campus at Rice for tour/interview they told us about a competition between the houses (dorms) called the Beer Bike Race. It involves racing and chugging until you're too drunk to ride the bike anymore. Basically whoever can physically make it over the finish line wins. There is also something called Night of Decadence that would be better described by a current student.</p>

<p>I believe Rice is what's called a "wet campus" which means there is at leat beer on campus and nobody gets in trouble for it. I hear Notre Dame and Syracuse do the same thing.</p>

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<p>It's not that nobody gets in trouble for drinking, but the police will not bother you as long as you're not drinking outside of someone's room and you're not obviously too drunk for your own good. Notre Dame has a somewhat similar policy, but they do not allow hard liquor.</p>

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<p>At beer bike, you have three main, and separate, groups: chuggers, bikers, and pit crew. The chuggers chug water (24 oz for men, 12 for women), after which the bikers bike around the track twice. The pit crew assists in getting bikers started/stopped. There's actually no drunk bikers out there. The chuggers used to chug salted and boiled beer (no carbination helps it go down faster), and I think that's still a choice for those over 21, but most people do not. Most of the drinking occurs before the race and waterballoon fight (amazingly fun).</p>

<p>Rice has two bars, one being for grad students and the other for undergrads. So yes, it is a wet campus, though those under 21 are not allowed to drink publically.</p>

<p>NOD is a party that was once ranked by Playboy as one of the top ten parties at colleges in the US. The idea is to wear as little clothing as possible, but still being "covered" by Texas law. Since this is a public party (private being behind closed doors, where liquor just may happen to flow freely), police are present and make sure nothing gets too out of hand, and there's no drinking allowed at the party for those underage.</p>

<p>All that being said, drunken students are typically left alone unless they pose a threat to themselves or others, or are caught with alcohol in hallways/around campus. Or stealing golfcarts...</p>