Kids register for courses during O-week
@SriniBellaire Congratulations on your son’s admission to Rice. Unlike the incoming students at other universities in Texas, all of the incoming Rice students attend O Week at the same time. During O Week, the incoming students bond with others in their residential colleges, participate in lots of activities that introduce them to various aspects of Rice, and get lots of academic advising from Peer Academic Advisors and faculty before registering for classes. The O Week advisors provide an incredible O Week experience for the incoming students. The incoming students register for classes near the end of O Week.
Thank you @Houston1021 and @cptofthehouse
Just a heads up about Rice’s Student Health Plan. If you are keeping your student on your health insurance, you must actively decline the coverage or you will be billed the $2482 automatically and you cannot get that back. You will need to submit a waiver to get your plan approved. My son just forwarded me the email he received this morning about it.
REALLY appreciate you posting about this, @juststaycool ! Thanks 
My son will be in Weiss next year. Any tips?
We have finally dropped of our daughter at Brown today. Thank you all for everything that you guys shared that led us to this point. This forum rocks!
Welcome to all the new Rice Owl parents. http://news.rice.edu/2019/08/19/newest-owls-nestle-in-to-begin-their-rice-journeys/
Welcome to new Rice Owl parents. There is an excellent Rice Parent to Parent Network Facebook page, but the school does not open it up to parents of incoming students until the enrollment is full and final. In the meantime, please post any questions, comments, etc. here and folks on this board will try to answer them. Scroll back to previous pages and you will find lots of helpful information.
Congrats to incoming owls! My DS graduated quite some time ago, but I still feel like part of this family!
Rice President announced plans for fall semester. https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/05/leebron-announces-plan-for-fall-semester?fbclid=IwAR1eifh_zB0Hrz_5XUGC3BmicPD10yoxXAD-7J6-w8Yg0JI7zV2xn-DEFHs
Very interesting! I will be curious to see the details when they are sent to the students/families.
Here are some articles about Rice’s virtual commencement. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Rice-community-tunes-in-to-first-virtual-15275562.php
https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/05/first-ever-virtual-commencement-held-for-the-class-of-2020
Every college and university has its legendary stories. I wonder how many here know the story of university founder, William Rice, a murder mystery worthy of an Agatha Christie novel. Were it not for the efforts of Houston attorney and grandfather of former Secretary of State by the same name, James Baker, the plotters would have succeeded in executing a substitute will and Rice University would not exist. The murder caused a sensation back in 1900 with a story that shuttled between Houston and New York.
“The Murder of William Marsh Rice” is a fun summer read. It’s a work of historical fiction, but it’s loaded with lots of accurate historical information. The author, a professor and member of the Texas Historical Association, has written 10 other books on Texas history. Although relatively recent, 2017, it’s a hard book to find, but maybe the bookstore will have it when it reopens.
The murder was also the basis of a 1993 movie, called “The Trust”.
So @BillMarsh - I’ll bite. What is your connection to the story of William Marsh Rice?? Fan? relative? author? You must have chosen your user name for a specific reason, right?!
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Nope. Just coincidence.
Question for current Rice parents: What is your opinion of the quality of instruction throughout the period of remote learning? Obviously in person is best, but should the need arise to attend remotely - did you (or your student) feel like they learned the content effectively? Did they receive constructive feedback? Were professors accessible? TIA!
The quality of learning varied a lot by instructor. Some were well-prepared and transitioned fairly easily to remote learning while others struggled mightily to convey content.
All of that said, Rice’s residential college life and emphasis on collaborative learning make the benefits of in-person instruction higher than at some of its (academic) peer institutions. So if your actual question is whether student learning/growth would suffer from remote instruction, the answer is yes, it would (and did).
I think it varied a bit by class. None were awful but some made the quick adjustment better than others. And some classes are more conducive to online learning, while others are not. My D strongly prefers classes on campus, but I think that’s mainly due to missing her friends and being around others than the quality of the instruction. She chose to take another online class this summer (so she must not have hated it THAT much) and I think the quality is better than the spring ones. I’m not sure if the teacher had more time to prepare…or maybe she’s just a really good teacher.
The residential college system and very collaborative atmosphere is what most students love most about Rice. My D was a freshman STEM student last year and the freshmen in her college had group chats for math, chem, physics, etc. When someone needed help or wanted to study with someone they’d send a note in the chat and agree on a meeting time. They also studied a lot in the commons in their college so there was always someone to ask for help. Those are the things missing at home. The help is still there, you just have to be a little more proactive.
So, to answer your questions, I would say my D still effectively learned the material. Her professors and TA’s were still available for help. But, I don’t think there are many kids who would prefer to stay online or think it’s easier than being at the school.
Thank you @ricegrad @PrdMomto1 - My DD will be an incoming Bio-engineering major. She absolutely loved the collaborative feeling of Rice. We are wondering if she can mostly tackle humanities distribution requirements fall semester. It’s rough to have a disrupted end to high school AND start of college.