Hey, I transferred to Rice from Case Western and I’ve really enjoyed it here. I can give you a whole anecdote of my experience but I’ll answer your questions specifically. If you want any more info, feel free to reach out to me.
To begin with, I transferred because I really didn’t like Case Western socially or academically. I felt there wasn’t much to do on campus - people seemed to either be big partiers or antisocial folks and I couldn’t find much in between. I also felt that the school was very STEM leaning, with a very small population studying other subjects. In comes Rice, complete with its residential college community and strong foundation in liberal arts, both of which at least would theoretically be a better fit.
The transition to Rice was, for me, surprisingly extremely smooth. Orientation Week, or O-Week as it is fondly called, provides you with the opportunity for all new students to ease into Rice. It’s especially a good time to meet a lot of people and make friends right off the bat. Academically, there likely isn’t going to be any rough patches either because you’ve already proved you have the brains to get into Rice because of your acceptance. I think the only difficulty that I’ve encountered in terms of transition is trying to get all your credits to transfer over from your previous institution. I, along with several other transfers, have to take additional time (for me, a whole year) to graduate on time.
The classes at Rice are about to same size as those at Case Western for the most part, but that’s because both schools are about the same size. Case Western was only larger by maybe 500 students. Some of the more basic classes that a lot of students may take, such as chemistry, were smaller, but the advanced classes are about the same size.
Making friends was much easier for me than it was at my previous institution. As I said, O-Week was a great way to start making friends. And the residential college system lets you easily interact with people whom you get to know well quickly. There’s a lot of events that attract people of any interest. Plus, the people I’ve met are some of the most interesting people I’ve known, as a vast majority of Rice students are quite multi-dimensional and are good at multiple things.
I was placed in Duncan! We’re officially the youngest college so we’re still working on developing our culture. But I really enjoyed the atmosphere here and loved being a part of the group that worked on creating Duncan traditions and legacies.
A final word that Rice - like any other institution you may attend - won’t be 100% perfect. Something can always be improved: food, curriculum, professors, etc. But in my mind, transferring to Rice and attending here was worth it, imperfections and all. Going to a place where I felt I could connect well with the people, a place where I could take classes outside of my major all the time, and a place that has developed me in many ways was well worth it.
Again, this wasn’t a complete summary and if you’d like more details, feel free to message me with anything specifics. Hopefully this helped!