<p>Visited Rice with my son and wife....quick impressions.....
Nice to have a nonstop flight from Birmingham to Hobby on Southwest, rented a car at Avis and got over there in about 20 minutes.Stayed a few blocks from the school, seemed as if many of the hotel guests were patients going to the Texas Med Center for tertiary care.
Got up early and walked about the campus while family was asleep...felt sterile when nobody was about, clean and wellkept,wide open spaces and attractive but geometric (?) architecture.....once everybody was up and about however it came alive.
We were all favorably inclined.
Could not sit in on a class as semester just getting fired up so had ample time to stroll from end to end and nose about. Kids were friendly. Not nurdy as I anticipated. Diverse as advertised. Took the tour at 11, lunch at Hanszen/Wiess with a student, info at 2 and then bopped around a bit more on our own.
Tour guides and lunch date all friendly and bright as was adcom rep.
Liked the residential system-can see how it readily fosters community. Got the feel that intramurals are big and varsity not except baseball. Gym is adequate but nothing grand.
I may be wrong but I was surprised by the # of non-science majors....if you add up humanities,social science,music and arch. would that be greater than natural science and engr? Seems as if all worked hard but not overly competitive/tense. Lot of opportunities for research,etc.
Colleges we stumbled upon may have been newer/updated...nice..may not apply to other residences.
Did not check out Houston...appears flat and big with traffic.....did spend an hour at Holocaust Museum which is small but well presented.</p>
<p>I'm rambling...sorry. To sum up enjoyed it! Have a son at UVA and this is quite different but just as good overall and superior academically in some respects.</p>
<p>Pretty detailed for the time you spent- I think you're impressions are accurate. I lived in houston several years and I loved it: great amateur hockey (I realize thats not for everyone). Spent a lot of saturday mornings at memorial park and a lot of time in the Rice Library. But it's not NY or Boston. Suburbia rules.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for posting! We are considering both as possibilities for S, who is a junior. Both UVa and Rice are a distance from us, though my husband and I have visited U Va. Your impressions of Rice were very helpful.</p>
<p>Oldman-
Glad you had a great time! My s. is freshman in Hanszen-- loves it!! YOu were kind in your description of the gym-- it is underwhelming, to say the least. the workout facilities for the athletes are in a different building and are apparently far superior. It is my understanding that building a new gym is, along with several other things, on the priority list for the new president (Leebron). The fact that it drizzled and they had to move his inauguration ceremony into the gym may have moved it up a few notches onthe priority list. :)</p>
<p>Hi, my daughter is a freshman at Rice and just loves it, so I thought I could weigh in a little. I also thought Houston would be awful because of the stereotypes about it, but after visiting several times I am pleasantly surprised. (The only negatives that I feel have to do with miserable highway traffic, and air pollution.) All Rice students have free passes for the light rail, bus system and (I think) some of the museums. My daughter walks out of campus and hops on the lightrail to go down to a really nice entertainment area. She also walked across the huge park across the street to get to the zoo, where she did observations for a primatology class. She and friends can bike or walk a few blocks to Rice village, which is a shopping center with lots of little shops and ethnic restaurants - kindof an upscale kind of place. Rice is across from the med center, and near a bunch of museums.<br>
She is an academ, (Rice talk for academic major, as opposed to a "musi" music major, "archi", architect major, or all the science, engineering types.) She is VERY happy with her profs and the interactions she has with them, thinks her college masters (who live in a house attached to her college) are the greatest, and is always going to concerts, lectures, parties, etc., and is very active in a club sport. There are lots of sports and intermural sports, but if your kid is big into football, Rice might not be for him/her. She felt well prepared for the work, and doesn't seem stressed at all about the school work; it seems very collaborative.
I remember that when we visited in the summer, I was a little turned off by the campus, because it seemed so spread out and clean and sterile. Where is the graffiti!!! But now I know that the happening stuff happens in the colleges, and I'm glad that they have all that green space to help clean the air :) If you have any questions that I could answer from a parent's perspective, just post. I'm a CC junkie!</p>
<p>D is a soph musi- loves Houston after saying she would never come back to Texas for college after being away at an arts boarding school. Rice was the right fit and she realized it. She is in Hanszen but will move off campus next year. There are lots of performance opportunities outside the music school- light opera, theater etc. that are well-done,casual and well attended. Lots of choices of things to do on weekend nights. She isn't usually that interested in having her Dallas parents come down to visit because she is so busy! We get to come see her in performances.</p>
<p>We did hear good reviews of the light rail....had dinner at Rice village...ample choices..of note school is now running a shuttle to Rice village on Fri& Sat....Hermann Park is close..forgot to mention we hit the zoo for an hour on the way out. All convenient.
Also the was a synagogue nearby..Temple Emanuel...is it reform or conservative?</p>
<p>Believe that the synagogue is reform, the rabbi from it spoke at Pres. Leebron's inauguration, seemed pretty good. Hillel is active on campus (although I personally found them a little too pressuring for my tastes).</p>
<p>I got a flyer from them in my mailbox a few days ago listing all of their upcoming events. Unfortunately i have no clue where i put it.</p>
<p>Here are a few of the things that I remember:
Shabbat dinners (one with free limo transportation through houston) and services.
Speed Dating night (where you can meet that nice jewish boy and please bubbe :) )
Med Student/Law student dance (Houston Hillel is one organization for Rice, U of H, BCM, and UT-law)
Bagel Breakfasts
Lectures about Jewish Issues
Self-defense for women class
Holocaust museum field trip
Jewish-style deli field trip</p>
<p>bunches of other stuff that i forget.</p>
<p>In the past the have had things like a welcome BBQ, a Chanukkah party, and some other stuff for holidays.</p>
<p>But I don't know how i feel about hillel - I didn't like the fact that they pressured me to attend all of the events (phone calls, instant messages, e-mails, letters, etc.)</p>
<p>However, I am not very religious. If I were more religious I probably wouldn't have minded.</p>
<p>oldman-
Here's the link to the Rice Hillel, which is part of the HoustonHillel, serving students (undergrad, grad, med, law) from U of H, Baylor, Rice, etc <a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Ehillel/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~hillel/</a>
They have 2 locations-- the one on Bissonet is closer to Rice. My s. has attended a few activities, but, like Jenskate, finds them a bit pushy. Its a shame- it seems to turn off kids who might be more inclined to attend functions.</p>
<p>yeah, it really is a shame. I was discussing just this with my friends tonight - they too have found their respective on-campus religious groups pushy and also are sorry to find this. Many have joined congregations off campus and really enjoy that, though.</p>
<p>Rice is not too far from the Jewish Community Center of Houston (<a href="http://www.jcchouston.org%5B/url%5D">www.jcchouston.org</a>). Houston gets a bad rap (and rather deservedly so), but there are bright spots - the excellent museums being one of them. Rice is in a prime location in Houston - easy access to the museums, shopping, restaurants, hospitals, etc.</p>
<p>Contrasting view- my D has gotten very involved with Canterbury, the Episcopal Church group/church right across from Rice. She loves it and has formed a close group of friends. She is now junior warden of the youth vestry. She was NOT involved in this way prior to going to Rice, and it has been wonderful. Her boyfriend has now gotten involved, too, and has even gotten up early Wed. mornings to feed the homeless (he won't get up early for much of anything!).</p>
<p>I asked on the tour and at lunch if any academic departments were to be seeked out or avoided from a students point of view.....never got a straight response....are they truly all good?</p>
<p>I believe that they all have good professors, although some profs are stronger at teaching and relating than others. (I have heard that the psych department is less research oriented than some. Don't know if it is true or not.) The nice thing about Rice is the 1:5 faculty to student ratio means there are more profs to choose from. Also the kids provide tons of feedback to other kids about the profs, (there may even be a rating system somewhere? or student surveys? I can't remember), so that they can sign up for classes knowing the style of the prof - and can avoid the ones with poorer teaching skills if they want to. Also, there is a shopping period for classes and a liberal drop/add policy -plus a pass/fail option for a limited number of classes. Most kids double major, so have their feet in more than one department at once. So many options for research w/ profs and internships... I think it's all good! But you know that one person will love the same thing that someone else can't stand - life is SUBJECTIVE.</p>
<p>oldman, the synagogue just across from Rice is indeed reform. If you're looking for conservative, I only know of one in Houston (although there may be more), and it's not far away. It's Congregation Brith Shalom, on Bellaire. Not far, but not walkable, either.</p>
<p>Actually, i think the psych department in VERY research oriented. They are not much into clinical stuff though, so maybe that is what anxiousmom was thinking of. </p>
<p>I have heard very mixed reviews of foreign language classes. But most everything else seems pretty strong.</p>