<p>transferring in as a sophomore economics major
from connecticut
currently attending a small LAC in NY
any advice?</p>
<p>Could you give us some more information about yourself and what you’re looking to get out of your university? It’s easy for us to blindly toss out facts about Rice, but this thread will probably be more helpful for you if we have some more specific information to work from.</p>
<p>Yes, sorry, thank you for your response, that is a good point.</p>
<p>I am majoring in economics and interested in business. I know there is a fairly new business minor at Rice. Wash U has an entire business school though, with accounting and finance majors and the like. I am interested in having volunteer opportunities, studying abroad, possibly double majoring or minoring, intramural sports, etc. In high school i was an athlete and while I don’t want to pursue varsity sports I would like to stay in shape. </p>
<p>I want a school where students are welcoming to new faces (transferring- won’t know anybody), teachers are passionate, and there is a balance of work and extracurriculars and social activities. </p>
<p>If I could hear about the work load and student life on the weekends that would be amazing also. I am going to be honest- I enjoy a decent party on the weekends. Are designated drivers necessary to get to the bars? Are there any good parties on campus? Are the public parties hosted by the residential colleges fun? Does not having greek life impact the social life in a negative way? Will I be pulling an all-nighter every night to finish homework?</p>
<p>Well, I can give you some feedback, though keep in mind I graduated three years ago.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about business schools. From what I know, most people who want to do business at Rice major in economics (and maybe managerial studies) and then take the business minor. I’m not sure how that education stacks up against a normal business school, but people seem to find employment easily enough.</p>
<p>Rice is extremely welcoming to new faces. O-Week does a phenomenal job of acclimating freshmen and new transfer students to Rice, and making them feel at home in the residential colleges. As a transfer, you may have to put in a little bit more effort after O-Week to get to know students apart from the incoming class, but as long as you’re active in your college that shouldn’t be much of a problem at all.</p>
<p>Work load is going to depend a lot on your major. I studied physics, which can have a pretty heavy load, but I still managed to go out drinking or having fun at least once a weekend. Honestly, I didn’t spend much time at bars while I was at Rice apart from trips to the Ginger Man, which is an easy walk, or the occasional train ride to Midtown. There were parties on campus basically every weekend, and there are at least a few fantastic public parties each semester. I can’t really say what impact the lack of Greek life has, since I never attended a university that had a Greek scene, but I never felt that I was missing anything.</p>
<p>I did pull quite a few all-nighters in my time at Rice, but those were generally limited to exam studying and the odd excessively difficult problem set, and I probably could have gotten more sleep if I had spent less time on the internet.</p>
<p>Transfer from Fall 2012 here: I approve everything Dorian_Mode said (things haven’t changed much in 3 years). I also want to add that the party scene at Rice is really different from other schools, and in my opinion much better. There’s rarely any “exclusivity” in terms of who can go to a party and who cannot, and your preferences in terms of alcohol/drugs/etc. are respected by everyone. No hazing here. Go as hard as you feel like (that’s a big range by the way). And for those of you who will be reading this who are not interested in partying, don’t worry: there’s plenty of other things to do. I believe someone said in one post that Rice has “something for everyone,” and it’s for the most part true.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies!</p>