<p>I will start out by saying that I was accepted to Rice under Interim Decision and am very seriously considering it as my future college. I am a little bit worried however that at such a highly regarded academic place that I will have my nose in a book for all 4 years of college and won't have enough time to truly enjoy it. I want to challenge myself academically no doubt, but I'm a little bit wary about going to a place like Rice because i'm afraid it might mean all work and no play. I don't know if anyone parties or anything like that at Rice, and despite my good academic record, i also like to have a little fun every once in a while. SO...</p>
<p>If anyone could tell me how true my fears are and how life is at Rice i would greatly appreciate it! :-)</p>
<p>i guess you could say Rice is a work hard/play hard school. this is not a place where every single class is insane; there are very tough and fairly easy courses. in my opinion the humanities dept is inflated, but i suppose that is normal. what major are you considering? many majors only require 10-12 courses.</p>
<p>I was worried about my DD when she first started at Rice three years ago; I thought it might be too much a "grind" It hasn't seemed that way, although she does work hard and is always busy. She's had the time to be in a musical, take part in many intermural as well as several club sports. She goes to parties, the symphony and ballet (for free, through the Rice passport program) - and when she calls she is often heading off to have dinner with friends, go out to play sports, see speakers.... it sounds like she is having lots of fun.</p>
<p>As for parties, all colleges (except for Will Rice) hold occasional public parties (such as 80's party at Sid or the infamous NOD at Weiss) which are usually themed and involve a large dance floor, food, and various attached smaller parties. In addition, most weekends it is possible to find a few smaller parties various places around campus. Not everyone parties, certainly, but there is definitely a subset of students who party often, so your social life shouldn't suffer at all if that's your scene.</p>
<p>Don't worry. Rice is academically challenging, and there will be times when you have a particularly bad week or so and life will feel like it's a grind, but that definitely doesn't describe the majority of the semester.<br>
There are a few people holed up in their rooms every Saturday night studying and doing problem sets, but unless you are determined to graduate in 3 years with a double engineering major and 4.0 or are just academically masochistic, there's no need.</p>