<p>Can anyone tell me about your impressions of these two schools? Thanks</p>
<p>Rice is very small, alot of males in comparison to females, kinda nerdy and science driven, and in a hot city, but has some of the best academics in the country.</p>
<p>there is a thread in "college search" you should read about GW.</p>
<p>Rice is 52% male, hardly an overwhelming majority. While Rice has a strong science program, it also has the Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Shepherd School of Music, both world reknown. Rice has a small undergrad population with all the benefits of a major research university. The largest majors are:
Economics 9.4% (68)
Electrical and Computer Engineering 9.0% (65)
English 7.9% (57)
Computer Science 5.8% (42)
Architecture 5.2% (38)
Kinesiology 4.8% (35)
Psychology 4.7% (34)
Biochemistry 4.4% (32)
Music 3.7% (32)
Mechanical Engineering 3.6% (26)</p>
<p>Rice has a great campus with access to lots of cultural offerings in Houston. There is a lot of drinking on the weekends and the residential college system is a good alternative to fraternities/sororities. There are lots of strong academic programs, and while there are certainly some nerdy kids, it is a liberal and diverse student body.</p>
<p>Momofwildchild: Do you know if admission to The Shepherd School of Music is as academically competitive as the other areas of the university? My son is considering applying and auditioning as a transfer but is concerned because the stats of accepted students are much higher than those at other Conservatories/Music Schools. I understand that dual degrees really are not an option for music majors, but does your daughter have the opportunity to take many classes outside of music? Also, what is involved with the physical education requirement?</p>
<p>Son(a cold weather kid) is considering visiting and taking lessons the last week of August before his school starts. Will the outstanding characteristics of the university overshadow the insane heat, or should he just wait until his audition to visit. Is this a school that weighs demonstrated interest?</p>
<p>Thanks for your continued posts on Rice and music majors in general. Your information is always extremely helpful.</p>
<p>Texas is fine to go to school to...if you are only there from September to May.</p>
<p>I don't know much about the process for transfers to Shepherd. The audition clearly outweighs the academics as far as getting in, but Shepherd has to make sure the kids can "cut it" in the general courses. D has taken language, psychology and PE outside of Shepherd so far. The requirements are pretty extensive for a BM degree, and she is complaining a little about how little flexibility she has. She will have a really heavy load this fall (1st semester junior year). I think Rice is appealing even in the heat, so your son probably should go in August and get a feel for the place. Rice starts up just after the middle of August. The PE requirement is not a big deal. D took Pilates and has to take one more semester, I think. There are LOTS of options. She had the star baseball player in her Pilates class, which livened things up a little. PM me if you have any other questions or if your S would like to email my D.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information. My son is away at a festival but called and asked if I can arrange a flight if he can line up lesson times with two piano profs. Once I find out that he has something set up, I'm sure we will have many questions and need to contact you. Rice was a school I had been suggesting for the last couple years. It has taken him awhile to realize that he may need to look beyond the Northern States!</p>
<p>Pianimom
Please be aware that Rice requires SAT II's as part of their admissions,even for School of Music applicants.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up. He's all set with tests. I'm just concerned because this will be the only school that he applys to where his scores fall within the 25%-75% range and not above. We are hoping that more weight is given to the audition and his college transcript.</p>
<p>My s. loves Rice. Not a music major, but found the PE requirement a non-issue. He took soccer, I believe. And he didn't melt.</p>
<p>Shepherd school does require more academically of its applicants than conservatories, as most of those just want people who graduated from high school and some don't even require SATs, but the requirements for Shepherd are less than those for academic majors at Rice. I believe that faculty listen to the audition, then submit a list of people they want to accept, and another office okays them on academics.</p>
<p>I know it's difficult to transfer into Shepherd on a string instrument because chamber music ensembles are already formed, but piano is probably much different.</p>
<p>When I visited officially, Rice seemed very friendly, full of kids-who-do-everything. As previously stated, there is a significant amount of partying at Rice, as it is a wet campus. The students I talked to liked Rice because they were able to "study hard and play hard" and found that people mixed with those outside their majors, as opposed to schools where only engineers know engineers etc. It's a very pretty campus, but you don't want to be there in the summer.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info on Rice. Is it a bad tme to visit in the summer? I am not worry about the heat since we are from Florida. Are there any sids there or should I wait for the fall? Thanks</p>
<p>Well, if you visit in the summer then you won't get the same vibe as when school is in session. Rice has alot of summer programs on campus, but very few, if any, have college students involved. They still give tours and stuff, but there probably won't be opportunities to sit in on classes etc. Other than that, it's just hot and humid Houston.</p>
<p>Are there any "quiet floor" or "substance free" options within the residential colleges? Also, it looks as though transfers are mostly off-campus. Do they offer much help in finding roommates and apartments?
I think I read that classes start the third week of August so my son is planning a visit for the following week.</p>
<p>As far as I know, students are randomly put into residential colleges and have a big questionaire that is used for roommate matching, but I'm not sure. I don't remember seeing an option for sub free housing on the stuff that I got as an admitted student, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. At the same time, though, I don't think there would be a large enough contingent in each residential college to have more than a couple substance free rooms, so I doubt there is.</p>
<p>I was impressed by how well roommates seemed to get along at Rice. At alot of schools, people are matched almost totally randomly, or based on a few questions, but it was my impression that Rice takes alot of things into account. Where I stayed happened to be a stairway with 6 rooms off of it (3 suites), and out of the 24 girls staying there, they were all light or non-drinkers. I don't know if that's coincidence, or something they took into account when assigning rooms. Anyways, the girls I stayed with got along well and had signed up for classes with each other, as opposed to the girls I met at other schools (Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, and USC) who decided to try to ignore each other as best possible. Again, that might just be a freak occurence.</p>
<p>Most students don't transfer off campus until junior year, if at all, and by that point in time I'm sure students know each other well enough to have a friend to move off campus with. I don't know about help finding apartments, but housing in Houston is cheap compared to other cities; in the suburbs one can buy a nice 4 bedroom house for a bit more than $210,000. Not sure how that pricing carries downtown, but I'm sure it's not as bad as NY or Boston. I don't, however, think that there are any off campus apartments apartments within walking distance (near campus there are large, nice homes, the medical center, and a nice shopping area) and I wouldn't suggest ever trying to bike around Houston, so a car might end up being necessary.</p>
<p>A lot of kids move off campus soph year. Some of the residential colleges have to force kids off for at least one year, and Hanszen and a few others do it for soph year. I was worried about that, but it is very easy to find off-campus housing and there IS a lot of housing within walking/biking distance. D got to stay on-campus soph year, but was miserable in a small dorm room with 3 other girls, even though they were all good friends. She has an apartment for junior year and she is really excited. Her bf is renting a house with 3 or 4 other guys, and many kids do similar things. I wouldn't worry about that aspect- trust me, I already did the worrying for you and it winds up that it is fine!</p>
<p>pianomom-
If you go to the Rice forum, there are a few current and former Rice student that post there. They might be abe to better answer some of these questions. While there might not be "quiet floor" per se, there are plenty of quiet places to study in each residential college as well as in the library, and lots of comfy chairs and study areas in the architecture bldg, the Baker School of Public Policy, etc.. In fact, I seem to remember reading something in my s's O-week booklet that he received last summer about places NOT to study, and on the bed was number one. Doesn't mean you can't study in your room, but there are a lot of other options. In my s's college, there are several study rooms in the commons area, and a loft in the top floor (delicately referred to as the "weenie loft" where they have study areas, chairs, computers and printers for general use. That's where I went to check my email when I was there for parents weekend, and it was always very quiet (well, it was parents weekend, I guess it was quieter than normal..).</p>
<p>As for housing for transfers, there was a thread about this on the Rice forum as well. If memory serves me, housing isn't guaranteed for transfers, nor for all current students (it varies by college which class runs the risk of getting "jacked" off campus. For my s. it is the sophs, and he was one who didn't get housing next year). Here is a link to the Q&A for transfer students <a href="http://riceoweek.com/transfer-faq.html%5B/url%5D">http://riceoweek.com/transfer-faq.html</a></p>
<p>Rice does have an off-campus housing guide <a href="https://sturec.rice.edu/student/housing/index.asp%5B/url%5D">https://sturec.rice.edu/student/housing/index.asp</a> and there will also be lots of ads up at the beginning of the fall looking for roommates. This doesn't mean you won't luck into housing on campus (tends to happen closer to arrival time). You should get in touch with the secretary of the college to which you are assigned. They are very helpful. My s. and his friends found their duplex through the Houston real estate website <a href="http://www.har.com%5B/url%5D">www.har.com</a> (recommended to me by a current student who was lucky enough not to need it next year!). They found a place they love, complete with an outdoor hot tub on their deck! So, thier sadness at living off campus has quickly changed! Hope this helps</p>
<p>As a follow-up to Krazykow's comment, yes Rice does an EXCELLENT job of matching roommates once they are assigned to a college (which is random, unless you've had a family member in a college- then you can choose to be or not to be in that college). Roommates did get along unbelievably well. A job well done.</p>
<p>Wow! You all seem so enthusiastic about the school. It must be a very special place. I hope my son can line up some lessons and find the "right' teacher there. While the application/audition process is such a long shot, it's great to know there is another outstanding option.
Thanks for sharing so much information.</p>