<p>The college system only limits you if you let it do so. As for bugs, mosquitoes can be problematic, but I don't know that the bug situation here is generally worse than anywhere else.</p>
<p>Yeah, if you're not a freshman and still think that the college system is limiting socially, then the problem is with you, not the college system.</p>
<p>I need something to take me off Rice too. I got deferred and have been waiting forever with a ton of optimistic hope but not much realistic. But the CARB thing only makes it worse because I will have less competition. Why else does Rice suck???</p>
<p>The graduate students outside of the hard sciences are spectacularly unimpressive. The Jones School is an embarrassment. Despite myriad options, it's impossible to get a decent cup of coffee on campus. Houston is a pretty wretched city. The library and the RMC are eyesores. Too many people from Texas.</p>
<p>Riceward!, I agree with you about the grad students outside of the sciences, but I disagree with you on just about everything else.</p>
<p>The Jones School has been consistently increasing in quality since its inception. As a business school, it brings in a fair amount of money to Rice, and having an MBA program has increased our name recognition.</p>
<p>I especially disagree with you about the coffee. I'll grant that the coffee in the serveries is terrible, and while I'll admit that some of the KOCs at Coffeehouse are a little less than capable of making coffee, most of the time I find the dark roast extremely satisfactory. I refuse to drink coffee from Dirk's, so I can't comment on the quality of their coffee. If you're that picky, then there still is a place to get a decent cup of coffee on campus — your dorm room.</p>
<p>Houston may not be as cosmopolitan as, say, New York or San Francisco, but it has one of the best art scenes in the world, and it's a much less exclusive scene. While some people may hate Houston's lack of zoning laws, I love how it's created the possibility of having a 100-year-old neighborhood next to a nice coffeeshop next to the largest liquor store in the world. The theater district in Houston is second in number of seats only to New York.</p>
<p>I disagree with the basic argument about the library and the RMC being eyesores, but instead I'm going to say that if you're complaining about two buildings being ugly on what is overall an incredibly beautiful campus, then you're just too difficult to please. Besides, if you're going to call anything eyesores, it should be Sid and Wiess.</p>
<p>The only time you ever notice that there are too many people from Texas is when you ask people where they're from and half of them say that they're from somewhere in Texas. That fact doesn't manifest itself in any other way. Texas is an incredibly diverse and large state; you're not going to walk around campus and look around and say, "Oh, there sure are a lot of Texans here." I just don't understand how you can say that the number of Texans at Rice is, in and of itself, a bad thing. What are some of the side effects of there being too many Texans at Rice?</p>
<p>Makes sense that outside of science the graduate students aren't as impressive... Rice has a good Med School but that is about it for graduate school.</p>
<p>But as long as you keep your GPA, your LSAT, and get some good ECs you should be fine for Law School, no matter if you go to Rice, CCNY, or Yale</p>
<p>Actually, Rice doesn't have a med school, although the administration is currently in talks about a possible merger with Baylor College of Medicine.</p>
<p>I agree with NYSkins1 on their points in response to Riceward. But I don't think the RMC is an eyesore at all... Fondren's ok, neither positive nor negative in appearance, IMO. I'd argue that lovett, weiss, and sid are the only real eyesores on campus.</p>
<p>Coffee's fine. Coffeehouse rocks. Houston rocks. </p>
<p>As far as there being "too many texans," think about it like this: at west coast schools, most are from the west. At northeast schools, most are from the northeast. At midwest schools, most are from the midwest. It's a regional thing. Texas just happens to be so big that it is a region in itself. Next year I'm living off campus in a house of six people. Those six people are from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, and California. The amount of texans isn't really noticeable or relevant, really.</p>
<p>As far as bugs, yeah, mosquitos can be a bit annoying, but thing is, bugs tend to stay near the ground. I'm on the second floor of my college and we have no screens on the windows and we leave the windows open probably about 2/3 the time.</p>
<p>NYSkins,</p>
<p>Coffeehouse is acceptable--but only because it's cheap. The grounds to water ratio is way off. It's all weak, weak, weak--weak. I can see through it. </p>
<p>Fondren is problematic because it's been goofily plopped down in the middle of the central axis and, to boot, it's just a big, unimpressive box. I suppose the interior of the RMC is uglier than the exterior. I don't know, it's been renovated what, two, three times? </p>
<p>Rice is much too pre-professional as it is. The Jones School compounds the problem. And that Houston is speckled with billboards advertising the "MBA at RICE" is, well, disconcerting. </p>
<p>You're wayyyy wrong re: the arts here. Houston has never had ANY homegrown artists of (inter)national consequence. The city imports ALL of its "talent." Lots of seating does not a great preforming arts scene make. Have you been to the Houston Symphony--it's almost unbearable. My trouble with the Houston is that, let's face it, it's not really a city. It's a zone of sprawl--there's no center and the public transit is awful. It's built for cars, not people. That said, the food is excellent. But that's about it. </p>
<p>I'm not looking to hate on Rice. The academics are first rate and, after all, that's the only thing that <em>actually</em> matters. But, come now, be reasonable, there are plenty of things here that aren't so hot.</p>
<p>Oh right, and the Texans. Well Texas, as you know, is provincial--the sticks, the boonies! It's important that we have folks from the East Coast (the Center of the Universe), I say this as a midwesterner. What we need especially are New Yorkers. They civilize. One Manhattanite is worth five dopey kids from Katy. I think the superabundance of Texans makes Rice feel like a regional institution. Come on, think V2C!</p>
<p>Wow most of these negative reasons aren't really all THAT negative... haha, must be a great school!</p>
<p>I'll reply to a few of these. </p>
<p>
[quote]
The Jones School is an embarrassment.
[/quote]
It's been getting better in the past 5-10 years. I wouldn't call it an embarassment by any means.
Rice</a> University | News & Media</p>
<p>
[quote]
Fondren is problematic because it's been goofily plopped down in the middle of the central axis and, to boot, it's just a big, unimpressive box.
[/quote]
Well, positioning of buildings is tricky on any campus because of later additions. For those of you who don't know, Fondren makes up one side of the academic quad, so it is not extreme at all for a building to be there. You say it's in the middle of things probably because now there's practically another quad on the other side, with Herring, Pavilion (in front of Fondren), and the RMC, all of which came later. But it just looks normal; it fits in and is not an eyesore at all in my opinion. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Rice is much too pre-professional as it is. The Jones School compounds the problem.
[/quote]
Jones school has no pre-professional component except for the minor, so it barely affects the pre-prefessional students at Rice, who are mostly engineers or pre-meds. If students are looking to go to a business school, they probably wouldn't go to Jones anyway, so I don't think Jones is really in the picture here. I was at first shocked by all the pre-professional students at Rice, but it may be that I underestimated what a lot of smart people at really good universities want to do, such as make money, go to law/med/business school, get a job after graduation, and so on. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Have you been to the Houston Symphony--it's almost unbearable.
[/quote]
Shepherd has one of the best undergrad orchestras in the country. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Coffeehouse is acceptable--but only because it's cheap. The grounds to water ratio is way off. It's all weak, weak, weak--weak.
[/quote]
Get an eye-opener. It's coffee plus an espresso shot. Make one of them decaf if it's too much caffeine. Or just get an espresso and add milk/cream to your liking. I find most coffee weak anywhere, which I why I switched to espresso and now just make my own. I still like coffeehouse, though. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh right, and the Texans. Well Texas, as you know, is provincial--the sticks, the boonies! It's important that we have folks from the East Coast (the Center of the Universe), I say this as a midwesterner. What we need especially are New Yorkers. They civilize. One Manhattanite is worth five dopey kids from Katy. I think the superabundance of Texans makes Rice feel like a regional institution. Come on, think V2C!
[/quote]
I'm not going to generalize. There are cool people from all of those places (east coast, midwest, NYC, Houston). I agree with the V2C regarding expansion, and I think it's important to have people from the northeast for recognition there. In the thread "why rice is expanding its size," jym626 linked a good presentation that had the breakdowns of Rice's and other schools' in-state/out-of-state breakdown. That really convinced me we should expand out-of-state enrollment. Go to slide #3 on the ppt at the bottom of this page:
A</a> Vision For The 2nd Century | Vision: Size</p>
<p>i live in houston and let me tell you, the weather sucks. it's not at all unusual to have a high of 70 on christmas day. it's hot and humid and sticky. =[</p>
<p>
[quote]
i live in houston and let me tell you, the weather sucks. it's not at all unusual to have a high of 70 on christmas day. it's hot and humid and sticky. =[
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't know about you but I'd rather have 70+F all year round than -30F for 80% of the year. I'm from Minnesota... I think Houston's weather would be a nice change. =]</p>
<p>Has Houston recovered from the big hurricaine last fall?</p>
<p>Yes, Houston has recovered. Fying into Houston yesterday you could still see some blue tarps on some rooftops, but other than that, things have returned to normal.</p>
<p>
[quote]
[quote]
The Jones School is an embarrassment.
[/quote]
It's been getting better in the past 5-10 years. I wouldn't call it an embarassment by any means.
Rice</a> University | News & Media
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Also, check out this</p>
<p>News</a> - Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management</p>
<p>Rice is close to perfect. Ask my son, a year ago he thought he "had" to get away from Houston (our home). Rice threw him a package and he said yes. I was thrilled. Now I see him about twice a month and every time he sings the praise of all things Rice. It's just a great school, a great place. Today 75*, blue skies, nice. I know, yes, we do have August. It lasts from May through September. Otherwise blissful.</p>
<p>Does the fact that there are only around 3000 undergrads ever pose any problems--not many good looking people, annoying people, etc?</p>
<p>I loved the comprehensive commentary on the coffee. Rice sounds awesome!!</p>
<p>^Yeah, to add on to that, does Rice ever seem to small after a few years?</p>