The Kind of People @ Rice--Would i FIT in?????? Please help!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
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<p>Hey,
So i'm very interested in Rice because it's an amazing school and has an absolutely GORGEOUS campus, BUT:</p>

<p>i'm not sure whether I would be a good match for the kinds of people who attend the school. I am fairly outgoing, sociable, and I like to have some fun, but I don't party hard at all and am not promiscuous. I'm hoping that the people at Rice are not TOO nerdy and geeky, and strange. To be honest, I really don't know the type of people who attend Rice and i'm not trying to offend anyone I swear! I'm just trying to get a good picture.</p>

<p>I like to be around fun girls and people (i'm a girl), but not too scatter-brained people either. I'm chill and I want chill people to be around Who AREN'T strange or weird or eccentric. I know Rice doesn't do Greek Life, but I like the fun & smart & chill sorority-girl types to be friends with. That's why I'm also leaning toward Vanderbilt, but I don't like the snooty pretentiousness there that is associated with fancy cars and designer labels.</p>

<p>thoughts??</p>

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<p>I don’t go to Rice either, but since this question was asked, can we extend it to guys too? I’m guessing they aren’t the meat head fraternity type. Also, I’ve been hearings that some people don’t believe that college selection is random, due to how many colleges appear to have different personalities, true?</p>

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<p>These questions have been asked and responded to countless times over the past few years. Spend a few minutes searching and you’ll find them. The consensus is pretty much that there are all types at Rice and everyone can fit in and find their group.</p>

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<p>From the sound of it, no. You wouldn’t. Go to Vandy please.</p>

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<p>Yeah there are all types of people here. Rice does have the reputation of being “nerdy”, however most of the people I’ve met are not typical “nerds”. There are nerds, but there are people that are passionate about every type of thing you can imagine. There are partiers, stoners, nerds, sports fanatics, all I can say is you will definitely meet the type of people you are looking for.</p>

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<p>Nah she sounds dumb. Let her go to vandy.</p>

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<p>There are some “nerds” here at Rice, but there are also some at Vanderbilt and every other school. If you aren’t a partier, I would say you are better off at Rice than Vanderbilt. Both schools have a lot of people who like to party, but from what I’ve heard from my friends at Vandy, Rice students are a bit more accepting in regards to whether or not a person drinks/parties. I have several friends at Rice who don’t drink at all, yet go to every party and are perfectly welcome and loved. I also have several friends who don’t go to parties at all and are still accepted and loved. Then I have friends who drink and party a lot and are also accepted and loved.</p>

<p>If you haven’t gathered my point yet, at Rice you will not be judged by your drinking/party habits, and those characteristics will have minimal or no impact on your social group.</p>

<p>Another thing about Rice, though, is that everyone likes and hangs with just about everyone else. Even the stereotypical “popular” kids will talk to and include the “loners” and “nerds.” Cliques here seem to be very loose or non-existent. Yeah, there are friend groups, but nobody is ever really excluded. So if you only want to hang out with the “non-nerds” then you might be better off at Vandy, even though you would probably have to adapt to the frat party atmosphere. However, I would consider giving it a second thought, as everyone has something valuable to contribute, even those “strange” kids who watch Star Trek all weekend. Plus, I find that you’ll realize that the Rice “nerd” is the cool kid who likes to socialize and stuff a lot but will still talk about classes and more academic subjects and stuff openly. I really like our kind of “nerd.” hahaha</p>

<p>@premed4 - There are some rumors that college selection isn’t truly random, but I don’t believe that at all. O-Week and college culture / current students have such a strong influence on a student’s socialization and introduction into college life that I truly believe the college adapts the student to its personality a little bit. This doesn’t mean that you will change as a person based on what college you are placed in, rather that you will continue the college’s general personality. It’s rather hard to explain, so if you’d like me to try to explain it further PM me. :)</p>

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<p>1) OP: There’s definitely a group of girls such as you described in every college my year (I live with them at mine). I’m also friends with a bunch of other people, but it’s nice to have a home base of sorts. Most concerns about people being “too nerdy” at Rice are unfounded - there are a lot of people who are very passionate about what they do and study, but most aren’t socially awkward. Re: guys, not too many meat head fraternity types though there are some who like to pretend they are. Also some legitimately good ol’ southern boys, if that’s what you’re interested in.</p>

<p>2) College selection is random. I questioned it a few years back when I found out how many kids-of-important-people my college (with supernice rooms) had, but nope. Totally random unless you’re a legacy. Personalities develop in a super interesting way, though, especially when you’re trying to make friends - once you spend a few months surrounded by the same 300 people, you start to pick up some things in common. </p>

<p>3) Owl2014 and BlizzaP, what in the hell? Do you two seriously go here? That’s not how we treat prospective students and if you don’t know that I have no idea what you’re doing attempting to advise them.</p>

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<p>What do you mean by admissions being “totally random”? Clearly the admissions process isn’t random…a student with a 2300 is much more likely to be admitted than a student with a 1900 all things relatively equal. Are you saying that they don’t accept people based on certain personality characteristics…a purposely extreme e.g. “this person seems too nerdy to fit in here…REJECT!”</p>

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<p>That was directed at silentsailor’s #2</p>

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<p>YellowDaisies: College selection, not admissions, is random. Admissions is a holistic process. If you accept Rice’s Offer of Admission, you will be randomly assigned to one of the residential colleges over the summer. Does that make more sense?</p>

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<p>@yellowdaisies - “college” refers to Rice’s “dormitories”; you live in a college, you go to the University. If you have not already done so, please read up about the Residential College system. It is one of the most unique, and perhaps the best part of life at Rice.</p>

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<p>silentsailor - well said! Owl2014 seems to have a need to build up his self esteem by denigrating the accomplishments of prospective students, as if he has complete insight into the deliberations of the admissions committee.</p>

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<p>In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll take this one.</p>

<p>Rice Students on average do tend to be a bit more introverted and scholastic than you would find at typical state school. One thing I will say is that students tend to be very inclusive. I like to think I’m pretty sociable/affable, and I have all types of friends. However, if you just wanted to hang out with people at your own level of affability and “normalcy”, that would surely be possible, although I would say the norm is more towards inclusivity.</p>

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<p>Well said. Not recommending Rice is entirely acceptable (we are here to help and advise after all), but it should be done in a cordial and thoughtful manner. Otherwise it reflects poorly on Rice, those who go and have gone here and on those thinking about attending.</p>

<p>flute and adamb covered it well but to add on, the college is like a “house” in Harry Potter. Each college has an assortment of engineers, science, humanities and social science majors. They also have athletes from all sports. Each college then competes with each other in IM sports and other activities.</p>

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<p>Rice sounds like an amazing school and a potential great fit for my daughter who is interested in studying physics. She is a track athlete but also could be one of those Star Trek nerds if she did not have sports. She has a friend who is a freshman in the Brown college on a track scholarship and he loves it. He commented about the colleges with the super nice and large dorm rooms but also said that is such a small part of the whole Rice experience. What advice would you give to a high school freshman girl from Florida who is considering Rice?</p>

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<p>Tilgaham covered what I was trying to say better than I did, and more concisely. Good job.</p>

<p>EDIT: saismom, sorry but I’m not too clear on what you are asking for; what type of advice would you like, exactly?</p>

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<p>saismom: I disagree completely. It is a very large part of the Rice experience. Much of the social life of students here revolve around their residential colleges. It’s so much more than where you live. To athletes, it might not be as big of a part of their experience because they have all sorts of commitments and social activities as a team outside of their colleges.</p>

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<p>Sorry FallenAngel9, what I meant to say is what advice would you give to a freshman in high school who is interested in Rice. She has SAT (2010) and ACT(28) scores but they are from 7th and 8th grade. She took the PSAT in October, but we don’t know her score yet. She is currently taking Biology Honors, Pre-Aice Latin 1, Networking 1( Cisco), Gifted Research Methods ( she is part of an international group/ team called NaGisa )and will be on the dive team next year for the collections ) Algebra 2 honors, English 1 honors, AICE European History ( but will be taking the AP exam as well on her own). She has excellent grades so far including high school classes she took online and during middle school. </p>

<p>[NW</a> Florida NaGISA Team Wins Environmental Excellence Award — NaGISA Online](<a href=“http://www.nagisa.coml.org/currentnews/2010-news/nw-florida-nagisa-team-wins-environmental-excellence-award]NW”>http://www.nagisa.coml.org/currentnews/2010-news/nw-florida-nagisa-team-wins-environmental-excellence-award)</p>

<p>She is on Varsity Swimming, Varsity track ( she went to state in three events as a middle schooler and has begun AAU national competitions. She is also on JV Academic Team, Junior Classical League and she does peer tutoring in math and science and coaches the middle school varsity academic team. She does not play an instrument.</p>

<p>What would your advice be to her for her best chances for acceptance at Rice?</p>

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<p>Ah okay. Sorry, I wasn’t entirely sure whether you were asking for advice on applying or advice on whether Rice was a good fit! haha</p>

<p>I agree and disagree with adamb529; it is a large part of the college experience, but at the same time if you choose to minimize its influence you can do that just as well. College is what you make of it. For instance, I have a couple different groups of tight-knit friends that transcend college bounds socially. However, in terms of the everyday, my life very heavily revolves around Hanszen.</p>

<p>As for your daughter, saismom, here is where I would go from where you are. I would work on test scores. When she is a junior, have her take the ACT and SAT, see which one is easier for her now, and then roll with it and try to get her score for that test up to a solid level. If she makes it to the 50th percentile or above for Rice’s student body, I wouldn’t worry too much about test scores beyond that point, as Rice’s admissions process is very holistic and a 34 won’t help you much more than a 32.</p>

<p>Make sure your daughter continues taking as rigorous a courseload as possible for her school, which is sounds like she is doing, and make sure she does fairly well in that load and has a good class rank. Top 10% is nice, but of course there are always plenty of exceptions. Like I said, the process is holistic and they will not immediately count an applicant out for being in a lower percentile–not without good reason. If AP courses are available, definitely take advantage of those.</p>

<p>Also make sure that your daughter is establishing good relationships with teachers, club leaders, coaches, etc who might be able to write her strong recommendations when the time comes. The better they know her, the better the recommendation will be.</p>

<p>If she continues being involved with activities and sports she really loves, then when the time comes, she’ll just need to demonstrate that passion. I firmly believe the essays are the most important part of an application because they bring the applicant to life. Without them, the admissions officers merely see a piece of paper with objective stats. The essays flesh out a person. The essays must show passion, a love for the activities she participates in, a love for learning, and a strong conviction of why Rice is a good school for her and why she belongs at Rice. Don’t worry about the essays yet, though, as your daughter still has a few years before that part comes. All you can do is build up experiences that you will refer back to when the time approaches.</p>

<p>Hopefully this advice helps. I wish both you and your daughter much luck in the the next few years!</p>

<p>As a side note: I actually know a freshman track runner at Brown. I wonder if he’s the same guy!</p>