<p>Please know how much all your nurturing has meant as your Owls join their 2013 classmates. </p>
<p>There are Rice Moms and Dads on this list who remember how we felt when our children left home as freshmen to join the Rice community! Owls are very well cared for on campus -- be extra good to yourselves at home. </p>
<p>Some of us met during Families Weekend and have communicated throughout the school year. We've started new books during the first weeks of the transition, framed favorite pictures of our Owls, posted flat rate priority mail boxes filled with snacks and love. </p>
<p>Feel free to reach out to us on the forum or PM us.</p>
<p>Yes - welcome New Parents! Please make sure to say hello to the College Masters if you are on campus, as they will be a support to your kid if he/she runs into troubles. The Rice staff are very supportive and kind! My DD graduated last year from Rice; her first year there, the College Coordinator actually stopped at a grocery store on her way to work to picked out a birthday cake for my daughter after I called the CC, trying to find a source for birthday cakes. (That was seriously above and beyond the job description!) When DD got a serious case of mono and had to come home near finals, she made sure to let the College Master and her professors know. They were very flexible and supportive and let her take incompletes and finish the work later. Rice has its own student-run EMS, very helpful police, and all sorts of support staff for dealing with disabilities and stress, career help, etc. It’s a great place, and DS is now enjoying his time there. Feel free to PM me, too, if you have any special questions or concerns! The 4 years go by VERY quickly, (not that I’d want to pay for more than 4 years… ;)) so encourage your child to take advantage of as many of the opportunities to get involved as possible. :)</p>
<p>The “veteran” Rice parents were a big help to me before and during my daughter’s first year at Rice. I agree…don’t hesitate to ask if you have questions. And welcome!</p>
<p>One way to keep up with what’s going on at campus is to sign up for Rice Dateline, emailed from the Public Affairs department. <a href=“mailto:Dateline-Rice@mailman.rice.edu”>Dateline-Rice@mailman.rice.edu</a>
Copies of Rice Magazine are mailed out a few times a year, too.<br>
And the Rice Thresher, the school newspaper, is on-line.<br>
If you haven’t watched the virtual tours yet, you might want to head over to the Rice website for a peek. I like visiting the website to see what’s new…</p>
<p>Thanks for all of these pointers. We just arrived home from dropping our daughter off at O-week and welcome the chance to feel connected. Our impressions of the students and administration were extremely favorable. We’re already making plans for Family Weekend.</p>
<p>I wish I could go to Parents’ Weekend this year. I had a great time last year. We even had a get together for coffee at the Pavilion for CC parents. The faculty lectures were great. (I think Dr. Richards-Kortum is speaking again this year. If so, I recommend going. Bio-engineering professor.) Best wishes to your daughter getting settled–and your getting used to her absence–and welcome to Rice!</p>
<p>Welcome to the family, marnimom! My son is a junior at Rice and not only am I a Rice parent, but I also live about 10 minutes from campus. So if you need any local info – restaurants, place to buy a birthday cake, etc., feel free to PM me. (And I’m a Maryland native if you haven’t figured out from my screen name.)</p>
<p>Marnimom, like BerkeleyMom, I won’t be at Families Weekend, this year, either – but
I’m hoping new Rice Moms will continue the tradition of meeting at the Pavilion!
Maybe, Anxious Mom, our venerable veteran, can come – I would have loved to have met her in person! And kudos to blackeyedsusan who answered so many of my questions from the very start and helped me settle in.</p>
<p>I remember how quiet the house felt without our son at home, and soon he’ll be back on campus again. We let him take the lead when it came to calls, and we have never lost our strong sense of connection with him. </p>
<p>Has anyone bought Rice decals,sweatshirts, owls for home? (You can always go on-line to the Rice bookstore.) And if you go to the Pavilion during Families Weekend, please try the iced pomegranate green tea! </p>
<p>The students on this forum were fantastic during last year’s hurricane, and through their messages have made us feel close to the community. All my best to the Owls who find time to squeak in CC time!</p>
<p>Awww shucks!!! I would have loved to meet you, too! I’m not going to be able to make it this year during Families weekend, but I do plan to go up another weekend later in the year and check out that new rec center (and see the boy!). School is too hectic to get away for a Sept. weekend… You guys are all great, and I’m glad that we work together to help prospective students and parents get some of their questions answered… 
p.s. We definitely need to meet at GRADUATION - any CC parents with class of 2011 kids!</p>
<p>We’re also skipping Families Weekend this year but planning to visit later on in the fall. I’d have liked to see the Rice Moms again and meet the new ones, but it looks like most of y’all aren’t going to be there anyway 
</p>
<p>I’m really anxious to see the new Rec Center, too!</p>
<p>Anxiousmom, I love the graduation get-together idea :). It will be here before we know it, too.</p>
<p>Mom of another Junior here. We have not made it to families weekend last year or this year. We tend to go for DD’s performances instead. Guess I’ll meet up at graduation too.</p>
<p>Ottoline posted a link to O-week photos under the O-week heading. I was thrilled to have a look at their week. If you’re like me and didn’t know the photos were online, go check out the o-week thread to find the link. Thanks again!</p>
<p>BrooklyninOh and other Rice Parents: welcome!
I found the photos on the Rice website. [Rice</a> University](<a href=“http://www.rice.edu/]Rice”>http://www.rice.edu/)
Have you seen this week’s Rice Thresher, yet? [The</a> Rice Thresher](<a href=“http://www.ricethresher.org/]The”>http://www.ricethresher.org/)
And here’s the first item in today’s Dateline Rice: <a href=“mailto:dateline-rice@mailman.rice.edu”>dateline-rice@mailman.rice.edu</a> </p>
<p>Rice, Baylor merger would challenge Harvard, Yale
Bloomberg News interviewed President David Leebron to learn more about the Vision for the Second Century, the impact of the economic downturn, the merger discussions with Baylor College of Medicine and other subjects. The story is accompanied by a video. [Editor’s note: The story and video might not be fully accessible on the Bloomberg Web site until later.]<br>
[Rice</a>, Baylor Merger Would Challenge Harvard, Yale (Update1) - Bloomberg.com](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?) </p>
<p>Tomorrow, my soph son flies back to his second home…</p>
<p>I thought I’d tack on a post to a thread dating back to when Class of 2013 first joined the ranks. A year’s gone by and now last year’s freshmen are this year’s rising sophs, and year before sophs are soon-to-be juniors/upperclassmen, and, yes, last year’s rising juniors will be graduating in about nine months!!! </p>
<p>Hoping that more and more new Rice parents will stop by at the Rice Forum and fire away new questions to the terrific students, alum, and moms and dads on board.<br>
You should be feeling mega-proud!</p>
<p>Good luck to Class of 2014 and Congratulations!</p>
<p>I’m updating a thread that goes back to when Class of 2013 first joined the ranks. A year’s gone by and now last year’s freshmen are this year’s rising sophs, and year before sophs are soon-to-be juniors/upperclassmen, and, yes, last year’s rising juniors will be graduating in about nine months!!! </p>
<p>Hoping that lots of new Rice parents will drop by at the Rice Forum and fire away questions to the terrific students, alum, and moms and dads on board. </p>
<p>You should be feeling mega-proud of your Class of '14 Owls!</p>
<p>Good luck to Class of 2014 and Congratulations!</p>
<p>Sorry about the duplication --some technical problems here – and so – twice as much good luck to the class of '14 and twice as many cheers for the parents!</p>
<p>Thanks for pulling this thread back up, Ottoline. Any questions that parents have about the parental side of Rice, feel free to send our way… we may not know that answers, but we may be able to steer you towards those that do. I have had two kids at Rice; one graduated '04 in Anthropology and now lives and works in a foreign country. (A post-undergraduate scholarship from Rice funded the first year abroad…:)) One will be graduating in May, and I look forward to all the events at graduation. So welcome to the Rice family!</p>
<p>Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I’m typing in my hotel room about two miles from campus right now. We flew in yesterday and stopped off at my son’s college in the afternoon. Everyone was incredibly helpful and they even showed us his dorm room and the famous free washing machines. His dorm room BTW is about twice the size of what I had freshman year.</p>
<p>The offers of support are touching and helpful, especially on a day like today. We might not even be here were it not for CC. I was one of those people who thought - when did you hear this before? - that Rice is just for science students. I learned about the rest of the program on CC and…here we are.</p>
<p>Thanks again, and looking forward to staying in touch as this evolves.</p>
<p>Sounds like you’re all off to a great start, bird rock! Hope you get a chance to have a nice dinner in Rice Village, tonight. A very special time for pre-move-in conversations.</p>
<p>What I remember most about Sunday morning is how quickly it went by – unpacking, meeting his suitemates and their parents, taking more pix, eating lunch in the servery (standing room only, by the time we got there) heading back to their suite for a short visit – and next thing, we were headed back to the hotel and airport and home again.</p>
<p>The Owls have O-Week, and you have some time to digest your memories, start a new book, listen to favorite music, and start sifting through scrapbooks – you’re a Rice mom now. Same for Rice dads, of course.</p>
<p>Apology to bird rock! I was wrong –
You’re a Rice dad not a Rice mom!
I’m sorry about my mix-up! </p>
<p>Hope move-in goes beautifully for everyone!</p>