To our new Rice Moms and Dads

<p>It’s a common error. Actually my wife uses the same account once in a while, so there’s no way to know.</p>

<p>My son will be up early to greet new Weissmen and women tomorrow at O-week! Have a great move-in birdrock, and come back and chat!
;)</p>

<p>D is a rising sophomore - hard to believe we’re one year in. I wanted to add my thanks to all the established Rice parents and thank them for the advice/information they gave us last year. They really helped allay fears and point us in the right direction.</p>

<p>It was fun and bittersweet dropping D off last year but somehow unsatisfying. She disappeared almost instantly to be (well) looked after by her O-week crew. The families weekend later that year was totally different. We could hang with D, meet her new friends, attend classes, meet profs and RAs. So much fun. I encourage all new Rice parents to make an effort to attend families weekend in late September. Don’t know if we can make it this year or not, but we will try.</p>

<p>Really enjoyed your post, MSmd!</p>

<p>Guessing that it’s a little harder for families who came from a long distance. We were still adjusting to the two hour time difference, our hotel beds weren’t quite like sleeping at home, the great distance weighed heavily on us.</p>

<p>The O-week staff was terrific – their warmth, wisdom, kindness – and those little goodies… I hear they train for a week before the kids arrive. It shows! And it’s a big deal on campus to be chosen as an advisor… Rice freshmen are in good hands!</p>

<p>Families Weekend, like you said, MSmd, was fantastic. I still remember our good bye – after meeting our son’s friends/acquaintances all over campus and his profs, touring Fondren and seeing the view from where he studied, touring the laundry room, sitting next to him in class … eating a Charlotte’s Web in Ruggles …</p>

<p>So after all the tense college decision-making in April – it was clear to see that he landed in the right place. Another thing I love about Rice is the way that the classes mix so easily. Before we said good bye, my son was chatting with two upperclassmen we’d met – they were making strong points about a theory, deeply engaged – my husband and I listened briefly, hugged our Owl, and turned back. All the effort poured into the admissions cycle was worth every second – that’s when my tears erupted for the first time, after we said goodbye. Relief.</p>

<p>It’s not only the wonderful O-Week staff who will be there for our freshmen – long after O-Week’s over, too – just ask your kids. Upperclassmen reach out and talk about classes, ideas, places to eat … it’s my son’s turn now.</p>

<p>I wonder if there should be a week-long O-Week for freshman parents. There’s lots for parents to navigate, too.</p>

<p>That’s what so nice about our spot on CC – such easy access to wonderful Rice students, fantastic alum, caring parents, and all the prospective owls who fly over.</p>

<p>So – how’s it going after move-in?</p>

<p>I’m proud to say that my son is one of the advisors ready to welcome new freshmen to Rice! It’s been a bittersweet weekend for me remembering the emotions of traveling 1200 miles to settle him in a home that we visited briefly the previous April. It was hard to leave after lunch, but I had many of my mom worries settled- I saw where he would live, met his room mates and their parents and looked at the campus through the eyes of an owl parent rather than perspective parent. The only disappointment for me was not seeing the matriculation ceremony, but understood that was best left to the new freshmen and their advisors. I was happy to get a few phone pics of the fireworks that night and found more photos on the internet days later.</p>

<p>Family weekend was great! I got to see him settled, with friends around campus, where he spent his freetime- all more mom worries! I can’t wait to visit again this Sept. He has a new room and a few different room mates I haven’t met, but I can wait now. I’m an experienced college mom these days. ;)</p>

<p>Well, our son moved in today. I could write at length about the experience, but I’d just like to mention a few things. From the beginning everything surpassed our already high expectations. We arrived - at Brown College - about ten minutes early and we were about the tenth car in line. Just before 9 AM about 40 to 50 volunteers came running out of the dorm shouting, and I’d have to say, the game was afoot. Prior to this point he was a prospie, from 9 AM on he’s been an Owl. The volunteers were terrific. They emptied out our car in seconds and got everything up to his room immediately intact. Several volunteers stopped by his room to say hello to him and his roommate over the next hour as we helped him to unpack his stuff.</p>

<p>At lunch we sat with some volunteers and they treated him like an equal; they were even interested in my wife and me. At 1 PM we said goodbye to him and then we attended talks by Leebron and Hutchinson and several other profs. All reassuring, all well done. I chatted with Leebron for a few minutes later on and he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.</p>

<p>There were many opportunities to ask any questions we had so we didn’t feel rushed at all.</p>

<p>Our son’s schedule for the week looks amazing. They’ll be going to an Astros game and Galveston and spend about a million hours with their advisors. And they expect every Brown freshman to meet every other Brown freshman and lots of other Rice students before the week is over. </p>

<p>We left at about 6 PM and went out for Mexican food. Looking forward to Family Week. Feeling pretty good about choosing Rice.</p>

<p>Yesterday I dropped my son. With volunteers help, unpacked and arranged his room, met his sweet rommie, his family, had a nice lunch. The touching moment came at 1.00 p.m. when the new owls started taking leave, tears rolled down the cheeks of the loving parents - I am sure these are tears of joy. Went back around 4.00 to pass something to my son. He came for a second, grabbed the box and shouted ‘see how I am happy and enjoying’ and vanished. Cannot wait for family week end… Here I come.</p>

<p>Know what you mean about feeling pretty good, bird rock. Congrats to BrooklyninOh for nurturing an advisor … haven’t been back to Houston since freshman year family weekend and look forward to returning for family weekend in senior year. </p>

<p>My big white Rice decal went up on the car as soon as we got back home.<br>
[Search</a> Results - Rice University Bookstore](<a href=“http://rice.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductSearchCommand?storeId=19052&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&extSearchEnabled=G+&displayImage=N+&search=Rice+decals&x=10&y=10]Search”>http://rice.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductSearchCommand?storeId=19052&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&extSearchEnabled=G+&displayImage=N+&search=Rice+decals&x=10&y=10)</p>

<p>Papajones – happy tears! Feel good about all you’ve done to make this happen. It all came together – and the ride’s just begun!</p>

<p>Thanks Ottoline, but I can’t take credit for his love of Rice, only help in guiding him along the way. </p>

<p>And yes Papajones- only happy tears! It’s an awesome ride! My guy’s loving it and I am loving his happiness.</p>

<p>Such fun to read these posts and remember our experience with move-in and O-week as if it were yesterday… when in fact it was 6 years ago! Have a great time everyone!</p>

<p>^^That’s nice to hear, hopefully I’ll still be enjoying these moments 6 years from now</p>

<p>I was thinking the same thing. DD is a senior this year and it seems like only yesterday we were moving her in for O-week. Enjoy the time, it goes by so fast.</p>

<p>I just put DD on the plane back to Rice 2 hours ago. Wahhhhhhhhh! I can’t believe she is a senior. It seems like just last week she was graduating from high school.</p>

<p>She spent the summer working at Rice, so we only saw her for 9 days in August before she left NY for Houston again.</p>

<p>Welcome new owl parents! I hope your progeny come to love Rice as much as DD does; it’s truly a very special place.</p>

<p>'11 and '12 Rice Moms and Dads likely remember when Hurricane Ike swept over the campus in 2008 … It was handled extremely well – the Rice website gave us updates, and terrific Rice students found the time to keep CC readers in the loop in so many ways. And … the college masters were so helpful when I had questions…</p>

<p>I’m bringing this up because I wanted to remind our '14 and transfer parents that the college masters and college coordinators can be very helpful to parents, too. You don’t have to go through a hurricane to connect with the masters. They’re busy people, but
they can find a little time to speak with your or respond to email – if you’re concerned about something. And the college coordinator has been great when I’ve had package arrival questions. Keep their contact info handy!</p>

<p>I hope we’re all off to a great start! And I hope your kids have discovered the new gym,
comfy places to study on campus … club fair’s on Friday!</p>

<p>Rice parents - Congratulations and my apologies for barging in on your thread. I have a HS junior and I’d love to promote Rice to him. His stats should be comparable to Rice’s averages. He doesn’t want a huge university and I think the residential college model would be appealing to him. Can you help me with my sales pitch?</p>

<p>How is financial aid for middle-class students (the type who may not get much need-based aid at a public U. but who couldn’t begin to write a $50,000 check each year)? What do you know about the MOB - despite the antics, are they musically capable and fun? How about on-campus housing all four years? Is it do-able or are students typically looking at one year as a commuter?</p>

<p>Didn’t one of your daughters look at Rice, gadad?? Pull out some of the old sales literature!</p>

<p>My s’s roommate was in MOB and loved it. And he took music seriously. Not conservatory level- but seriously.
Unless things have changed, housing is pretty assured for 3 of the 4 years. But with the new Res colleges, that may change, though the enrollment has risen with the on-campus available housing. </p>

<p>Rice has been known to be generous with aid. Will you still have daus at H when he starts?</p>

<p>Jym, you’re good! D1 was going to consider Rice but got into an EA program and never applied elsewhere. She just graduated and D2 will be a junior this year. So S will be the only one in college the year after next, which also puts a premium on generous aid. Rice would be as good a fit as I know for him, if I can get him to be a little less of a marching band purist (and if he could get himself accepted!).</p>

<p>I recall our backchannel chat about Rice, Cobb county pageantry, etc…</p>

<p>Ahhh, I seem to be a bastion of useless trivia…</p>