Undergraduate English Program

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>I can't seem to find any rankings, and loved Rice when I visited recently. Does anyone know how presigious the English program at Rice is? What majors is Rice known for? Thanks</p>

2

<p>Rice is best known for it’s engineering and sciences (as well as the architecture and music programs). I don’t know too much about the English department though.</p>

3

<p>*its</p>

<p>(sorry, couldn’t help it given the topic of discussion!)</p>

4

<p>Wasn’t NYSkins an English major, or a double major in English and something else? I’m sure there’s someone here who can answer this.</p>

5

<p>I searched some old threads and found this from NYSkins</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>From <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/1041691-creative-writing.html?highlight=english+major[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/1041691-creative-writing.html?highlight=english+major&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>To quote another member (salome)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>from this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/988864-rice-humanities.html?highlight=english+major[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/988864-rice-humanities.html?highlight=english+major&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>There are no rankings of undergrad English depts. Based on the grad rankings, Rice’s English dept is somewhere in the bottom half of the top 50 programs. So, I’d say it’s not considered a prestigious dept. That doesn’t necessarily mean it would be a poor place to major in English. A significant number of the faculty received their doctorates at the top schools, though others received them at schools a notch or two down from the top schools. The structure and requirements for the English major are similar to what you’d find at most schools. </p>

<p>Rice has excellent departments/programs in chemistry, physics, religion, history, computer science, applied math, political science, bioengineering, and materials science.
It has good, but not great programs, in mechanical engineering, English, earth sciences, statistics, linguistics, French, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and civil engineering. It does not have the strongest programs in economics, anthropology, psychology, and pure math. These are rough impressions based on grad rankings. Overall, however, Rice is a good school, probably still with more regional appeal. It has a number of positive features including its size, the residential college system, and a strong student body.</p>

7

<p>[Rice</a> University Department of English](<a href=“http://english.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=212]Rice”>http://english.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=212)
Professor Huston is a legend at Rice! He’s won loads of awards, and I hear that he’s extremely inspiring! I’m not convinced that grad school rankings accurately shed light on the undergraduate experience. </p>

<p>Justin Cronin is another big name in the English Department. Big names/little names –
accessibility to professors abounds at Rice. And that makes such a big difference in every dept.</p>

8

<p>My impression as a Rice student about the humanities at Rice is that they’re good, but not great. Rice is NOT a liberal arts school. It is definitely research-based, and I have always gotten the feeling that it’s focused more towards engineering and hard sciences. That’s not to say that the English department is bad or that there aren’t any good classes. But if you are really serious about writing, discussions of favorite authors, etc etc, I’d recommend looking closely at some other schools before deciding.</p>

<p>However, I’d just like to bracket that with the facts: I’m not an english major, and have only taken 1 english class, which was pretty good. I dropped another one that was taught by a grad student and not quite as interesting. So i’m not extremely knowledgeable about it.</p>