UT is in the middle of Austin. Rice is in the middle of Houston. TAMU only houses freshmen.
Which areas ARE safe, not just “feel” safe according to “invincible” college-aged students? Sorry students, I was one too, so in my older age I understand the differences.
I don’t need to hear about SafeWalk, SureWalk, or whatever it’s called where you get walked across campus. Everyone has it, and really it only gets you to the edge of campus safely. What about walking to your actual apartment?
My 20yo suggests looking at the campus newspapers to see what kinds of statistics you can find there. She reads her campus newspaper every week and actually reads the police blotter section.
Back when I was at UNT, TAMU really watched over the kids they had because they were underage, so they had curfews and restrictions that didn’t exist for anybody else, but that was about 30 years ago.
A friend’s daughter is at UNT right now. She “feels” safe there, but I really have no idea how safe it actually is. She isn’t into the party scene which is pretty big there, at least compared to UT Dallas where my kids have gone.
UT also has a pretty big party scene. I have no idea about Rice.
If safe means a lower percentage of crime, the the Aggies are probably the safest just because the city is predominantly fellow students. If you are looking for the least amount of drinking or drugs and a less prominent binge drinking party culture, then that would be Rice. I went to UT and the on campus murder this week was definitely an aberration and therefore could probably happen anywhere, but overall you do have a larger homeless population panhandling around Austin. There are always people around so I never felt unsafe on campus or around campus, but sixth street and the parking lots around it were a little dicey. There are certainly areas of Houston that I feel the same way. The Aggie party culture is pretty pronounced with the Dixie Chicken claiming the largest amount of beer consumption per square foot in the country and the ring dunking tradition where you chug a pitcher of beer when you get your class ring. No one is forced to partake in this but it is a tradition and Aggies love their traditions. Texas has lots of partying and drugs but when I was there, I ran with a pretty straight laced group so although I drank, I never once tried any drugs and you will find drugs and booze on any campus. Rice students police themselves pretty well as they have college parties with designated students to watch over each other where Texas and the Aggies have fraternity parties and other parties where you don’t really have that as much. Rice and UT are in the middle of their cities but the property prices near both campuses are really high so you have white collar neighborhoods around you so the surrounding areas are not that bad right close to campus and pretty densely populated so there are a fair amount of people around to discourage serious crime at least when it is not too late at night. Any student coming back to their apartment after 2:00 whether partying or studying at the library needs to be aware of their surroundings in whatever city they are in.
I’ve been on all three campuses at night…I would rank them TAMU, Rice, UT, but I would be totally OK on any of them at night, just use your regular street smarts, and you’ll be fine. Now I would not walk around the Houston Med Center, across the street from Rice, day or night if I could help it. The violent crimes that you hear reported in the main stream newspapers are random acts of violence that could happen anywhere.
Look at the Clery report for each of the schools.
There’s also the natural disaster risk to consider. UT and Rice are at risk for nearby flooding which has impacts if living off campus. (Rice was closed today due to Houston flooding.) UT and A&M are at risk for ice storms. Rice is at risk for a hurricane. UT is at risk for a tornado. The list of things to worry about is endless, so don’t spend too much time overthinking it.
@ScienceGirlMom don’t forget the risk of blizzards at UT and rattlers at A&M!
@goingnutsmom From what I understand, the Clery report documents incidents on campus, but not in the area immediately outside of campus. Many incidents take place in and around off campus housing that don’t make that report.
^ Yes, you are right but it’s a start- gives you an idea of campus safety issues. For other stats there is often a way to pull up crime stats for neighborhoods.