<p>So here's the deal.
Rice is giving me $24,000/yr in merit aid, plus $12,000/yr in need-based aid.
I got into several other schools including Dartmouth and Cornell (Dartmouth being my dream school).
I went to Owl Days and interviewed for the Rice-Baylor program, and I didn't get R-B =[
I didn't really get to experience Owl Days to the fullest because I didn't do the overnight part or eat dinner at the colleges (the R-B interview was the next morning; I kind of regret this decision now).</p>
<p>At any rate, I am faced with the prospect of accepting the $$ from Rice or turning it down and going to Dartmouth (my parents didn't want me to go to Dimensions for fear I'd fall more in love with the school and we seriously can't afford it--at all).</p>
<p>The decision is pretty much made for me because of the $$ so I am now trying to get my head (and heart) around turning down Dartmouth and coming to Rice. I love everything about Rice but there is still one thing I'm unsure of...</p>
<p>I know Rice is considered kind of a "different" school [unconventional wisdom] in that it doesn't really buy into the pretentious, self-important, elitist attitude of some of the Ivies and hardcore frat schools (Duke, etc.) This is totally fine with me but it seems like "alternative" people make up a strong subset of Rice students...I'm a very open-minded person but more on the mainstream side of things. I don't like being weird =)</p>
<p>I know this is an odd question but I just have to make peace with this decision...are all Rice students on the "weirder" side of things? Is there a mainstream component of normal kids who are just there to work hard and have fun on the weekends? I happened to be at Rice on one of the Fridays where a group of kids all dressed up as Vikings for the day and I got a little freaked out...I hope this doesn't offend anyone I just have to know!</p>
<p>well, I dont think that different is weird. Further there is a group of people who work hard and party hard on the weekends. There is also a group that relaxes on the weekend. There are people who go home on the weekends.</p>
<p>Unconventional Wisdom is the slogan of Rice and describes some aspects of Rice. Such as our cutting edge research and out of the box thinking. That doesnt mean that Rice students do not have fun in the sense that you call “normal”</p>
<p>If you are looking for “pretentious, self-important, elitist attitude of some of the Ivies and hardcore frat schools (Duke, etc.)” then you probably need to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>What I like about Rice is the accepting laid back non pretentious attitude. You dont need to be in a group to hang out with people. </p>
<p>To sum it up, if you are looking for a rigid defined party scene where people tell you what to wear and do… this isnt it. at all…</p>
<p>Brown College was having a LARP-ing theme for its college night that Friday I think. I’m not really sure what LARPING means, but it’s something like medieval stuff where you dress up with wooden swords and stuff. I don’t know, but it’s definitely not like that usually.</p>
<p>Lots of colleges show college spirit by participating in their college nights and doing their college nights’ themes.</p>
<p>live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters’ actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules, or determined by consensus between players.</p>
<p>Its where people dress up as video game characters and act out stuff… :S</p>
<p>There are all kinds of people at Rice; you can choose to hang out with the weirder ones or the more “normal” ones, but most people are unique - that’s for sure.</p>
<p>The viking thing was because of College night - one night out of the semester where everyone in a college chooses a theme and dresses up all day. There is also a lot of drinking involved. Not everybody does it (I don’t). I just kind of laugh it off with everyone else and go about my business… and there are plenty of normal parties and things to do around here.</p>
<p>Just a friendly warning, though: if you have an attitude that you are better than everyone else and that you are too cool to participate in the activities, you won’t make many friends. I don’t participate in a lot of the “weird” stuff that goes on, and you don’t have to either - just make sure you come here with a positive attitude about it. Nobody will care if you don’t want to dress up like a viking (unless maybe during O-week where you pretty much will do weird stuff, but it’s actually a lot of fun)</p>
<p>Just to clarify - most Rice students don’t LARP. I had never even heard the term before now. Every semester each college has a college night, usually themed to allow those who wish to dress up. Several past themes from my college were Commandos, Goth, and Viking. It’s basically an excuse to blow off a Friday (involvement varies based on class/work schedules) with a couple of drinks and hanging out in the college quad.</p>
<p>Wow I had no idea that Rice students LARP lol. Again you choose what to do and what not to do, and there will be people who will accept you either way, as long as you are open to others</p>
<p>I know right? Seriously, I just SUGGESTED that’s what happened the day the OP came. I don’t even know FOR SURE if that actually happened. Jeez, people stop making it sound like this is a regular occurrence, because IT’S NOT.</p>
<p>For the record, I’m pretty “mainstream” and I absolutely love Rice. By mainstream, I guess I mean I could have easily fit in at schools with a more “traditional” feel (Cornell/Dartmouth/Duke/Vandy). I would’ve been fine playing IM flag football for a fraternity, dealing with hazing as a pledge, not having a built-in, inclusive social structure (ie, residential colleges), and embracing all those WASPy cornerstones of American college life that “weird” people tend to dismiss.</p>
<p>That being said, I really don’t find Rice to be particularly weird. Sure, there are geeky kids who are always drowning in their work and kids who play too much WoW and kids who go LARPing (although I’ve NEVER seen them do that… it’s definitely not a common occurance… in fact, I’m sure that many people at Brown College voted for that college night theme out of mockery), but overall we’re pretty normal. Plus, a lot of the strange traditions we have at Rice are no more silly or embarrassing as some ridiculous hazing routine for a Greek house.</p>
<p>Now that I’m here, I’m very happy that I didn’t go to a school with Greek life or without NOD or Baker 13 or Beer Bike. After you’re here for a while, you’ll realize how silly many traditions are at other colleges and you’ll be thankful that most of Rice’s are lighthearted and meant for fun. It’s so weird seeing my friends’ Facebook statuses at my home state school: “Samantha <3’s her big!” or “Spring Formal '09! ΣΚ and ΠΚΑ forever!” I just think about how trivial all that Greek crap really is, and how I’d much better to dress up as a viking, get drunk at 8am, and go to class than go to that stupid formal!</p>
<p>I used to think I would regret not being part of a fraternity or going to an enormous university with tons of people to meet, but Rice really changed my perspective. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’ll find plenty of like-minded people at Rice, and you’ll have a unique college experience of which your friends back home will be jealous. Seriously, every time I explain the colleges and Beer Bike, my friends’ eyes gloss over as if I had just talked about living at Hogwarts and playing Quidditch.</p>
<p>If you had stayed overnight at owl days, it would have changed your mind. I had the exact same concern. The “weird people” were my only reservation about rice. I met a bunch of cool people (yes, including good looking girls), had a great time at lovett until about 2:30 am (on a wednesday night might I mention), and didnt see a single person wearing a viking costume.</p>
<p>PS, do you really want to put up with snobs, greeks, and other cliques? doesn’t that seem like high school all over again?
My favorite part about rice is that the normal kids, the athletes, the nerds, and the partiers all get along and don’t even think twice about it.</p>
<p>yeah. Rice is really free. You can start up your own club and do amazing things like Coffee House, Rice Solar Decathlon, Owl Microfinance, and whatever that guy did to go to the Oscars. Sometimes the freedom shows up in ways other people don’t appreciate like with Owlcon and the MOB but I’m sure you’ll find people who you’ll get along with. As much as Rice students can do crazy stuff, there’s always rules regulations security and respect to keep things in check. You don’t have to go to NOD (in fact, Christian organizations offer alterantives on the same night) and as long as you don’t throw water balloons at Baker 13 people they won’t attack you. Baker Blues is pretty chill and i’m sure you’ll find stuff you like e.g. at Martel (where I’m at) we have cigar nights for people to have some smores and just relax around a fire.</p>
<p>Rice does not have too many weird people. Most people are mainstream in a lot of ways. There were way way more gothic people in my high school, for example. I bet there were more people who smoked cigarettes in my high school, too. The most alternative people on campus work at KTRU or Coffeehouse, and they are pretty mild. I hope this is kind of what the OP was getting at. As far as the open-minded comment, that sounds like Rice. The differences at Rice are most mental.</p>
<p>I absolutely have no problem with LARPs or dressing up or any of that, definitely not! I just wanted to find out if people who did that were in the majority and if someone who wasn’t into that would feel really maligned/left out. But it appears that everyone has an opportunity to make friends which is good…I really appreciate your candidness (is that a word?) and believe me I would MUCH rather attend Rice than a hardcore frat school, any day.</p>
<p>My own school is pretty alternative but there is a group of more mainstream kids and there is not any tension at all between the two groups; in fact, there is a great deal of intermixing…it seems like Rice is like this as well. Thank you so much!</p>