<p>My mom went to Rice and has always told us that she hated it. I am not wondering if I should discard her opinion. Rice is one of the only colleges near us that (on paper anyway) looks like it could be a good fit for my daughter. My mom says it has a big suicide rate. She says she was miserable there and most the students were. I am wondering is this was just my mom's opinion, but not a realistic one. She was from a very small town in the midwest and I suspect she was just so far out of her element and home sick. Plus, she has always been the top of her class and she admitted to me that it was hard for her to accept that she was no longer the top student. What do you think?</p>
<p>I am also asking about Carnegie Mellon. That is just because my daughter is going to see them speak to tonight</p>
<p>My daughter is a Rice grad (2007) and I can’t speak highly enough about Rice. It was a perfect college experience. She loved Houston and took advantage of what it had to offer. The area around Rice is great, the residential college system works well, and the school is big enough to have a lot of different types of students and activities. Academics are great and the campus is gorgeous.</p>
<p>Rice has changed a lot since your mom’s days. (For one thing, she was probably in a female minority. And back then, Texans were a large majority.) I’m with MOWC, it’s a fabulous choice with great balance between academic and social, lots of job and internship support in Houston. CMU is also a great school. One of mine was admitted to both–campus overnights were critical. He found the vibe very different at each. </p>
<p>I’m a Carnegie Mellon student, and I love it there. However, it would help for me to have a little more information. Does she have a major she’s interested in? What kind of a school is she looking for?</p>
<p>She is going back and forth between math and music. I am having the feeling she MIGHT go for a double major, but not sure yet. I know Rice and CMU have excellent music schools. They are also excellent in academics. I dread the idea of her going far away. If she is going to be a distance, I would like to be able to reach it by airplane, less than 3 hrs, direct flight (I live in DFW).</p>
<p>For the type of person she is…she is conservative, yet, kind of outspoken. She does not deal well with Democrats. Sorry…not wanting to offend (although her boyF says he is a democrat, they make jokes about it and their opposite politics). She is a libertarian actually. She has zero interest or tolerance for partying. She is a recycler though. She is doing volunteer work and a summer internship in environmental science. She would not like a party school or a heavy frat school. Academically, she fits with both schools. Personality, it would be great to get a better feel.</p>
<p>So…what do you think? Maybe not the best description.</p>
<p>My daughter did her last 2 years of high school at Interlochen and then chose Rice for music. (We also lived in Dallas at the time) I will tell you that Rice is extremely selective for music and since it is a relatively small music school, there are only a few students admitted each year in many of the disciplines (voice, oboe etc). Rice is fairly liberal (but not like Oberlin). There is also plenty of partying, but I think it could be avoided.</p>
<p>My nephew went to Rice, my son went to Carnegie Mellon. I think they are both great schools.</p>
<p>My nephew worked for the Obama campaign the summer of 2008, but he’s not normally particularly political. He loved the residential college and liked Houston more than he expected to. (He’s from the DC area.) He had a fabulous academic experience. He inquired via email about research possibilities before he started and was invited to start working in a lab during freshman orientation. The work he did that year took him to a science fair at MIT and was featured on NPR. Connections from Rice got him a summer job working on (and as an author on) what dh calls “the paper of the century”. He’s in grad school at MIT now.</p>
<p>My son was equally happy at Carnegie Mellon. I’ll admit he’s a one side computer nerd and he found his tribe and settled right in. I was very impresses with how the alumni/current student network got internships and jobs for everyone. Son had an internship at Nvidia and Google, and is now working at Google. While my kid didn’t venture much out of his comfort zone, I’ve been impressed with the possibilities for cross disciplinary work. Computer science majors are required to have minors and a handful have minored in music. I’d say that CMU probably has a somewhat more pre-professional vibe than Rice - a large portion of campus knows exactly what they want to do when they grow up.</p>
<p>I think there’s a bit more partying at Rice, but you can find parties at any school. I think you’ll find a lot of libertarians at either school.</p>
<p>My DD’14 was also interested in math and music. Look very carefully at Carnegie Mellon; as I recall, the math and music majors are in different schools, and in order to fulfill a math major, one also had to take a ton of science classes.</p>
<p>“My mom went to Rice and has always told us that she hated it.”
OK that means she was there at least 40+ years ago?? Ignore what she says, as that is ancient history.
Both Rice and CM are great colleges!</p>
<p>Then, while visiting Rice, she better not walk by Valhalla while on campus…the grad students drink right on the lawn. There are at least 3 venues on campus that serve alcohol. </p>
<p>And, don’t drive by Morningside (street just west of campus) in the evening, because the bars are over-flowing with students. </p>
<p>Rice is great…but your D needs to understand that there are kids partying at all campuses except the bible schools.</p>
<p>The math major does not require a single science course, a sample schedule includes ONE physics course: from: Department of Mathematical Sciences: Degree Programs</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>on that list, I see 2 physics classes, a bio class, & chemistry,</p>
<p>The math dept. at Carnegie Mellon is housed in the College of Science. In order to be a math major, one is also required to take physics, biology, chemistry, and computer science. But if you’d like to call the information from the school’s own website misinformation, go right ahead. Or perhaps you object to the characterization of 4 different fields “a bunch.”</p>
<p>That suggested course load is not required courses, you can fulfill the requirement by taking comp sci or statistics courses instead. You aren’t required to take physics or biology.</p>
<p>Let me see… Rice is in Houston, not the best weather in the planet by any stretch. CMU has the Steelers nearby. It’s a toss-up :)</p>
<p>Seriously, at that level school I would be more interested in specifics (programs, courses, requirements, opportunities for interdisciplinary type work) rather than worry about happiness and other such. Also, if the OP is NOT from the area, the cultural transplant in itself is an experience worth a bit. I’ve been to Houston many times and it is definitely not a college town - it’s Oil Central. But the culture of Texas is pretty exciting to say the least. </p>
<p>Likewise, Pittsburgh is not Ann Arbor either, and the weather is not the greatest either, but it has a lot to offer as well. </p>
<p>Turbo- have you been to Rice? It is a wonderful college area with everything you would want, including all levels of off-campus housing. And the weather was a big plus in my daughter’s eyes. Frisbee in flip flops in February? What’s so bad about that?</p>