<p>I will be unable to see the campus until I arrive for orientation so I was curious as to what it was like. I have looked at a ton of pictures online but they are not really that good. Basically is the campus really green with old fashioned architecture or is it more modern? Any descriptions would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>the prettiest buildings are the old ones, imo, but there are newer ones also. very green campus, beautiful oak trees lining the streets. dorms are dorms, nothing special... i've only seen jones though. the applied mathematics building has a cool mosaic on the ceiling. Do a google image search and you'll get the basic idea.</p>
<p>Lots of green space - and spread out campus. Get used to walking lots! :)</p>
<p>Eh, compared to some other colleges you won't be walking too much. Idk, maybe it is just because I know friends who have to take buses to get to other sides of the campus because they are so far away. At Rice, everything is quite walkable.</p>
<p>Rice's campus is quite nice. Tons of trees, some beautiful buildings. The colleges("dorms") vary but none of them are bad, and some are quite nice.</p>
<p>I like it. I've only been there for the usual visit, but it's nice and laid out well for a so-called downtown school, but not too spread out. For example, I hated GA Tech when I visited (a very similar area of a city to rice, just in Atlanta instead of Houston) because even though it was in Midtown only a couple miles away from the real downtown area, everything was wayy spread out and it was a real long walk from dorms to anything else.</p>
<p>In contrast, I am a postsecondary student at the university of Cincinnati right now, taking a math class down there. And there is so little space for a school of 22,000 people that it has grown up, not out. So I have to walk up 8 stories in one building or another to get from my garage to my class.</p>
<p>When I visited Rice, I saw a happy medium between these two contrasting campuses. It wasn't tall and awkwardly urban, but also wasn't spread out too much. You'll probably like it.</p>
<p>The weather is great too. I've been watching it since I was accepted, and it seems like the worst thing they have to deal with is thunderstorms. No cold weather to worry about.</p>
<p>you totally forget you are in downtown houston, besides all the smog that is. Rice campus is still kinda big though. UT @ austin is 350 acres and has like 50,000 students, while Rice is 325 acres and has like 3000. so theres plenty of space for yourself.</p>
<p>spacious and beutiful</p>
<p>houston has smog?</p>
<p>not literally, but very polluted. if you look in a distance at the high rises, the "fog" is actually pollution.</p>
<p>Here's a few photos of the campus you might not have seen that will give you a little idea:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41192015%5B/url%5D">http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41192015</a>
<a href="http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41192013%5B/url%5D">http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41192013</a>
<a href="http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41192012%5B/url%5D">http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41192012</a>
<a href="http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41191941%5B/url%5D">http://www.pbase.com/markwp/image/41191941</a>
<a href="http://www.johnoutram.com/plarge/socstairice.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.johnoutram.com/plarge/socstairice.html</a></p>
<p>And a few of Houston just for fun: <a href="http://www.travelbypictures.com/houston.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.travelbypictures.com/houston.html</a>
<a href="http://www.photohouston.com/houston_landmarks_1/houston_landmarks_1.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.photohouston.com/houston_landmarks_1/houston_landmarks_1.html</a></p>
<p>In the spring, the skies are blue, the grass quads call out for bare toes, the weather is incredible, and the azalea bushes, which literally cover the campus, are ablaze with fuchsia blossoms. Everywhere you look is blazing magenta, green, and sky blue.</p>
<p>Around the inner loop, the main road that circles the interior of the campus, huge live oaks form a solid canopy over the drive from one end of campus to the other. Trees are everywhere... Legend has it that there's a tree on campus for every undergraduate student.</p>
<p>The architecture of the campus buildings is stately--grand in style, but not stuffy or Gothic. Red tile roofs adorn nearly every building and Mediterranean arches are a staple of the buildings on the main quad.</p>
<p>Sidewalks are wide and inviting, but not terribly conducive to bare feet or rollerblading... Legend <em>also</em> has it that William Marsh Rice wasn't fond of the constrictive nature of sidewalks and had them banned in the university charter (this legend is untrue, unfortunately), so further on in the school's history, they had to resort to the installation of "pebble pathways". The pebble-encrusted walkways get slick in wet weather, so walk carefully!</p>
<p>The fall months are alternately sweltering and monsoon-like, but the weather will soon change. Winters are mild (it's snowed about twice in the past twenty-five years) and springtime is just luscious.</p>
<p>With the introduction of the light rail, just across the street from Sid Rich, all of downtown Houston is just a few stops away from the University, as are Reliant Stadium and the Astrodome, and you're right next door to Hermann Park, which is home to the Houston Zoo, Japanese Gardens, playgrounds, the outdoor theater, paddle boats, a reflecting pool, and there's even a little train that goes around the whole park. You're next to the museum district, too, so there's always plenty to see when the weather's hot or soggy. (Admission to the art museum is free on Thursdays!)</p>
<p>You'll love it. =) Have fun for me, I miss it terribly.</p>
<p>houston has some wierd ass weather. some days its a nice high 70s and low 80s and then the next day you'll have low 60 degree weather. weather in houston is a mystery.</p>
<p>thank you blackeyedsusan for all the beautiful pictures!</p>
<p>Those pictures were absolutely beautiful. Rice should use those pictures, instead of the crummy little ones they have on the website.</p>
<p>it's soo pretty!!</p>
<p>i love it. everything on campus is SOOO close together, compared to other schools..i mean @ stanford, it took me 20 minutes to walk from my dorm to class, but @ rice, 20 minutes is enough to walk the entire breadth of the campus...i walk fast, OK. haha.</p>
<p>It's generally pretty nice with the best weather in late fall, winter, and early spring. I'm not looking forward to the heat returning! The main buildings have somewhat-old-fashioned architecture - a lot are in the Spanish style. The style of the colleges (dorms) vary considerably - some are in the Spanish style while some of the newer ones look like have more contemporary architecture. As much as I hate to say it, I'd liken my college as well as Brown to sort of office-style buildings, Lovett to a toaster oven, Wiess to a motel, and Martel to a high school building.</p>
<p>If you go to this site: <a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Eopa/pubs/imagelibrary/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~opa/pubs/imagelibrary/</a> you will find a hugh number of picutes.</p>
<p>what are the dorms like?</p>
<p>The dorms vary depending on the college to which you're randomly assigned. One thing that strangely a lot of people don't know for some reason is that all the colleges are totally co-ed - you'll be living next door, across the hall, or a few doors down to members of the opposite sex in all colleges. My college, Jones, just voted to make my floor and the one below it co-ed - we had been the only two single-sex floors left on campus, except for some section in Will Rice - and that doesn't really make me happy.</p>
<p>In colleges like Jones and Brown, you'll be assigned a double room to share with whoever they pick for you. The doubles are moderately-sized and come with two beds, two desks, two sets of drawers, two bookcases, two interent jacks, a phone cable, and a cable TV jack. (The internet is high speed, the cable is like 70-80 channels.) In other colleges, you'll probably get a suite to share with three to five other freshmen your first year. In some suites there are individual rooms for each person, but I think in most freshmen suites you still have to share a bedroom with one other person. There's also usually a common room and a bathroom in the suite - which the people in that suite have to clean themselves. Most colleges are a mix of doubles and suites, though Martel, the newest residential college, is totally suites. There are usually a few singles in each college, but you can only get them during your junior or senior year, usually. </p>
<p>You're required to live on campus for freshman year (at least buy the housing and full dining plan), but I know a few freshmen who moved OC this semester. I don't think they're being refunded in full for the money they already paid. Starting sophomore year some students decide to move OC. Most Rice colleges, I'm pretty sure, don't kick upperclassment off campus - there's not that much of a housing shortage. So if you want to live in the dorms all four years, there's a good chance at most colleges you'll be able to do so.</p>
<p>Emilia, in general (the system is very complicated), Jones kicks off in the following order:
1. seniors who have lived on campus their entire time at Rice who aren't exempt from being bumped off campus (if there are any)
2. juniors who have lived on campus their entire time at Rice who aren't exempt from being bumped off campus (randomly selected)</p>
<p>At Rice, housing is guaranteed Freshman year and at Jones it is guaranteed Sophomore year by the way the system works. I'm hoping to stay on campus my entire time at Rice - we'll see if I manage it.</p>
<p>Read the section of our constitution about room draw - not long until you gotta make some decisions. Oh, and vote Roxy for room draw coordinator - seems genuine.</p>