<p>Hey! I’m a freshman at Rice this year. I’ve already been gushing about Rice to all my friends, so I’d be glad to tell you my thoughts (: Get ready for an essay haha</p>
<p>Rice is truly an amazing place. From the moment I got to Rice (and actually even before) I felt like I was welcomed and that people were glad I was there. O-week is a fantastic experience that really helps you meet people and have a fun start to college. All of the advisors know you by name and go out of their way to make you feel comfortable at Rice. </p>
<p>Once classes start, I began to get into a routine. I had one class I didn’t like, which I dropped. I added a different class and after that I was really happy with my schedule. All of my professors are really great and I look forward to class most days. My classes are challenging, but not so hard that I feel defeated. (Of course, I’m not taking any of the classes that are supposed to be the hardest). </p>
<p>The residential colleges are amazing. I love how it creates basically little communities within Rice where you know most of the people and have activities with them. (Don’t worry, you meet people from other colleges through classes, clubs, activities, sports, etc.) I’d have to say the residential colleges are one of my favorite aspects of Rice.</p>
<p>Rice is definitely diverse and you have the opportunity to become friends with people from all over the U.S. as well as other countries. I have friends from Canada, India, China, Africa, Saudi Arabia, and many other places. </p>
<p>As for weather, the heat is pretty intense in August (though I’m from Texas, so I’m accustomed to the weather). The worst part is that it’s pretty humid. Around mid-September it gets really nice (and actually stayed that way for weeks this year). It’s finally started cooling down drastically the past few days and it was suddenly quite chilly today. Overall, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about the weather too much. </p>
<p>As for your question about people at Rice - Yes, a ton of people are outgoing and willing to step out of the boundaries. Rice likes unique people so of course you have a wide variety of personalities, but everyone is here for a reason. The Rice faculty and staff in general are extremely nice! That was actually one of the things that first impressed me about Rice. </p>
<p>Another thing that immediately impressed me about Rice was its beauty. Rice is gorgeous. There is no other way to say it. There are a lot of trees and squirrels, the buildings are stunning, and the campus is surrounded by a neighborhood of old and new houses that are all amazing. Rice truly feels like a little country inside of the city of Houston. Yet it’s relatively easy to navigate Houston (to some extent) without a car. The zoo is right across the street, museums and Rice Village are within walking distance, and students get metrorail cards for free (and when you run out of money on them, you just go back and get them refilled. Nice, huh?). </p>
<p>Last, I’m going to talk about the party atmosphere at Rice and what it is like. Rice is actually a wet campus, meaning there can be alcohol on campus. There are also a lot of public parties at Rice. All of the residential colleges host at least two public parties, which usually have some sort of theme. There are of course students who drink underage, but people don’t judge you if you don’t drink. People like to say that Rice students study hard and party harder haha. But seriously, there is a large spectrum of people who party a lot and people who don’t party at all and then everyone in between. </p>
<p>Sorry for the extremely long response, but I love Rice and tend to get a little enthusiastic when talking about it. Good luck and I hope this helps!</p>