<p>Rice is surrounded by some very pricey real estate. Not ghetto at all.</p>
<p>Some seem to have a hard time spearating what is IMMEDIATELY surrounding Rice (a small enclave) and the large urban footprint that is itself surrounded by acres of suburban bliss. </p>
<p>The word ghetto is not really appropriate to define Houston. That is too strong a word by a few degrees. It is still a city I would rather not live in or have to spend much time visiting. And, no, Houston is not a really nice place.</p>
<p>I’ve wondered this too! Maybe the name makes them giggle because they love carbohydrates?</p>
<p>"And, no, Houston is not a really nice place. "</p>
<p>Hey now you are getting personal! Its been my home for almost 23 years!</p>
<p>Omg, you have not found the exit ramp yet? My sympathy is in order.</p>
<p>I have left many a time but I keep returning. What can I say, we are delirious.</p>
<p>btw, i’m having an interview with a rice alumni tomorrow
what questions should I ask?
any suggestions? (no trolling please)</p>
<p>A good question to ask is what are things to watch out for and what he/she did not like while at Rice.</p>
<p>I was a big fan of rice at one time, and the hosuing system…then it turns out that the current powers that be are growing the student body size.(bigger is not always better) and that you are not even guaranteed housing on campus(so much for the residential college system), and rice even has classes with not enough seats . I took, rice off of my favorite list.</p>
<p>Where is your information from and how old is it? Neither piece of information seems true.</p>
<p>zobro- that is pretty much incorrect. There has been a housing crunch for years, but that is one of the reasons there are such good off-campus options and many of those options are just off-campus. Usually students leave for a year or more, but can come back on campus. It just isn’t a big deal. My daughter lived off campus her last 2 years and loved it. She was still very involved with her residential college. I have not heard of any problem getting in classes or getting personal attention from profs.</p>
<p>BioOr- ask why the good basketball player left? :)</p>
<p>Rice is growing the amount of students, which I think is a mistake, a change in the wrong direction.
There is plenty of reasonable and nice off campus housing and it is generally only the junior year that students need to move off campus.
As far as Houston is concerned, we have always found it to be an interesting and cultural place, there are some bad looking areas, but the museum district, the park across from Rice, the Medical center, Rice Village are all nearby Rice and are upscale to say the least.</p>
<p>Relevant: [Rice</a> maintains ?happiest students? status by ousting unhappy students - The Rice Thresher - Rice University](<a href=“http://www.ricethresher.org/rice-maintains-happiest-students-status-by-ousting-unhappy-students-1.2961393#.UMJ24YPAeYk]Rice”>http://www.ricethresher.org/rice-maintains-happiest-students-status-by-ousting-unhappy-students-1.2961393#.UMJ24YPAeYk)</p>
<p>The headline is a bit sensationalist, but know that with most other rankings, that of “happiest students” is a generalization and not a guarantee.</p>
<p>Thought I’d briefly mention to the poster earlier asking about Rice’s location that Rice was actually there first. When the university itself was built, Houston had not yet touched the area surrounding it. West University, the neighborhood immediately adjacent to campus (also the 5th wealthiest area in the entirety of Texas by per capita income), was built a few years later–around 1917–as a suburb, and then the city itself expanded and encompassed Rice and it’s surrounding areas. Nowadays, we are practically in the center of the metropolitan area.</p>
<p>Rice is a beautiful campus and the surrounding area is very nice. </p>
<p>FallenAngel- How is everything going for you at Rice?</p>
<p>Rice is by no means ghetto, the only way you can say this is if you’ve been living in a 400k+ income suburb bubble all your l</p>
<p>In the threads about college names, it seems like there’s no shortage of bright people who would never even consider places like Rice, Colgate, and Brown because the names generate non-academic images. I don’t blame people for avoiding a school whose name they strongly dislike, but it would seem that a silver lining to such a name is that it would filter out potential applicants who are wound tight enough to let such things bother them. Kind of like when you meet a woman who married a guy with a really unfortunate last name–she’s probably likely to be nicer/happier/more secure than the average person. I knew a guy in high school whose last name was Hoar. Certainly whoever married him couldn’t be neurotic or superficial.</p>
<p>This discussion reminds me of the ones about Columbia not being in the proxinity of Harlem. And how Harlem is not a ghetto. And how New York is a great place to spend four years. </p>
<p>It all depends what one decides to look at. You can look at West University, Medical Center, and the rave about the Zoo, or you can take a closer look at whom you might meet when running on that granite loop in the park. Or you might wonder why there are some many RUPD cars needed on campus. </p>
<p>Yesm Rice is NOT surrounded by a ghetto. Quite to the contrary. It is nonetheless, as a poster above, stated located in the middle of very large city. And a city that grew on a nilly-willy basis into one, if not the worst, in Texas. Some might like it; other might love it or hate it. And it has nothing to do with the presence of absence of ghettos. One can avoid ghettos easily. Not that easy to avoid an entire city.</p>
<p>I am absolutely loving Rice. Even in my second year here, I can’t complain–my academic experience has gotten even better as I take more classes. Naturally, the rosy colored lenses of being in college have worn off, and I see faults in my university readily, but such is the case everywhere else. I still maintain that Rice is a fantastic and unique place to be. It’s not everyone’s perfect fit but it’s a truly great place that for the most part does a great job of making a student feel welcome.</p>
<p>The recent incidents are not unique; we followed Amherst, but other schools have also taken the same path. It’s not an issue with Rice itself, but with higher education across the nation (although it seems to be more focused in private institutions than public ones). Nevertheless, Rice needs to take responsibility and make some changes to address such issues, but I don’t see that as any reason to denounce the “happiness” ratings of Rice students. We are a very happy school in general, but trying to give happiness a comparative status is not very logical. Of course people won’t always be happy with their school. Basically, what my rambling is getting at is that we are a happy school overall, and students generally tend to thoroughly enjoy their time here. That doesn’t mean we are without problems and that one can’t find faults, but overall I’m loving this school very much and couldn’t be more glad that I made the choice to come here</p>
<p>When my son and I visited Rice a few years ago, they all seemed very happy. We hung out in a common area and asked students to talk to us. Most were happy because they had research projects with professors. But we wondered how everyone could be so happy - they really were!</p>