<p>If you've visited,attended, or know someone who went there, what made them choose it over other colleges?What did they like about it?Hate about it? What about being in such a big city?Does that make it easier?harder?</p>
<p>Well, I can't really give you a long answer right now; I'll get back to you after having an engaging, interesting seminar, then dinner with an irreverent, intelligent group of people at my college, then going to the coffeehouse to get a cup of organic, fair-trade coffee from fun, attractive KOCs, and hanging out on the second floor of my college discussing metaphysical concepts and nursing a beer.</p>
<p>Oh, wait, I think I just answered your question.</p>
<p>It is in a big city, but the campus is large, and surrounding areas are lovely (zoo, museums, parks, churches, huge houses, etc.). My kids really like the interesting intelligent people, flexibility of curriculum, rez colleges, opportunities that spring up all the time, club sports, close ties with profs...</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=291183%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=291183</a> (see on top of the Rice thread page...)
Read the 101 one reason to attend Rice. This was last years answer to your question. I believe we were the only college to actual complete 100 or more reasons!</p>
<p>DD chose Rice over all others for many reasons, it came down to the feel of the campus, the residential college system and the caring and friendly response she always received when she visited campus. The program she entered was as competitive as others she was accepted into, but Rice also offered a nice merit package and the benefit of being in a well respected university. Being in Houston is a plus, but you really can't tell you are in the city when you are on campus. She thinks it is the best of having both. She is beginning to hate all the rain, I think, but not enough to change her mind about being there. She knows the weather will be great when all her friends from hs are in the cold.</p>
<p>It has been a VERY rainy month - but it has been unusually rainy in all of Texas this year. Record rainfall and lower temps - I suppose it is a tradeoff. It probably won't be this wet next year...</p>
<p>Rice University...home to the staple food of my country. J/k :D</p>
<p>Rice is a great place, and although application time is far off for me, I know I'm definitely applying here. Close-knit community, a bunch of fun-loving nerds and a lovely location are the first things that come up.</p>
<p>Yes.. the amount of rain this August has been VERY unusual!</p>
<p>According to the Houston Chronicle, The average August rainfall is 3.83 inches, but this August we had 8.05 inches.</p>
<p>July was even worse, actually: The average rainfall is 3.18 inches, but we got 9.94! That's more than triple normal!</p>
<p>Overall, we've recieved over 17 inches more rain this year than we normally would.</p>
<p>For my son, the visits to Rice, which gave him a much better sense of the place, were what allowed him to decide. </p>
<p>Talking with Rice students (their friendliness, as well as their intelligent conversations), listening to a few lectures, spending the night in the dorms a couple of times helped him to determine that it felt like he would fit in really well. </p>
<p>He loved the Claremont Colleges in a similar way. In fact, he visited them mainly because of his attraction to the Harvey Mudd curriculum & its intellectual, but fun & quirky feel. But when he visited, he checked out both HM & Pomona & ended up deciding he preferred Pomona to HM. Again, this was based on how they "felt" to him. (To be fair, because we could visit only during summer, when only a few students were there, you couldn't say that he experienced them in the same way he experienced Rice; if he had, perhaps he would have made a different choice.) </p>
<p>Even though he was admitted to all three (among others), his final decision was among Rice, Pomona & University of Texas's Dean's Scholars Program. All three satisfied his need for a very strong intellectual COMMUNITY that was small enough to be close-knit (Dean's Scholars, though within the huge UT community, is a very small group) and that would give him lots of leeway in trying out different options in his math/science-leaning, but undecided specific major. </p>
<p>In the end, it really was just a "gut" thing - he felt more "at home" at Rice than in the Dean's Scholars group. As for declining Pomona, I think he just wasn't quite ready to go that far away from everything he's known, since he's lived almost all of his life in Austin. </p>
<p>You will know better what's right for you if you visit the campuses, but if this thread sounds like a school you'd love, definitely check it out more! It's a wonderful academic institution with lots of smart, fun people.</p>