Congratulations to your daughter! I was also a trustee scholar and that set Rice apart from my other choices (Duke, Vandy, UVA). One of my HS advisors also told me Rice students were "weird" when I was deciding but as others have said it's not really a big deal. You find who you want to associate with quickly. I would've definitely been in fraternity if I went to my in-state schools Bama or Auburn but I think the residential college system is much better.

The $ and the residential college system were what ultimately made Rice my choice. It's nice not to graduate with a mountain of debt, and unlike some larger schools after orientation week you already know a couple hundred people. By the time I graduated I can say I'm fairly well connected to 7 years of Rice graduates by at least 1 mutual friend.

To the roommate question, the first week of school is orientation week. As others have said each college is run mostly by the students. 3 student coordinators who stay all summer preparing for the freshmen work with the university to plan "Oweek". During the summer you fill out a detailed survey (answer honestly like if you want to drink, no one is judging them) and the coordinators make the pairs. Depending on which college you're randomly put into the dorm layouts are different. Most are suite style these days so you either have a single or a roommate and you share a bathroom with 2 other people. Not many hall style bathrooms at Rice anymore. Out of the freshmen in my college I only remember 1 room that was actually unhappy with their pairing (and it was because one person was a lot different than their form).

Also Houston is great and Rice is in the best part of Houston!

If she's lucky she'll get to live in a toaster.

We are the best college
All the others suck
Edgar Odell Lovett
Rah, rah, ****!

I'll add my congrats ... and 50-year-old experience/advice.

Rice's residential college system is one of the best aspects of the school, which already has a LOT of excellent aspects. Everyone is assigned to a college in a way that gives each a mini-cross-section of the university.* As a result, there are no freshman dorms, no elitist frats or sororities and no athletic dorms. You get to meet very rapidly and in a convivial manner a wide cross section of the university: all majors, class years and backgrounds. That just doesn't happen when you start in a freshman dorm at other universities ... along with everyone else who's generally clueless, too.

I was a sports fan in high school, but meeting/knowing athletes close up at Rice helped make me even more of a fan. (This helped, because even beating LSU, Rice lost more football games my freshman year than my high school did in my 4 years there.) Many will be taking the same classes, and you can see up close how much MORE work a student athlete at Rice has to do. I was a group leader for freshman orientation and in each year, my group of 6-8 incoming freshmen included a varsity athlete -- one eventually played MLB with the San Diego Padres, the other was later on the Mexican Davis Cup tennis team. We all knew them as fellow incoming freshmen.

Another great thing about the colleges is that a few faculty live in the college, the college's titular head (now called "magister") lives with his/her family in a home adjoining the college, and there are a few dozen faculty, staff and prominent local alums who are "associates" of each college. They participate in many college events and often eat there as well. Two of my favorite profs I'd never even taken a class from ... just often ate lunch with them over my four years on campus.

The college system also gives another dimension for leadership and activities at the local/college level, rather than at the more formal university-wide level.

At Rice, your daughter will probably meet a wide spectrum of folks via three major avenues -- her residential college, her major classes and her activities. (If she has high school or family friends who also attend Rice, she'll meet their friends, too.) And then you meet the friends of those friends. She will not be lacking of avenues to meet the fabulous Rice students ... some of whom may be weird. :-)

Congrats to your daughter, and to you for having raised her so well.

P.S. .... Baker College is the best. :-)

as a southern miss feller.....I would've 'killed' to have attended Rice....

that place is top notch and never frowned upon when on the résumé...

kudos and to future successes regardless of the choice made....

(04-26-2017 09:04 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  I'll add my congrats ... and 50-year-old experience/advice.

Rice's residential college system is one of the best aspects of the school, which already has a LOT of excellent aspects. Everyone is assigned to a college in a way that gives each a mini-cross-section of the university.* As a result, there are no freshman dorms, no elitist frats or sororities and no athletic dorms. You get to meet very rapidly and in a convivial manner a wide cross section of the university: all majors, class years and backgrounds. That just doesn't happen when you start in a freshman dorm at other universities ... along with everyone else who's generally clueless, too.

I was a sports fan in high school, but meeting/knowing athletes close up at Rice helped make me even more of a fan. (This helped, because even beating LSU, Rice lost more football games my freshman year than my high school did in my 4 years there.) Many will be taking the same classes, and you can see up close how much MORE work a student athlete at Rice has to do. I was a group leader for freshman orientation and in each year, my group of 6-8 incoming freshmen included a varsity athlete -- one eventually played MLB with the San Diego Padres, the other was later on the Mexican Davis Cup tennis team. We all knew them as fellow incoming freshmen.

Another great thing about the colleges is that a few faculty live in the college, the college's titular head (now called "magister") lives with his/her family in a home adjoining the college, and there are a few dozen faculty, staff and prominent local alums who are "associates" of each college. They participate in many college events and often eat there as well. Two of my favorite profs I'd never even taken a class from ... just often ate lunch with them over my four years on campus.

The college system also gives another dimension for leadership and activities at the local/college level, rather than at the more formal university-wide level.

At Rice, your daughter will probably meet a wide spectrum of folks via three major avenues -- her residential college, her major classes and her activities. (If she has high school or family friends who also attend Rice, she'll meet their friends, too.) And then you meet the friends of those friends. She will not be lacking of avenues to meet the fabulous Rice students ... some of whom may be weird. :-)

Congrats to your daughter, and to you for having raised her so well.

P.S. .... Baker College is the best. :-)

I'll second that! :--)

Thanks for the well-wishes and the information. I really appreciate it. She accepted yesterday and we paid the $400 to make it official!! I am now a Rice fan through familial ties

My family (minus my daughter) will be the ones sporting the FIU gear at the football game in September. Now that I think about it, my wife will probably now wear Rice gear as she doesn't care about sports one way or the other. She may be an FIU grad as well, but she's mother hen first and will probably want to support her daughter's school. That leaves me and my son.

But you can count me in as a Rice fan now, subject to the FIU exception. Notice I will never say I'm an Owl fan. That is too much for an FIU guy having to deal with the other so-called Owls about an hour away.

(04-27-2017 08:45 AM)TheFIUtheproud Wrote:  Thanks for the well-wishes and the information. I really appreciate it. She accepted yesterday and we paid the $400 to make it official!! I am now a Rice fan through familial ties

My family (minus my daughter) will be the ones sporting the FIU gear at the football game in September. Now that I think about it, my wife will probably now wear Rice gear as she doesn't care about sports one way or the other. She may be an FIU grad as well, but she's mother hen first and will probably want to support her daughter's school. That leaves me and my son.

But you can count me in as a Rice fan now, subject to the FIU exception. Notice I will never say I'm an Owl fan. That is too much for an FIU guy having to deal with the other so-called Owls about an hour away.

Fair enough, and congratulations to your daughter. Did the info in this thread help her?

(04-26-2017 09:19 AM)TheFIUtheproud Wrote:  I'm sorry to hijack the Board but I need answers. My daughter was accepted and got the Trustee Scholarship. She is 99% sure she is going to Rice this fall as a freshman. She has boiled down her choices to 3 (Rice, Johns Hopkins, and UF honors). She also got into the best college of all: FIU, but wants to go away for school which we agree is best.

Her one big concern is the Residential College system. She wants to be able to interact with numerous people and feels that this will limit her opportunities. Also, she is concerned about blind roommate assignment. She wants to make sure she likes the person.

Lastly, a college counselor advised her that there are many weird people at Rice. She was there and confirms that some of the people were quirky but she generally loved the campus and the program. She really didn't have time to interact when she went for an official visit some months ago. Now she is concerned that "everyone is weird."

I have always had a good impression of Rice and I am pushing her to go to Rice (actually UF would be real cheap but that's another story since this is her least favorite of her final 3) but want to lessen her anxiety. She loved Hopkins but they offered less in guaranteed scholarship money.

Please give me some info!!!!

As a father who had a daughter get a nice scholarship to college, I know how proud you are and I want to congratulate you and your daughter. Nice job dad.

(04-27-2017 10:06 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(04-27-2017 08:45 AM)TheFIUtheproud Wrote:  Thanks for the well-wishes and the information. I really appreciate it. She accepted yesterday and we paid the $400 to make it official!! I am now a Rice fan through familial ties

My family (minus my daughter) will be the ones sporting the FIU gear at the football game in September. Now that I think about it, my wife will probably now wear Rice gear as she doesn't care about sports one way or the other. She may be an FIU grad as well, but she's mother hen first and will probably want to support her daughter's school. That leaves me and my son.

But you can count me in as a Rice fan now, subject to the FIU exception. Notice I will never say I'm an Owl fan. That is too much for an FIU guy having to deal with the other so-called Owls about an hour away.

Fair enough, and congratulations to your daughter. Did the info in this thread help her?

Yes, it did. I mentioned many of the points made here to her. I love the idea of the residential college but can see how it would scare some kids (17 or 18-year-olds). She loves the idea of diversity (whether it's political thought, clothing, geography or race) but the idea of being different and weird as a student body characteristic overall scared her. I can see that. Everyone has a weird relative or friend or colleague but the idea that, for example, every girl is wearing combat boots, a Che Guevara shirt, with purple hair and refuses to shower would be an example of what I am sure she was picturing. I didn't ask her what she envisioned but I can see her picturing something like that. But then again, I'm sure that a bunch of Barbie doll girls walking around would also nauseate her.

In sum, she is content but nervous about leaving home (I'm glad since I would worry if she wanted out of dodge which would make me think she hates us). She is excited about Rice.

(04-27-2017 08:45 AM)TheFIUtheproud Wrote:  Thanks for the well-wishes and the information. I really appreciate it. She accepted yesterday and we paid the $400 to make it official!! I am now a Rice fan through familial ties

My family (minus my daughter) will be the ones sporting the FIU gear at the football game in September. Now that I think about it, my wife will probably now wear Rice gear as she doesn't care about sports one way or the other. She may be an FIU grad as well, but she's mother hen first and will probably want to support her daughter's school. That leaves me and my son.

But you can count me in as a Rice fan now, subject to the FIU exception. Notice I will never say I'm an Owl fan. That is too much for an FIU guy having to deal with the other so-called Owls about an hour away.

Congrats and welcome to the extended family!

Just to echo what others have said, the college system takes some of the good from the greek system, but leaves behind the exclusivity and/or elitism. It is not confining (and it is possible to transfer colleges), but is a very convenient way to quickly meet a representative swath of the student population (each of the colleges is fairly representative of the university as a whole in terms of diversity, number of athletes, etc.).

Every year, Rice students' own rankings put Rice in the top 10 (usually top 5, often the very top) for "Best quality of life" and "Happiest students." I think the college system is a big part of that.

As for being weird ... that wasn't my experience (graduated 17 years ago). Sure, plenty of folks are quirky. But most are pretty normal and there is going to be a friendship group for all personalities, so I'm certain your daughter will find her place.

Rice students cling to the residential college system they love it and they actually got a little upset when new ones were added with increased enrollment.....it is their thing they really make it work

also she will be in extremely small classes even as a freshman she will have a much better chance of meeting others and interacting in a meaningful way with faculty than at about any other school out there

Rice did a study a few years back and their class sizes were smaller than all but a couple of other universities and often by several students in number

this is something that will just not be the case at most other schools much less schools where you have 200+ students in some classes (even at top universities) especially as a freshman

she will have ample opportunity to meet people and even better to meet and actually get to know faculty......highly respected faculty at that with tons of connections throughout academia and industry

You can't go wrong with Rice from an Academic stand point, period. I wish like hell Tech had a residential college system of Rice's caliber.

(04-27-2017 02:03 PM)pilot172000 Wrote:  You can't go wrong with Rice from an Academic stand point, period. I wish like hell Tech had a residential college system of Rice's caliber.

With all due respect, NOBODY has a residential college system of Rice's caliber (outside of England). Seriously. Yale and several other schools boast of the residential college system, but in reality, they each fall far short of the Cambridge and Oxford model.

(04-27-2017 03:28 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(04-27-2017 02:03 PM)pilot172000 Wrote:  You can't go wrong with Rice from an Academic stand point, period. I wish like hell Tech had a residential college system of Rice's caliber.

With all due respect, NOBODY has a residential college system of Rice's caliber (outside of England). Seriously. Yale and several other schools boast of the residential college system, but in reality, they each fall far short of the Cambridge and Oxford model.

That's why I was paying Rice the compliment.

Thanks for all the comments. Really love this Board most of the time. I don't comment too much lately but it's nice to come on and get different opinions from different people from the mid-Atlantic through the South and out to Texas.

I've always held Rice in high esteem. It's nice my daughter gets to boast she is going there. With this said, I really do believe we have some great universities in C-USA. I hope the future holds big promise for its athletics.

(04-27-2017 02:00 PM)TodgeRodge Wrote:  also she will be in extremely small classes even as a freshman she will have a much better chance of meeting others and interacting in a meaningful way with faculty than at about any other school out there.

One day I was playing cards with a friend when he said he had to leave to go to class. I urged him to cut the class, but he said it would be noticed since he was the only one in the class. He was in two language classes, with one and two students, respectively. Unusual, even at Rice. My smallest class was six, and that was a senior level course.

If she doesn't get placed in Lovett, it's time to pack the bags for FIU.

Rice students are (or used to be) too middle class to be over-the-top weird. When I was there, we always used to be ranked as the best deal in higher education. Combine that with large numbers of people studying SE ..you can only get so bizarre. Nerdy, quirky, yes .. but that's good. Check out the happiest campuses rankings. That said, every experience is different.

(04-27-2017 05:40 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(04-27-2017 02:00 PM)TodgeRodge Wrote:  also she will be in extremely small classes even as a freshman she will have a much better chance of meeting others and interacting in a meaningful way with faculty than at about any other school out there.

One day I was playing cards with a friend when he said he had to leave to go to class. I urged him to cut the class, but he said it would be noticed since he was the only one in the class. He was in two language classes, with one and two students, respectively. Unusual, even at Rice. My smallest class was six, and that was a senior level course.

not at Rice (obviously), but I was in a class of 2 one time.....myself and Chen Tuck (sp) a 40yo Malaysian grad student.....it was a summer class to boot

It was hard, but I did not miss a one and also learned a lot about Malaysia as well which was a bonus

a class of one would barely even be a class, but as a language class that is like getting a one on one discussion with the prof....that would be a hell of a way to learn a language

(04-27-2017 08:45 AM)TheFIUtheproud Wrote:  Thanks for the well-wishes and the information. I really appreciate it. She accepted yesterday and we paid the $400 to make it official!! I am now a Rice fan through familial ties

Yay!! Congrats!

Which major(s) is she considering?

Also, feel free to come over to The Parliament, where many Rice fans hang out.