yupaws

for anyone unable to visit, or for people overly anxious (i.e. me), you can totally google street view rice's campus. and it is... really pretty. to say the least. so if you can't go visit or are waiting on your owl days, check out the street view. ... it's awesome.

euclid

My S and I came away from Owl Days with a less than positive feeling. It seemed disorganized upon arrival. I didn't like paying the $35. for him and $10. for me especially since we were not staying for the whole program. (He got lunch at one of the colleges, I had to buy my own.) We never felt like anyone interacted with us on a personal level. At other universities professors and students would sit down and visit with us. We left before the dinner perhaps some of that ocuurred there. I got tired hearing about "Rice and the other Ivies". Maybe just cranky after a long drive.

Singersmom07

euclid, I hope you provided the feedback to them. This was a new format this year and DD has concerns that she does not get to meet her "prospie" until dinner and therefore can't take them to her classes and show them around until then. You are correct, this removes a lot of the value of the accepted student days if your S was not able to interact with his sponsor, visit classes and stay overnight when they have more interaction with the students. Rice students are in their classes during the day.

NYSkins1

Did anyone sit in on the humanities panel? I was one of the students who spoke. I really wanted Dean Wihl to just shut up and let the three of us talk, because he's incredibly boring and almost apologetic for the humanities. The powers-that-be for Owl Days are trying to get someone else to speak at the next panel (or at least to get rid of him).

Eravial08

Oh man, I had SUCH a good time at Owl Days! I was in Brown, and people were so incredibly friendly, and I really clicked with my host and all of her friends. And the campus is ridiculously beautiful, and people are totally cool. I really like Rice now that I've visited, though I have a few more places to visit.

obiobi

"It seemed disorganized upon arrival. I didn't like paying the $35 for him and $10"
have to agree, seemed a nominal amount of money that Rice should have absorbed.. better than leaving a weird taste about Rice. It was disorganized. The speakers should know who they are introducing. Otherwise, students, faculty and staff were friendly and helpful. Student host disappeared but there was plenty of access to Rice on your own. Easy to ask for directions to classes, labs etc

lehcar

Overall I really liked Owl Days. The people were super friendly, the classes were great, and I learned a lot about Rice. However my host was awful: I never saw her for more than five minutes (I don't know if she was busy, had classes, or just didn't like me but she was never there). She didn't eat any meals with me or even sleep in her room. All she did was give me a key to her room and told me where to put my stuff. Please Rice students: don't volunteer to host prospies unless you have time and are willing to be available for your prospie for more than a couple minutes. Despite my bad host all the other Rice students were really nice and I think I'm going to Rice (yay!).

NYSkins1

The problem with this statement is that it involves the assumption that "Rice" has a singular budget. What really happens is that Rice provides a certain amount of money to the admissions office. Some of that money goes to the Student Admissions Council; some of that money goes to the on-campus programs committee; some of that money goes to Owl Days. The on-campus programs committee originally did not want to charge for Owl Days, but they had budget issues this year, and $25,000 would have been too much of a cost to absorb (assuming 500 owls, 1.5 parents per owl). The committee also needs to pay Housing and Dining for the extra food that has to be provided those two days. Bureaucracy is just a reality of any university.

anxiousmom

This first owl days came at a weird time, as the students are just getting back from a spring recess and some (my son particularly) probably had a lot of school work catching up to do. I think the real benefit of OwlDays (or the old Owl weekend for my kids) was staying overnight and really experiencing campus as a student. Attending with a parent and just seeing all the "formal" presentations doesn't give a feeling for what it's really like, especially if you leave before having anytime to socialize and hangout with your possible future classmates. JMHO!

Ottoline

Greatly enjoyed our chats with the admissions director, three professors, a dept chairman -- and found all to be extremely helpful and open. I hope that parents at the next Owl Days will take the opportunity to ask questions freely after presentations and during the following morning. We had a wonderful time and really love Rice!

pedrossi

Agreed with anxiousmom. The formal presentations were alright but the real beauty of Owl day is socializing and spending time with students in the colleges, getting a feel for what life is like at Rice. Which is why this should've lasted Friday through Sunday, not Monday - Tuesday.

karagon7

I seriously agree with pedrossi about owl days needing to be longer and at least one over night to really get a good feel. My son visited Vision 2008, but feels that even then he did not get a true feeling for the school spirit/student body as a whole, and after being accepted and receiving an incredible package, was excited to visit Owl days to cement his 1st choice. Since we are out of state and it is too long of a trip for just one day, he decided not to go and will most likely decline their offer of admissions. As his mother, I know this would be a great fit for him, and he would absolutely love Rice, but how can he see this in a day and a half!

NYSkins1

I'm a big proponent of Thursday-Saturday. That way you get classes and a weekend.

obiobi

often there is a lot of fallout after drunken weekend visits at colleges- sometimes it's the college kids, but often the prospies. The risk being you turn off the kids that don't drink and recruit the drinkers.

pedrossi

What NYSkins1 said makes sense.
There was plenty of drinking done by prospies during Vision, and quite a bit done during the first Owl day this year... It's gonna happen anyway, so I don't see the point of effectively lying to the non-drinkers (like ME) by concealing the fact that alcohol plays a major role at parties. I was told by several people at the party, however, that if I wanted to drink it was there but if I didn't it was cool with them and no one would pressure me. I still loved Rice after that and it didn't turn me off at all, and it didn't turn off my other non-drinking friends who attended Vision and Owl day with me, either.