Rice University Visit Report by poozislove

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes

Campus Tour: Yes

---

Campus:

---

---

---

Southern/Spanish style architecture. It was very pretty but many (including myself) prefer the gothic architecture of most northern schools.

---

Though it was during summer, it was very crisp and clean.

---

There are a variety of dorm set-ups you can get, but the one we saw was decent sized and fairly private.

---

It's typical. Campus police right there, nighttime escorts, bus system, etc.

---

---

Off-Campus:

---

The area around campus is Houston. It's right in the city. The residential areas farther out are average income homes but the ones right down the street are in much better quality.

---

Houston offers everything a city should, but the traffic we hit was HORRIBLE. 20 minutes to go a block.

Campus Visit Notes for Rice University

Visit Description:

It was HOT when we got there. Being from Florida, it wasn't out-of-the-ordinary hot, but it was hot. All the buildings have air-conditioning though, so on those extra hot days, just stay indoors.
We were a little confused about where to park and where the admissions office was, but once we got our bearings, the campus seemed easy enough to navigate. The campus was small enough so that I doubt you would be late to class, but it was not cramped at all. There were plenty of trees, squirrels, and open fields around and it seemed very inviting.
We saw your standard information session and then continued onto the tour. It focused on a variety of things. It boasted about its residential system (a great system), its academics which are often compared to the Ivies, its quirky and non-cut-throat attitude, and a little about their amazing baseball team. It seemed like a perfectly balanced school between sports, social life, and academic rigor.
A little about the residential system: it was stolen from Oxford and Cambridge. It is a lot like Harry Potter. Students from all years are randomly put into one of 9 residential colleges (or simply: colleges) where they are immediately brainwashed to believe they are the best college and then they belong to that college throughout their Rice experience. Everyone we met and talked to was proud to be from Rice but even prouder to be from whatever college they were from. It adds friendly competition and it makes it easier to make friends with seniors or juniors during your frosh years.
Because Rice is so small (3000 ish undergrads) and undergrad focused, it offers a lot of opportunities for internships, flexibility, and research. It seems like the perfect place for undergrad years, yet I wouldn't consider it for graduate school.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

We were stuck in traffic for an hour so we said we'd go to the first place to eat we could find. It was Sulllivan's which happens to be a very expensive place but the steak was the best I�

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

The public transportation is free for students and it seems a much easier way to get around Houston and the school than driving.