<p>I mean it sounds cute but it sounds less “heavy” when compared to some other names…I think it would be better if Rice chooses to adopt its founder’s full name.</p>
<p>You mean William Marsh Rice University? That is the school’s name.</p>
<p>I think it would be ironic for any of the Asian applicants accepted. Just me? :P</p>
<p>I don’t know… “Duke” and “Princeton” sound so old uppercrust British. I prefer Rice.</p>
<p>Rice is a food eaten by almost all cultures. Now the name would be more Asian if Rice’s middle name was “White”.</p>
<p>Yeah, Duke and Princeton sound so elite, while Rice is the food of the commoners. It’s such an injustice.</p>
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<p>Duke sounds uppercrust British? Given that Trinity College was transformed into Duke in 1924 with a $40 million endowment of tobacco money, I think not . . .</p>
<p>I think we all realize that Duke is not, in fact, uppercrust British, but that doesn’t mean the name would not sound that way to some.</p>
<p>Could be worse (like Tufts)…</p>
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<p>Just you…</p>
<p>Yeah that Asian rice joke is not clever at all… it is been done way too many times and frankly gets annoying.</p>
<p>A few years ago, my son wouldn’t apply to a school…</p>
<p>that was named after a toothpaste (Colgate)
was a color (Brown)
was a pasty white grain (Rice).
He went to a direction (Northwestern)</p>
<p>Would you prefer the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art? That’s what it was called until the 60s. Now it’s just William Marsh Rice University. But since that’s too much to say, we generally just call our school “Rice.”</p>
<p>Ooops, I’m a Rice student, and I don’t even know my school’s full name…
I think Rice should use its full title in official document; it just sounds better for some unknown reason.</p>
<p>Lol… I think Colgate indeed spells away many its potential applicants…</p>
<p>Are you kidding? Stanford doesn’t call itself “The Leland Stanford Junior University.” The only university I can think of that regularly goes by its full name is Johns Hopkins, which I think does well despite its name.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, You are not a Rice student yet if you are the class of 2014. You are a future Rice student. Don’t profess to understand the school on the same level as those of us who have been here four years.</p>
<p>Historically, it doesn’t make sense to elevate our founder, because the only thing he has to do with this university is that he gave a lot of money to start it. He had no intention of founding a great university; he wanted to start a trade school for workers in Houston, where they could take night classes on new technologies like typewriters and telephones. The board of trustees decided, “Hey, we’re sitting on this huge pile of cash; we have an opportunity to do something much better than this.” They decided to buy a new, larger plot of land away from the center of Houston (on a pig farm, actually), and to hire a young, charismatic leader to be the new president of The William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art. They wrote letters to presidents of all the major US universities, and one of those letters wound up in the hands of Woodrow Wilson, who was then the president of Princeton. He knew a young mathematician named Edgar Odell Lovett, who he believed would be perfect for the job. After a bit of persuasion from the board, Lovett accepted the job, and he spent the next year of his life traveling around the world to all these different great universities, picking and choosing what he liked for the new university in Houston. Lovett, not Rice, shaped the initial vision of this university, and he is what made it great. RRF.</p>
<p>Woody had a hand in our founding! Neato!</p>
<p>This is so educational 
I like Rice. When applying, I was also looking at a school named “Occidental College,” so I agree-- it could be worse. Maybe that’s why I don’t mind “Rice” so much.
Also, there’s a school named Kalamazoo College, and since we’re on the topic of Rice, there’s a Curry College. </p>
<p>Rice and Curry!</p>
<p>Fun fact… Barack Obama attended Occidental College for a year or two before transferring to Columbia. You probably know this already, CalciumRich, but just throwing this out there for everyone else.</p>
<p>When Beaver College changed their name to Arcadia University, applications went up dramatically.</p>
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<p>Naming a college after a direction isn’t that weird. I wish there was an Oriental College/University on the east coast.</p>