As I said above, my daughter is a junior at Rice and we are from the Midwest. She had Rice on her list to apply but it was the only school she hadn’t visited so as she got burned out from the application process she took it off her list. One of the biggest knocks she had against it was that it was in Texas. And while she had never been to Texas she had all sorts of stereotypes in her head. The week before applications were due she commented that she was regretting not applying because besides the location, it sounded exactly like the environment she was looking for. She decided to buckle down and get her essays done and apply and we promised if she was accepted we would take a trip down to check it out.
We headed down in April for an admitted students weekend and were blown away. The campus is beautiful and the location across from the worlds largest medical complex was a plus for my bioengineering kiddo. But, what struck her the most of how very NOT “Texas-like” it was. No accents, no boots, no cowboy hats. Food is amazing but very diverse. It felt much less “southern” than Vanderbilt and some North Carolina schools we visited. The kids are SO friendly and LOVE to talk to “prospies” and give them honest opinions about the school and their experiences. It’s too bad they have had to stop their overnight visits due to covid. So…I guess my advice is to go into your visit open minded about Houston. Stay close to campus so you can walk to campus and check out Hermann Park and Rice Village. I think you may be pleasantly surprised!