Is Rice What I've Been Looking For??

mono172000 · December 10, 2007, 10:32pm

Ok…I’m a senior and I’ve recently been rethinking my college list. I feel that some of the colleges I’m applying to aren’t what I’m looking for and others are exactly what I’m looking for but aren’t feasible for a variety of reasons.

What I’m looking for is a medium sized university between 6k-12k. Not so small that I’ll feel surrounded by the same people, but not too big that I’ll feel lost.

I’m looking for an urban college, preferably in a capitol city. My ultimate dream is to be able to intern with a state legislator while I’m at college. The city also needs to be fun, with a lot of things to do and good public transportation (because I hate driving)

I’m looking for a southern college…because I’m a southern boy.

I’m looking for a political college with good classes in politics,economics, public policy, philosophy etc. I also need a college that has a good political atmosphere…with good clubs and internship opportunities and active students.

I’m looking for a college that has a good dorm system. I love everything about Yale’s dorms and college system and I want somewhere that at least has similar looking dorms.

I want a tolerant and diverse student body. I’m an African American and I’m very uncomfortable with colleges that have a lot of self segregation or intolerance.

I’m looking for a college that knows how to have fun, but isn’t so caught up in Greek life that everything else gets overshadowed.

I’m looking for a college that isn’t insanely work driven. I want to be able to possibly double major in political science an economics and i don’t want a school that is so work intensive that doing that would be impossible.

I’m looking for a school with a good sport scene. It doesn’t have to be D1 sports, but I want people that really get into their football and basketball teams no matter how bad they are.

And finally I’m looking for a college that I can afford! I’m really considering my state university because I know I can attend and possibly end up making money. Schools with good merit aid/ financial aid are important to me.

Now a little about me…

African American Male
IB Student
Top 3% of class (683 students)
2090 SAT
National Achievement Semifinalist, National Merit Commended

Very interested in politics. I’m my states Lt. Governor for both Youth in Government and Boys State as well as the Senior Class president at my school. I’m heavily involved in my community as well.

I’m currently applying to Yale, Georgetown, UVA, Duke, Vanderbilt, FSU. Yale is def. my number one choice, but if i don’t get in, or if I can’t afford it I really want a good amount of other options that I’d be happy with.

I’m worried that Rice is too work driven for me to be as involved in clubs and the community as I want to be. Is this the case? Is Rice what I’ve been looking for?

thelonius · December 11, 2007, 12:13am

Let’s see:

Houston is actually a pretty cool city with lots of great opportunities (after all, it’s the 4th largest in the U.S.) but it isn’t a state capital, so you wouldn’t have that many opportunities for the internships that you’re interested in during the school year - but that’s what summer is for. Houston has pretty bad public transportation for a city of its size, but fortunately, what little there, is Rice is almost perfectly situated to take advantage of, with the lightrail (which currently runs downtown, though fast-tracking another line or two that will provide a lot more service just got approval) less than a block from campus. While Houston is very much a driving city, I’d guess that about half of Rice students spend all 4 years without a car (I’m totally guessing this just based on a sample of my friends). Though I do have to admit that I spent my first 2 years without a car and, now that I have one, I feel a lot more connected to the actual city.

Political atmosphere - it really depends on how you look at it. A lot of people complain that Rice students are totally apathetic when it comes to things going on in the outside world. In some ways, there isn’t very much political involvement on campus. Student protests on campus are virtually unheard of - I think that I’ve seen one, and it had about 10 people - and there isn’t that much volunteering with things like political campaigns that I know of. However, to state that Rice students aren’t involved isn’t true either - we just find different ways of being involved, like doing research on social or environmental issues. There are a lot of opportunities for you to get involved with political causes, but you probably won’t be surrounded by people doing the same.

Good dorm situation - Rice’s residential college is actually very similar to Yale’s. You stay in the same one all 4 years, so there’s no “freshman housing” off by itself. Each college has about 300 students, it’s own dorms, dining hall, and common areas. The colleges kind of take the place of Greek life, organizing social events and student life - so there’s a really strong sense of community.

Rice definitely isn’t a slacker school. And there are some people (primarily pre-meds it seems) who insist on trying to maintain a 4.0 while taking close to 20 hours of hard classes - and most of those people don’t have that much time for either socializing or having fun. But the vast majority of students, while working hard on school work, manage to find time to be involved in plenty of things. (I’m taking 15 hours, and I still find time to work a 15 hour a week research job, be captain of a club sport team, and hold several positions in my college government - and still go out and do social things)

Double majoring in 2 social sciences is no problem. Most of the social sciences actually have really low requirements for number of classes. (I’ve actually taken 50% more classes than I need for one of my majors without even trying that hard).

Okay, I know I left a couple of things unanswered, but I’ve got to get back to studying for finals.

Is Rice What I've Been Looking For??

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