<p>As a student who will be coming to Rice in the fall, the residential college system has made me MUCH less nervous about going to a new school where I don’t know a single person.</p>
<p>I have a lot of friends going to other schools who are so stressed about rushing sororities, trying to fit in with the right people, etc. and I think if I had to worry about all that stuff it would really be a detriment to my college experience.</p>
<p>The way I see it is your residential college is what you make of it–if you want to be super-involved with the workings of your residential college, or if you only make friends inside your residential college, then that is what will happen. If you want to get involved with other people, you do extracurriculars, or just take it upon yourself to introduce yourself to people in your classes, etc.</p>
<p>When I went to visit Rice, I actually asked an entire tableful of students what they thought about the RC system. 9/10 said they loved it. One student said that she thought the system wasn’t really for her, so after moving off-campus her sophomore year she just stayed off-campus and still had a great experience. So it’s not something that’s really forced upon you, and I think only good things can come out of it.</p>