Rice Jocks?

Applying to College
1

<p>I was wondering if there were any Rice University ‘jocks’ on CC? I know that Rice is known for it’s highly intelligent student body, but I’m wondering if the majority of the students are all: ‘self described nerds’, or do you consider yourself to be ‘well rounded’? I ask this because my son is at the top of his class but a ‘self described jock’ (baseball, dodgeball, frisbee, etc…) He has been dreaming of going to college since the 8th grade with ‘highly intelligent people’, but does not want to sacrifice the competitive, sports involved life he’s use to for the next 4 years. He is in the process of visiting Rice now. Anyway, would love to hear about some top schools and their ‘jock status’. Some of his dreams are Yale, Rice, UCLA, Notre Dame, Princeton, Stanford. Thanks for any info.</p>

2

<p>Go for Vanderbilt</p>

3

<p>karagon7,
There have been many threads on CC related to the athletic life available at the USNWR Top 20 colleges. There are significant differences, both in the type of students who attend as well as the nature of the athletic scene at each college. IMO, the list of premier schools for students with this interest certainly includes Rice and especially so if your son is a baseball fan and likes generally good weather throughout the school year. Maybe you will find something of interest in one of these threads:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/365636-fabulous-academics-fun-excitement-drama.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/365636-fabulous-academics-fun-excitement-drama.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/389224-athletic-life-college-football-scene.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/389224-athletic-life-college-football-scene.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/427504-check-out-rice-vs-non-hyp-ivies.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/427504-check-out-rice-vs-non-hyp-ivies.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Re other schools, I would suggest that your son look closely at those colleges that compete in the major Division I athletic conferences and which are also top academic institutions. IMO, the best schools for this are:</p>

<p>Pac 10-Stanford
ACC-Duke
Big Ten-Northwestern
SEC-Vanderbilt
Big East-Notre Dame</p>

<p>In addition, there are a number of highly regarded public institutions that might be options depending on your geographic origin and interest in traveling to college. Those would include UC Berkeley, U Virginia, UCLA, U Michigan, and U North Carolina. </p>

<p>Others colleges that might be worth a look include Georgetown, USC, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Boston College, U Wisconsin, U Illinois, U Washington, and U Texas.</p>

4

<p>yeah if i get into rice, i will probably go…and i’m a huge sports fanatic, just like your son karagon. i’ve always enjoyed playing sports,i ran cross country and am playing indoor soccer now, and of course football is amazing. but i also want the intellectual discussions that my friend at rice says he loves. i think you can find people at rice who have the same interests as yourself, and they have a great baseball team, which is better than vandy’s. its actually amazing that rice even has DI sports considering its size. but rest assured karagon, if your son and I end up attending rice, we’ll have other people that share our passion for sports.</p>

5

<p>Princeton sounds like a good match for him too.</p>

6

<p>Thank you all for you advise! :)</p>

7

<p>It doesn’t sound like he’s a “jock” in terms of how the term is commonly used. I play intramural sports, but I don’t consider myself a “jock” either.</p>

8

<p>I’m a nerd/jock applying to Rice and Vandy. I probably would have used jock a couple years ago, but I’m realizing that nerd is pretty true too.</p>

<p>I would expect a pretty good fit for those traits at those schools. Michigan would probably be the ‘truest’ version of that though.</p>

9

<p>Hm, it depends on what you mean by jock. Most Rice students are involved in club, IM, or college sports. You can also find a good number of people who follow espn religiously, but it’s not the majority of campus by any means. </p>

<p>I’ve been on a club sport team (about 3 practices per week year round, plus about 3 workouts and 3 runs per week) and captain for 2 of those years, but I wouldn’t consider myself a jock. I feel like the term jock has somewhat negative, anti-intellectual, connotations, so I feel like most Rice students, even those highly involved in sports, would be hesitant to apply it to themselves.</p>

10

<p>DSC,
I guess it’s all relative and who you hang out with. I would bet that students at U Texas would consider those at Rice to be nerds more than jocks while those at ABC Elite College would consider those at Rice to be more jocks than nerds. Rice is probably somewhat more like the Ivy colleges in this regard while Vandy is probably a bit more like Duke.</p>

11

<p>Rice probably has as strong of an IM sports scene as most of its peer schools.</p>

<p>Plus, Rice is also a national power in certain sports like baseball.</p>