<p>Yes, Rice kids are competitive. You generally get that at any top school that is very selective in choosing passionate, driven and high-achieving students.</p>
<p>But we are not cutthroat. It is competitive as in you compete against yourself and constantly try to improve yourself and your grades, but never the kind of run-to-the-library-and-rip-page-out-of-book-so-only-you-can-have-it kind of cutthroat mentality that is stereotyped of Cornell and Johns Hopkins (notice I said stereotype, not reality, so don’t flame me). </p>
<p>There is a very friendly and collaborative atmosphere here at Rice, it is definitely not cutthroat. Perhaps your friends are overly concerned with their grades to the degree that they feel the environment is cutthroat.</p>
<p>Yes, people are “worried” about their GPA’s in that they care about doing well, and again you could expect this at any top school–after all, your main job in college is to get a good education and good grades that will get your foot into a top business/med/law school, grad school, or whichever company and industry you want. You’re paying $40-45k a year for 4 years for a private school education at Rice (one of the best value top private colleges), I should HOPE you are worried about your grades in that you want to do well! That kind of money certainly is not a drop in the ocean for the vast majority of students.</p>
<p>But by NO means is everyone like, “OMG! I got a B on the calc midterm, what’d you get?” I got asked that once or twice, but I politely refused to tell, just because I didn’t want added stress and inner competition. It is your choice how to respond to a statement like that. There are people who do ask about grades, as there always will be, but they are in the vast minority.</p>
<p>Rice kids care a lot more about learning than just grade-grubbing and grade-pushing just to get to professional schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know my friends’ GPAs nor do I ask. I don’t even care what their GPA’s are, I’m just concerned with doing well for myself. Students here often work together collaboratively in study groups for homework and midterms, it’s certainly not a “every man for himself” sort of isolation and alienation.</p>