Rice University

Date: Feb 13 2002
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
I came to Rice because the people here were the most friendly of any school I applied to. People here are much more down-to-earth than those at my high school. If you're looking for a place to act "sophisticated" like many of my high school friends, look somewhere else.

Academics here are quite good because the courses are relatively small and most professors really give a lot of effort towards teaching undergrads. Some departments might not be very highly ranked (especially in the humanities) but that reflects more on the research ability of the faculty than on their teaching ability.

The college system is great—it doesn't allow for cliques like some other schools, plus fosters contact between students across classes, as well as out of class faculty-student contact.

The food is the worst part about Rice. It is much worse than most similar schools. Rice is doing things to improve their food, but so far the only difference has been that it's more expensive.

Houston is a nice city to be in since it's fairly suburban, so it is safe, but you're in the middle of all kinds of attractions that you'd expect to find in the nation's fourth largest city. Plus, the weather is very nice most of the school year, except perhaps for the beginning of the first semester when its very hot.

There are a lot of extracurricular activities to participate in at Rice (a surprising number for a campus of 2700 students) so most people can stay busy.