Fried Rice

Introduction
Rice is not for normal people. The "average" Rice student is incredibly smart, but doesn't take himself too seriously. If you're not quite normal, Rice would be a perfect fit for you. Another thing to consider is that the students who thrive at Rice are very enthusiastic about college life; they want to get involved and do crazy stuff in the name of their residential college. If you're a mostly reserved person, you may find this atmosphere a bit scary at first. I chose Rice because of the people there; smart but irreverent, studious but enthusiastic. If you fit that mold, you should be a perfect fit for Rice.

Campus Life and Social Life
There is a very active party culture at Rice, but it is also a very sensible one. Rice implements just about the most sensible alcohol policy I've seen--more geared around keeping us safe than anything. By implementing a closed-door policy, Rice is insuring that the partying will be kept on-campus in a safe environment. There hasn't been a definitively alcohol-related death since the alcohol policy was implemented in 1987, which says quite a bit about how sensible the party environment is.

The sports culture is a bit different here than at other schools. We are the second-smallest Division I-A school in the country, which holds back our success in certain sports. We do very well in baseball, but that's about it. However, there is still a very strong contingent of student support for the teams. The students who do show up for the games are very rowdy, hurling intelligent, Rice-like insults at the opposing team. We once called a friend who spoke Portuguese so we could insult a Brazilian basketball player from UTEP in his native language. Outside of varsity athletics, we have the highest intramural sport participation in the country--behind only the military academies, where it's required.

Weekends are generally pretty chill during the day--most people are writing papers, doing problem sets, and the like--but it picks up a lot around 9 p.m.

What really defines campus life at Rice, however, is the Residential College system. It is Rice's pride and joy. Every student is randomly placed into one of nine residential colleges their first year at Rice, and they live in that college all four years. The colleges are self-governing entities with their own theater programs, sports teams, and parties. They're kind of like randomly-selected coed fraternities, except the culture is a lot healthier. They foster a kind of community aspect that is hard to find other places. More than half of my friends are in other classes because they are in my college. It also creates a healthier party culture, since everyone's looking out for everyone else. Academics
Rice has a strong academic reputation for a reason. We're well-known for our engineering, but we're unique in that our social sciences and humanities are also strong--and growing. There's a mix of good and bad professors, but most of them stray on the side of quality. Occasionally a class will have a discussion section or lab period led by a TA. Sometimes the TAs are good, sometimes they're horrendous. It just works out like that.

One of the things that makes Rice professors great is the research connections they have, and their willingness to offer those positions to undergrads. There may be more research happening at other schools, but few schools have as many undergraduates participating in research. I have a friend whose astrophysics professor set him up with a summer internship at CERN in Switzerland--as a FRESHMAN.

The professors are also extremely available; they all hold office hours, and you can usually reach them outside of those office hours, as well.

The workload is pretty heavy, but most people handle it pretty well. It's all a matter of balance.

Student Body
I described the student body in the first section, but I can elaborate:

Rice students were overachievers in high school, but what attracted most of them to Rice in the first place was that it's comparatively laid-back and doesn't have the Ivy League stick-up-the-butt. As a result, students at Rice are very smart, but are also very laid-back and irreverent. There's a very healthy academic culture, preferring collaboration to competition (except maybe among the pre-meds). We have some goofy traditions, like Baker 13--in which students run around campus naked, their privates covered in shaving cream, twice a month. Or the Lovett College cheer, which contains six out of George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say on Television. ("Piss" is the one not included). Or Beer-Bike, which is the biggest event of the year, consisting of the world's largest water balloon fight, followed by a combination bike-and-chug relay race.

In Closing...
I will close with this description of a Rice student from a humorous website summarizing Texas universities:

"I live in the fourth biggest city in the country, yet I can go weeks without leaving campus. Even when I do leave, it takes 30 minutes to go get gas, and an hour to move a mile on the 45 or the 59. I was either a dork in high school and am still a dork, or I was a dork in high school and now I pretend to be cool. If asked where I'm from, I respond with my college and not my hometown. To relieve stress I run around campus naked twice a month. If I go to the library at midnight, there's a good chance I might not be able to find a free computer, in which case I can always just go to the pub. The pub is heaven on earth. I worship the baseball team, play drinking games in class, and firmly believe that Martel is not a college. I was a pre-med until orgo made me its two semester bitch, now i'm an academ. Beer bike is the biggest event of the year, yet 90% of people pass out before the races even begin. I think it's cool to cuss at the top of my lungs and call it a cheer. Even drunk or stoned, I'm still smarter than you.
I am an Owl."