loooool thanks bro

You're right in that the ratio doesn't make rice seem too small. But rice's campus is also very compact while ut is spread out which makes it cover a lot more area than what they actually own

@@GeraldWang Hi Gerald, I am so confused between UT and Rice. Can you please tell me more

@@faithkhashmere246 There's a lot of differences between UT and Rice! UT is a public school while Rice is private, UT is also much bigger in terms of class size and I'd say Houston and Austin are pretty different cities. There's a lot more subtle differences in terms of student culture and education and whatnot that's too much to go through in once comment so I'd suggest going to tour both places if those are your two highest choices. If you have specific questions on the difference between the two then feel free to let me know!

thanks so much lidia!

That's great! Best of luck!!

@@jacksondavis6960 yes

😮

@Tyra C. haha, I'll spoil it now and say it's at openstax!

@@richellehuang1014 yea that's right!

is it in texas?

You're definitely right! Obviously I shouldn't take anything for granted and I'm super blessed to have the opportunity and life that I have right now. Thanks for mentioning it!

Gerald Wang Gratitude 🙏🏼is not easy to come by because people always want more. More isn’t necessarily bad, but sometimes we already have everything we need.

Thanks!

ayy that's great!

Yea that sounds like a good idea! Also at rice you don't actually apply to a res college. Instead, you apply for housing before the due date and you will be randomly selected to a college.

Hi Sarah! How fun Rice is really depends on what you consider "fun". If it's about parties and the city life, then to be totally honest with you UT is a lot more "fun" than Rice (though this is just from me talking with my UT friends, I haven't gone myself). I consider myself leaning slightly more towards introverted so my idea of fun is hanging out with my close friends and either playing games or sports like basketball or soccer. There are student activities that are held every now and then at the student center but I haven't participated much so I don't have a lot to say there. Also, depending on which residential college you get there will be different student activities held that are college specific which I have found to be pretty fun. With all that being said, however, I wouldn't really say I've ever been super bored at Rice or felt like there's nothing to do. Hope this helps!

Haha, thanks

There are a couple jobs that are hard to get (like front desk at the library) because those are pretty popular. But if you apply for work-study then you have a better chance of getting jobs since they a lot of jobs here prioritize work-study students.

Hey Emily! First off congrats on getting into both! In my opinion, the grading system depends highly on the major and the professor. Humanities classes are generally easier in terms of grading versus CS/STEM classes. The business school also has a rule to curve classes down if the mean GPA of the class is above 3.5 so take what you will there. It's not impossible though, I know plenty of people who have GPA's above 3.9 that are in STEM. From my experience, there will be classes that are extremely hard to get an A in but you'll also probably take classes where getting an A is easy. But at the end of the day, if you really want a good gpa, there are plenty of resources here to help and it is definitely not unachievable.

@@GeraldWang RCEL presidents be like

I know that the first two intro courses everybody can get into. After that, if you've declared cs as a major then all the core classes are guaranteed whenever you want to take them. There are a couple of electives that are popular and are hard to get into if you're a freshman/sophomore but most classes should be fine.

Since I'm not a student athlete I don't really know for sure. I would think that the workload would be a lot but definitely manageable. I'm double majoring in computer and cognitive science right now and the workload is somewhat intense but not impossible. Also classes themselves vary a lot in terms of difficulty so it just depends on what class you're taking that semester. I have a couple of friends who are also athletes and they say that overall the workload is manageable.

@@GeraldWang is double majoring an attainable goal? I am really considering double majoring (in stem) but I don’t wanna set myself up for failure or overwhelm myself too much

@@malane8541 Double majoring is definitely an attainable goal but that doesn't mean it's an easy goal. If you are double majoring, you should ask yourself why you want to do so as it'll mean taking more classes than most people and you should enjoy the subjects from both majors. It'll also depend on which majors you choose as some double majors are easier than others. There's academic advisors at Rice and I would definitely advise asking them and seeing what they think about it as well!

@@GeraldWang those are very separate majors with almost no overlap but ik a guy who triple majored in stats, comp sci, general math at Rice because the courses were similar

yea, hope to see you there!

All majors have required courses that must be taken and many of those courses are only offered once a semester and may have prerequisite courses. Because of that, you don't have 100% control over your entire course path. However, from my experience and talking with friends, you still get a lot of flexibility in what classes you can take because there is still plenty of room for non-major required courses as well as elective courses that you can play around with. It's also really easy to switch majors as there isn't any application to try another major! If I had to put it in numbers I'd say on average about half your classes in a semester is because you have to take it and the other half is your choice. But that varies a bit depending on the major. I would check the Rice department websites for major requirements and get a feel there.

@@GeraldWang Thank you so much!! That's so helpful!!

While I don't know too much about ss, I know a lot of pre-med students who went to really good med schools like Baylor that were social science majors. I will say that the ss department is smaller than the stem departments but that's mostly because there are fewer students in ss/less interest. But rice is also building an entirely new ss building (news.rice.edu/2018/07/16/rice-to-break-ground-on-new-school-of-social-sciences-building-this-summer/ ) so it looks like they are definitely investing more in that department so I'd say it's pretty well supported.

Do they offer programs related to art?

@@milagrosmorales9842 They do! Rice has a department for visual arts and design called vada: vada.rice.edu/ From my knowledge that department is pretty well known and well respected.

Even if you're planning to do cog sci, what rice is looking for doesn't really differ from other majors. They want someone who demonstrates the ability to lead as well as an aspiration to achieve really great things. The tips for say a bioe or comp student doesn't change for cog sci students. But having extracurriculars related to cog sci in some way will definitely help! Obviously you want to keep a good grade in school but the main thing is to emphasize making an impact in your community. Whether that be related to cog sci or not isn't necessarily what they care about. And I'd say that rice definitely has its fair share of quirky people. You'll find people of all backgrounds here so quirkiness is kinda inherent here.

Unfortunately, I don't have much knowledge on the business major since it wasn't around when I was researching majors. Rice business is definitely strong in the academic field though (however it is considered a harder field since the business school likes to curve grades down a lot). I know a lot of people who have had great experiences with internships as well. While I wouldn't say Rice is as much of a party school as a lot of bigger public universities, there are plenty of small parties being hosted during the semesters. Before covid, and hopefully resuming soon, Rice also held what are called publics which are big university-sponsored parties that tend to get a lot of people. I would say you can access a lot of the good parts of Houston by foot and by metro but having a car (or a friend who has a car) is very desirable since Houston isn't really known to be a walkable city. Hope this helps and if you have other questions just let me know!

Best of luck!

Yea imo these are the ones most applicable to everyone I think. But I wouldn't say that these are the only bad things about rice. It's different for everybody and there are always ups and downs when you're in college.

Send me there too... But I already graduated with a bachelor's lol 😂

Thanks nasha! I wouldn't say it's easy to get an internship, I know a decent amount of friends who are doing internships but a lot of people also aren't. As long as you work for it and apply to a lot though, you'll have a good chance at getting one.

wow I'm pretty late...but in case you're still deciding I will say that it wasn't too much of a problem for me primarily because my family is also in texas so it wasn't too far away. But there are plenty of people that I know here who have had the same hesitancies that you have. Rice really does have a great support system and you'll definitely make friends here if you put yourself out there so I wouldn't worry too much!

Hey Selin! Unfortunately I'm not really familiar with transfers but I looked at the process and it seems pretty similar to the normal application process: admission.rice.edu/apply/transfer Just by looking at the acceptance rate, I'd say that it's around the same difficulty to get in through transfer compared to the normal app process. But you'll be competing with a lot less people though so I would think that'd might make it a little bit easier. Your gpa is great though and should help you out!

Hi, I am currently attending a community college and was hoping to transfer to rice i have a 4.0 gpa and was also wandering if it would be harder or easier to get in. did you get in ?

For privacy reasons I won't disclose how much I'm paying but from what I know of others and how much I pay, what you see on the Rice website is pretty much exactly what you pay (not including any external scholarships of course). Tuition is around 50k and room/board is around 15k. That is how much you'll be paying assuming no scholarships or financial aid. Additionally, with the Rice Investment, they'll waive some of the tuition away if you qualify (and I'm pretty sure the only major qualification is if your parents' income is less than the specified amount which you can see here: financialaid.rice.edu/rice-investment

lmaooo colin. FYI, rice no longer offers chickfila but you can get urself amazing boba at east west! I know a guy who works there and loves boba more than he loves luay

Yea, you make a good point actually! I do agree that houston has a great food scene, I've just found that actually getting around to those places w/o a car is a little tedious. The metrorail doesn't go everywhere and the bus system is a bit slow so I haven't really gotten around to trying a bunch of restaurants around houston, though that is more of my own fault

Gerald Wang Yeah I usually just resorted to bumming off my friends that have cars or splitting an Uber. If only American cities were more walkable.

@@jetblack8250 haha, agreed bro

The quickest way in my opinion would be to check Rice's financial aid program and see where you will land: financialaid.rice.edu/rice-investment Depending on your financial situation, it could help a lot!

@@GeraldWang thank you so much🙏🏻

ayyy!

that's great, good luck!!

Did you get it?

Switching majors at rice is really easy actually! how it basically works is that you get until the second semester of your sophomore year to take any classes you want in any major. So if you don't exactly know what major you want then, as long as it's before your junior year then you can just switch pretty easily. Any classes you take that counts towards the switched major still counts for credit as well.

Gerald Wang This is so helpful, thanks a lot!

No such word as "towards."

Jim Eppright except there is

@@sanghyunhwang1297 Not in the USA, my friend.

I can't remember if freshman are required to be on campus or not but even if you are off campus I know o-week is required so you can still connect with people during that time. You're also still assigned a residential college so there will be opportunities there. But I will say that being off campus will make it a bit harder to stay connected with your residential college in general so it's mainly up to you to reach out.

Nothing special, I just use it as a stand for the monitor

Personally, I'd try to be as open and outgoing as I can without it feeling inauthentic. They asked me questions like: 1. Why do you want to go to Rice? 2. What extracurriculars do you do? 3. Name times where you demonstrated leadership. 4. If you have unlimited resources, how will you change the world? As long as you know what you're interested in and are prepared to answer questions like these then you should be good!

Hey Thanay, first of all congrats! Unfortunately, I don't really know too much about graduate school life at Rice since I never experienced it, but from some friends' experience I would say that the graduate life is much more independent than undergrad. Undergrad has a much more rigid course structure while graduate is mainly focused on your own research and projects. Rice doesn't typically separate campus events between graduates and undergrads so you can still experience a lot of the things undergrads experience. There's also a lot less graduates so the community may feel smaller than for undergrad, but I also heard that's what makes it more close knit which a lot of people like.

Hi Thanay i am Nana from Ghana. Also just received admission to Rice grad school fall'23 and came across Gerald's video while doing research on Life at Rice. If Gerald is right about how small the community is i guess we will probably be friends soon (or at least one degree off lol). Looking forward to it.

​@@GeraldWang thank you for the info brother, it was very helpful. I've made my decision to join Rice this fall. I hope I can meet you sometime on campus too!

​@@akosuaserwaa6191 Haha, nice to finally come across a fellow graduate. I look forward to meeting you on campus too Nana. All the best for everything in between! for everything in between!

@@thanaymetta5340 Congrats! I've already graduated but I come down from time to time so definitely say hi if you see me!

I've explored the downtown district of houston a decent amount. Personally, during the school year I didn't have much opportunities to explore houston because of work, but since I'm staying over the summer I've had a lot more time look around.

It's for a monitor stand :P

I can't really say since BCIS is pretty specific but it is tough either way to get into Rice in general. However, Rice doesn't have major specific applications so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

@@GeraldWang I really appreciate your time amd effort.

@@bluebutterfly3419 Of course, thank you!

oh dang, come say hi next time!

Gerald Wang okay I will :D

Gerald Wang do you tutor by chance?

@@way2girly No I don't tutor formally, but depending on the topic I think I could probably do it (not guarantee though)

Gerald Wang I see~! Do you understand government, math or chemistry well?

I've only taken MUSI 117 which is their intro to music theory course. If you know about AP music theory then it's very similar in terms of concepts. Other than that, the classes are taught by dedicated music professors at Rice (which the music program itself is highly regarded) so I would assume the other music courses are pretty good. I will say though that unless you are a music major, then the amount of music courses you can take is limited but if you're interested in learning more there are definitely resources at Rice that you can go to!

@@GeraldWang Thank you so much!!

Haha, haven't seen anyone with that around but you can probably find it somewhere.

Gotta save money somehow

Yea...Rice is pretty expensive

Rice does have a pretty generous financial aid package which you can read more about here: financialaid.rice.edu/ If that doesn't apply to you then it would probably have to involve loans or working part time.

Well then you've got yourself a meal

@@GeraldWang Well for me I've gotta get into rice first. So I guess time will tell and hope it happens

@@chadcj2077 Good luck!

Here's to hoping you get both! 🙌

@@GeraldWang Thanks! I'm already in Caltech. Manifesting Rice 🙏

​@@GeraldWang What sounds harder to your ears? 1. Masters Degree in Mathematics or 2. Masters Degree in Statistics?

@@mathematicaleconomist4943 It's hard for me to say since I didn't take much math or statistics classes. It would also depend on how confident you are at either field. But from what I hear from friends, stats in general is slightly harder at Rice.

@@GeraldWang Interesting! Thanks for the information!

dw you'll be in the next vid bro, that's better than dicaprio

hey turn it up bro

Rude much....😂😂😂 I'm just glad he posted it! Chiiiillll.

@@GeraldWang Can you also please have better lighting next time. I struggled to see your face as well. No more spooky lighting. Thanks.

@@wangdensherpa4598 hey the lighting enhances the atmosphere

@@wangdensherpa4598 Can you fix your attitude next time? Thanks.

Dang that's pretty unfortunate...There'll always be those types of people wherever you go. But hopefully you still enjoyed rice

I mean, I do say that the servery food is pretty good, but you do get used to it over time. The main point was just that I think food options outside are limited w/o a car.

@@GeraldWang get a car!

Thịnh Ngô easier said than done