Today I joined a very small tour group for a campus tour of the beautiful Rice Campus located in Houston.  The weather was hot and humid, as you would expect on a July day.  Campus was quiet, it was summer and 4th of July week.  The campus feels much larger than you would expect, with only 3,755 undergraduates.  There are two large quads surrounded by the academic buildings and you can picture the activity on a normal school day.

One of the unique features of Rice is the 11 residential colleges.  Students are randomly assigned to a residential college each of which are a microcosm of the entire university.  There are students of all ages, races, majors, religions, interests, athletes etc. scattered throughout each house.  Each house has a "college master" who lives with his family in his own home adjacent to to the college.  There is also a "college associate" faculty, staff, or alumni who eat meals and participate in college events with the students.  Students live in the college all 4 years and identify with their college as part of who they are and their Rice experience.  There is a lot of friendly competition between colleges and each college claims to be the "best".

Rice offers over 50 majors, in 6 different concentrations-Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Humanities, Engineering, Architecture and Music.  The university does not offer an undergraduate program in Business but students can take a pre-business path and take some course in the graduate school.  There are also pre-health professions, pre-law and pre-business.  Being in Houston, students have access to the largest medical center in the world for internships and research opportunities.  Rice students have an 90% acceptance rate to medical school.  There is a dual 8 year program with Rice and Baylor Medical, where students apply freshman year to do their undergrad at Rice and complete their medical school at Baylor (last year 12 students were accepted).

The cost of attendance is $48,000.  20-25% of students receive merit aid ranging from $3,000-full tuition.  Rice admits need blind and guarantees to meet all demonstrated need.  Merit scholarships are reviewed as part of the application process and do not require an additional application.  Students can apply Early Decision (25% are admitted from this pool) or Regular Decision (16% are admitted from this pool.  Admission is competitive.  50% of admitted students from fall 2011 had ACT scores of 32-35 and SAT (CR&Math) of 1430-1570.  Of those students reporting class rank, 85% graduated in the top 5% of their high school class.

Students are hand selected by an admissions committee to participate in the Century Scholars Program. The program matches freshmen with a faculty member for two years to collaborate on research.  The program comes with a stipend and a scholarship.

The school encourages students to get out and explore Houston by offering them a "passport to Houston",  free bus and metro pass.  They are also provided discount tickets to the ballet, symphony, opera, movies and major sporting events.  Meals are not offered on campus on Saturday nights to encourage students to get "outside the hedge" and experience Houston.

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