Rice University is located in the Houston heart, Texas. Rice is a research university fostering diversity and offers an intellectual environment that develops the next generation leaders and tomorrow’s thinking.
Rice is the best university. It is prominent for music, engineering and architecture programs. Rice has the best science programs and also an excellent reputation for its nanotechnology research.
History
William Marsh Rice, a Massachusetts born businessman on May 18, 1891, chartered for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art, the Rice Institute as a gift to the Houston city and he made his fortune. The charter terms were to begin only after the death of Rice.
On 23 September 1900, Rice was chloroformed by Charlie Jones, his valet to death. His valet had conspired with Albert Patrick, an unscrupulous lawyer, to murder Rice, who has an aging millionaire and the lawyer was planning to use a forged will to claim his estate. As an autopsy was ordered by the attorney of Rice, Capt. James A Baker, the evidence came out of poisoning and the valet, Jones agreed to give evidence for protection from prosecution. The lawyer, Patrick was convicted and sent to Sing Sing. In 1912, he was pardoned and the same year at the Rice Institute classes began.
In 1907, the Rice Institute trustees acted as per (the then Princeton’s president) Woodrow Wilson’s recommendation and named astronomer and Edgar Odell Lovett, the mathematician, the first president of Rice. Lovett devoted much in the investigation and called for the highest grade establishment of this university so that it will be an institution of technical and liberal learning. He said we must keep the numbers down and the standards up. The distinguished teachers must participate in undergraduate teaching.
On September 23, 1912, The Rice Institute opened on Mr. Rice’s murder day anniversary with 77 students and a dozen faculties. This was a spectacular event that highlighted Rice to the entire scholarly world. After three weeks an international academic festival commemorated this event, and four years later, 35 bachelor’s degrees and one master’s degree were awarded, in association with the first doctorate being conferred in 1918.
Expansion and development
Rice University is a private institution founded in 1912. It has 3893 as total undergraduate enrolment. The campus is 300 acres size and features an urban setting. It follows an academic calendar that is semester based.
Rice University, positioned in the Houston’s Museum District heart offers a dynamic student life in this fourth largest city in the nation. The Rice Coffeehouse, Valhalla Pub, and Willy’s Pub are institutions that are student-run offering on-campus food and drink. All the students are given one of the 11 residential colleges, before placing their foot on campus, and they remain as members even after moving off campus. The residential colleges offer dining, housing, social and academic events.
Rice includes eight schools, including the School of Social Sciences, School of Humanities and Wiess School of Natural Sciences. The graduate schools are highly ranked George R. Brown School of Engineering and Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. Rice has a School of Architecture and Shepherd School of Music, as well. Rice houses James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy that offers internships, coursework, and lectures.
Rice Institute original charter was to give tuition-free education to the state of Texas and the white inhabitants of Houston. In 1963, the Rice University governing board filed a lawsuit allowing the university to amend its charter and to admit students from all the races so that they charge the tuition fee. In 1964, Rice amended the University charter officially to desegregate its undergraduate and graduate divisions.
The Rice University Trustees prevailed in a lawsuit to null the racial language in the trust in 1966. In 1967, for the first time, Rice started charging tuition. In the same year, Rice launched a development campaign for $33 million ($251 million). By the end of 1970, $43 million ($265 million) was raised. In 1974, two new schools were founded at Rice, the Shepherd School of Music and the Jesse H Jones Graduate School of Management. A fund-raising program, the Brown Foundation Challenge, encouraging annual gifts, was launched in 1976 in 1996 it ended by having raised $185 million ($283 million). T In 1979, the Rice School of Social Sciences was founded.
In Rice University, the housing on-campus was for men for the initial forty years. Later on the Rice campus, the first women’s residence was the Jones College following this was the Brown College. As per the legend, the colleges for women were situated purposefully at the campus opposite end from the men’s colleges to preserve the campus propriety, and it was valued greatly by Edgar Odell Lovett.
In fact, he did not permit benches installation on the campus, fearing that this may result in co-fraternization of sexes. Conversely, a path connecting the north colleges to the campus center was given a name ‘Virgins Walk.’ Individual colleges between the years 1973 and 1987 became coeducational and the single-sex floors of colleges slowly by 2006 became co-ed. Several new residential colleges by then were built on the campus to handle the growth of the University, and this includes Lovett College, Martel College, and Sid Richardson College.
Academic Life
At Rice University, the student-faculty ratio is 6:1, and the school has 70.8 percent classes with less than 20 students. The popular majors at Rice University are Economics, Biochemistry; General; Computer and Information Sciences, Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The retention rate on an average is an indicator of student satisfaction, and that is 97 percent.
Students come from different walks of life and get the best Rice experience. Thus they become the world’s most exceptional researchers, thinkers, athletes, professionals, and artists. On embracing the Rice spirit, alumni community remains connected for a lifetime of learning and support with the university. The Rice Alumni Association reinforces the connections through programs that unite alumni, faculty, students, friends, and parents around the globe.
Fun Facts
- Around half of the students now in Rice University are from out of state.
- The entrance wall of the Rice’s architecture building is referred to as the Frog Wall. This is because on running your fingers through the holes in the wall, there are croaking frog noises.
- Rice is ranking the second position for Universities offering high quality of life and ranks sixth for happiest students.
- Before graduation, all the students in Rice University must finish two P.E. type classes of LPAP (Lifetime Physical Activity Program).
- There is a tradition known as Matriculation, opposite of graduation, where new students walk passing the Sallyport into the quad to integrate into the university.
- At the year-end, seniors may take Purity Test an unofficial test containing yes or no questions to assess the activities they might have got into during their time in the campus.
- Rice University is prominent for its pranking and loud gestures.
- In 1988, students rotated the William Rice statue to face the Fondren library, and this was done in 58 years for the first time. They also convinced the Houston police that they were working on some school project to the extent that their materials were transported with the police escort and this was the most famous prank.
- The university offers free textbooks to use and thus saves its students to an estimate of 30 million.
- The founder, William Marsh Rice’s ashes are buried on the campus, right beneath his statue. This makes Rice in all Texas the largest cemetery with only one body buried.
Rice University in Houston, Texas is popular as the best schools, and if parents are keen to get an academically rigorous school offering the best life perks to students, there is no other place than Rice.