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While Houston is the fourth largest city in the country, it doesn’t have a centralized city feel. Its sprawling nature can intimidate the more sheltered of Rice undergraduates. As one freshman remarks, Houston isn't really a 'college town.' For the more adventurous Rice student, the METRORail system is located next to campus; using this public transportation, students can get to the downtown area and to Reliant Park. Houston’s cultural offerings include basically everything: the symphony, the ballet, bar-hopping (as one student from the class of 2010 informs us, “Houston is a great town and offers a variety of bars. If you want to drink underage most Mexican restaurants have amazing margaritas and usually will not card”), baseball games, and world-famous rodeos. However, to enjoy most of what the greater Houston area has to offer (like the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico), bringing a car to campus is necessary.

Even though Rice is located in the ultra-urban city of Houston, the campus is closed off and relatively self-sustaining. The Rice campus is organized into quadrangles, the most prominent of which is the Academic Quad. Here one can find the memorial statue of the school’s founder William Marsh Rice. Lovett Hall is the school’s architectural jewel. Students generally appreciate the campus’ Spanish Mediterranean architecture but find the ongoing construction irksome. In terms of specific hangout destinations, students frequent Willy’s Pub and Valhalla attracts its fair share of traffic with the over twenty-oners. Students of all ages frequently head to Lovett Undergrounds to hear live music, listen to a poetry slam, and grab a cup of coffee. For anyone looking for a more chill, laid back atmosphere, the Media Center has a movie theater.

The dorms at Rice are more than just a place to live. Rice University centers the undergraduate experience on the residential college system. Students are assigned to a specific college when they enter the school and remain a member until they graduate. There are nine colleges, all of which have unique personalities. Most students live on campus for their first three years and move into off-campus apartments as seniors. Because Rice does not have a Greek system, students end up developing a sense of loyalty to their respective college as well as building social circles within those communities. Most enjoy the residential college system. One student from the class of ’11 says, the “really unique thing is our residential college system. It makes Rice more fun, I think.” Nonetheless, the system has a few drawbacks. As Aure from the class of 2010 explains, “The residential colleges are small though, which means that there's not really the critical mass to support a lot of alternative or specialized social groups. It also means that everyone knows everyone else's business, so that's just something you learn to deal with.”

Rice is a strange place when it comes to athletics. The Owls, as they are affectionately referred to, compete in Conference USA as the second smallest school in the country with a Division I athletic program. Because they are consistently competing against larger schools, Rice usually takes a hit when it comes to the win-loss column. From 1961 to 2006, the Rice football squad failed to qualify for a bowl game, which was the second-longest bowl drought at the time. The Rice men’s basketball team hasn’t won a conference title since 1970. Despite these embarrassing statistics, Rice houses a powerhouse baseball squad. They have won the conference the last twelve seasons, and even took home the College World Series in 2003. Alex Bonnel ’10 notes that “although we aren't crazy about sports, we are crazy about our college system.” Thus, the club and intramural scene is rather lively because rivalries and competition is fueled through the residential college system. More eccentric intramural/club opportunities include Badminton, Fast Pitch, Social Dance Society, Inner Tube Water Polo, Billiards, and Disc Golf.