Since the beginning, Rice University has offered both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Rice University (or The Rice Institute back then) opened its arches in 1912 to students seeking higher education. Rice’s first commencement ceremony in 1916 awarded 35 bachelor’s degrees and one master’s degree. In 1916, the first doctoral degree was awarded. Here is a fun fact: typically, schools that have “college” in the name only have undergraduate degrees, while those with “university” in the name have both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Rice continues to be an exceptional university with competitive acceptance rates similar to those in the Ivy League.
All of the history and numbers are good to know, yet they do not describe the Rice “Experience.” In this blog, I will discuss a few differences I have noticed between my undergraduate and graduate experience at Rice. To provide a short backstory of my academic career, I began my time at Rice in 2016 at Baker College (Hell Yeah!) and graduated with my bachelor’s in 2020 (COVID time). I double majored in psychology and cognitive sciences and double minored in neuroscience and engineering design. I joined a doctoral program at Old Dominion University (ODU), where I completed my master’s in psychology in 2022. I then moved with my advisor back to Rice, where I am currently completing my doctoral degree in Human Factors/Human-Computer Interaction psychology.
I know my Rice experiences are not back-to-back as others may have. Yet, when I reentered Rice in 2022, pandemic protocols were relaxing, which allowed me to compare my two experiences better. My discussion will span over multiple blog posts since there are multiple facets of the Rice Experience I can compare. This blog is the fourth installment and focuses on the social event differences between undergraduate and graduate school at Rice.
Undergraduate Publics, Crawls, and More
Many of the significant social events on campus are geared toward undergraduate students. Many of the social events are sent out through the residential college’s email list, as well as with flyers posted in the commons. The majority of these events are open only to undergraduate students. One example would be public parties (“publics”), parties hosted by individual residential colleges. The university gives the colleges money to host a party for other undergraduate students to attend to enhance their experience at Rice. These publics have fun themes, and the residential colleges are known for their public(s), such as Baker Christmas, Sid ‘80s, McMurtry Y2K, and Wiess’s NOD (Night of Decadence, which has been canceled for the foreseeable future). The publics go from 10 PM to 2 AM and serves kegs of beer/cider in a fenced-off area with RUPD checking IDs. As most parties go, the first half is slower, with fewer people, and everyone joins in around midnight for the rest of the night. The publics also serve attendees various food, non-alcoholic drinks, and snacks. I know since I graduated in 2020, some of the publics became ticketed events due to their popularity and capacity limits, like Architechtronica, a public hosted by the architecture school. Many times, before going to a public, there will be a crawl. A crawl can be within one residential college through multiple dorms or across multiple dorms through multiple residential colleges throughout campus.
In addition to the publics, undergraduate students can host private parties or “privates” in their dorm rooms. There are also undergraduate homecoming dance-like events such as Esperanza and Rondelet. These events are typically held off campus in a nice location, such as one of the museums nearby in the Museum District.
Graduate GSA Events and Buckey Ball
As a graduate student, I mainly know about campus events through OwlNest. Many of the bigger events by the Rice Program Council (RPC) are open to both undergraduate and graduate students. These events include Owls After Dark, Stuff-a-Plush, Silent Disco, and more. However, I am not sure how many graduate students attend these events since they are later in the evening after working hours and are not always distributed to graduate students. These events typically have free food and non-alcoholic drinks.
There are some graduate-student-only events, such as the Orientation Picnic, Valhalloween, and Bucky Ball. The Orientation Picnic happens at the beginning of the year for new incoming graduate students. Valhalloween happens around Halloween and has events the week prior that lead up to the party. GSA hosts both events and includes free beer, cider, food, snacks, other drinks, and party music. Both of these events are also hosted at the Graduate Commons, right outside Valhalla, the graduate student bar on campus. Bucky Ball is a homecoming dance-like event hosted by the Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering departments in Duncan Hall. The event is named after the Buckminsterfullerene (“The Buckyball”), named after the architect F. Buckminster Fuller. The Buckyball is a cage-like chemical spherical structure of molecules discovered at Rice University, which earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. The event, Bucky Ball, goes from 8 PM to 2 AM and includes music, food, beer, wine, cider, and fun!
In total, there were more social event opportunities as an undergraduate student, and it was easier to hear about them and attend. As graduate students, we have several events as well. It seems like the assortment of alcoholic beverages, and food is more expansive than what I saw as an undergraduate student. In addition to these events, there is Beer Bike, a significant event that merits its own blog post. Stay tuned for more!
About the author:
Katie Garcia is from Houston, Texas and is a current Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychological Sciences studying Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction. She got her B.S. in psychology and cognitive sciences at Rice University, and her M.S. in psychology from Old Dominion University. Read more.
Further Reading:
Preparing for and Giving a Presentation at My First BIG Conference (BMES)
How to Make Your Own Academic Website