Rice University

Rice University, founded as William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Art, and Science in 1892, opened 1912 in the Museum District of Houston, Texas. Rice is considered one of the nation's elite universities, consistently ranking amongst the top echelon of national research universities. It is also distinguished by having one of the most selective student bodies in the nation, as well as one of the highest endowments (>$3 billion). William Marsh Rice (1816-1900), who made his fortune in Texas in the mid-19th century, left the bulk of his estate to the founding of a free institute in Houston and until 1964 Rice did not charge tuition. Even today, Rice's tuition is considerably lower than that of other prestigious universities. The architecture of the university is laid out in numerous quadrangles, and is designed in a neo-Byzantine style by world-renowned architects. The Academic Quad is centered on the memorial to William Rice, and includes the Administrative buildings (through which the Sallyport, a large elaborate archway, passes), the Library, and the Physics, Language, Architecture, and Humanities buildings. The Engineering Quad is centered around the sculpture 45/90/180, and includes the Electrical Engineering building, the Mechanical Engineering building, the Chemistry building, the Computer Science building, and several laboratories. Rice is also home to the recently-opened Jones Graduate School of Business and the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Among other things, Rice is noted for its college system, similar to those found in some older English schools, and matched only by Yale in the United States. The nine colleges (Hanszen, Baker, Brown, Lovett, Weiss, Jones, Sid Rich, Will Rice, Martel) include residential and dining facilities, social organizations and student government, as well as faculty members and alumni and community associates. As college members, students also participate in some unique traditions, including Baker 13, Beer Bike, and Night of Decadence, also known as NOD. Rice's sports teams are called the Owls. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A, and in the Western Athletic Conference. In 2005, Rice will leave the WAC and join Conference USA. The Rice Owls Baseball team won Rice's first national title in any major team sport in 2003. Rice football is known for the MOB, or Marching Owl Band, which does not march during halftime but rather performs skits and runs from formation to formation (a scatter band). Rice Stadium seats 72,000 and was the site of Super Bowl VIII and John F. Kennedy's speech on September 12, 1962. Prof Robert Curl and Prof Richard Smalley gave Rice University its first Nobel Prize (Chemistry) in 1996 for their discovery of fullerenes, although other Nobel Laureates have had affiliations with the University, both as alumni and researchers. Some of the first work on artificial hearts was done with the help of Rice faculty.

Some Famous Alumni

\n* Bill Archer, Dropout, United States Congressman\n* Lance Berkman, 1997, All-Star baseball player for Houston Astros\n* William Broyles, Jr., Founder of "Texas Monthly" and screenwriter ("Apollo 13," "Castaway," "Unfaithful")\n* John Doerr, influential venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers \n* John Graves, 1942, Nature Writer\n* Howard Hughes, Dropped out, Writer/Director/Producer/Actor, Aviator, Ladies' Man \n* Burton McMurtry, 1956, influential venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley whose company Technology Venture Investors has backed ventures such as Microsoft, Adaptec, Altera, Compaq, Sun Microsystems, and Synopsys . \n* Larry McMurtry, 1960, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author\n* Jim Newman, 1982 and 1984, NASA Astronaut\n* Sam Reed, CEO Keebler Cookies\n* Hector Ruiz, 1972, President and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)\n* James Treybig, 1963 and 1964, founder of Tandem Computers\n* Candace Bushnell, Dropped out, creator, Sex in the City\n* Steve Jackson, 1974, Steve Jackson Games (and creator of misclass) Rice celebrated its 75th (demisesquicentennial) anniversary of classes being held in 1987. The university is served by an offsite light rail station on the Red Line of the Houston METRORail light rail system.

External links

\n* Rice University http://www.rice.edu\n* Official Rice athletics site http://www.riceowls.com\n* MOB (Marching Owl Band) Official site http://mob.rice.edu\n* Rice Thresher (student newspaper) http://www.ricethresher.org\n* Beer-Bike http://www.beerbike.com \nCategory:Houston, TX\nCategory:Universities and colleges in Texas