Degrees and Concentrations
Not-So-Hot Spots
History 101
A Program You'd Like
Residential College Life
100
All students who complete the business major must choose one of these two major concentrations. They cannot complete both!
What are finance and management?
100
Stay cool underground at this grad-student-run bar on campus.
What is Valhalla?
100
Woodrow Wilson, then-president of Princeton University, successfully nominated this man to serve as the first president of Rice University.
Who is Edgar Odell Lovett?
100
This program's trip options include day kayaking and advanced backpacking. Every Friday, they also organize indoor rock-climbing trips!
What is Rice Outdoor Programs and Education (ROPE)?
100
If you need to know the course drop deadline or want advice on distribution requirements, ask one of them in your college -- there are over 200 total on campus!
What are Peer Academic Advisors?
200
Students who major in English can add this concentration to their B.A.; others can pursue it separately as a minor.
What is creative writing?
200
Here, people of all ages and physical abilities can discover the benefits of planting, nurturing and picking their own produce. (Okay, it is a pretty hot spot!)
What is the Friedman Holistic Garden?
200
"Why does Rice play Texas?" John F. Kennedy asked in his speech at Rice's football stadium that announced this ambitious goal.
What is putting a man on the moon?
200
Through this program, operated by the Center for Career Development, students are matched with a professional to shadow for 1-3 days over Winter or Spring break.
What is the Owl Edge Externship Program?
200
Every residential college includes this indoor space where students frequently eat, study, or host college parties. Usually, you'll find a Private Dining Room and Coordinator's Office attached, too.
What is the commons?
300
It's one of the two concentrations offered in Sport Management; the other is "Sport Leadership."
What is Sport Law?
300
Go to the basement of Fondren Library to find this cool resource, where you can borrow video equipment, record a podcast, or print a presentation poster!
What is the Digital Media Commons?
300
This Rice tradition was started by Wiessman George Greanias in 1970. Now, every four years, the gravestone bears his name.
What is Hello, Hamlet?
300
This program helps a small cohort of students in the Humanities and Social Sciences transition to life at Rice. Through a combination of lectures and fieldwork, it focuses on questions of racial justice, equity, and urban life in Houston.
What is RISE (Responsibility, Inclusion, and Student Empowerment)?
300
Only a tenured faculty member (and their spouse) can hold this title at a residential college.
What is a magister?
400
If a student wants to earn a B.S. in Astrophysics and a B.A. in Cognitive Sciences, they are pursuing this type of degree plan.
What is a dual degree?
400
DAILY DOUBLE!
Escape the heat by enjoying Rice at night: On the roof of Brockman Hall, you can find a faculty-led open house here near the first quarter-moon.
What is the Rice University Campus Observatory (RUCO)?
400
These two Rice professors were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of buckyballs, which revolutionized nanoscience and materials research.
Who are Curl and Smalley?
400
Students on this team won first place in their division of the 2024 Spaceport America Cup for Archimedes, which reached a height of 26,000 ft.
What is Rice Eclipse?
400
KTRU and Rice Coffeehouse both began at this residential college. It was also the first college to use its own crest, shown here:
What is Hanszen?
500
Unlike those pursuing a B.A., students earning a B.S. in this ABET-accredited program must declare a specialization: Computational engineering; Mechanics/Dynamics; Aerospace; or Thermal Fluids.
What is mechanical engineering?
500
This colorful ceiling mosaic shields Duncan Hall from the sun. If you look closely, you can see a small pencil mark from the original artwork.
What is "The Birth of Consciousness?"
500
A professor in the Department of History, he won Rice's first Pulitzer for his 2020 book Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America.
Who is Caleb McDaniel?
500
This unique course, run through the Office of Academic Advising, is comprised of two parts: self-paced lectures and weekly shadowing in the Med Center.
What is UNIV 330: Medical Exploration and Observership?
500
Any Rice community member can get involved with a college by becoming one of these -- they usually attend events, mentor students, and even get free lunch in the servery!
What is an associate?