Princeton Review ranks Rice no. 2 for quality of life, race/class interaction
Lily Chun
Issue date: 8/22/08 Section: News
The Princeton Review ranked Rice number two in the categories of best quality of life and best race/class interaction and number 15 in the category of happiest students out of 368 best U.S. colleges profiled. The results of the annual survey were compiled online from a mixture of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors in the past three years from 2005 to 2007.
In the past, Rice has typically ranked high - number 1 and number 6 - in the categories of best quality of life and best race/class interaction, President David Leebron said. He said he is pleased that Rice placed 15th on the list of happiest students since Rice has not placed in the category in the past.
Leebron said he thinks the high ranking of race/class interaction is a reflection of the college system and Orientation Week.
"It's a great priority to us to build a diverse student body, but there's no way to build one without interacting with each other," Leebron said. "This is students' perception of how we interact with each other."
Although Leebron said he is pleased by the rankings - especially because students, not administrators, were surveyed - he takes them with a grain of salt.
"If you live by [rankings], you die by them," he said.
Leebron said he does not think these rankings indicate that Rice has no problems to work out.
"We need to continue to improve on things like O-Week and the kind of courses we have available to people and listen very carefully to the very diverse groups on campus," Leebron said. "Our goal is to make this campus a destination of choice for lots of different people. I think we see this across the board, whether it's race or religion or national origin. It's our responsibility to listen closely to these students and see what they think could make the experience a more positive one."
And in light of some of the racially offensive events of the past years, like the racist vandalism at Sid Richardson College over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Leebron said that though such racist incidents are certainly viewed as unacceptable, they do occur from time to time.
In the past, Rice has typically ranked high - number 1 and number 6 - in the categories of best quality of life and best race/class interaction, President David Leebron said. He said he is pleased that Rice placed 15th on the list of happiest students since Rice has not placed in the category in the past.
Leebron said he thinks the high ranking of race/class interaction is a reflection of the college system and Orientation Week.
"It's a great priority to us to build a diverse student body, but there's no way to build one without interacting with each other," Leebron said. "This is students' perception of how we interact with each other."
Although Leebron said he is pleased by the rankings - especially because students, not administrators, were surveyed - he takes them with a grain of salt.
"If you live by [rankings], you die by them," he said.
Leebron said he does not think these rankings indicate that Rice has no problems to work out.
"We need to continue to improve on things like O-Week and the kind of courses we have available to people and listen very carefully to the very diverse groups on campus," Leebron said. "Our goal is to make this campus a destination of choice for lots of different people. I think we see this across the board, whether it's race or religion or national origin. It's our responsibility to listen closely to these students and see what they think could make the experience a more positive one."
And in light of some of the racially offensive events of the past years, like the racist vandalism at Sid Richardson College over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Leebron said that though such racist incidents are certainly viewed as unacceptable, they do occur from time to time.
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