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Hey everybody, two questions how is Rice's biology department, strong, weak, small etc.? Is pre-med popular at Rice?

By Anxiousmom (Anxiousmom) on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 - 07:40 pm: Edit

Pre-med is very popular, biology is strong. Try cruising around the Rice website

By Cybernetica (Cybernetica) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 03:25 am: Edit

Biology means different things to different people...what are you into?

Cellular? Evolutionary? Biochemistry?

In general, for any field you pick, Rice will in comparison to other top schools at the national level, have an above average to premier level of achievement and quality at the undergrad level...but when it gets time to bring in certain elements of undergrad research opportunities into the picture (i.e. things that depend a lot on what types of graduate programs exist to begin with.) things get trickier.

Rice prides itself on being a small school, and for many this is one of its greatest strenghts. But as with any school of this size, you don't have unlimited opportunities in every bio area for research that are based in house (though its certainly very possible to secure them outside and the school will back you up 100%...much more than the complaints i've heard of my friends at many other 'elite' schools). Rice does not have a medical school. This is important, so let me repeat it: WE DO NOT HAVE A MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Yes, we ARE directly across the street from the Texas medical center(the largest in the world) and Baylor Medical College so there are numerous cross over opportunities presented to Rice all the time and much collaboration between the two. But generally, if you want to do Bio research, you are either going into one of the existing traditional strengths of the Rice graduate programs (such as Biochemistry) or you will have to orchestrate your own (or take advantage of a preexisting) crossover arrangement.

All in all, unless you have a very specialized interest, I can't see what you could be offered differently that is neccessarily better in your bio education that what Rice offers. Even moving away from the highly acclaimed more technical bioengineering type courses the school offers, courses dealing with higher level evolution treatments, cytology, endocrinology, botany, immunology, and so are - as I have seen them so far anyway - at one of the highest calibers imaginable and yet remain to be very friendly and inviting in a manner true to the Rice spirit.

Premed of course, is INCREDIBLY popular here, but has nothing to do with biology obviously...you just take Introductory Cal based Physics, Intro Survey Biology, Both Semesters of Single Variable Calculus, Introductory Chemistry, Introductory Organic Chemistry, and you are through. If you were to go to a school that unlike Rice allotted actual graded credit (instead of just transfer 'credits') for AP scores (like a state school) you could have all of these medical school entrance requirements out of the way via AP exams before you even began college! (excepting orgo of course...)

[I.e. you would take.... AP Physics C (E&M and Mech), AP Chem, AP Cal BC, and AP Bio]

If anything the complaint is that too many 'academs' (social science or humanities majors) seem to want to also do the premed route and some in the science/engineering route jokingly complain about premeds interfering with the standards of their education...but to answer your question, from the premed angle, I think you would be hard pressed to find a better place than Rice for taking those core courses in a thoroughly rigorous yet extremely intimate environment....While each of these courses has many requirements and high expectations, ever teacher goes out of his or her way to make the expectations very achievable, there are ample tutorial sessions for all of the sciences (too many, if you ask me), tons of extra practice problems / videos/ online and in class demonstrations and other learning tools...departments go out of their way to choose very readable texts, and I have yet to have had a lecturer in one of these types of courses who was not incredible in some way or the other (with the exception of my particular calculus instructor because I'm doing Math 102 first semester, since the superstars won't start teachign until most of the people with no ap cal credit - who are doing 101 right now - start it second semester...rice unfortunately tends to block people into 'no calculus' and 'BC' zones, us AB'ers are rarer...)

I hope all that helps.

I don't like to publically post my email on sites such as this for fear of spam harvesting, but if you search for 'Sahil' by clicking on the people button at www.rice.edu, my name is the only one that will come up. Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns you might have.

-S