Magazine names Rice coolest school

Magazine names Rice coolest school
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Rice is pleased
by the fact that it is always at or near the top of so many
“best value” lists. Just this year, Rice topped
the best-value category in both the Princeton Review and
The Fiske Guide to Colleges. Moreover, this week’s
U.S. News listed Rice as one of the schools where graduates
have the least debt.

But now, much
to its surprise, the university was named “the coolest
school in the land” in the October issue of Seventeen
magazine, which features the “100 Coolest Colleges.”

What is meant
by cool is open to interpretation, but the text of the Seventeen
article is mostly on the mark. Rice is cited for being “near
the top in every category: academics, great shopping, vibrant
campus life, cute boys of all stripes …,” and
for supporting “Big 10-type extracurriculars”
and a “community-minded residential college system.”
Another draw for Seventeen’s readers is a favorable
“boy-girl ratio” — favorable to girls, that
is.

Rice President
Malcolm Gillis is asking everyone to wear shades inside
and outside for the next week or two as badges of coolness.
“If people insist on calling us cool, then maybe we
should act the part, at least part of the time,” he
said.

See Seventeen’s
coolest colleges list at <www.seventeen.com/reallife/thebuzz/thebuzz.html>.