Student Life
A Day in the Life…
Sometimes in the midst of my six hour labs, eight hour homework sets and innumerable tests, I wonder why I study engineering. I catch myself looking longingly at other majors without 134 required credit hours and musing about how I could take all of that free time and cure cancer—if I just switched majors. Luckily, these feelings are few and far between—I’m just too busy for such idle thoughts. At the end of the day, engineering becomes much more than just a course of study, a particular collection of courses or a prestigious degree from the noble George R. Brown School of Engineering. To me, engineering is about learning how to think in such a way that every problem in life has an elegant solution. The skills you master as an engineer equip you with the ability to solve the world’s greatest problems in energy, medicine and the environment. I’m excited about engineering because it does more than just prepare you for a lucrative career. Engineering allows you to make a difference.
As a bioengineering student, most of my time is split between lecture, lab and my extracurricular activities. Sleep is occasionally mixed in. I find it interesting how the things I learn in one class tie into another. More often than not, the theory we learn is practiced in a corresponding lab that turns memorization into utilization. Outside of my coursework, I have been lucky enough to pursue my own research with Rice’s extremely open professors. I can’t say that Rice engineering undergraduates are treated like a rock stars. But, if a student is motivated and genuinely interested, there is a plethora of cutting edge research projects to get involved in. Beyond research, I’ve also used my education to positively impact my community. For a full year, I led middle school students in an engineering design competition in robotics. However, my typical day is only made possible through the untypical engineering education offered at Rice University.
The thing that separates Rice engineering from other engineering schools is that when you learn about difficult concepts from leading professors, the professors actually know your name. At Rice, you have the opportunity to do much more than just be a student. There is a vibrant community outside of the classroom and lab. The college system, the city of Houston and your Rice classmates will compel you to leave the library once in a while and participate in anything you’re interested in. One can perform cutting edge biomedical engineering research in the day and at night star in one of the many theatre productions the residential colleges put on every semester. After talking with the world expert in cartilage tissue engineering (who happens to teach your morning class), you can dress up for the evening opera or take in a Rockets game.
There are long stretches when I have to deal with impossible problem sets or imminent tests in biomechanics. I take solace in the fact that I can always fall back on my “assemble, analyze, calculate and check” engineering methodology to pull me through. At Rice, I’ve been taught to transform engineering into a state of mind and a source of confidence. Ultimately, my engineering education, both in and out of the classroom, have been the most rewarding, challenging and inspiring years of my life.