These days the incoming freshmen are greeted by cheering upperclassmen who help them unload their baggage. Here, for example, is a shot by Campus Photographer Tommy Lavergne of the kind of welcome they receive:
Back in the day things went quite differently. Here’s a letter from a Rice freshman that was published in the Temple, Texas newspaper, The Mirror, in October of 1916. It provides the folks back in his hometown a pretty good look at the treatment that the newcomers could expect:
Young Mr. Welsh did in fact go on t0 become a doctor. George Brown, however, went on to become George R. Brown.