Want to be MADE?

MTV casts a reality show at Houston Community College

MTV brings 'Made' to Houston
Thursday is the West Loop Campus and audition.
Photo by Whisper To Me

Want to change your life? Or at least find a new reality?

MTV's offering that lure with tryouts for one its most successful reality shows, MADE, at two Houston Community College campuses Thursday and Friday.

The Emmy award-wining "inspirational reality"show follows an aspiring student in each episode who wants to pursue a life goal they've been afraid to seek out on their own. Many college kids still idolize celebrities and the show often shows them wanting to become singers, athletes or actors. With the help of an expert, the students receive professional guidance for a couple of weeks until the MADE contestant has successfully accomplished the goal.

By the end of most episodes, the students are usually inspired — or facing the harsh truth that achieving certain goals are fleeting.

Open casting calls will be held Thursday at the HCC Southwest College in the West Loop Center Auditorium and Friday at HCC Central College, the Midtown Campus Learning Hub. MTV casting runs from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. The only catch is that you must "appear" to be between the ages of 17 and 26 and be a currently enrolled HCC student with a valid ID.

If you're curious, there are online questionnaires to fill out as well.

MTV is encouraging potential MADE men and women to look beyond getting famous with suggestions like quests to lose weight, adopt a healthier lifestyle, become an entrepreneur, or find true love.

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at the top

Houston's Rice University tops new 2025 list of best colleges in Texas

Photo via Rice University

The Ive League of the South has done it once again.

The most prestigious higher education institution in Houston has done it again: Rice University has topped WalletHub's 2025 list of the best colleges and universities in Texas for 2025.

The just-released list analyzed more than 800 colleges and universities in the United States using 30 metrics to determine their rankings.

Rice claimed the No. 1 spot in Texas and in WalletHub's regional category of best universities in the South. The school also ranked as the No. 6 best college nationwide.

Rice earned first place in the category for the "best" (or lowest) on-campus crime rates, and ranked 13th for its gender and racial diversity. The school ranked No. 24 in the category for net cost. According to U.S. News and World Report, tuition and fees at Rice cost $60,709 per year. Rice also has an acceptance rate of eight percent, earning the university No. 27 in the category for admission rates.

Here's how WalletHub broke down the rest of Rice's ranking, where No. 1 is the best and No. 49 is the worst:

No. 26 – Student-faculty ratio
No. 43 – Graduation rate
No. 47 – Post-attendance median salary

Rice's recent accolades add to an ongoing winning streak of high rankings. In September, the private university ranked as the No. 1 best Texas college for 2025 by U.S. News, and ranked No. 18 nationally. Education information and review platform Niche also recently ranked Rice the 15th best college in the country and the No. 1 best in Texas for 2025. And Forbes named Rice No. 9 in its 2024-25 list of top U.S. colleges.

In the spring, Rice's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business ranked No. 2 in the national publication's ranking of the best graduate schools in Texas.

The only other Houston university to earn a spot in WalletHub's report was the University of Houston, earning No. 12 in Texas and No. 288 nationally.

The top five universities that outranked Rice in the national rankings were Princeton University (No. 1), Yale University (No. 2), Harvard University (No. 3), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 4), and Dartmouth College (No. 5).

The top 10 colleges and universities in Texas are:

No. 1 – Rice University
No. 2 – The University of Texas at Austin
No. 3 – Trinity University
No. 4 – Texas A&M University-College Station
No. 5 – Southwestern University
No. 6 – Texas Christian University
No. 7 – Austin College
No. 8 – Texas A&M International University
No. 9 – University of Dallas
No. 10 – Southern Methodist University

The full report can be found on wallethub.com.

colleges rice university wallethub rankings lists