The college student version is to buy rice-in-a-bag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu2WeH0XCz4

The bag serves as an interesting timer, when it's completely bloated in boiling water, the rice should be done.

A $20 rice cooker will pay itself off in a few weeks, and can cook dorm room meals too.

I love my WFH rice cooker lunch. A couple of frozen dumplings and some vegetables in the basket, add soy sauce to serve and you've got yourself a hands-free lunch that will sit on keep-warm until you're ready to eat it.

Additionally this is the best way to cook whole-grain rice. Unfortunately contaminants collect in the husk and cooking in large amounts of water dilutes it more.

It's also the best way to cook any rice to reduce the amount of arsenic in it.

That's interesting, I've never come across this fact in all my years of cooking. I'll have to check it out.

This makes "OK" rice, and I always use this technique for long grain rice.

But for "better" kinds of rice, like basmati or jasmine, I always use the absorption method - the rice is so, so much better! The delicate flavours are better preserved and the grains are drier and more separated.

Also when you're cooking stuff with the rice, such as risotto or biryani, the absorption method is a must for me - a risotto or biryani cooked otherwise is honestly not worth eating; but with absorption, the result is absolutely heavenly!

I try to stick to the same brands of rice, as the amount of liquid, and cooking time, can vary from brand to brand.

Pro tip, you don't even need to let it boil before adding the pasta.

Yeah but then it sticks