@livinginLA …interesting impressions! I agree with her about Baylor. Waco…eh, totally a college town. Baylor is preppy and in my opinion (would need to look at the stats) way more Greek than any of the other schools. All the preppy, higher income kids who love the prep scene but whose parents want to be reassured their kid is at a Christian school and therefore “won’t party” seem to go there. Partying does still happen or at least that is the word on the local street. Now with that said, I know that is a broad generalization. Baylor is a good school, offers decent merit and has some good programs. My D would agree with your D about the reasons not to attend.
A&M: Agreed that it is huge. The campus can be overwhelming. Once you get into your upper classes it seems much smaller. Most of my classes were in the core area i.e. there was never one by the baseball field and then the next class way at the business building. Greek life used to be a very small portion of students. What are the current stats now?
Rice: great school, great campus. Native Texans sometimes refer to Rice as “the armpit” of Texas due to the humidity. Fantastic STEM. Not much merit aid though but what a great place if it is in the budget.