<p>As someone who graduated from UT undergrad and UT law, who currently lives in the Austin area, who has lived and worked in Houston and who has family members in the Rice area, and who has had many friends, acquaintances, and colleagues who graduated from Rice, I will weigh in.</p>
<p>Just considering undergraduate students and programs, roughly, the top 10 percent of students at UT are comparable to Rice students academically. Also, I would think that the UT Honors programs, particularly Plan II, Dean’s Scholars, and Engineering Honors (not including Business Honors because Rice does not have anything similar), are roughly equivalent to some of the undergraduate Rice programs, and research opportunities are there for the honors students. So, one could argue there is a sort of Rice within UT in terms of programs and students, though it shares UT with the other 90 percent of UT undergrad students and the programs fitting their needs.</p>
<p>But the top UT students and the Rice students are self selecting and so are not necessarily that similar outside of academics. Of course there would be overlap, but on average the UT students would be more social, less wealthy, more liberal, more interested in big time sports, and more interested in partying on the weekends. Also, there is a quite large and active Greek scene, where one can find some of the UT students who do not fit the “less wealthy” description. Rice has no Greek presence.</p>
<p>Only a small percentage of UT students live on campus, more live in surrounding neighborhoods (West campus and North campus), and most live in apartments miles from campus. There is still a lively campus area though, as only a small percentage of 50,000 can constitute a crowd.</p>
<p>As for the differences in quality of life between Austin and Houston, I think they are a bit overblown. Houston has more violent crime, but Austin has at least as much property crime, and the area around Rice is not particularly dangerous. Houston has worse traffic, but Austin traffic gets worse every year, as the Austin metro keeps on growing at a rapid pace. Austin has the Sixth Street music scene, but Houston has all the amenities of a large city, including good museums, a major symphony orchestra, ballet, and many other cultural attractions. Houston has a little more humidity, while Austin temperatures are a little higher, so the summers are equally miserable. </p>
<p>Instead of focusing on the difference in cities, the prospective student should focus on fit with regard to the two very different universities and the two student bodies. One is like a small LAC, while the other is a large state flagship. Opportunities abound at both for the good student.</p>