<p>Hi everyone, I'm currently a rising senior from South Korea who's trying to decide on her Early Decision school. I'm thinking of Chemistry major, and have thought of Brown, Washu, Rice, and Northwestern so far. I have 2330 SAT score and 4.81/5.0 from a nationally recognized high school. I've talked to my counselor and he said Brown may be hard for me to get in and the other three schools give me better chances of getting accepted, based on my school stats and stuff.
I really want to finish in Early Decision, but cannot really decide which school to pick. Since those four schools are all academically superb, I'm more concerned with the social scenes, dorm life, and school facilities. I want open-minded and accepting atmosphere, definitely with good dormitories and facilities...haha..
According to my search online, Washu and Rice seem to have relatively good social life and buildings/facilities. I especially like Rice's residential college system. But right now, I can't ignore Brown's name value and reputation..
I want to hear some opinions on this issue :)</p>
<p>These four are too close in name value and reputation for you to make prestige as a deciding factor.</p>
<p>For chemistry, Brown is actually ranked the lowest; it may mean they have less cutting-edge research and worse academic facility for the field. You may end up there for the wrong reason especially for your major if you let the Ivy label influence you too much.</p>
<p>You should apply ED to Northwestern. It is one of the best for Chemistry.</p>
<p>Do you want to go back to South Korea after or stay in the US?</p>
<p>That’s a tough decision. I’m a bit less familiar with Brown, but I love those other three schools and highly considered choosing each one of them (I’m interested in ChemE). I love Rice’s residential college system and to me it seems like it fosters a very diverse and accepting atmosphere. The students here seem incredibly down to earth and interesting (although perhaps they’re slightly nerdy, which I view as a positive but you may not). They also seemed to have good facilities. This is one of my favorite schools-- I came very close to going here. However, I have two major concerns with Rice. 1) It’s in Houston, which is just to hot, humid, and urban for my taste. 2) It has a fairly regional reputation. 50% of Rice students are from Texas and a majority find jobs in Texas after graduation. As someone who wanted to live… well not in Texas… I wanted a school with a reputation that would better enable me to find employment or graduate schools anywhere in the country/world.</p>
<p>As for WashU, it felt much less diverse to me but it seems incredibly friendly and welcoming to everyone. Of all the schools I’ve toured, this one seems to have the most creature comforts. It has nice dorms (all with tempurpedic beds), nice food, and nice classroom facilities. This is a school that’s quickly rising in the ranks and is pouring money into creating better science/engineering facilities, so it would be a good place to be right now. That being said, attending WashU might also make it hard to find opportunities outside of the midwest of the US post-graduation. </p>
<p>As for Northwestern, I also came very close to going here. I really like its campus and got a good vibe from it. The suburbs of Chicago seem like an exciting place to live and NU has great programs in the sciences. It seems to have a very vibrant social life, although I was turned off my the large proportion of the student body that elects to join frats/sororities-- a very large part of campus life there. I haven’t seen Northwestern dorms, but I’ve read that they very from pretty good to not the best; it will depend on your luck. NU is definitely diverse and has a great reputation, so I think a degree from here would take you very far.</p>
<p>As for Brown, it never really appealed to me, but I have friends attending this school. It seems to be a fun place, but I’d listen to Sam Lee’s advice: its prestige shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Personally, I would probably apply ED to either Rice or Northwestern.</p>
<p>Some more info on me</p>
<p>I am planning to go back to korea some day in my life. But i will probably attend graduate school right after college and then get a job in the us for some years after graduation. In this case would rice give me a great chance to apply for ivy graduate schools? I want to enjoy undergraduate life but then am also worried about getting into good graduate schools… is it gonna be harder for me to get into top graduate schools if i went to rice or northwestern compared to those who went to ivy undergraduate schools? I mean as for rice ive heard that its small student body is a positive factor on this issue since students can get closer to professors than in bigger schools… being close to professors and having graduated an ivy school… which would be more important in terms of getting into top grduate schools??</p>
<p>All good choices. I agree that your chances of getting in ED to Brown are somewhat lower. Rice has D1 sports, as does Northwestern. Northwestern would have a more fun athletic scene, if you are into that. It can be really a big part of college- if you want it to be. Rice has a better climate. Students aren’t there during the hottest months. Houston is an awesome city and the Rice campus is gorgeous- as are the surrounding neighborhoods. The residential college system is very good and you will make a lot of friends right away in your residential college. St. Louis is not my favorite city- but Wash U has a nice campus and great academics. If you do well at any of these schools, you will get into a top graduate school. Brown doesn’t have much of an edge at all.</p>
<p>Rice and Northwestern are both very prestigious, you will be at no disadvantage compared to Ivy league applicants.</p>
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</p>
<p>Not likely if you are talking about graduate schools in chemistry. </p>
<p>Graduate rankings:
- CalTech
- MIT
- Berkeley
- Harvard
- Stanford
- UIUC
- Northwestern
… - Brown</p>
<p>Thanks for all those replied 
I guess i will narrow it down to nu and rice. Since i may feel lonely away from home i want friendly and aceepting social atmosphere… more family like… well this may depend on how i do in college but i heard rice is extraordinarily good in those settings. I want to hear more about the social scene and atmosphere at those two schools especially nu since i havent heard much of it.</p>
<p>“According to my search online, Washu and Rice seem to have relatively good social life and buildings/facilities. I especially like Rice’s residential college system. But right now, I can’t ignore Brown’s name value and reputation.”</p>
<p>These 4 are all equal prestige as far as I’m concerned. Brown doesn’t have “greater prestige overall.”. It simply has greater prestige in the northeast, as do NU and WashU in the Midwest, as does Rice in the south. All are fine choices and all will open more than enough doors for you. People outside the US often mistakenly think the Ivies are the ultimate and everything else is second-tier, but they are misinformed. Good luck!</p>