Comparing physical sciences programs: UMD Honors vs UT Austin Dean's Scholars vs Rice

I am a high school senior who is planning on majoring in the physical sciences (chemistry). So far, I have been accepted into Rice University, University of Maryland Honors, and UT Austin Dean’s Scholars program. If anyone has experience with these programs and could give me some insight into how these are regarded in the academic and professional worlds, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time.

I see from your thread you got deferred from Princeton SCEA, how did u get your result from Rice then?

I wondered the same thing. Rice RD does not release until late March. Some URMs were invited to a fly in program. Perhaps the poster is counting the invite to the fly in as a likely letter type acceptance.

Rice and UT are slightly stronger in chemistry but Maryland is very good too. Rice is a lot smaller than the others. Every student can easily get a research project at Rice. You have to be a top student at UT Austin to get research assignments in the top chemistry labs there, but possible for undergrads.

@iwantcollegeplz @Houston1021 I was invited to Rice’s VISION program for the class of 2023. From what I’ve gathered, so long as I don’t bomb my grades/break the law between now and the decision date, I’ll get in.

This explains that VISION at Rice is a program for URM that makes it very likely that those candidates will get admitted. Its similar to a likely letter at an Ivy school.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/2120175-rice-vision-2023.html