<p>Pros:
Best ranking, most selective.
Beautiful campus.
Music minor option.</p>
<p>Cons:
Little Race/Class Interaction
Town-Gown Relations Are Strained
Jock School</p>
<p>Northwestern:</p>
<p>Pros:
ISP program
City, close to home</p>
<p>Cons:
Town-Gown Relations Are Strained
Bad weather</p>
<p>Rice:</p>
<p>Pros:
No Loans, merit scholarships
Town-Gown Relations Are Great
Best Quality Of Life
Lots of Race/Class Interaction
5:1 student ratio
Excellent music facilities</p>
<p>Cons:
Not sure of any blatant ones yet </p>
<p>I don't know for sure what I want to study yet...but I would like to minor in music.</p>
<p>I had to come to a similar decision, albeit with much different cirumstances. If you're interested in music, I do know the Shepherd Music School is world class-but quite picky with who they choose to work with. After visiting the Duke and Rice campuses, I felt that Duke was everything I could possibly want in a college- a more rounded college experience, an absolutely beautiful campus, and the high prestige of a Duke degree. Rice provides all three to a lesser extent, in my opinion. Ultimately, go with your gut feel, and dont look back. I turned in my deposit today for Duke, and I feel great.</p>
<p>well, the UG experience of a 5:1 ration is awesome, thats what i love about Rice!! (P.S The weather and place rocks too.. NW is freezing cold and Duke is in NC.. and NC is well,... um... u know just NC)</p>
<p>I have no personal experience with Northwestern, but I'm familiar with Duke and Rice.</p>
<p>I'd say it depends on your major. I attended UNC - so I have my own Duke bias, but took my daughter there to visit fully expecting to be wowed. It's certainly beautiful, but my daughter was totally unimpressed with them. Lots of talk about Krzyzewskiville and wireless lampposts, but little of substance about the engineering program. She has several friends at Duke - but she chose Rice and absolutely loves it there.</p>
<p>I would say visit both (Rice and Duke), talk to students there, and get a feel for it. My impression of Duke (from a friend in the engineering program) is that it's quite a bit more stressful than Rice. There's more competition and focus on grades. Rice is very laid back and people are very much willing to take time out of their own activities to help you, as are professors. Even pre-med competition here is practically non-existant (from my own experiences.)</p>
<p>Again that's only from one friend (and he's a bit high strung and prone to competition to begin with), but seriously visit and go with whichever has the better feel to you.</p>
<p>yea one thing that i like about rice is how peole help each other saw much. a physics major told me...the proffesor had given them a problem about the magnetic field caused by a sphere that took like 20 hours to solve and he told me that everybody helped eachother with itn</p>
<p>5 members of immediate family (1 bioengineer) graduated from Duke. One is bioengineer at Rice. Undergraduate education is excellent at Duke, but Rice is in a league of its own.</p>