Rice, to me, is the outlier of these schools. First, it’s about 50% kids from Texas, and it’s in Texas. If that’s not an issue for you, all the kids we know who are there (all in engineering) like it a lot, everyone loves the residential system, but everyone also comments that it’s very hard. And, these were top kids, top stats, from a fairly well respected private school. They’re “regular” kids, not “quirky,” whatever that means (though not the alpha jock type). Lots of kids from the school go on for PhDs. I think it’s less pre-professional than the other 2.
Since he checks all the boxes his essays will determine whether or not he is admitted. Somehow he needs to articulate how and why his ED school is a great match for him.
I would say there absolutely is a wide range of students. My daughter is not “quirky” either. She also likes very mainstream music, ran cross county in high school, figure skated, etc. Nothing really out of the ordinary. Like I said, people like to use that term to describe Rice kids but I think it’s more that they are really diverse and open to differences. There is no pressure to be a certain way to fit in.
@cptofthehouse - Thank you for your analysis. We are still just 48 hours home after seeing these schools and he’s now deep into schoolwork, etc. Hopefully this weekend will provide him some time to think and reflect on the schools and help him make an informed decision.
@thumper1 - yes, one would think with his stats he’d have a shot at all three of these schools but who knows!
@havenoidea - the stats I’ve seen show about 40-43% from TX. NW has 32% from IL and another 10-15% from midwest which I see as somewhat comparable. He really likes the idea of the residential system/a more egalitarian structure than frats, selective clubs (like at Georgetown), etc. And Rice rates high on Niche in so many categories.
@CU123 - he’s completed his Duke and NW supplements and they’re pretty strong. Hasn’t started Rice yet since it wasn’t a front runner until we visited.
@PrdMomto1 - your daughter sounds like one of my son’s female friends! “… really diverse and open differences” and “There is no pressure to be a certain way to fit it” is so important especially given the challenges our country faces today.
Hey, I live in Chapel Hill and have friends who are professors at Duke. The wealth/privilege thing is very real at Duke according to my professor friends who see it in the classroom. It is certainly a different feel on campus there than at UNC. If he thinks the “Cameron Crazies” are funny and clever, Duke might be a good fit for him. If he thinks they are obnoxious and arrogant then not so much. Durham is a great city, btw. We love it.
@dogmomof2 : Please take the Niche website with a bit caution.
I visit about twice a year. Just checked Northwestern University. Lots of erroneous information. For example: The ridiculous list of overlap schools & the list of schools most like (or most similar to) Northwestern University are twice listed on Niche as:
Loyola-Chicago
U. Chicago
Northern Illinois
Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
DePaul
Bradley
Roosevelt University
This is just a made-up hack job of schools located in geographic proximity of Northwestern University. None of these schools are similar to or most like NU.
Majority of information, however, did seem reasonable. For Duke: Concern about crime and location (Durham) I know to be true.
With respect to Northwestern University, I suspect that a Niche editor confused Northwestern University in Evanston with either Northwestern College in Iowa or with Northwestern Michigan College.
The primary differences, in my opinion, between Duke & NU are the academic calendars (semesters versus quarters), location (Upper Midwest v. South), and weather.
A four course quarter system academic calendar at an academically elite school such as Northwestern University is very likely to produce a more stressful environment than a traditional 5 course semester system due to the need to stay constantly busy. The upside is that students can take a wider variety & greater number of courses leading to double or triple majors.
Campus cultures are different at Northern (NU) versus Southern (Duke) universities.
What will be best for your son is a personal decision. It may be Rice. It may be Duke. It may be Northwestern.
P.S. The private schools in Iowa need to become a bit more creative with respect to the naming of private colleges. Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa & Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa could have been a little more original in naming their schools. But, if even a few college apps get misdirected…
I know all three schools well, and love them all. A matter of personal preference and if there are specialty interests as which is the best. Thepeopleb I know who have gone to those schools I believe would have been as happy at the others. Weather a lot colder in Chicago area is a striking thing. NW and Rice are in major cities. I don’t think most students will go wrong on a pick from the bunch.
But many kids harbor a preference. My youngest was trying to decide between two schools that he professed he loved equally and wanted to ED to one of them but could not decide on which one. Finally, upon telling him to pick the most likely to get selected one, he realized he preferred the other. After all that , a last college trip had him change his mind completely. He fell in love with a third school, and that one was the real thing. He knew without any doubt he wanted to go there and did not want to play games to get into a more selective school, etc. Applied ED, was accepted and was done. Had a great 4 years there.
Re: “Campus cultures are different at Northern (NU) versus Southern (Duke) universities.”
Won’t dispute this, but most kids at Duke are not from the South. Might be true of Rice, though.
1 Like
At Duke the typical course load is 4 courses during the semester.
@Sweetgum - I appreciate your perspective as a local. Durham was really quiet when we visited in August but we liked the small city. However, even the guy I met who owned a bakery I visited encouraged me to have him look at UNC as he thinks the Duke kids are entitled, etc… And good point about the school spirit - I’ll bring that up to him.
@Publisher - thanks for pointing out the errors on Niche. I’ve mostly been looking at the subjective ratings/grades, etc. but still hard to take as fact when it’s based on a handful of responses.
@cptofthehouse - even though we’re from Boston, the cold weather at NW isn’t appealing. And I like your strategy for how you helped your child decide. Which school did he/she choose? And how was the experience?
@mom1720 - thank you for clarifying!
I think the diversity was one of the things that drew my daughter to Rice. Most schools these days are fairly diverse but because the was the residential college system is set up I think they maybe interact with a more diverse group than they might in different circumstances. My daughter’s orientation group was quite a mix of races and cultures. She texted us about 2 weeks in about how fun it was to learn about everyone’s cultures and experiences. We are from the an area in the upper Midwest that is not particularly diverse.
Good luck to your son! He really can’t make a bad choice. I wish we could have gotten my daughter to apply ED. Instead she made her decision about 24 hours before the deadline. It was a long process!
@PrdMomto1 - It’s so reassuring to hear that your daughter’s experience reflects what we’ve read about Rice with regard to diversity.
And I know there’s still only a small chance he’ll be accepted to any of these schools ED, but it’s been so helpful to hear everyone’s input. Thank you!
A family member has been on staff at Duke for almost thirty years and has recently made similar observations to those shared by @Sweetgum in post #45.
@yauponredux - thanks for your input!
If you son would be happy at any of those 3 schools, he would have a lot better chance of getting into Rice than Duke or NU. Rice is not a top choice for most students in the NE. When my friend’s son was applying to schools, a Rice admission person asked their college counselor to “push” few students to do ED at Rice. In exchange, they would give their school’s students special considerations. My friend’s son went to an elite prep school in NYC.
I am a big fan of Cornell. 
In my extended family, we have 4 kids who graduated from Cornell with another 3 SOs from Cornell. So take what I say with a grain of salt…NU, Duke and Cornell are peer schools. D1 was accepted to both Cornell and Duke, and a relative’s D was accepted to Cornell, Duke and NU the same year. D1 chose Cornell and our relative’s D chose NU. Both of them loved their experiences. For your son it comes down to location, his major, and his chance of getting in. The bottom line is your son will get a great education at any of those schools.
My plug for Cornell is they have 8 schools. Students are able to take classes in all 8 schools, and transfer between the schools are not difficult. When it comes to job recruiting, most postings are open to all students, not just for Business, Hotel, A&S…students. If you look at their Covid management, they have all students back on campus. Cornell tests all UG students 2-3 times a week and they have .02% infection rate. My understanding is both Rice and Duke are also doing good job at controlling Covid on campus. My nephews and my daughters all belonged to Greek life and they had a great time. They have all since graduated, 3 of them are in investment banking and 1 is about to graduate from a law school.
@oldfort - Thanks so much for your helpful response. I totally agree with you about Rice not being a top choice for kids from NE - no one has ever applied ED to Rice from my son’s prep school whereas there are always a few apps to NW, Duke and all the other more “popular” places. But my son is not one to follow the crowd so maybe Rice is right for him.
I actually just did a virtual tour of Cornell last week and really liked it. My friend’s son is very happy there and it checks all the boxes besides being near a major city. However my son is tired of winter and so it’s a hard sell for ED. The cold weather is also why NW is less appealing. I do think he should strongly consider adding it to his regular list as he’s now crossed off Georgetown and Penn after seeing WashU and liking it more than the previously mentioned schools.
My daughter is a sophomore at Rice and has had a very similar experience as @PrdMomto1’s daughter. She absolutely loves it there - and couldn’t wait to go back as soon as campus reopened in August. (As an aside, we have continually been impressed with their thorough COVID plans and protocols - very well thought out and very transparent and communicative.)
Rice, Northwestern and Wash U were DD’s top picks - and she decided to ED to Rice and got in. She’s not “quirky” either - just a high achieving, motivated young woman. She has really found her tribe at Rice which makes her happy! She is studying mechanical engineering and is active in Rice’s rocketry club.
Good luck to your son with his decision!
While its true that Rice is likely less familiar to students in the NE, it may not be true that a student has much of a better chance of admission due to geographic diversity, coming from the NE.
Back in 2004, David Lebron came in as the new president of Rice U, and after his “call to conversation”, ultimately announced that they planned to enlarge the undergraduate population by about 30% over several years, from about 2800ish to about 3600ish https://v2c2.rice.edu/v2c/size (is now almost 4000 undergrads). So yes, back then, over several years, admissions perhaps may have made a greater effort to reach out to top high schools and encourage students to apply. I can’t recall how many years it took to increase the undergraduate population, but in the process they built 2 more residential colleges to handle the increased undergraduate population.
So back then (starting in 2005 or so) they did have a purposeful increase in admissions #s , but I believe that is long over. For the record, my DS#1 entered Rice in fall of 2004, and this all happened after he enrolled, when Lebron came on as the new president.