Emory vs Rice for social sciences

College Search & Selection
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D22 has arrived at her final choice, I think. It’s come down to Emory or Rice. Here’s how we’re weighing –

Location –
We live in Atlanta, so Emory would be super convenient. Even Oxford campus is just over an hour away. This is a HUGE plus – kid is a homebody, many of her friends are staying local, and she’s cautious about what may happen with Covid so thinks close to home would be practical. She’s not keen on TX in general, but Houston seems to be a liberal, diverse pocket so not a deal breaker. It’s an easy direct flight, but still a flight, and she hates to fly (and we live more than an hour from the ATL airport).

Program –
Kid wants to study linguistics and psychology – unsure what she’ll do with that, but grad school for speech language pathology is one possible option. Rice seems more STEM focused but have heard their humanities/social sciences are underrated. Emory is well known for psychology, and they have a dual linguistics/psychology major that the kid has been looking at for years.

Cost –
We’ll be full pay at both schools without loans. The opportunity cost of that much money is steep, of course, but we can swing it. Emory is $5K more expensive, but she’ll get in-state Zell for about that amount – so cost isn’t really a factor.

Social/Vibe/Fit –
Kid LOVED Rice when we toured, and the residential college system is hugely appealing. She’s not into Greek life (Emory does have some). She has an acquaintance at Rice from her high school who is thriving and having the time of her life. We haven’t gotten a good read of what the social culture is like at Emory (or Oxford) – but we’ve heard there’s not much school spirit. Kid does not want big rah rah football, but going with friends to an occasional basketball game wouldn’t be unwelcome.

She must be able to join a choir or singing ensemble of some kind to be happy, and bonus if there are some musical theater opportunities for non-theater-majors.

General Reputation and Prestige --I think Rice might have the edge here? But they’re both great schools.

D22 is an introvert and not a partier. Not an athlete. Small class sizes and geeky discussions are important to her. Her high school is conservative and somewhat homogenous – so she’s looking for more liberal and more diverse. Of course I’d love to keep her close, but I don’t want her to choose Emory just because it feels like the safer choice to stay close to home.

I welcome your thoughts! What are we missing? What’s the tea on dorms, food, all the softer metrics at both schools…

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From all you describe, Rice sounds like a great fit for her: excellent programs; friendly, smart, and diverse students; and lots of school spirit without being too rah rah, as you say. The area it’s in in Houston is beautiful and walkable, with restaurants, museums, and parks right around the corner. I wouldn’t focus too much on specific programs–both schools are great (and yes: humanities and social sciences at Rice are very strong, often with very small classes to boot) and plans change, so to choose by a specific potential major rather than general feel and fit seems a mistake. I don’t think I’ve ever met a Rice grad who didn’t love their time there.

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Rice is the answer - and kids need to grow, etc. But many do homesick - sounds like yours might - and that’s a problem.

On the other hand, being so close, your kid may never grow if they use you as a crutch - so I’d go Rice - but Id be prepared for heartache but will help her grow.

Two great admits. Congrats to her.

What does she want to do after? Most in social sciences will end up low paid or grad school - and in this case the school won’t matter.

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Both universities are excellent and your kid sounds like a good fit for either one.

I agree with the other posters, I would definitely pick Rice. I think it is good for our children to get away from home for college, and you couldn’t find a more welcoming environment than Rice.

I live in Texas. There are strong liberal pockets in Houston, Austin and Dallas. So the current political stereotype of Texas doesn’t really apply to Rice. I do not have any direct connection to Rice.

The area around Rice is very nice. The university culture is wonderful. The residential college system sounds like a great fit for your kid. The students at Rice are known to be (in general) happy.

I can’t say much about Emory, but honestly I think most people would consider Rice to be in a different class slightly above Emory. In my mind, Rice is a peer/overlap with Duke, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. I have a nifty app on my phone that polls applicants comparing which of 2 universities they would choose. It uses real data. I inputted Rice versus Emory and it came out 84% would choose Rice over Emory.

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She can’t go wrong either way. My daughter came down to choosing between Rice and Emory. She attended admitted student days at both and after that knew Rice was the place for her. We live in Houston so I had many of the same feelings you do about keeping her close to home. She chose to go to Rice and was very happy there. We respected her boundaries and treated it as if she were away in another city at school. There is a happy nerd student vibe at Rice. When we visited Emory it seemed more preppy and southern in feel than Rice did. My daughter was not interested in Greek life so the residential college system was a plus for Rice. Emory has Greek life. My daughter double majored in Psychology and English. She loved her psychology classes and professors. She also took some linguistics classes she liked. While STEM majors predominate at Rice, the humanities and social sciences are also excellent. There are lots of singing groups non majors can join. For example, there are over ten acapella groups. There are lots of non major theater opportunities. Rice is very liberal and very diverse. Houston is a big city and very spread out. The part of the City of Houston close to Rice is very “blue.” In Houston the close in areas are “inside the loop.” The loop is like I-285 but closer in than the perimeter in ATL is. The far flung suburbs tend to be more “red.” I am from ATL and I also love the area around Emory. The area around Rice has many shops and restaurants in the Rice Village, and the students can walk from the campus to the shopping area. Rice has Division 1 sports, but most of the students do not attend many of the sporting events. My daughter was friends with some soccer players so she attended their games to support them. If your daughter is apprehensive about flying to Rice, it is very easy to take the Marta train to the airport from North Atlanta and jump on a Southwest flight to Hobby airport. Hobby is a smaller airport. It is a short Uber ride from close in Hobby airport to campus. There is another, bigger airport an hour north of campus called Bush/IAH. United is the main carrier there. Let us know what she decides. Congratulations on your daughter having 2 super choices.

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Another vote for Rice. I used to live near the campus. The West U area is beautiful, and the residential college system at Rice is quite unique.

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Guess I will pipe in from the other side. I went to Emory ATL from Dunwoody. I lived on campus and rarely came home. Yes Emory has Greek life but it isn’t something you have to do. As for school spirit. I attended a couple of soccer games, basketball games and a track meet while there because I could. I went to Dooley events and played club sports. I majored in bio and religion and was in the wind ensemble. I mostly did volunteer clubs and loved my time. Flash forward to 2020 and my son choose to go to Oxford and next year ATlanta. He wanted the little campus with the 25 people in the class. I now live in Miami. He wanted to know family was around but not on top of him and my family is still in Dunwoody. In his first year they thought he had appendicitis. Oxford wanted him at an ER but don’t want the regional hospital up there. They would have taken him on a shuttle to Atlanta if needed but my dad made the drive and Emory St Joes took care of him. Emory Oxford sent along the records so he didn’t have to go through another day of Covid testing. He loves it. He is majoring in psyche and music. He is in Oxford Chorale and enjoying performing with them. Though he is Jewish he was recruited from the chorale and hired to sing at Allen Methodist Church located on campus but for the community. He receives a $750 scholarship per semester for this and is enjoying it. He is in Ox_Broadway and is the music director. He was elected VP but the Pres disappeared so now he is that. In normal years they do a music review in the fall and a musical in the spring. He got to do the two reviews but no musical due to Covid.

In other words she can do certainly have a good fit at Emory too. She also can define her own independence even though near home with the advantage of having the inside knowledge of what to do around town. Both schools are wonderful and she can be successful at. She needs to go with the one that feels right. I was also set to go Case Western. My dad even wrote the check and then I realized I wanted to be in Atlanta. He threw out check one and wrote check two. It was the right thing for me. Truth is if CWRU was in Atlanta and the two were switched it would have been CWRU.

Go with her gutt on what feels right for her.

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I think that academically and overall, Rice and Emory are peers. Rice is the swanky private school in Houston, while Emory is the swanky one in Atlanta. They’re like Wash U in St. Louis, Vandy in Nashville, Georgetown in DC, CMU in Pittsburgh – very close in quality and peers in every sense.

That said, they have different academic strengths. Rice is known much more for STEM, while Emory is known more for Business, Pre-Med (freaking CDC is minutes away), and humanities/social sciences. There probably isn’t a subpar program at either school, but these are what they are known for.

If she wants to stay home, she should pick Emory. If she wants space and a different city/environment, Rice is the call. Assuming both are affordable, of course.

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My daughter goes to Rice so I am biased and have little personal knowledge about Emory so I won’t jump in with any comparison but I do want to mention the distance. I get it! I would classify my daughter as a social introvert who definitely tends to be a homebody. Her biggest concern before choosing Rice was the distance. Her other final options were in driving distance of home but since we are from Wisconsin, Rice was a flight and seemed far away. We talked alot about it and promised she could come home when needed and we would visit her occasionally too. Freshman year she came home for mid-term recess and we visited once for parents weekend first semester and she came home for Thanksgiving. Those visits seemed to be enough for her to feel connected to home. Plus we talked to her a LOT. Covid happened so that messed things up but now it seems that she does well if we visit for a few days each semester. She tends to want to stay with friends for breaks and they have been taking fun road trips. We were just there last week for her birthday and after being with friends over Spring Break she was ready for a break and spent a lot of time with us including a night in our hotel room. It’s not always easy but more than 1/2 the students from Rice are from out of state which means many stay over breaks and holidays. Rice does a nice job supporting the out of state kids and they handled covid well. The residential college system is nice because each college has multiple sets of adults living there so you feel like your kids have someone watching over them and who they can turn to if there is a problem. The magisters of my daughters college have the kids to their house (the magisters always live right next to the college) for special fun events or study breaks and there are 2 RA’s (a couple and another faculty member) who both have apartments in the college and they host events as well. I know that if I was worried about my daughter I could contact them for help. For my daughter, it’s been a good experience and I would say she’s grown up a lot and it’s been good for her to have some distance from us. If she was too close to home I’m afraid she would have relied on us too much. But that’s just her - others handle it fine.

Congrats on her excellent choices!

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Rice!

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Congratulations to your D! I’d try to visit both during accepted student day and let her decide.

Just a quick anecdote about attending college close to home…
After touring colleges up and down the East Coast my S ended up at a college that was 20 minutes from our home. It was the best for his major, he got the most merit aid, he loved the campus etc. However, before he finalized his choice we sat down and had a talk. We (parents) agreed to never “pop by” campus, to not expect him home other than school holidays, and to treat him as if he were hours rather than minutes away. He (son) agreed not to use being close to home as a crutch – no coming home for laundry, dinners etc. We all kept to our bargain and things worked out great – he had a full and happy on campus life and he explored the city in new and exciting ways (we live in the suburbs/the college was in the city). And yes…once in a while it was helpful (ex. when his laptop died I was able to drop off an old laptop for him to use while his was being fixed, he was able to get home for a school break even though it was snowing etc.). So anyway…this is a long-winded way of saying that going to college close to home can work out well for everyone IF the close to home option does turn out to be the best option.

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can’t go wrong with either one- nice choices and both are good fits for your kid. both are liberal progressive enclaves and both are in big cities but with safe and pretty campuses.

my daughter is at Emory (2nd year). she loves it and is an enthusiastic official tour guide there. Greek life is there if you want it (she is involved) but certainly not overwhelming. kids rarely go out or party except for Thursday through Saturday, and rarely all 3 nights. she and her friends take advantage of Atlanta restaurants, clubs, sporting events, parks, etc pretty regularly.

there is not traditional sports-related school spirit, for sure. but kids love their school and it seems like half or more are wearing Emory clothes on campus. it is not Southern and preppy- if anything it’s pretty much a New York school that happens to be in the South. and it is very diverse for a school of it’s caliber.

I do agree that Rice is probably a notch above in terms of academics- meaning average SAT score of applicants, admission rate, and ranking. Not sure any of that really matters, but if one is chasing prestige, I would say Rice wins there.

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I don’t think those things have much to do with academic quality or prestige.

(Well, prestige has a little bit to do with rankings, but you have to decide whether – and to what degree – you agree with the methodology.)

They’re four spots apart in USNews – that’s insignificant. They’re peers with different academic strengths.

Prestige, to me, has as much or more to do with historical greatness/achievement than it has to do with rankings. Also, international “university/PhD” rep can bleed into US “college” rep, though I think that typically has a bigger impact on the powerhouse state schools.

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I fully agree these are not markers of academic strength- just prestige. But there is a reason that most people pick rice over emory if they have the choice- and I think that reason is largely the prestige factor.

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I disagree on peer but agree both are top level. To me Rice is a clear level above. Both lack name recognition nationally but Emory more so.

One may say they are close in rankings but Florida is tied with UNC and close to Michigan. No one thinks it’s on the same level.

That said, fit matters most in nearly any case and especially this. Going to any school that is not right for you is just bad.

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I base mine mainly on perceived academic strength overall. Both Rice and Emory are well known in different areas – Rice in STEM and Emory in business and hum/SS areas. And, of course, pre-med/epidemiology/health care mgmt.

Maybe Emory’s marketing department needs to kick it up a notch. hehe

Florida is the oddball because their academic rep is far below other top state schools, and even some state schools ahead of whom they are ranked (like Wisconsin, Illinois, Washington, Texas…). They’ve risen in the rankings in spite of a relatively small research budget comparative to Mich/Wis/Berkeley/Washington et al., lower academic rep, fewer highly ranked grad and PhD programs, etc.

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The main selling point for Rice back in the day was the relatively low tuition (likely given all the oil money). Don’t know if that’s still the case?

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From Rice’s website – they say $74110 all-in: tuition, r&b, fees, books, and even $2800 for personal expenses.

Emory says theirs is $78896

$4800 is $4800 I suppose.

That’s before any aid of course.

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Many comments about Rice being known fir STEM - and it is. 40% of the students are engineers and architects. But that means that 60% are something else.

My GD goes to Rice from Boston & loves it. My impression is that everything they do, they do first class. That applies to Arts & Science as well as engineering & tech, meaning that A&S has outstanding faculty just as much as STEM does. (Presidential scholar, Douglas Brinkley, for example, is at Rice.)

My GD is an Econ major; this summer she will be studying at the London School of Economics, sponsored by Rice. One of the many fringe benefits. She’s been able to step into leadership positions in her chosen ECs and has made good friends. It’s been everything she hoped it would be despite Covid, which Rice has handled exceptionally well - at least according to the write up in The NY Times.

No personal connection to Emory, so nothing to add to what’s been said. Two excellent choices.

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I think this decision could easily go either way, and a lot of the reasons I’m hearing don’t sound that compelling.

As for it being necessary to go farther away for the sake of growth… I think the only time that really needs to be a thing is when the student’s home/family situation is either a negative or just lacking in boundaries. If everyone is able to respect the student’s space and independence, and the student commits to being fully immersed in school except on planned breaks or in the case of true emergencies, then a nearby school can be great, and can be much less “same old same old” than most people expect it will be. The same city can feel very different with a new context, a new peer group, and a new level of independence. With connectivity the way it is, there are plenty of students who are a continent away from their parent(s) and still way too enmeshed; and conversely there are students who are in the same town and still have their own space and independence.

As for reputation… sure, Rice is an amazing school, but I can’t see how it would be more prominent than Emory if it weren’t for its engineering school. Emory doesn’t have engineering, but is still extremely well-respected for the strength of its programs. If we’re talking USNWR, does it really make sense to quibble over #17 vs. #21? Just so you can claim “T20?” I really don’t think this is a good reason to choose Rice, either. Choose Rice - or Emory - because you like the school better, because its programs are a better fit, because one social vibe just resonates more - whatever your reasons are. But a 4-place increment in ranking or whatever measure of “prestigiosity”… I just don’t think the differences are meaningful.

Major-wise, the psych+linguistics major at Emory does sound good. There’s also the quantitative social sciences program which is phenomenal.

The program at Rice that comes closest to psych+ling is the Cognitive Science major. My daughter did this major and would not choose it again if she had it to do over. She felt it was an “orphan” program, with no faculty for whom advising/mentoring CogSci students was their first priority. Responsibility for the program was too diffusely split up among multiple departments. She liked her psych and ling classes but didn’t find the program cohesive enough, and ultimately wished that her minor (sociology) had been her major. She was also a singer in high school who hoped to join an ensemble in college, but the choices were the formal non-major ensemble that always conflicted with her classes (a friend’s daughter said the same about the non-major orchestra), and a cappella groups (which was never her preferred style). So she never ended up doing music in college, which was sad to me. I don’t know much about the choral options at Emory, and I don’t know whether my daughter’s experience would have gone differently there or at any other school, but I do know that I’ve heard multiple stories of non-major musicians at Rice who never ended up engaging the way they thought they would.

All that said, Rice is a great school. The residential college system is terrific. The classes for the most part are top-notch. (There are of course duds at every school.) But I do not see your decision as a no-brainer at all. Emory seems to offer everything your daughter is looking for. Whatever makes the difference between the two will be in the details, not any clear big-picture differential between Emory and Rice. They’re both 100% worthy of committing to.

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