<p>I’m only a junior, but I recently visited both Emory and Rice. My impressions:</p>
<p>Rice: beautiful! I sat in maybe about a 100 person Intro Bio class, and the teacher was funny, engaging, and really seemed to know his stuff. Class participation was encouraged, and everybody was paying attention and knew answers to the questions he asked.</p>
<p>Emory: I loved the people there, however, I did think that there was a contingent of their student body that wasn’t as focused on academics as that of Rice. I sat in on a Freshman Seminar dealing with Economics in the European Union, and almost the entire class (13ish people?) hadn’t done any of their homework and were unprepared for class. When the teacher asked questions, the whole awkward-silence-while-everyone-looks-at-each-other ensued. Nobody seemed willing to contribute.</p>
<p>Just my impressions. I realize that these were two very different classes with two groups of students that may or may not be representative of the two schools. Just my observations.</p>
<p>I also didn’t mean to exclude Colgate. I love, love, LOVE Colgate from the people I have met and the research I’ve done (we’re officially visitng in the summer). The Colgate 13 came to our school and I had some time with them–they were all very open, very warm, very friendly, and didn’t look/act like we were insane, despite my friend and I (a sophomore and junior respectively) tracking them down in a senior boys’ dorm at ten at night. :)</p>