Hi, I’m trying to decide between Grinnell and Rice.
Here’s my dilemma: I decided pretty late in the college process that I really wanted to go to a liberal arts college, but, by that time, I had already submitted a bunch of applications to mostly medium sized universities (including Rice), so last minute I just applied to a handful of liberal arts colleges (Grinnell being one of them). I fell in love with almost everything about the college over the past three months, except for the rural location and the brutal winters, which I’m afraid will be stifling and depressing. But, I loved enough about Grinnell (ie campus culture, community, major/course selection, research opportunities, open curriculum, etc) that I was pretty much set on going there … until I got into Rice. And it’s $13K less a year than Grinnell (Grinnell $43K, Rice $30K). So pretty much $50K more to go to Grinnell over 4 years, which is … a lot, obviously.
Rice is amazing, and I love a lot about it—the intellectualism on campus, the rigor, quirky students, sense of happiness, the residential colleges, etc. It also is relatively urban and warm, so that’s a plus. Out of comparable national universities, it seemed the closest to a liberal arts college you could get because of its size. HOWEVER, the one thing holding me back from committing to Rice is that its humanities and social sciences are lacking. I want to major in either history or anthropology, and it seems Rice isn’t very strong in either of those areas. I looked at the course catalogue and it seemed Rice had a good amount of history offerings each semester (…but not so much anthropology). I’m worried, though, that I’ll lack opportunities for research and internships in comparison to engineering/science, there won’t be good career advising or a solid alumni network for non-stem careers, and that the sense of STEM elitism among the students will be discouraging. I’ve heard VERY mixed reviews about non-STEM subjects at Rice. Some say it’s great because of small classes and close faculty attention, others say they lack resources and aren’t prestigious.
If anyone has any advice, that’d be great because I honestly don’t know what to do.
I graduated from Rice in 1993, so my experience and knowledge is ANCIENT at this point, but I will say that I was a fine arts/art history major and never once did I feel like the non-STEM subjects were lacking in any way at Rice. It was a truly special place and I would go back there in a heartbeat. Edit to add: Congrats on getting in to Rice! I don’t think I’d stand a chance today! LOL
Based on your interests, I think Grinnell would make the better academic match for you. Your challenge arises, it seems, from a sense of confinement in not having several carefully selected liberal arts colleges from which to choose.
I do actually have acceptances from 4 other liberal arts colleges and waitlists at 3 others. However, all I’ve been accepted to so far are $43K or more. Rice’s financial aid offer was far and away the best, and out of the liberal arts colleges I got into, I liked Grinnell the best.
Grinnell remains a fine choice. You will need to consider whether you remain decisive in your preference for its undergraduate focus, notably strong academic programs in your areas of interest, sense of community and distinctive culture.
Why don’t you contact Rice and ask if you can speak to someone from the departments you are interested in - faculty and/or students? When we visited Rice a couple of years ago, we were offered the opportunity to hear from two professors in the History department, who talked about their work and the department. it was very impressive, and I never had the sense the school is in any sense weak in non-STEM areas. My son was, like you, interested in LACs, but we visited Rice while we were in Texas for other reasons. In the end, he did not apply, in part because he wanted to be involved in sports and D1 was not an option for him, but I agree with your sense that Rice is as close as you can get to an LAC in a major research university. Among other things, I felt the residential college system would help in creating a sense of community in a larger school. I was also really taken with the neighborhood. I had never been to Houston before, and I guess I had an image of tall buildings full of people doing oil deals, but in person it was very dynamic, very diverse, and there are lots of interesting shops and restaurants within walking distance. I think it would be a terrific place to spend four years.
You can’t go wrong with either choice. As far as Grinnell is concerned since they meet full need and went loan free this coming year, I would contact their financial aid office and see if they will improve their offer. Also, yes it’s rural but the town is lovely and the college is very diverse with students from all over the world. My son did spend a semester abroad which is common, he did Grinnell in London, so he had both a taste of Europe and the comfort of other Grinnell students and professors. Lastly, some Grinnell winters are brutal, he experienced a historic cold period while their, but with that said, he wore the winter coat I insisted he bring less then 10 times in 4 years.
I would reach out to professors in your fields of interest at both colleges, both schools will give you “intellectualism on campus, the rigor, quirky students …” .
Completely agree with your description of Rice as the closest you can get to a LAC at a research university. Let me make the point with numbers. Rice currently has an undergrad enrollment of 4000, of which 40% are engineers. That’s 1600 engineers + 100 more architecture students. That leaves 2300 in arts & science + music. That’s the size of your typical LAC. The engineers are irrelevant. It’s not like you’ll be in the same classes with them.
There are other ways in which Rice is like a LAC. There will be no large lecture halls and no instruction by TAs. Rice has a teacher:student ratio as low as the best LACs in the country. There will be small classes and close contact with professors.
In my experience, everything Rice does is with quality, so I expect that their arts & science programs are high quality. One way to check is to look up the professors in any department you’re interested in. Where did they get their degrees? What have they published? I wouldn’t judge by course descriptions because different schools deliver the same content in different ways. And an inspiring professor can make all the difference regardless of the course title.
TKOparent, your advice is excellent to call admissions and ask them to set up calls with faculty and students from the department you’re interested in. Rice will most definitely do that. These are not sales people; they will answer your questions honestly. I would be frank with them about your dilemma about choosing between Rice and a nationally recognized LAC which seems to have more to offer in anthropology. They won’t bash any LAC, but they will clarify their strengths and what they have to offer.
Finally, if a students sticks with history of anthropology, the specialization isn’t going to happen on the undergrad level. If graduate school is in a student’s future, that $52,000 saved will come in handy to pay future tuition.
I really like Grinnell and don’t care about the whether, so I can appreciate the dilemma. But at the price offered, Rice is a bargain that would be really hard for me to pass up
Those are both great schools. I find it hard to believe that Rice wouldn’t have excellent professors in your area of interest. And $50,000 is a lot of money. But, if your family can comfortably afford it, you will love Grinnell. I honestly wouldn’t worry about the weather. Grinnell has a high retention rate and students are happy.
Furthermore, Grinnell has a HUGE endowment. I would contact them with the offer Rice gave you and see if they can improve your offer. I am betting they will. Good luck.
Are you familiar with Houston? Houston is a diverse city with many cultural amenities. The area around Rice is very nice with good access to museums and parks. The restaurant scene is amazing. The only real downside is the hot, humid weather although if you aren’t there for the summers you’ll miss the worst of it.
How do your parents feel about the cost? We encouraged our elder to go to his first choice school because we could afford it and we thought it was a better choice than his other options. However, the schools were not as closely matched in quality, as least as perceived by us.
@Sarah999999 Both of my kids applied to medium sized universities and LACs during their college searches. They each have their pros and cons and there really is no bad choice. If you are feeling called to attend a LAC and your parents can afford the difference, then you are very fortunate. If it would cause a significant financial strain, that’s a different matter.
What I would encourage you to do now is to do a really deep dive into each school’s academic offerings. Go to the anthropology and history websites and read the course descriptions - do they excite you? Are there particular histories/regions of the world that interest you? Check out the professors’ areas of research to see if they line up with your interests. This is an area where you might perceive the potential downside of a smaller LAC. There are fewer faculty and the tempting courses in the catalog might not be offered all that regularly. Also if a professor goes on leave for a year or retires or resigns, it may take a year or more to replace them, and that could leave a gap.
BTW, while I can’t speak to Rice’s anthropology department, its history department is superb, prestigious, and has a lot of resources!
Can you ask if Rice’s admissions office can connect you to a current student or students in the humanities/social sciences? They might be able to give you a clearer idea of what it’s like to be studying those fields at a school with a student body that tends towards STEM.
I have one other piece of advice. Relatively isolated, small town LACs tend to have a fair amount of partying. If you are not drawn to partying, you might appreciate Rice’s more urban environment as it will offer many ready alternatives. I’m not saying you won’t find things to do at Grinnell in your spare time. Well-resourced LACs sponsor lots of activities on campus - public speakers and lectures, cultural events, concerts, student clubs, etc. My older kid is not a partier and was very happy at her small town LAC. But as we are still transitioning regarding COVID, it might take awhile for the frequency of those activities to return to normal.
Good luck, you must be very accomplished to have such impressive offers to consider.
Congratulations on having multiple options. During this challenging admission year you can count yourself lucky!
I was an economics major at Rice, but am very familiar with the school of humanities through affiliations I’ve developed over the years. There is a great deal of support - internships, research opportunities and mentoring - with the Rice humanities faculty and departments.
I would encourage you, as other posters have suggested, to reach out to the School of Humanities to ask to speak with a humanities student, a faculty member in your area of interest and find out more about examples of students who have had research projects with faculty and have had internships arranged by the School of Humanities. Take a look at their website to get an idea of the vibrant humanities community (specifically, scroll down to the calendar) https://humanities.rice.edu/
Others have written about the urban environment (museums, live theater, music scene, etc.) which Houston offers outside the hedges of Rice’s campus.
While it should be of little importance to you, the fact that Rice’s reputation puts it among the Top 15-18 year in, year out of USNWR National Research Universities despite its small size tells you that you get the best of both worlds - opportunities/reputation benefits and a liberal arts college feel in a cosmopolitan and diverse city.
You have an interesting choice – a very fine LAC in Iowa, and a very fine private university in Houston.
It is true that Rice is one of the more LACish private universities. About 53.8% of its students are undergrads, which is a higher percentage than some of its peers. (Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Notre Dame, and a few other notable competitors have higher concentrations of undergraduates, but 54% is pretty good for a university.)
The weather, culture, and environment (urban vs. rural…) will be the most pronounced areas of difference between the two schools. Be sure to also look at curriculum requirements and available courses in your area(s) of interest.
Assuming both are affordable, I don’t think you can make a wrong choice here if you make it based on your known preferences.
One other area I neglected to note is Rice’s residential college system (you are assigned to one of 11 residential colleges for the duration of your undergraduate years at Rice). While neither Grinnell nor Rice have a Greek system, the residential college system at Rice is one of the hallmarks of the college experience.
I encourage you to ask the history and anthropology students at Rice you speak with to describe their experiences with the residential college system. Another defining characteristic of Rice that you can decide whether you find appealing or not.
Congratulations on choosing Rice. If you like an urban environment, Rice is in the museum district, the nicest part of Houston. You can jump on the light rail at the campus stop and head to a museum, theater, symphony, or a professional sporting event. While there are more STEM than humanities students at Rice, the humanities offerings are excellent. If you plan to go to grad school, you will have some money in the bank…
Edit to add: Congrats on getting in to Rice! I don’t think I’d stand a chance today! LOL