<p>Haha yeah I definitely prefer to be in a place where it hits the 80s in December...plus there's no texmex in NY which would just be a downer.</p>
<p>THERE IS A TEXMEX IN NYC!!! Believe me, I live there.
But I'm still going to Rice (:</p>
<p>What constitutes quality tex-mex anywhere north of Dallas is verrrry different from what is considered good in south/central Texas ;)</p>
<p>I don't think I've ever heard someone claim that Cornell is better for engineering, though I have heard that argument made for Columbia. I turned down both, along with UPenn, Berkeley, Olin, and UT Honors for Rice in terms of program quality, turned down MIT because it was completley unaffordable and they didn't let me know that I got in until June. Then again, I'm a BioE, which is a little different from mainstream engineering...so I'd say take a look at the programs you're interested in majoring in first.</p>
<p>And someone brought up Indonesia...I've got a suitemate and a good friend from there haha, in the same college too.</p>
<p>Whoa, wait wait wait, silentsailor, you turned down Olin too??? Like, are we the same person, maybe, a little? Were you candidate's weekend #2? I went to #1. And yeah. cool.</p>
<p>[/thread hijacking]</p>
<p>THAT'S CRAZY!!! Especially considering how few people know about/applied to Olin. I went to the 2nd candidates weekend, though. I think the school'll be really great in 10 or so years but I couldn't put up being somewhere so small, haha...I kept telling my mother "what if I don't like ANYONE?!", lol.</p>
<p>But yeah, crazy/awesome. And I miss you Hanszen kids...haven't hung out over there for any considerable amount of time since GS's last party...which doesn't even really count because I can't remember most of it.</p>
<p>Yeah, ditto on the Olin size thing. It'd basically be like going to school with only on-campus Hanszenites, which is a little unfathomable. But it really is an awesome place, and a couple times this semester during my like 150-person physics and chem classes I paused and thought "hmm, I wonder what Olin's like..." But anyway, I think ~3000 undergrads is pretty much ideal, so it's all good. </p>
<p>And haha, yeah, that's how GS parties generally go. :P</p>
<p>Classes should get smaller soon: I just asked my son and he said that this semester he had 15 or so fellow students in a Spanish class, 30 (then dropped to about 25) in Chem Eng. class, 7 in one Engineering elective and 9 in the other. (He is a sophomore.) He says the intro basic science classes are pretty big (calc, bio, chem, etc) but that changes very soon. :)</p>
<p>who cares what people think. Employers know rice.</p>
<p>i just had a discussion with my dad today and he said that he preferred UTexas-austin to Rice (OMG)</p>
<p>I told him about how good Rice is, but he still didn't understand just because UT is above Rice in US news engineering rankings: engineering (overall) and computer engineering. and yes, i'm taking computer engineering. </p>
<p>please help me with some good and convincing reasons!</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>If you look above you will see 100 reasons to attend Rice. You might want to read that and then pass it on to him. :-) Good luck! Rice graduates get top notch jobs and the quality of life is far better than in a large school.</p>
<p>Well, UIUC and Michigan are ranked higher than HYP in the US news engineering rankings...So, ask him if he will still force you to attend those two schools instead of HYP. It's the same kinda argument here. Although Rice isn't ranked highly in engineering, but because of the much smaller student body it has, you will be able to get more personal attention from your professors. btw...the ratio of UT Austin student body vs Rice student body is almost 10:1...so, you decide. Plus...do you know that ANY texas high school ppl can get into UT Austin as long as they are in the top 10% of their graduating classes? And after taking those SAT2 tests...you wanna end up in UT Austin...pls ask your father to rethink again. BTW, what I did when my dad didnt allow me to go to WashU was, I called his best friend whom he respects the most and asked him to persuade my father. =) I hope this helps.
Btw, even though I'm not an Owl, I think you will love the school. Cos I know it's like WashU, minus the bad winter. Gosh...I wish I had applied to Rice back then.</p>
<p>Maybe your father's concern is really financial ...</p>
<p>Indeed. Are you applying for financial aid? If your family makes under $80k, you have nothing to worry about. Even up to $120k your expected contribution will be pretty small (probably about 20% of all tuition, fees, and other costs, or $8.5k a year). Higher than that, though, and you'll probably be expected to contribute quite a bit more.</p>
<p>"If your family makes under $80k, you have nothing to worry about."
My family makes under $80,000, but I received absolutely nothing in financial aid. =[
Yeah... that definitely offset my excitement for getting accepted.</p>
<p>Did you apply for financial aid? Does your family have other assets, maybe? If not, you definitely need to contact the FA office, considering that Rice "guarantees" that they'll cover 100% of demonstrated need for families making under $80k from here on out.</p>
<p>My dad went up to their financial aid office and asked if there was a possible miscalculation, but they maintained that the decision was final and that I could apply for FA again next year. And yes, I believe we do have other assets, but I didn't think that I would get nothing at all. Ohh well... I'm still happy to be a future Owl!</p>
<p>^^
Similar situation. Currently killing myself applying to any and every scholarship I have any chance at all for.</p>
<p>phade: I feel your pain... I'm applying to every scholarship in existence that I'm eligible for.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If not, you definitely need to contact the FA office, considering that Rice "guarantees" that they'll cover 100% of demonstrated need for families making under $80k from here on out.
[/quote]
They will cover 100% of demonstrated need - but they determine what your need is by looking at assets, household size, income, etc. For instance: if your family makes $79K a year and has $450,000 socked away in a college savings account, it is highly unlikely that your family will have any need!</p>
<p>In my humble opinion, you have nothing to complain about if you have a college savings account worth that much.</p>
<p>I personally think one of the main reasons that Rice is not ranked in the top ten is that it does not have a Med School. Med Schools normally bring in substantial amounts of research money from funding agencies such as the NIH.</p>