<p>During my college search, I knew that there were many good schools, but was not sure what their strengths were at the undergraduate level. I was just wondering, what programs WashU, Brown, Vanderbilt, and Rice are top notch at for undergrads? I know that these are all really good schools, but am really not sure what their best programs are for undergrads.</p>
<p>Rice has very good programs in engineering and the natural sciences, and its various programs in the humanities are often quite good as well. Beyond that, its schools of music and architecture are absolutely phenomenal. I'll leave someone else to give an overview of the other schools.</p>
<p>I don't think it's so much that these schools are really strong in particular areas at the undergrad level, as much as that they are selective overall and therefore have a driven student body. Compare Rice against the public UT-Austin, for example. UT-Austin is stronger than Rice in just about every academic department they both share and excels in so many more areas, yet Rice gets more respect at the undergrad level due to its smaller size and selectivity. I think its more about quality of undergrads, then any real or perceived individual academic discipline strengths.</p>
<p>Wustl's good at biology.</p>
<p>JWT, how come you only post in threads to say UT-Austin is better than Rice? Are you a longhorn who is sore at getting turned down at Rice? (not to offend you either way, i just find it odd that you only post about that one thing)</p>
<p>EDIT:
By the way, those rankings you refer to are for graduate schools. UT Austin is great and sorely underrated but you can't exactly say that they are the same for undergrad.</p>
<p>At schools of this quality, even the worst programs are going to be ok.</p>
<p>I know that these schools are great and don't really have any weaknesses academically. I was just curious about what programs each school was incredibly good at. Like Penn is great at most everything, but truly amazing at business. Hopkins is great at most everything, but amazing at biology and BME. I just want to know if these colleges I have listed have any truly amazing programs that are second to none.</p>
<p>I think it's a rare 17 or 18-year-old who's ready to make a truly informed decision about a career or even a major. So for me, the overall selective, driven student body that JWT refers to and the point that Tour Guide makes leads me to value overall excellence rather than departmental strengths.</p>
<p>I already know which college I am going to (none of these listed), so this is just based on curiosity. I just have this idea (not sure if it is good or bad) that all schools have some program that they are very strong at, and that the best schools have atleast one or two programs that are second to none. I just realized that I had no idea what specific programs at Brown, Rice, Vanderbilt, and WashU were tops in their fields for undergrads and wanted some opinions of CCers. I guess I feel that I missed out a little in the college admissions process by not fully exploring these schools academically.</p>