<p>I deposited at Tulane like last week but found out yesterday that I got off the waitlist at Rice and I have until Friday to decide. I know Tulane has a cool 3+2 program for engineers and I could get a physics degree from Tulane and a MechE degree from Hopkins or Vanderbilt. But I know Rice's engineering school is fantastic too.</p>
<p>And also, my parents are being a little silly about rankings (USNWR) and kept insisting I got to RPI because it was "ranked higher" than Tulane. And when I told my dad yesterday, he said "RPI is ranked higher than Rice for engineering." Seriously, this coming from the man who wasn't involved at all in my college admissions process until AFTER the april 1st notification deadline -_-</p>
<p>But anyway, I know students at both Tulane and Rice absolutely LOVE their school. Tulane has incredible energy on campus and Rice has the #1 quality of student life. Such a hard choice</p>
<p>It is a hard choice, and I will assume you like the “fit” of the overall life at the two schools relatively the same. I am also assuming money and the extra year the 3+2 program would require are not issues you are concerned with. So I think if you like the idea of being more immersed in an engineering oriented environment, Rice is the choice. If you like the idea of focusing on pure physics and actually getting to attend two great schools (Tulane & Vandy/JHU) and come out with two degrees, then Tulane is the choice. Beyond that, as far as I can think of, it just comes down to your gut feel.</p>
<p>Tell your Dad undergrad rankings really are meaningless, maybe even more so in particular disciplines. The coursework is quite similar when talking about undergrad engineering degrees, and all those schools have highly competent faculty.</p>
<p>GO TO RICE, it is seriously such a better school academically than tulane and it has a nicer campus</p>
<p>Rice is academically more selective than Tulane. I think both campuses are extremely nice, and I can make a strong case for New Orleans being more interesting for an undergraduate than Houston, depending on their interests. But I think the main point for this poster is that Rice is a more math/engineering oriented school, and he just has to decide what direction makes more sense to him for what he wants to do overall for undergrad.</p>