<p>It seems that about everyone in texas wants to go to UT, I mean Rice is there in Houston, but people want UT. I don't want Rice bc I live in Houston, but why is UT so amazing?</p>
<p>UT is considered a public ivy for various reasons. I know someone who declined Rice to attend UT. I think the whole experience is what makes people choose to come to UT over Rice. The schools are different and so are the cities. I'm from Houston and I can say that Austin is more laid-back and is a college town. UT is a good school with good academics but at the same time you don't have to worry about being around a campus full of people who only want to study study study etc. Also, Rice has more prestige but UT has incredible name recognition and alumni network in Texas and beyond.</p>
<p>UT is better simply because Rice is in Houston.</p>
<p>Rice is also not considered to be all that great outside of the South.</p>
<p>Texas isn't always known as a great academic school, but everyone has heard of the Texas Longhorns.</p>
<p>Rice has better undergrad, UT has better grad, as such, UT's grad programs' success trickle down to undergrad, and UT is more internationally known because of its grad work.
Both schools are great, they have different atmosphere. However, if you want to look at what kind of student Ivy schools accept and attract as well as the atmosphere- Rice easily resembles an Ivy more than any other school in TX.</p>
<p>LoneRanger: I'm not really sure any South/Southwestern school has a lot of recognition for academics outside of the South other than Duke. Duke is considered to be the most "Northern" of the Southern Ivies, such as Rice, Emory, and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>In the U.S. News rankings, Rice is #17 and UT is #44. Rice's selectivity is listed as "most selective". UT's is "more selective".</p>
<p>There are 12 public universities ahead of UT in the rankings: UC Berkeley, UVirginia, UCLA, UMichigan, UNC, College of William and Mary, Georgia Institute of Technology, UWisconsin, UCSanDiego, UIllinois, UWashington, and UCDavis.</p>
<p>I think calling UT a public ivy is a bit of a stretch. It's a good school and all that - #44 nationwide is not too shabby - but it can actually make people think <em>less</em> of UT when they hear others say that. They might think that Longhorns have an overly high opinion of themselves.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
UT is better simply because Rice is in Houston.</p>
<p>Rice is also not considered to be all that great outside of the South.</p>
<p>Texas isn't always known as a great academic school, but everyone has heard of the Texas Longhorns.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't believe a single word of what you said made sense. </p>
<p>Rice is better than UT for undergrad, and it is considered a good IVY. It isn't on par with MIT or Harvard, but it is most definitely higher than UT, who cares where its located? After 4 years it doesn't matter anyways.</p>
<p>I don't see how people knowing of the "Texas Longhorns" makes us a better school. People know of the "Ohio State Buckeyes" or the "LSU Tigers" but I would never go to either...</p>
<p>Rice is more selective then it should be probably, but if you can get in and your in it for the education, go there. You will end up being better off in terms of opportunities coming out of college, but I can say with pretty good certainty that the experience will be very different.</p>
<p>Timely the US News rankings don't reflect the quality of the school bc of the top ten law, which keeps the average SAT low, makes it less selective as those not in the top ten are less likely to apply and therefore fewer rejections. Also the student teacher ratio is very high bc they are not able to limit the number of admits by a large degree. The university has been trying to lobby to get the law changed probably for the aforementioned reasons.</p>
<p>RICE is the ivy of Texas.</p>
<p>Duke and Texas are Not the South. Texas and Rice is Southwest. Duke and Emory are just yankee. Even if you wanted to work in Georgia (outside of Atlanta), you'd be better off going to UGA than carpetbagging Emory.</p>
<p>If Texas didnt have top 10% rule (maybe top 5%) it would be in the top 10 for sure probably around 7 or 8. UT is a good school, but its glorified a bit in texas. By making a few changes in the texas legislature (i.e. top 10% rule, and more OOS students), UT easily be able to compete with the top public schools. Texas has talented HS students, but more OOS students that have better credentials than in-staters chould be let in, and UT should encourage this.</p>
<p>tru dat hookemhorns. duke has a ton of kids from the NE, which is the only reason why it is more respected by our Bosnywash and East Coast/Northeast overlords.</p>
<p>As much as I am an advocate for getting rid of top 10% rule, UT has pretty openly stated that if they ever did get rid of the rule, they would still admit lower than "norm" students to create diversity. So even if it did go away, I wouldn't expect a WHOLE lot to change in terms of the student body. For UT its more about having the power to do what they want, while we will probably end up in the same situation with either scenario.</p>
<p>Dbate said:
[quote]
Timely the US News rankings don't reflect the quality of the school bc of the top ten law, which keeps the average SAT low, makes it less selective as those not in the top ten are less likely to apply and therefore fewer rejections.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Very good points, Dbate. The selectivity for those who are not top 10% admits probably is "most selective". I wish they would publish all the stats for non-top 10% admits. That would be interesting. </p>
<p>But, it seems to me that the effect of the top 10% law has been to lower the quality of the university. When you have all those kids with lower SAT scores (isn't it something like 75% of admits that are admitted under the top 10% law?), then you have a freshman class that is not on par with a class from a university that does not have this law. </p>
<p>Another indicator of student quality is the graduation rate. UT is running about 48% after 4 years and 70% after 5 years. For comparison, Rice's graduation rate is 91% (don't know how many years).</p>
<p>Westsidewolf said:
[quote]
By making a few changes in the texas legislature (i.e. top 10% rule, and more OOS students), UT easily be able to compete with the top public schools. Texas has talented HS students, but more OOS students that have better credentials than in-staters chould be let in, and UT should encourage this.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, but why? The taxpayers of Texas fund UT because they want an excellent education provided for Texas kids. Bragging rights for position on the USNWR ranking <em>should</em> not be a factor. The taxpayers don't necessarily want to pay to educate OOS students. Tuition is a lot more for OOS students of course, but I would think the state is still partially subsidizing the cost of their education, as well. Part of providing that excellent education for Texas kids <em>is</em> creating some diversity by bringing in oos and foreign kids. It is completely subjective how much is enough when it comes to that.</p>
<p>In fall 06, 6.1% of enrolled freshmen were oos and 3.6% were foreign. All together, that's almost 10% of UT's freshman enrollment. Personally, I think that's enough. Another interesting number concerns Texas non-top 10% students. 80% of enrolled freshmen were top 10%. 80% + 10% = 90%. That means that only 10% of non-top 10% students were enrolled. So, if a kid is in a high school that doesn't rank or is in a very competitive school where you have to practically have a 4.0 to be top 10%, then it's pretty stiff competition for them, too. My son is one of these. <sigh!></sigh!></p>
<p>I found a lot of this here: <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/statistical_handbook/current_handbook/pdf/06-07StatHandbook.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/statistical_handbook/current_handbook/pdf/06-07StatHandbook.pdf</a>
The Common Data Set is here:
<a href="http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/cds/current_cds/CDS2006-2007.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/cds/current_cds/CDS2006-2007.pdf</a></p>
<p>It looked to me like some of the data conflicted, but I didn't spend a lot of time with it.</p>
<p>Almost all of the OOS students are top ten in their home states.</p>
<p>Slightly over 70% of the students are admitted under HB 588.
Another 20% or so are in-state but not ranked in the top ten percent.
Another 10% or so are out of state.</p>
<p>The average SAT score for a top ten kid is 1200, for a TX kid outside the top ten 1250, and for an OOS kid 1300. Not a huge difference, but significant.</p>
<p>I also refuse to believe that UT's grad rate is that low. There is just no way that's accurate.</p>
<p>The US News ratings are crap--they were crafted to rank the "top schools" so they will tell you which "Ivy" style school is the best. It does a poor job of analyzing public schools, which is why you have schools like Tulane in the vicinity of UT. There just isn't any comparison.</p>
<p>If they used a rank more weighted toward public schools, I firmly believe UT would be in the top 5. They were the #2 public school in the US, and in the top ten overall, for the Times World rankings. I don't know if that's accurate either, but UT is way better than the US news gives them credit for.</p>
<p>And UT is better because Rice is in Houston and Houston is a s**thole.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I also refuse to believe that UT's grad rate is that low. There is just no way that's accurate.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The Common Data Set for 2005-2006 says the 6 year graduation rate of the 1999 cohort is 75% and the 6 year graduation rate of the 2000 cohort is 77%.
It's here: <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/cds/current_cds/CDS2006-2007.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/cds/current_cds/CDS2006-2007.pdf</a> on page 4.</p>
<p>The 70% graduation rate I referenced before was a 5 year graduation rate. Apparently it is more normal to report 6 year graduation rates, and that is what USNWR reports.</p>
<p>The 2006-2007 Statistical Handbook ( <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/statistical_handbook/current_handbook/pdf/06-07StatHandbook.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/statistical_handbook/current_handbook/pdf/06-07StatHandbook.pdf</a> page 17) says that 81% of students are from Texas and 19% aren't (oos + international).</p>
<p>Yes but those stats are including grad students, who are a much larger percentage international and also OOS than undergrad. Undergrad is pretty much a 90/10 split.</p>
<p>To be honest, I was dead set AGAINST going to UT initially because a) it was in Texas and I wanted to go out of state b) I had family that had gone there and it seemed like people expected me to attend and c) it seemed like it was too easy to get into and EVERYONE was going there</p>
<p>However, when my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer in May (it's been removed so she's better now!), my mother and I just drove around the city for a couple of hours and I realized that I had never really EXPLORED Austin. I had only really seen the area that my grandmother lived in, some parts of Round Rock, and of course the capitol.</p>
<p>By June, I finally got over the fact that UT was in Texas because it had everything that I was looking for in a college: the All-American college experience, an exceptional education program, it had a decent football team and football was BIG there, the city was amazing, student life was insanely fun, and it was recognized all over the nation and world-renowned. I mean, could I help the fact that I happened to live in the same state as my "dream" school?</p>
<p>As for Rice and the Houston thing, there was NO way that I was going to go to college in Houston because I'm from Houston and who wants to go to college in the same city that they grew up in? How stifling! Austin is 2.5 hours away and the distance gives you enough room to grow while still being somewhat close to home. Plus, my grandmother lives in Austin and she'll probably be sending me meals on a regular basis haha!</p>
<p>Bottom line, I was wrong about UT being an "easy" school, seeing as how it really isn't all that easy to get into. The top ten % law just makes it seem that way. Overall, I'd say that UT is better than Rice or any of the other "true" ivys because you get to experience it's thriving social life, the vast array of different individuals and personalities, and how extremely liberal and relaxed it is while still maintaining a demanding course schedule.</p>
<p>Because of all of this, UT became my top choice and I decided not to waste my time and money on other college applications. I know I could've gotten into a whole bunch of other colleges, even ones that are more challenging than UT, but UT fits my personality and needs as a whole. And I knew I was going to get in because haha, I'm in the top 7% of my class! So I didn't have to worry about the stress of applying to other places and waiting to be accepted. Baylor was my backup and I got accepted, but I just applied for the heck of it.</p>
<p>Haha sorry for the long post! Maybe I've recruited some people with it. Hook 'em horns and I'll see some of yall in the fall =D</p>
<p>Truthfully, coming from an OOS student, I will have to say that before I had started my college search, I had hardly ever heard of UT. My father may have mentioned it (he is a football fanatic), but other than that it was barely on my radar. Rice, on the other hand, is better known in these parts. Rice has a bit more prestige than UT does, therefore making it more like an Ivy Also, I believe that the experirnce that one will have at Rice will be more like that of a student in an Ivy Leagues school. Rice is smaller and, generally, the type of students that go there are more like the students that go to schools in the Ivy League. So if the person who started this thread wanted to know if UT was more like any ivy than Rice, then I would have to say no. </p>
<p>Also, someone above me said that calling UT a "Public Ivy" was pushing it, but the official list states the UT is actually a Public Ivy: </p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy</a></p>
<p>Oh, and I want to make sure that no one thinks that I am saying that Rice is in any way better than UT. UT is an amazing school and personally is my top choice. I was just saying that Rice is more nationally known and is more like and Ivy than UT.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but the official list states the UT is actually a Public Ivy: </p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would hardly call wikipedia "official"</p>
<p>Just saying ;)</p>
<p>I know it is a wikipedia article but I could not find the actual list online anywhere. The article cites the actual book written by Richard Moll, though, and the lists are exactly the same.</p>