Thank you all again. As of now, I’m feeling better about my decision and can’t wait for August. While I knew there was no wrong choice, trying to pick the better of the two definitely hurt. I am still getting the occasional pangs of sadness about Rice, but hopefully they will subside. I suppose I will always be sad about Rice - it truly is such a unique undergrad experience - but it’s not like I can attend two colleges at once. However, knowing that I have a full-ride, a position in a great honors college/scholarship program, and a lot great friends that I’ve made already going to UT, I can be happy. I’m already excited for Dedman Scholars Finalist Weekend next year when I get to meet the next crop of students and convince them to come to UT!
Also, I’ve learned that at UT I would get a different kind of diversity than I would get in the traditional racial/ethnic type just from the sheer size, and while the people at Rice were great, a lot of them fit into the same kind of “overachiever, perfectionist” type that I am. I love those type of people, I just don’t think I would constantly want to surround myself with clones of me, especially in such a small environment. And Rice’s nerdy vibe can be pretty charming, but it’s just not a vibe that matches up well with me. Oh, well - give and take, I guess. The thing that hurts the most is the residential college system - it’s just so cool! But, as a lot of y’all have told me, I really will never know the whole truth until I attend the school, so a lot of this is a leap of faith.
Just out of curiosity, can anyone with any first-hand experience tell me how Rice and UT compare in what I want to study, particularly English? I know both would be great, but a hopefully unbiased student’s/past student’s experiences would be awesome. I went to Vision at Rice but did not sit in on an English class, yet just from the list we were provided of available classes, there was a puny amount of humanities classes available compared to all the hard sciences…