<p>Even without the money, I'd choose Rice. Nicer school with a better social life.</p>
<p>If you are academically ambitious, then you should go to MIT.</p>
<p>
Rice students aren't academically ambitious? </p>
<p>
Yes, but I agree with datadriven in that the post holds true even if you subtract the "from MIT" part. It's better to save money for an excellent graduate/professional school. Most people that go to medical or law school end up in debt anyway- why add more debt on top of it? </p>
<p>I turned down my #1 choice for my #2 with $$$. My #1 undergrad choice has remained my firm #1 choice for grad school, so my decision was for the best.</p>
<p>I'm not against saving money for grad school. I'll probably be stuck taking out huge loans for it and thats starting to scare me. I just don't like it when people say "o, you can go there for grad school" for my own reasons.</p>
<p>You haven't done all the math. Rice is about $37,000 a year; you anticipate graduating in 3 years ($112,000 less $60,000 in scholarships) makes your total COA around $52,000. Even if you attend 3.5 or 4 years, you are under $90,000.</p>
<p>MIT is about $44,000 a year and you anticipate spending 4 years there - $176,000. You would have to get one heck of a financial aid package to make them at all equitable.</p>
<p>Is MIT worth the difference? If your family has the money to spend, you can consider the prestige, weather, football, dorms and percentage of girls. If you are thinking about taking out loans, you must go to an online loan calculator and figure out what a loan of that size will cost you, year after year. Taking out a mortgage-sized loan is going to put a huge dent in your lifestyle for 20 years. It will determine whether you have to work every day during school. It will determine what kind of job offer you can accept after graduation. It will decide where you live, and how, for a very long time.</p>
<p>I have the same dilemma but with no merit from Rice as of now...MIT will probably cost me around 14k per year.</p>
<p>Houston may be hot, but for most of the school year it's actually not a problem; the worst of the weather happens when students are on summer break. That said, Rice is the coolest place in the whole world ever.</p>
<p>Haha. Actually I am from Houston. So the weather is no problem. I'm actually more worried about weather in Boston/Cambridge.</p>
<p>So close to home...Haha, I dont know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. </p>
<p>I want to do Chemical Engineering for undergrad. I want to branch out into Pharma or Business, or even medicine. But looking from a perspective of expecting to do ChemEng after graduation, the cost is quite substantial.</p>
<p>I'd choose Rice even if money was not an issue. Some of you all are acting like Rice is a huge step down, Rice is an awesome academic school.</p>
<p>Haha, I see you gave up CC for lent warblers :) I gave up Facebook and it is killing me!</p>
<p>Well, a degree from MIT in chemical engineering is worth a substantial amount. If you are going to work right after undergrad, that degree from MIT will get you far. I don't know much about grad school admissions, but I'm sure the rate of acceptance for MIT undergraduates to other institutions is high... especially if you're going into engineering. The professors there will be likely to choose the MIT undergrad over the one from Rice (assuming that GPA and research experience isn't lacking), so you should take that into consideration.</p>
<p>Remember, Willmingtonwave, you can take a break and enjoy facebook on Sunday! :) Enjoy!
p.s. remember, only Sunday!</p>