Northwestern vs. Notre Dame vs. Rice?

Applying to College
1

<p>Assuming the financial packages are all the same, which university would you choose and why?</p>

<p>My daughter is on the waitlist at two of the universities and accepted at one. We put down a deposit for one of the universities, but she wants to pursue the waitlist at one of the other two. She is not sure what to choose. Oh and she wants to study math or a math related field.</p>

<p>Any opinions and feed back would be greatly appreciated?</p>

2

<p>What type of campus and social life is she interested in?
Location?</p>

3

<p>As far as location, Northwestern is great because it is close to Chicago and Houston is great because of the weather.</p>

<p>When you ask what type of campus, all three of the campuses are equally attractive to her.</p>

<p>With regard to social life, the greek life is not her thing. She does want to be around fun happy people that have many interests and diverse thoughts.</p>

<p>She is really torn.</p>

<p>If you were admitted to all three of these schools, what would you choose?</p>

4

<p>Notre Dame and Rice both don’t have Greek Life, and Northwestern’s Greek Life doesn’t seem to be that big of a thing.</p>

<p>Keep in mind too that Notre Dame is quite Catholic and much less diverse in terms of race and religion compared to Northwestern and Rice. If your daughter isn’t Catholic, Notre Dame might not be the ideal choice.</p>

<p>Northwestern and Rice both are near better cities, so the search for internships would be much easier. Both Northwestern and Rice would be great choices for Math or related majors. But if your daughter wants to use that math major for a internship or job in finance or consulting Chicago would just slightly edge out Houston (though Houston is fantastic for finance and energy too).</p>

<p>Also where do yall live? I’ve visited all three and although they all have that small (even though Northwestern and Rice are near big cities, their campuses feel small), traditional college feel, they do differ quite a bit.

  • Northwestern and Notre Dame: both feel much more Northern. Lots of hoodies and jeans. If you’re from outside of the U.S.A. or from the North, Midwest, or California, you might fit into these two schools better.
  • Rice: not Southern (as in SEC, huge Greek Life) by any means, but still has a little Southern character (44% of students are from Texas). I personally like this, but it really comes down to your daughter’s preferences.</p>

<p>OVERALL, though…
All three schools are great in terms of academics and the differences are really marginal, so I’d say your daughter’s best bet is to try to find which school she feels like she’d fit in best at. Try using Facebook to contact current students, etc. if you haven’t already visited them.</p>

5

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<p>I would personally choose Northwestern.</p>

6

<p>^as would I, especially considering what your child wants.</p>