<p>can anyone compare these three schools based on </p>
<li>academic prestige</li>
<li>grad placement for business and science</li>
<li>strength of business and physical science programs</li>
<li>social scene</li>
<li>fraternity life
…and anything else you can think of…
(insight from student at these universities would be great!)</li>
</ol>
<p>i have searched for this allready so if you tell me to stop being lazy and use the search box i will come out of your computer and tackle you…no seriously though i would like some more info…</p>
<p>It would be tough to find someone who can give you a firsthand comparison of two, let alone three of these schools.
They are all excellent, prestigious schools. Obviously Rice is the smallest and is in a hot southwestern city, while NU is mid-size and is in a cold midwestern city. UVA is gorgeous, and I think the largest. Personally, I think NU is probably the best and highest-ranked, but these three schools are all absolutely terrific, so it should really be a question of where you think you would be the happiest. Go visit them, sit in on some classes, talk to students, and see what you think.</p>
<p>I hate Houston though, so I'm a bit biased. But in my honest opinion, I think Northwestern is a better school than both, but it depends on what you're looking for.</p>
<p>For greek life, I know NU's got a pretty big Greek scene, but you don't have to be a part of it to have fun. As for Rice, I'm not sure about Greek life, but I know the drinking scene is very big on campus.</p>
<p>I know very little about UVA, as I'm from Texas.</p>
<p>The 25-75% SAT's for Northwestern and Rice are equivalent, with a definite advantage over UVa. So, UVa's rankings according to Avery differ from the SAT's. When in doubt, go with the SAT's 25-75%.</p>
<p>While these Universities may seem similar, there is a huge difference in size. UVa has 15K, Northwestern 9K, and Rice only 3K. </p>
<p>Lastly, you can check out the WSJ feeder school list.</p>
<p>The WSJ feeder ranking ridiculously excluded Kellogg as one of top-5 business schools (WSJ has a very strong NE bias). That NU is "feeding itself" (see comments on the WSJ table) doesn't really help its ranking there. In fact, it hurts them as many Wildcats chose Kellogg over some of the WSJ's top-5 business schools. </p>
<p>Partial list of institutions represented for Kellogg's Class of 2009 (all programs including MMM, JD, MD, Part-time, 1Y, 2Y): (I got this from a CC member who has access to this info)</p>
<p>Northwestern - 23</p>
<p>Harvard - 12
Princeton - 11
Yale - 5
Brown - 5
Dartmouth - 9
Cornell - 11
UPENN - 19
Columbia - 13
Chicago - 6
Duke - 14
Michigan - 18
Stanford - 15</p>
<p>NU also sends many grads to its highly ranked law school.</p>
<p>I'll tackle this having some personal experience with all three schools.</p>
<p>First, your specific questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Academic prestige - overall, similar between all three in the humanities and SS, UVa a bit behind when it comes to the sciences. Northwestern will carry a bit more name recognition nationally/internationally.</p></li>
<li><p>These are two different questions. Sciences generally will place better out of Northwestern and Rice because of a stronger student body in these departements BUT for the SAME individual at one school or the other - doubt any measurable difference. In business, some advantage in national/international recruiting at Northwestern and in alumni connections. Regional advantages apply to each - midwest v. Texas v. South.</p></li>
<li><p>Strength of business program - If you want to major in business, strong program at UVa, can't do this at NU or, I believe, Rice - minors and certificate programs available - lots of threads dealing with this. Economics Department and supporting business school (Kellogg) strongest at Northwestern. Physical sciences strongest at Northwestern and Rice. Both have top notch nanotechnology programs with NU getting the overall nod in Chemistry and engineering. Astrophysics -> Rice with NASA connections.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>4 and 5. Social scene very Greek dependent and more state school traditional at UVa. Northwestern's Greek scene a "softer" version of this. Rice has a pure and all-inclusive residential college system - no Greek scene - kids generally very happy with it. UVa has small town Charlottesville. NU has easy access to all of Chicago. Rice easy access to all of Houston. Personally, I'd take Chicago in a heartbeat (just don't like Houston or humidity, Charlottesville weather best of the lot but the town feels very small-town and does little for me).</p>
<p>Beyond the questions asked, Northwestern and UVa have a lot in common with student body overall stronger at NU. Remember too that UVa is a state school with 2/3 of the student body from Virginia - especially DC suburbs. Rice is about 1/2 from Texas but this number is expected to drop as enrollment rises over the next few years. UVa's social life is more campus and Greek centered with NU offering additional city escapes, more options outside fraternity row. Rice feels much more like the smaller school it is - more intimate - with the good and bad that comes with that. All three have student bodies generally very happy with their experiences.</p>
<p>You can't really compare UVa's SATs or general admit rate, because state residents have a much easier time of getting in and are the substantial majority of the student body. If you could look at the admit rate and SATs for out-of-staters, I suspect they would be very impressive.</p>
<p>2009 USNWR ^ Best Undergraduate National Universities:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>U. Penn</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>U. of Chicago</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Wash U St. Louis</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Emory</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>U. of Virginia</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
</ol>
<p>2009 USNWR ^ Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs:</p>
<p>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 4.7927
2 Stanford University Stanford, CA 4.651
2 University of California--Berkeley Berkeley, CA 4.6615
4 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 4.5134
4 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 4.5155
4 University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL 4.4503
7 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI 4.4032
8 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 4.2766
9 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 4.1905
9 Purdue University--West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN 4.1875
11 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 4.0718
11 University of Texas--Austin Austin, TX 4.1459
13 University of Wisconsin--Madison Madison, WI 3.9663
14 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 3.8859
14 Northwestern University Evanston, IL 3.9231
14 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 3.8715
17 Pennsylvania State University--University Park University Park, PA 3.828
17 Rice University Houston, TX 3.8047
17 Texas A&M University--College Station College Station, TX 3.8103
17 University of California--San Diego La Jolla, CA 3.7622
21 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 3.6868
21 University of California--Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 3.68
21 University of Maryland--College Park College Park, MD 3.6798
21 University of Washington Seattle, WA 3.6784
25 Columbia University New York, NY 3.5833
25 Duke University Durham, NC 3.5866
25 University of Minnesota--Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN 3.6494
28 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 3.5091
28 North Carolina State University--Raleigh Raleigh, NC 3.5322
28 Ohio State University--Columbus Columbus, OH 3.4943
28 University of Florida Gainesville, FL 3.5029
28 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 3.5466
28 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 3.497
28 University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 3.</p>
<p>
[quote]
NU has 8,000 undergrads, not 9,000. Haven't checked JW Muller's other claims, but if interested I would do so.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Rollins, I provided the source with a link, which is the US Department of Education College</a> Navigator site. If you have different numbers, provide the link before you dispute my claims.</p>
<p>Bala- I don't think 1/2 of Rice is from Texas... They tend to be alot harsher on admitting Texans than applicants from other states because of the desire for geographic diversity. While there are a great number, I'd say it's more like a tenth are from Texas.</p>
<p>Rice</a> University | Demographics-Region and Degree Level
1,532 out of 3,001 undergrads at Rice last year were from Texas - this 50% number has been pretty steady for several years (though Rice is trying to bring it down with more aggressive out of state recruiting).</p>
<p>JW Muller:</p>
<p>Northwestern's total undergrad enrollment as of fall 2008 is 7,826 (from the NU admissions website)</p>
<p>SAT 25-75% for class of 2012 from each school's own published data:</p>
<p>Northwestern's total undergrad enrollment as of fall 2008 is 7,826 (from the NU admissions website)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>US</a> N&WR has Northwestern's undergrad enrollment at 8,284. Apparently different criteria are being used. Full time vs. part time. Summer? Number of individual students during the year? The point was to compare the enrollment between these schools of the OP's interest, and my link provided an authoritative source with these three schools compared, presumably using similar criteria.</p>
<p>I know for a fact that the current admittance rate for Rice in TX is 50% but President Leebron is trying to bring it down to 40% (their building 2 more residential colleges so there increasing class size to fill up the other dorms like Jones, Martel, Wiess, etc.)</p>