Not considering in state (I’m not) and cost of attendance, which do you prefer. I know that neither have an undergrad business school, but I plan to go into business one day and I want to major in something that will help me later on. I’m judging the schools based on prestige, atmosphere/social life, how I would fit in (I’m from the Northeast), and sports (I want to go to games and cheer for a team). Which do you guys prefer?
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Honestly, I’d take Northwestern over Rice for business any day. Yes, Kellogg is graduate-only, but it’s top 5 business school on par with Wharton and Harvard. If you committed to Northwestern, you’d still have the opportunity to complete an undergraduate certificate in business from Kellogg, which may be a great benefit for admission into a graduate business program.
As for sports, Northwesten has the edge in that category too. Rice is DIII whereas Northwestern is DI FBS and has sports teams that can compete with and beat some of the best teams in the country (their football team just won the Pinstripe Bowl against Pitt on the 28th).
Warm Houston vs cold Chicago. Both are outstanding science and engineering schools which also do other things well. Both have beautiful campuses but Northwestern is located on Lake Michigan, while Rice is an oasis in downtown Houston. Since both are private, you will have to run the NPC to get your individual cost. Northwestern is part of the Big 10, but they are usually middling in sports like football and basketball. Rice is not a sports powerhouse either. Neither are known as party schools, but Rice has a reputation for nicer students and a more friendly social atmosphere.
I think you will have to visit both but we preferred Rice.
Northwestern has the edge in not only recruiting (I was told it is a major feeder to the top-3 management consulting firms) but also academic options.
http://r2b.northwestern.edu/
NU does well in terms of subsequent matriculation into highly regarded MBA programs:
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/infographics/top-feeders-mba-programs
Housing edge: Probably Rice
Weather edge: Debatable (which do you detest more, snow/cold or sticky heat?)
City edge: Probably Chicago
Academics edge: Probably Northwestern, overall.
Selectivity: Slightly harder to get into Northwestern.
Both are outstanding. I think Northwestern is a bit more robust overall academically – top-notch Engineering, Econ, Humanities, etc. Not sure about the sciences/math/social sciences.
But really, when you’re choosing between two elite privates, choose based on fit and finances. Both can get you anywhere you want to go if you use your head, put in the work, and talk to people.
OP: These are two excellent schools with awesome reputations. You can nit-pick the details of each business program to your heart’s content. But having lived in both Evanston and in the South, let me advise you that the biggest differences between the two will be the weather and the social context in which you will live for 4 years. The Evanston lakefont can be cold and windy in the winter and Texas can be HOT. Perhaps more important, Texas and the Chicago area are very much polar opposites in politics, gun culture etc. Both schools attract all kinds of students, so no problem there. But make sure you will enjoy both the weather and liberal or conservative nature of region in which each school is set. Perhaps I am stating the obvious here, but these differences may end up being more more important to you than the minuscule academic differences. Good luck!
For sports I’d give Northwestern the win - it’s a Big 10 school. Northwestern also does have better recruiting than Rice, and the undergrad business certificate from a top business school is a big attraction for a business-oriented student. They’re both excellent in terms of post-graduate opportunities for getting into grad school, but for MBA programs your post-college work experience matters a lot too. You can major in anything to go an MBA program.
Rice has the residential college system, but Northwestern has residential colleges as well as traditional halls. It really depends on your preference. Northwestern has more than twice as many undergrads as Rice, so do you want to go to a small school or a more medium-sized one?
Texas does get very hot, but the worst sticky heat happens during the summer months when you won’t be there. It’s currently 38 degrees in Houston, and the highs are going to be in the mid to high 70s this week (lows in the mid to high 60s). It’ll be kind of hot in September and early October, and in late April and through May, but you’ll get very pleasant weather October through March. On the other hand, Chicago’s worst weather happens smack in the middle of the school year. It’s currently 14 degrees in Evanston this week. Highs are mostly in the 20s and 30s; lows are in the 20s and 30s as well.
The flip side, though, is that Houston is difficult to navigate without a car, whereas Chicago has better public transit (and from what I hear getting to Chicago from Evanston is not too difficult).
Based on what you want I think Northwestern may be the better fit for you.
Just a couple of clarifications. Rice is D1 in athletics not D3. Houston is hot and very very humid in the summer. I’m from Dallas and went to school in Houston. It took me two years to get use to that humidity. Based on the information the OP has given I think Northwestern would be the better choice.
I agree. Rice is known for their engineering. I would go to Northwestern
Instate is not relevant as they both are private schools.
Northwestern is in the suburbs (not in Chicago) and is a decent ride / trip in.
Rice is in the city and you are right at the museums / zoo / stadiums etc
Neither is quite good at sports, but Northwestern is in a better conference (so they get beat by better teams). Rice is one of the smallest D1 schools.
Both have top 10 MBA programs.
Both are excellent schools that are tough admits and have solid outcomes.
Visit both they are very different the decision is very personal to you,
- Rice doesn't have a top 10 MBA program.
- Northwestern football won 10 games just a year ago.
@PurpleTitan
https://business.rice.edu/about/top-10-ranking
Northwestern has won 9 or more games three times in 20 years.
Oh jeez, @ClarinetDad16, you’re like those HS kids who go solely off of USNews rankings because they don’t know what people in the real world think. Look, I have Rice (undergrad) as an Ivy-equivalent and NU peer, but nobody in the prestige industries that hire MBA’s has Rice as a top 10 b-school.
When it comes to MBA’s, there’s the M7 (HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago (Booth), Northwestern (Kellogg), MIT (Sloan), and CBS) on top. They’re followed by some combination of Dartmouth (Tuck), UMich (Ross), NYU (Stern), Berkeley (Haas), Yale SOM, UVA (Darden), and Duke (Fuqua).
And winning 9 games (when you only play 12; previously 11) games a season is a lot. Would you say that Texas A&M isn’t quite good at sports and gets beat by good teams? They’re record is only slightly better than Northwestern’s: 3 years when they finished with 9 regular season wins or more in the past 18 seasons.
In the past 2 years, NU has had more conference wins and more wins overall than A&M.
Sorry you don’t agree with Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-best-business-schools/
Very similar but just slightly different. Methodology is all there.
They are both excellent MBA programs.
Evanston is more urban than Houston and it’s way more convenient to get around without a car. So the city vs suburb comparison is not really informative.
Northwestern B school (Kellogg) has been known world-wide for a long time; Rice is not in the same tier.
Northwestern just beat Pittsburgh, which was a decent team that beat Clemson (national champ) and Penn St (BIG champ) during the regular season. While they get beat by better teams, they also beat some good teams…
The OP is asking about undergrad, not MBA.
Evanston has 75,000 people.
Houston well over 2 million.
@ClarinetDad16, there are so many b-school rankings now that it’s not that hard to find one ranking where a school is in the top 10.
Here’s a list of the 5 main b-school rankings:
http://poetsandquants.com/2016/11/21/2016-poetsquants-mba-ranking/3/
This composite ranking has Northwestern 4th and Rice 23rd.
More importantly, all 5 rankings have Kellogg in the top 10 while only 1 has Rice in the top 10 (3 of the others have Rice between 20-30 and one has Rice below 30).
17 b-schools appear in the top 10 of at least 1 ranking, but only 6 b-schools are in the top 10 of all 5 rankings. Kellogg (Northwestern) is among those 6. Rice is not.
“Oh jeez, @PurpleTitan” rankings don’t tell the entire story. There are industries where Jones will be hugely valuable in ways Kellogg isn’t. And vice versa.
@marvin100 the OP stated he knows neither school has an undergraduate b-school and is interested in an MBA.