I believe it’s all about fitting. Rice has a reputation of students being happy. I believe the main reason is the students are involved in everything on campus and often take charge. The adults’ role is more supportive rather than directive. The students make a lot of decisions, many of which lead to mistakes, for which they take responsibilities and learn from. These are beyond their academic knowledge and skill. We did not know this going in, then became highly appreciative once we realized how much my D is benefiting from such culture.
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I also have a senior at Rice and have been incredibly impressed by the culture there. And the fit has been absolutely perfect for her as well. She has had some amazing experiences educationally and socially. So much so that we can’t get her to leave! She’s staying for grad school despite some wonderful admittances to other schools.
And I agree that opportunities they get are fantastic - in many ways they practically run the place. They do run their residential colleges (with oversight), plan and run the beloved orientation week activities, TA many classes (there aren’t a lot of grad students like bigger schools), easily get reseach experience (again - less grad students means more opportunities for undergrads), etc. My D had gotten many leadership experiences without really trying.
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Unless the Brown visit blows her away, our D is going to ED to Rice. She wants warmer weather, a collaborative atmosphere and access to a big city.
UT would be an alternative and maybe SMU if neither Rice or UT works out.
She was interested in Georgetown but her friend just visited and hated it. Said there were planes flying over the campus every 5-10 minutes.
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She chose UW in Seattle. Loves the cloudy days and is extremely happy. Though I think she would have loved Davis as well. My DS24 loves UCSC so here is hoping he gets in.
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We got the Rutgers tuition rate for a SUNY but the additional fees and high room and board would make it a few thousand dollars more expensive than Rutgers world be, even with the addition of a small scholarship. UMaine’s tuition match, in comparison, also with a small scholarship, makes it a few thousand dollars less…but there’s the travel to consider.
Rutgers NB now has amazing financial aid which brings tuition down to a maximum of $5000 for families with adjusted gross income under $100K. My D20 at Rutgers Camden pays only a few thousand a year for tuition. We did not have opportunities like that at other schools.
I went to Rutgers NB and did not think it would be a good option for D23 based on the size and logistics, but it was hard to give up that kind of FA. Ouch.
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It could be because back in the early 90’s (probably when many current parents were looking at colleges for themselves), Rutgers was used as a “safety school” for many above average students from NJ. It also depended on which Rutgers “college” you applied to back then (Rutgers, Cook, Mason-Gross, etc).
Probably much different now.
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It wasn’t just a safety school…it was considered the second-best school in the state, and as I noted above Rutgers College…Pharmacy…Engineering…acceptances were regarded as a good choice for very good students.
That was before US News made selectivity the primary objective for deciding where to go to college. Why go to Rutgers with a 50% overall acceptance rate when you could go someplace that only accepts 20% (or even better 10%) of the applicants for four times the price? Rutgers removed their hierarchy and eliminated the internal selectivity just as it became “so valuable”.
The Honors Colleges everywhere are an attempt to build some of that selectivity back… but on a smaller scale than before.
New Jersey has a lot of successful, competitive people, who enjoy the “job satisfaction” that comes with a highly selective acceptance for their kids. Rutgers just doesn’t have the cache that other flagships have at cocktail parties and work events. I think it’s definitely under-appreciated…except for the fact that the name “Rutgers” is so much more appealing than “The State University of New Jersey” (a subtitle they used a lot starting in the 90s and continue to push…like nobody knows.) C’mon RU… up your game.
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Thank you for mentioning this! D24 and I visited UDEL and BING earlier this month with the assumption that Rutgers is in our back yard and we always thought of it as a safety. I also read your other posts regarding costs with other state flag-ships and how they try to do “merit” aid offers to attract NJ students with relatively high stats.
This is the same line of thought at D24’s school but Rutgers is going to be a first choice school for my D.
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It wasn’t until I was around 30 years old that I realized Rutgers was a public flagship. Before that, I had wondered why there was no New Jersey State U or University of New Jersey.
(I also thought the University of Pennsylvania was a public university.)
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If she loves the block plan, has she looked into Cornell College in Iowa? It also has a block plan and would be a safety if she’s in contention for Colorado College and she’d probably get some very nice merit aid there, too. But not exactly a setting in the Rocky Mountains!
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She has not researched Cornell College, but the AO at the info session mentioned it was the only other college in the US with the block plan. Unfortunately, I think Iowa is a non-starter. (but her favorite before Colorado College was/still might be Whitman College, proving she does like rural, but closer to home and mountains than Iowa) 
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Lynn U in Florida operates on a block plan, where students take 1-2 classes per block.
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We visited Cornell College last fall and it’s a lovely school set high on a hill! Iowa can be surprisingly lovely and hilly, it’s not like central Illinois or anything. 
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Okay, the mid-west is foreign to her, but we will take a look, thanks!
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We loved Whitman when we visited. Such a lovely campus with really kind student body. Everyone we know who went there speak so highly of this place, too!
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Thanks, Florida is absolutely a no-go for our family for political reasons.
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It’s a pretty special place, I agree! I’d love to see her there.
I happened to be driving through Walla Walla a couple years ago and decided to wander around Whitman. They were in the same athletic league as my undergrad school, so I remember their basketball teams coming up to Fairbanks and playing. Very nice campus, and Walla Walla seemed like a very cool town, too.
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USC has a rivalry with UCLA, not UC Berkeley.
Does he know that Sasha Obama just graduated from USC?
S24 didn’t feel it with USC, so he is still thinking about applying to USC. Since it will be harder to get it for him as OOS, he thought he might apply somewhere else instead.
Oh yes he knew about Sasha. And mainly the tour guide was the one kept on going about USC vs UCB. Its like UCLA wasn’t even in her radar.