<p>To answer the earlier question, Rice and Penn are quite different. I DO feel that Rice offers a better experience.</p>
<p>quick question? It seems to me that Rice is becoming less selective year after year. Look at Class of 2011 stats:</p>
<p>Rice</a> University | Prospective Students</p>
<p>SAT Reading: 640-750
SAT Math: 670-780
SAT Writing: 640-730</p>
<p>These are pratically all-time lows for Rice.</p>
<p>As a student at Rice, I would match up Rice's student body with any other student body in the country. In fact, in terms of quality of life, difficulty of coursework, and quality of students, I'd say Rice matches up very well with almost any Ivy League school. I think Rice has tremendously increased its reputation in the past 20 years, and some of its programs are close to the top in the world (computer science, architecture, electrical engineering, nanotechnology--not a department per se, but the program is very strong). Others are also very good (religious studies, other engineering disciplines, school of music). </p>
<p>Unfortunately, many Ivy League schools have a 150-300 year head start on Rice with regards to reputation. President Leebron has been setting a goal for Rice to build on its growing reputation. </p>
<p>Currently, Rice has a great reputation. 20 years from now, if things continue as they are, Rice will have an amazing reputation. </p>
<p>Just because Rice's reputation doesn't match up with Harvard or Yale does not make it less of a school. It's hard to think that way when applying and deciding on a college, but it really is the truth.</p>
<p>I would even say that Rice students are smarter than HYP/MIT/etc students, because we get just as good of an education in a much friendlier climate, better quality social/student life, prettier campus, and for a lesser price.</p>
<p>Rice students are "smart shoppers" - I even mentioned that in my "Why Rice?" essay :)</p>
<p>some thoughts:
when I tell teachers I'm considering going to Rice, they ask "Oh, is that an Ivy League." I smile.
But my rice interviewer did complain that Rice is underrated.
what? Rice is way more prestigious than UT. People are proud of going to UT becuase it's their state, just like people here are proud of OSU. everyone knows neither are prestigious, but they're still proud of their state/football team etc.
the small size is one of Rice's unique attributes, and I sure hope they don't think about expanding.
I agree, Texas isn't exaclty thought of as a scholarly state, and Houston is vastly underrated too.
collegebound: nation-wide test scores took a plunge last year, if I'm not mistaken. go figure...</p>
<p>I'm from NJ (should be obvious) so I really don't know about Southern schools. (Yes, Texas is SW not Southern, but that PROVES I don't know much about Southern school). HOWEVER, if asked "What are the top schools in the South?" I would name (geographically) Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tulane and Rice. Why? I have no idea. Certainly not by reading USNews rankings. It's just that all my life these schools have been mentioned by others whose intellectual prowess I respect. Actually, Rice, Tulane and Emory were always mentioned...then 20 years ago Tulane and Duke started cropping up. Duke's reputation only escalated starting in the '80s. They wanted to make sure that Nixon's resignation was NOT going to impact the public. (I assume you know that Nixon went to Duke Law School).</p>
<p>Duke sucks. I see them as a bunch of elitist "nose-in-the-air" rich boys who really don't deserve to go to a good school, but daddy has connections. Of course, there are plenty of people who work hard and do deserve to go to a good school that end up at duke, but IMO duke is overrated, whereas Rice is underrated.</p>
<p>I think Rice is expanding, but we won't be as big as UT or A&M anytime soon (that would really suck). From what I hear Prez Leebron is moving in the right direction with expanding the school a little bit and expanding its reputation a lot, and I think Rice will be a lot more prestigious 20 years from now if he keeps doing what he's doing, but that's just my opinion.</p>
<p>I'm not sure Rice will be able to surpass UT's academic reputation any time soon. UT's faculty, resources, departments, libraries, and museums are just too strong on any comparative basis. Rice will continue to have a stronger undergraduate reputation by virtue of being smaller and selective, but beyond that - in terms of scholarly reputation and international prominence, UT is just too far ahead.</p>
<p>still, i don't think anybody would say UT is hard to get into...</p>
<p>and Duke is a great school. i don't see them as being elitist and snobby. they're not the ivy league</p>
<p>if you take any stock in ranking at all, Rice is 17 compared to UT 44</p>
<p>UT can be hard to get into if you're not from TX, or if you are from TX but not in the top 10% of the class. I think something like 75% of spots at UT are filled by top 10%'ers (because of the automatic admission law in TX), so the last few spots can be competitive. I was in the top 10% myself, but I had a lot of friends who really wanted to go to UT but considered getting into UT just as bad as getting into an Ivy League, because of the scarcity of spots. The 75% figure may be off, or it may be for A&M, I'm not sure... but it's certainly a high number.</p>
<p>And I agree that Duke is a good school, but I still see them as being elitist. Maybe not as elitist as some Ivy League schools (not all of them are snobby, Cornell for example isn't elitist), but still, I see them as being elitist.</p>
<p>And I think the educated people who follow education news and rankings all know that Rice > UT. The people that graduate from UT/A&M/Other State School then never think about colleges again will keep thinking that their school is the best in Texas.</p>
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<p>Actually, it's the 'educated people who follow education news and rankings' that say UT is strongest university in Texas. Again, this is per the National Research Council, London Times, USNWR departmental rankings, Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings - all where UT and Duke are the 2 strongest southern universities, by far. And even in the USNWR undergraduate rankings, UT's peer reputation score of 4.1 is higher than Rice's 4.0. I think you're making the mistake of confusing undegrad selectivity with scholarly reputation - they're two different things. What you meant to clarify is that many people realize Rice is a better school for undergrad work due to its smaller size and higher selectivity, but UT has the stronger faculty and scholarly reputation worldwide outside of undergraduate work.</p>
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<p>By the same token, UT's peer reputation score of 4.1 is higher than Rice's 4.0 (i.e., more people gave UT a '5' rating than gave to Rice). Remember, the majority of factors in the USNWR undergrad rankings are non-academic and tied to selectivity and quality of other students, not academic programs and faculty. In academic faculty/departmental rankings, UT is always ranked higher than Rice.</p>
<p>Um, JWT, I'd like to point out that the original post was for someone considering what to do for an undergraduate education. Congratulations to UT for the success of their faculty and graduate programs, but that isn't really the issue here.</p>
<p>No, I totally understand that. And I agree Rice is likely stronger for undergraduate education. However, the tone of some of the comments seemed to be erroneously projecting the undergraduate reputations on the universities as a whole, which is why I clarified.</p>
<p>I wasn't referring to Rice vs. UT in a holistic way; I agree that UT may have a better reputation (depending on who you ask and what criteria you use), but when it comes to undergrad Rice has the better reputation, at home at least. I'm not sure about abroad, and I can see why you may be right in that UT has the better reputation, it being so much larger and richer in terms of resources. </p>
<p>But do we really care what people outside the U.S. think when it comes to reputation? I think a school's reputation only comes into play when it comes to advancing in your career, and if you plan on staying in the U.S. market I can't imagine why you'd be too concerned about those foreign rankings, unless you go into an international, globalized field.</p>
<p>When I tell people I am applying to Rice (I live in NJ), most people know that it is a good school, but don't think it can even compare to the NE schools. People often go, "Why are you applying to Rice?"</p>
<p>When I tell people (in TX) I applied to MIT they go "Why are you applying to MIT? Rice is so much better!"</p>
<p>lol Beef, Exact opposites...
Guess people are more loyal to where they are located.</p>
<p>Hmmm partially. I think Texans are just way too proud. They think everything in Texas is bigger and better. Things ARE bigger, but not always (Rice is small) and only better sometimes (Rice is better :D )</p>
<p>ah ah ah! Beef, maybe you shouldn't generalize! About half the undergraduate population of Rice is from TX, so I wouldn't go around calling them too proud... it won't help you make alot of friends. ;)</p>
<p>Do you yourself live in TX? But perhaps don't consider yourself Texan, I guess?</p>
<p>Yes, there are a lot of ppl in TX that are proud of their state, I'll give you that, but I wouldn't say all. I know many who "can't wait to get out of here" even though they've hardly been anywhere else. Sheep. Baaaaa.</p>
<p>In any case, I guess I am one who is proud of TX. Not because of your 'bigger and better' argument, but w/e.</p>
<p>Btw, any of you out-of-staters who are coming to Rice or are interested in Rice but aren't that excited about Houston or Texas in general, type 'Texas' in at Wikipedia. It'll have you pretty amazed, in my opinion, lol.</p>