<p>Rice or Duke better for premed? plz answer honestly :)</p>
<p>premed is what you make of it. both schools are really great, you can't go wrong with either.
that said, i'm from the northeast and looked all over the country for the best premed programs and found duke and didn't even consider rice (not that that is a validation of duke in and of itself, which of course would be circular). I feel that duke is better for a few reasons, the most obvious is that it has its own medical school and hospital which are very accessible for duke students; rice has neither. </p>
<p>I just got the vibe that duke took premed stuff more seriously. This may be a superficial way of evaluating it, but compare their prehealth advising websites.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/prehealth%5B/url%5D">http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/prehealth</a>
<a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Eacadadv/premeddocuments.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~acadadv/premeddocuments.html</a></p>
<p>Duke's has a lot more information and detail, whereas rice's has many typos and grammatical problems and doesn't really give much more than an overview. Now, this may be because duke is much more "web-based," so to speak, than many of the other top universities. But in my opinion, medical school admission is very delicate, almost a science, and duke has mastered it as much as (and in most cases more) than any other school, rice included.</p>
<p>But to be perfectly honest, for premed, just go to the school you like better. Rice has a good name too and you will succeed there too if you try.</p>
<p>bumpp...............</p>
<p>thanks man.</p>
<p>From experiences of one child who went to Duke and one who passed on Duke to go to Rice, I would have to give a slight edge to Rice if you are limiting the evaluation to the quality of undergraduate instruction, particularly in the sciences. Duke has much larger classes in the core pre-med science courses and makes liberal use of graduate assistants. It also has a more competitive atmosphere among pre-medical students. Rice has smaller classes, much smaller when you get beyond first year courses, and students seem to be eager to help each other. </p>
<p>Graduates of both schools are highly regarded by the top med schools. Rice has a 96% acceptance rate for students applying to medical school. </p>
<p>Rice also provides equal if not greater opportunities for undergrads to do medically-related research. True, Duke has one of the top medical schools and Rice does not have a medical school. But Rice is part of the Texas Medical Center, the largest health complex in the world, which includes Baylor College of Medicine, St. Luke's Hospital, Methodist Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. All are within walking distance of the Rice campus, and all welcome Rice undergrads in their laboratories. A high percentage of undergraduate professors in engineering and the sciences are involved in collaborative research with institutions in the TMC. Similarly, the bioengineering department at Duke is involved in research at DMC, but the scope of opportunites for undergrads, on a per capita basis, is somewhat broader at Rice.</p>
<p>As for intangibles, the campus at Rice is merely beautiful; Duke's campus is breathtaking. They are equally diverse, but Duke seems to be more interested in political correctness. Duke has a Greek system as well as independent housing. Rice has residential colleges and officially prohibits any form of exclusivity. Duke has its own forest (8000 acres worth). Rice is near a huge park that includes the Houston zoo. Houston has the Astro's but Durham has the Bulls. Gotta go with the Bulls. Houston has the Rockets, but Durham has Duke. No contest there either. Duke has a 50,000 seat stadium that is sometimes nearly half full (homecoming). Rice has a 70,000 seat stadium that sometimes packs in as many as 5 or 6 thousand people. Houston has a huge array of restaurants, the best being close to Rice. Duke has Bullocks and Honey's. Advantage Duke.</p>
<p>You will have access to unlimited opportunities at either place. If you are a very disciplined self starter you will do fine at Duke. If you want an equal education in a smaller, and perhaps somewhat more supportive, environment, you should strongly consider Rice.</p>