Rice Engineering vs Cal College of Chemistry

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

Hi CC,

I got into two very, very nice schools (waitlisted >> just accepted to Rice), and with 5/1 coming up, I have to decide soon. I’m currently leaning slightly towards Rice at the moment (about 60/40), and I was wondering if I was missing anything about both schools. I was wondering if you guys could help me decide the next four years of my life! I’m not sure what I want to do with my life yet, but I’m definitely heading down the engineering/sciences/med instead of the humanities. I know I will attend grad school, and will most likely end up on the west coast.

In no particular order of importance:

  1. Because of their sizes (Rice ~4k, Cal ~25k), I believe Rice's environment is more intimate. The student faculty ratios are more than double at Cal, and I think I would thrive more at Rice. However, I also know that Cal's CoC (~900 undergrads) is like their own little bubble in the greater Cal environment. So...
  2. Research/internships are more readily available at Rice. Again, student:faculty is smaller at Rice. However, I know that there is a lot more variety of research at Cal. I don't consider myself very competitive or a "go-getter", and thus think Rice's "hold-you-hand" philosophy is better than Cal's "you're on your own" one, for me at least.
  3. Rice's Residential College system is very special, and it's a lot more homely than Cal's dorm system.
  4. I'm an avid pianist, and I know Rice's Shepherd School of Music is more open for non-majors than Cal's music school is.
  5. Cal weather is almost the best in the world, and Rice is in Houston (hot/humid most of the year).
  6. Rice's campus is better.
  7. I heard that Cal's CoC (ChemE) is pretty hard to get in, and that I could potentially transfer to anything I want from there. However, I would also be pretty flexible at Rice, I believe.
  8. Cal has exponentially more connections, both national and international, than Rice does.
  9. If I go to Cal for undergrad, I won't get in for grad.
  10. Rice's undergraduate focus is exponentially higher than Cal's.
  11. People are nicer in general at Rice.
  12. Both are relatively the same price for me.
  13. SF > Houston
  14. IDK about food
  15. GPA at Cal < GPA at Rice.

That’s about all I can think of right now…

Please discuss!

Thanks

2

I definitely won’t argue with SF > Houston, though some people might, or the weather point. I will point out, however, that Rice actually has really nice weather for most of the school year. The only uncomfortable months are August, September, and the beginning of October. A rule of thumb is after 10/1, you won’t get any days above 90. The result is a really temperate and largely beautiful winter, with some amount of time in the 40s. Houston also has a lot of awesome food not far from Rice, but how much you take advantage of that is up to you. I don’t really know what Berkley food is like – maybe it competes.

I can confirm that the residential college system is awesome. If you look around the recent posts, someone mentioned hating it for reasons I take issue with a little, but they are entitled to their opinion and I won’t claim that everyone is happy because that would be ridiculous. For the most part, though, people love it. I also don’t want you thinking your engineering classes will have 6 students in them, but I don’t think Rice’s ratio is any less representative of the reality than any other engineering-heavy school.

Cal probably has a hiring advantage for west coast, but Rice does alright there too. With my limited knowledge of Cal, you seem pretty dead on in your information though!

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@kami8900 All your points are dead on right. I would take Rice over Cal. Infact we have the same choice among 4 other schools and We have rejected Cal and Rice is in our top 2 choices. However, our choice of major is different. Nevertheless, I would say Rice.