<p>Hi,
What do you think of Rice compared to Purdue?
Would you go for Rice if you gotten an offer there?</p>
<p>I do take in account of prestige and recognition because i am on a scholarship and may never return to the US :( so this is my one shot..
I worry that if i were to choose Purdue with approximately 60% admission over the slightly more selective 19% Rice, i may be looking at something wrong. What if international employers think that is a culinary school or something :O</p>
<p>I know this subforum may be biased for Purdue but that's okay. I wanna know your opinions.
Thanks in advance! :)</p>
<p>I would judge by how much you would fit into each school. My son is at Purdue and loves it. Not a party school, very conservative, most kids live on campus, they tend to group kids into groups to foster a collaborative environment. He loves it. It is not easy (35 ACT / #1 IB School in the USA and he is working his butt off). Class scores are low. The Dean of Engineering runs that school with an iron fist. I know nothing about Rice, but would find out more about the climate, how life is, how things will be. Remember, Purdue is a BIG school and they just lump everyone into “who got accepted”. Purdue is known for Engineering. I do not know much about Rice, however I have never heard of Rice in the top schools of engineering (rankings). Employers are not stupid; they can do a google search on Rice and know it is not a food company, and Purdue is not a Chicken Company.</p>
<p>Notice that Purdue is ranked #39 and Rice is #40. So, no real difference. Personally, I like Rice better but you should make the decision based on your personal preferences and total cost. Both universities will provide you with an outstanding engineering education.</p>
<p>I can weigh in on this. My oldest son is a sophmore at Rice University. He is pre-med. He is working his tail off. He has a lot of engineering friends there and are working just as hard if not harder than the pre-meds. Acceptance rate is competitive at about 15-16% acceptance rate. Biomedical engineering by far is the most difficult degree and the students (undergrad and grad) collaborate with the 13 hospitals that make up the Texas Medical Center across the street. MANY west coast firms recruit engineers from Rice. There are only 950 students per class so it’s quite a bit smaller than Purdue. There are no fraternities or sororities. The living arrangement is a residential college system and is quite popular with students. Each college has their own serveries, and each college form their intramural sports teams (kind of like Harry Potter). Freshmen to seniors, from students to athletes, are equally distributed throughout the residential colleges. Rice students are consistently the happiest students according Princeton Reviews annual survey. Houston is hot but all dorms and class buildings are air-conditioned. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States. My other son, who is currently a senior in HS, is going to Purdue for engineering this Fall. He wanted to go a mid-west Big Ten school. He felt most comfortable with Purdue rather than The Ohio State University (even though we are from Ohio) and we will pay more. Purdue is smaller than tOSU. He did a one week summer engineering program last year and fell in love with Purdue. This was his first choice. We are very fortunate and grateful for the Presidential Scholarship and Honors invitation offered to him. I think the engineering programs of both schools are very much compatible with the biomedical engineering program a bit stronger at Rice. So, it all depends what environment you would fit the best in - a smaller Div I school in a BIG metropolitan city in the South, or a bigger university (but not as big as tOSU) in a smaller midwest city. Hope that helps. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>Much depends upon your emotional maturity and how much you emotionally depend upon other people. It is all too easy to fail silently at a large Big 10 school if you are too embarrassed to ask questions and seek help early. At Purdue you would encounter graduate teaching assistants, often foreign nationals, in all of the introductory courses, and often their engineering/mathematical skill far exceeds their communication skill (remember, they are learning and earning too!). At Rice you would pay a lot more for more faculty attention. For our daughter, who was accepted at both, the attention (and the ED policy) won out. Being much bigger, Purdue has whole disciplines (like agricultural engineering) that are lacking at Rice. Think of what you want to do when you get out of college, and if you have a strong interest in particular specialties, google the faculty names to see what kind of work they are publishing. From what I hear, you can expect to be stress-tested at either school. At Purdue, you would be exposed to all kinds of students; Rice gets to cherry-pick diverse interests but an overall similarly high level of ability. The strongest Purdue students have the test scores and work habits to succeed academically anywhere. The weakest ones are weeded out: it is easier to get in than to graduate. However, if you must downgrade, Purdue has a college of technology to fall back on. Rice does not.</p>
<p>Overall, if you are mature enough and self-reliant (but not too isolated), you can make Purdue work out very well. Both schools will reward a passion for your studies. The danger with Purdue is that it is possible to slip by without adequate academic stimulation; you need to keep aware of the opportunities and maybe prod your advisor. The danger with Rice is that you will get a “one thing fits all” situation because it is a small school and can’t specialize in everything.</p>
<p>I am not a college expert, I’m an American mom whose daughter has been accepted to Purdue and I have some knowledge of national schools from personal experience. I think for a typical American senior, Rice would be the clear choice - it’s a smaller school, there will be less red tape, it is very highly thought of and most people wouldn’t mind going to school in Houston. My daughter had no interest in Rice because of the location and weather but I think she’s crazy. Rice is “ranked” higher than Purdue in everything except engineering. I saw on your earlier posts that you are from Ireland, majoring in ME and you’re only sponsored for 3 years, so let me say that those facts make you very atypical. Most engineering majors will take 4-5 years to get through a tough program - and either school will be very tough in engineering, no matter how smart and hard-working you are. I would contact the ME programs at both school and see which offers you the most flexibility in getting through all of the requirements in your 3 year period. I haven’t looked at Rice’s requirements but I’ve seen Purdue’s (my daughter is also in ME) and I really don’t see how anyone could get through in 3 years. If you’ve already done that and you’re quite certain of your path, I would look at the climate for both and decide if you want to roast for three years… or freeze! </p>
<p>@JoanLawson. You don’t say what you intend to study. If it is engineering, Purdue is an outstanding choice. There are far more Purdue engineering graduates working internationally than Rice, and Purdue’s engineering program is higher ranked. Purdue also admits a tremendous number of international students, 2nd among US public schools and 4th among all US universities. </p>
<p>We visited Purdue last October with my son (who has been accepted): Here’s some of my post-visit write-up:</p>
<p>We were very impressed with Purdue. West Lafayette (separated from Lafayette by the Wabash River) looks like a nice college town. The campus is very attractive. All buildings must be brick and they have done a nice job integrating the new buildings with the old. Campus is nicely landscaped and very easy to get around. Although it’s a very large school (30,000 undergraduate, 9,000 graduate), it fells much smaller. There is shuttle service to O’Hare and Indianapolis Airports, and train service to Chicago. Purdue just opened a state-of-the-art Student recreation building. <a href=“http://www.purdue.edu/recsports/about_us/rsc_renovation/index.php”>http://www.purdue.edu/recsports/about_us/rsc_renovation/index.php</a>. </p>
<p>Purdue has the largest career fair in the Country. Over 3000 companies recruit. There are 418,000 living alumni. </p>
<p>The afternoon Engineering Information session was just as well organized and efficient as the morning Admissions presentation. 40% of Purdue engineering students are from Indiana, 38% from the rest of the U.S., and 22% international. There are 80,000 living Purdue engineering alums. One in 50 engineers in the U.S. is a Purdue graduate. The Wall Street Journal rates Purdue second with recruiters for engineering graduates (Georgia Tech is first). Purdue really works hard to ensure that they admit the right engineering students and that they graduate. The most recent freshmen retention rate is 88%, which includes students that change colleges, drop out, or flunk out. As is common knowledge, many engineering programs struggle to retain students.</p>
<p>Purdue’s coop program is one of the country’s largest. Summer internships average $10-11,000 per year. One-third of students have internship opportunities after freshman year, and virtually all that apply all have opportunities after sophomore year or later.</p>
<p>@EEdegree, thanks! I’ve asked some current Purdue students on Facebook and they somehow recommended me to attend Rice instead. I’ll ask the students from Rice to get another side of it. :)</p>
<p>@NROTCgrad, thanks too! That’s weird, though. I’d never thought both of them are so similar in rankings.</p>
<p>@RedYellowBlue, you must be a proud parent! Have you asked them whether did they personally like their universities, and what did they dislike about them? </p>
<p>@Zephyranthes, I guess the attention is good. I’m worried that Purdue is too large a class that one has difficulty when needing extra assistance. I know there are teaching assistants of some sort but what about the lecturers themselves?</p>
<p>@CaMom13, well, 3 years is enough for engineering in Ireland or the UK… I guess Purdue has an advantage via the advanced credit examinations? I think with my current knowledge, I can test out from many classes without needing to take AP tests, which are expensive here, but Rice does not have these exams.
I can survive with my personal savings, I guess, for the final year. Been working and saving hard lately. :)</p>
<p>@Beaudreau, I’m majoring in Mechanical Engineering! Wow, you made Purdue seemed like a great place! I’m gonna have to check the same for Rice for a fair comparison. :D</p>
<p>@joanlawson My son has been really happy at Rice. I think that this was the best fit for him and he does not regret his decision. His other choice two years ago was Duke. In the end, the Rice merit scholarship helped solidify his decision. He’s worked very hard but he was well prepared for college and the work that comes along with it. He has made plenty of friends, not just from Texas, but all over the US and the world. His only complaint about Rice (and I’m sure this is not unique to Rice) is that his grades sometimes do not reflect how much time or work he’s put into the class or preparing for the test. As parents, we love visiting Houston! There so many different restaurants and different types of neighborhoods to visit - Mexican, Vietnamese, Italian, etc. Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>Both are excellent universities. I went to Purdue and live in Houston, so I guess I have some insight into both.</p>
<p>Purdue has name recognition nationally and internationally, and has a great engineering program. The weather isn’t bad- no lake effect like you have in Chicago. So while it is in the midwest, it has a much more mild climate than you might expect. This was an unusual year - but in a typical year, Purdue gets much less snow than Chicago or other places to the north. Pretty campus, large student body, conservative as colleges go, but any place with over 30,000 18-22 year olds will be somewhat diverse in that regard. </p>
<p>Rice is well known in Texas and in some circles (certainly if you apply to any grad school with a Rice degree, the name will be recognized), but does not have the international name recognition that Purdue has. It is a pretty campus, but small. Small student body. It is a bit quirky (in a good way!), so a visit would be a good idea! Somewhat liberal student body. It is in Houston, recently voted “Coolest City in the US”. Cool, of course, does not relate to climate. Summer is HOT, no way around that, but everything is air conditioned, and when summer is over, you get to enjoy Texas fall, winter and spring - ahhhh!</p>
<p>You can’t go wrong with either of these choices!</p>
Rice is “ranked” higher than Purdue in everything except engineering. I saw on your earlier posts that you are from Ireland, majoring in ME and you’re only sponsored for 3 years, so let me say that those facts make you very atypical. Most engineering majors will take 4-5 years to get through a tough program - and either school will be very tough in engineering, no matter how smart and hard-working you are. I would contact the ME programs at both school and see which offers you the most flexibility in getting through all of the requirements in your 3 year period. I haven’t looked at Rice’s requirements but I’ve seen Purdue’s (my daughter is also in ME) and I really don’t see how anyone could get through in 3 years. If you’ve already done that and you’re quite certain of your path, I would look at the climate for both and decide if you want to roast for three years… or freeze! </p>
Have you asked them whether did they personally like their universities, and what did they dislike about them? </p>
:)</p>