<p>So far I haven't seen any comparison between these two, and I was just wondering what everyone thought. I'm hoping to major in biology, but would like to be able to explore a few different subjects on the side. The liberal arts education at William & Mary appeals to me, especially because I love learning for learning's sake. On the other hand, I know many people who went to Rice University and loved it, and I love the diversity of the student population. Rice is also more convenient for me geographically. William & Mary will cost me less, even though I'm OOS, but my parents are (with some apprehension) willing to pay for Rice with a lot of sacrifices on my part. </p>
<p>I'm also a little worried about the teaching quality at Rice. Obviously, I know that it is highly-rated academically, but are teachers interesting and available? One thing that impressed me about William & Mary was how highly undergrads value their teachers. When students review Rice, they don't really seem to focus much on the teaching, but whether that's because the teachers are less than stellar, or because there's just so much to rave about is hard to tell. </p>
<p>Personality-wise, I'm very quirky, a little bit of a geek, like to debate, and am going to college a little less for the degree and a little more for the knowledge. </p>
<p>I'm also planning on going on to graduate school, and would like to do some undergrad research. How do you think each school would help me accomplish these goals?</p>
<p>Any insight on which school would be the better fit would be very helpful! I'm trying to avoid putting too much weight on rankings and prestige. (aka, USNWR: Rice=17, W&M=33)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I'm international and won't have the time to visit both campuses before I have to decide (have visited Rice, not W&M).</p>
<p>I think you would fit in very nicely at Rice. The professors are fantastic and ARE interesting and available. I have never heard any complaints. W&M is wonderful, too, of course. You would enjoy the residential colleges at Rice and the D1 sports (most of the teams aren’t particularly strong, but a few are…)
There are a lot of research opportunities at Rice, with the huge medical center complex right across the street.</p>
<p>As far as your issue with teachers goes, the Princeton Review says that the W&M student:faculty ratio is 11:1 while Rice’s is 5:1.</p>
<p>I can vouch for the teachers personally here as well. I’ve only had one bad professor and he was definitely an anomaly, every other teacher I’ve had was awesome. All of them were readily available and had their own office hours set, and most responded to emails fairly quickly. As for biology professors specifically, I don’t have firsthand experience, but I know of at least one intro bio professor my friends really like. He’s also one of the masters at a residential college which means he’s seen by the students a lot.</p>
<p>In my experience, everyone here has some sort of quirk, and most (if not all) are huge geeks (though many won’t admit it). Fit doesn’t really seem to be an issue, as pretty much all students love it at Rice, regardless of background/interests/etc. Rice is really diverse and everyone is welcoming.</p>
<p>There is a thriving undergraduate research program here. A large number of my friends are involved in research of some kind and opportunities abound so I don’t think you will have any problem getting involved.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I cannot speak for W&M, but I am pretty confident that you would love going to Rice.</p>
<p>You sound like a perfect W&M student too (I guess the two schools have quite a few similarities)!
W&M faculty concentrate on undergraduates and always involve them in their research. I do not know anyone at W&M who has looked to help with summer research and has not found it. Last year as part of an intro to biology research class, some freshman discovered a new bacteriophage that may be useful in treating tuberculosis. It is not uncommon for students to go to professors’ homes for dinner or a barbecue. Every Biology professor I have met has been excellent too. </p>
<p>W&M has a very pretty brick colonial campus (Frisian style bricks) that includes the Wren building - the oldest continually used academic building in the nation. You can go on flicker or google earth to try to get a better feel for it. Most W&M undergrads (6000 undergrads, 2000 grad and law students) live on campus, so there is a very close community, yet you still meet new people everyday.</p>
<p>If you have a good idea for an independent research project, it is also pretty easy to find funding for it at W&M. There are always academic lectures going on - nearly every night there is some speaker, if not more. It isn’t known for sports, but W&M has had it’s best basketball and football seasons this year in nearly half a century.</p>
<p>^I agree wholeheartedly. But because I’m international, that was an issue I was always going to have. </p>
<p>The responses of everyone who posted on here made me laugh a little, because they basically confirmed what I know: that either school would be a perfect personality match (was hoping for a “NO YOU WOULD NOT FIT IN” somewhere :p). I will probably choose Rice between the two, then, just because it is a better location for me. When you are as far away from your family as I am going to be, you like to know there is someone nearby if you need it. </p>
<p>Plus, I love the Rice college system. :D</p>
<p>I would feel bad about turning away W&M (their acceptance letter owns Rice’s…), but I guess you have to turn down someone.</p>
<p>Congrats to you on your acceptance at two colleges that really get it right for undergrads. If more kids did their research you would see many more R vs W&M threads instead of other schools that have very little in common with each other. Even more impressive is you did it from overseas. Maybe the “forest/trees” vision analogy really is true. With a W&M bias I wish you could have visited W&M and given it a fighting chance:) Again, congrats, you really cant go wrong.</p>
<p>I was actually surprised that there were so few Rice vs. William and Mary threads (if any), since despite the different geographic locations they are pretty similar in many ways. One bad thing about CC is that there are so many Yale/Princeton/Harvard, HEEEELP! threads that people looking for schools might get into the “must get into a university as highly ranked as possible!” mentality, especially the internationals that don’t start out with much information to begin with. </p>
<p>Luckily, though, I’m more overseas than international, and have a few family members in education that helped me out (no guidance councilor, but that might have been a bonus :)) . I have to admit that I did apply to a few more completely random schools, but that was because I had no idea how schools would view my foreign grade scale: I wanted to make sure I got in somewhere! </p>
<p>I’ll probably do some lurking on the international forums next year, if only to promote W&M :D.</p>
<p>I know a current OOS W&M freshman who is trying to transfer to Rice because she was surprised at how empty the W&M campus becomes on the weekend when all the in-staters leave to go home. I thought you might find that relevant, given that you’re an international student, and probably looking for a vibrant community on the weekends as well.</p>
<p>I think that is a huge overstatement. I know very few people who go home in a semester ever, much less every weekend. Virginia is also a decent sized state, the median drive home would probably be over 3 hours. And if you are referring to the “weekend community” as a keyword for party life, I have yet to see a Friday or Saturday night where there was not a large party going on somewhere that I could go to if I so chose, not to mention other, non-alcoholic, activities. Not that it really matters anymore for the OP anyway.</p>
<p>Actually, the majority of Rice students are in-state too. Of course, it’s a humongous state, but I would guess that the vast majority of Texans at Rice are from east of center.</p>