<p>Gimpage: It's not just not true that Rice's surroundings are solidly republican. True, the Democrats did lose ground in the last election, but:</p>
<p>The mayor is a democrat. 45% of people in Harris County voted for Kerry. The State senator for our district is a democrat. Rice's zip code was Kerry's largest donor zip in Houston, and Houston was Kerry's largest donor city in Texas. The city council (which is officially non partisan) does include members who are generally more liberal.</p>
<p>"Duke, Vandy, Emory... larger schools than Rice but little real substance. Duke is probably the most overhyped school south of the Ivy League. Vandy and Emory are not PR hype machines like Duke/WUStl, but also aren't as solid as Rice IMO."</p>
<p>Define substance.</p>
<p>For starters, try research and development. Rice does more than Duke with 1/2 to 1/3 of the students and faculty. Duke does more than Vandy and Emory.</p>
<p>Duke is more of a research institution than at least 75% of the Ivy League, but it can't compete with Rice in this category. Rice is also more of a teaching institution than Duke, as it is more the size of a LAC and there's a lot more personal attention to go around. In neither aspect normally associated with a university (teaching, research) can Duke can compete with Rice.</p>
<p>what number are you using to judge that I mean</p>
<p>Rice is in Texas. That automatically makes it a turn off. Texas sucks...lol. </p>
<p>Rice does get a lot of good students from the south but duke gets more. Ivies have a lower number of national merits because more students come from the east coast where national merit cut offs are 220+. in the south alabama has a cutoff of like 198. you cant compare national merit cutoffs.</p>
<p>Why does Rice want to say that it is "better" than Harvard and Stanford? Do Rice people have some kind of inferiority complex?</p>
<p>Congrats, Shrek... you failed to read the thread before typing away and looking a bit foolish. </p>
<p>ubermensh - I don't go to Rice. But why do you call Rice inferior to Harvard and Stanford? Why can't you accept that I am calling it better? If you can't, what exactly makes you feel that Harvard and Stanford are better? Because they're the only colleges you've heard of? :o</p>
<p>Amused, I'm not sure you understand. What number to judge what? Only U.S. News looks at universities as numbers. Is that where you learned about colleges?</p>
<p>lol breeze do u not read previous posts? people are comparing it to duke haha. u should read other posts before u post </p>
<p>breeze u are the one that is calling harvard and stanford better, or else u wouldnt have started this stupid thread saying rice is better than both of them</p>
<p>are u kidding me? rice's endowment cant touch princeton or harvards. i dont know what statistics you are looking at.</p>
<p>advantages of applying to grad school by going to harvard/stanford over rice? i dont know if you know anyone who has recently applied to grad school or anything but the best grad schools are filled with ivy league and other ivy league caliber school students such as stanford duke mit caltech. rice, though it is good, cant be and shouldnt be listed with these schools, more or less grouped with WUSTL, Northwestern, UChicago, JHU. its not easier per se but more students get into top ranked business schools, med schools, and law schools from ivy leagues and stanford other ivy-league caliber schools. </p>
<p>rice also doesnt have the as many prestigious internships/opportunities available. at say columbia or harvard, recruiters from citibank, morgan stanley, merill lynch, top companies recruit these students in the north east (a great reason to attend school in the northeast)</p>
<p>i live in arizona, people move here because of weather....lol</p>
<p>Most people dont take the PSAT very seriously. not only is it not graded on a curve, but also its a joke test that most people only take because their parents make them. most National Merit Scholars go to schools that will offer them the most money. Also, I bet Harvard/Yale/MIT has more scholars than that. They only know you are national merit if you report it. not everyone does</p>
<p>breeze I meant this...</p>
<p>"Duke is more of a research institution than at least 75% of the Ivy League, but it can't compete with Rice in this category."</p>
<p>Shrek, you'll have to word your thoughts more clearly. It's not obvious what point you are trying to make. I started this thread, and I am comparing Rice to Harvard, Stanford, as well as Duke.</p>
<p>Rice's endowment-per-student is incredibly high. It is over 4 TIMES that of Penn, Columbia, Brown, and Cornell. It is also higher than Dartmouth's. It is much higher than Duke's. It is higher than STANFORD's, which is one of the schools in this comparison. You are correct that Princeton and Harvard are two of the three schools that actually have a higher amount than Rice. The only other is Yale.</p>
<p>Amused, look into the schools. 75% = 6 of 8. Every school but Harvard and Cornell in the Ivy League does not even try to give the impression they conduct serious research in much of anything. Duke does try to give the impression, but hasn't come up with much. Rice is known globally for the groundbreaking research in nanotechnology, and dozens of universities across the country are now trying to build their own nano centers. Rice is an engineering/research school as well as a liberal arts school. Duke is simply not.</p>
<p>Still don't know if I can just take your word for that breeze. Duke has a top five med school (in the research catergory) and one of the top BME programs, so I just can't imagine them not doing "that much" research.</p>
<p>That's great for their medical school students. Doesn't affect undergrads much though, does it. I believe WUSTL also has a top medical school, but no one accuses them of being a research school. BME is obviously closely related to medical.</p>
<p>Anything else at Duke?</p>
<p>(Speaking of medical, Rice faculty helped develop the first artificial hearts, and the largest medical complex in the world is next to the Rice campus.)</p>
<p>About 50%, maybe even most of the undergraduate engineering students are majoring in BME, but I'll agree that they probably aren't as involved with research as the grad students. I don't get it though, what do you expect? I'm sure a large majority of the research that goes on Rice is by grad students too, because that is where research in general occurs and belongs.</p>
<p>Rice is fairly unique in that a lot of the undergraduates participate in serious research. Some other schools are like this to some extent, but Rice is the smallest and most intimate atmosphere that affords the opportunity.</p>
<p>I didn't realize that over 50% of Duke's engineering school has the same major. Is that a positive or a negative?</p>
<p>not sure. but there are only four majors: BME Civil Engineering Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. There's also CEE and ECE which are sub-majors I guess. BME definitely dominates and is very popular, but the other majors are still pretty good given their size.</p>
<p>What is the city of Houston like? I drove through it once going from San Antonio to New Orleans, and didn't think much of it, but then again I didn't spend any time there.</p>
<p>I'm no expert on Houston, but the Museum District where Rice is located has about 20 museums and is one of the most visited such districts in the country. The neighborhood is full of culture. The Houston Zoo is also like 1/2 of a mile from the Rice campus, so I'm sorta surprised that Rice students can't hear monkeys screeching at night.</p>
<p>Uptown Houston is very upscale, but I haven't spent much time there... it's where you'll find FAO Schwartz and the like... and the highest rents.</p>