Rice University: Why It's Better than Harvard/Stanford

College Search & Selection
81

<p>hopemanjkjk, the "Revealed College Preferences" study showed that students accepted to Rice and Duke choose Rice over Duke more often than Duke over Rice. In Duke's defense, the rankings were next to each other, indicating perhaps that it was more like 51/49 than a significant majority. Stanford and Harvard were, as one would guess based on "name recognition" (that Rice and Duke don't quite have yet), chosen over Rice more often than not. But I'm here to spread the good word... yay, Rice! Keep 'em coming!</p>

<p>I don't really like any rankings, but your feeling that people in Texas or elsewhere regard Duke as a higher level than Rice is probably not true based on the emperical evidence. And even if they did, does that mean they know what they are talking about more than anybody else, say you or me or anyone in this thread?</p>

82

<p>
[quote]
What is a god way to get funding for Rice? Also, i think my son is a national merit qualifier, but did not become a finalist, does that help with scholarships????

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I don't think that helps with scholarships at Rice, and they don't give much to finalists (someone in this thread indicated they only give $750). However, Rice tuition is extremely low compared to its peers and the financial aid department is generous. If you get a better financial offer at another top school (i.e. not UT), talk it over with Financial Aid @ Rice and you might be pleasantly surprised! Good luck!!</p>

83

<p>Two advantages for Rice undergraduates, that I will largely miss out on, are the residential college system and the low tuition. Rice and Yale are the only two universities where everyone is in a residential college (and no frats!), and the tuition difference for undergrads is amazing.</p>

<p>This article from USA TODAY talks about the tuition difference: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-04-21-vanderkam_x.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-04-21-vanderkam_x.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Brings tears to my eyes! (Actually, I paid less to attend UVa and so does anyone at a public university... because of dependance on the state... but still, I love the ideals of Rice.)</p>

84

<p>wow u are the most arrogant person lol

[quote]
I myself have nearly perfect standardized test scores, and believe that I could get into Rice, Harvard, or Stanford.

[/quote]

i highly doubt that lol. standardized test scores really dont mean anything since the majority of students have 1450+ and its really the accomplishments that matter. </p>

<p>you fail to understand that internship locations also matter. phoenix also has branches of those companies but less qualified students are accepted to these locations while the best and the brightest are accepted to the NYC and Boston locations. And actually Harvard's graduate school program has a great number of students from its undergraduate school. 6 of my cuzins went to both harvard undergrad and went on to the grad school. im not saying there arent students from rice there, its just not an advantage. just like wharton the grad school MBA program mainly accepts wharton undergrad students and other ivies. columbia MBA program is the same. Yale law school is also mostly composed of students from the same schools. if you have studied and researched graduate schools, there are usually a group of schools that feed into each other's programs. the only graduate school i know of that doesn't want its undergraduate students is stanford. otherwise the others give them a little boost</p>

<p>do u even research other schools? ur knowledge is generic, hypothesized, guesses, and wanting others to prove you wrong. Brown has a very strong research program, probably the best undergraduate medical program in the ivies and the strongest scientific research program. its 7 year programs is highly selective and surpasses that of rice. maybe you should research other schools before labeling them as "overhyped" or "inferior"</p>

<p>i actually have a friend at rice who loves it very much. majority of the research opportunities are available exclusively for graduate students. im sorry lol</p>

85

<p>Breeze-
I need to clarify-
The amount of the National Merit awards at Rice are need-based, ranging from, if I recall, $750-$3000/yr. For better or for worse, we only qualified for the $750. Hey- it buys books and sundries! :)</p>

86

<p>oh if u wanted to know. my friend was recruited by both rice and harvard for swimming. she was good friends with the rice recruiter/coach who suggested her that she would find more opportunities at harvard. as a result, she chose harvard. shouldnt the rice coach be telling her to go to rice....</p>

87

<p>shrek, that comment taken in this context does appear arrogant. There are plenty of people lurking here with a perfect 800 or 180 on their GRE/LSAT/GMAT/what have you. I apologize for being arrogant, especially in a virtual "room" of people who have or will accomplish a lot of great things. I'd tell you more about my story, why I can have my choice of schools, but that would reveal the field I'm in and this isn't about me. I'm merely trying to point out that I have no envy or complex about Harvard and Stanford, they are merely two of the most known schools. I actually like both of them more than many other schools. Nothing against Harvard and Stanford!</p>

<p>Phoenix does NOT have significant branches of those companies. You obviously aren't close to the investment banking industry. Boston branches are not larger than the Houston branches anymore. The general pecking order of largeness goes New York, San Francisco, Boston/Houston (tie). I was talking about internships anyway... it's just as easy for a Rice grad to get a full-time offer at Goldman Sachs in NY after interning for GS Houston as it is for a Harvard grad to get a full-time offer in NY after interning for GS Boston. And a Rice student is perfectly free to intern over the summer in New York if he would prefer, just as a Harvard student is free to leave Boston.</p>

<p>And of course I realize that Harvard grad schools do accept Harvard students. I said in a TIE-BREAKER, with ALL ELSE EQUAL that the Rice undergrad wins. Simply because there ARE so many Harvard people there that they don't add much diversity to the pool. Would you rather be in a class at HBS with students who all did H for undegrad, or would you rather be there with students from Rice, Stanford, Chicago, MIT, etc.? Obviously, you want to get every viewpoint you can and you want to get people who have been different places into your business school.</p>

88

<p>shrek, MY good friend was a diver from Boston and the coach/recruiter at Harvard told her she would find more opportunity at Rice. Shouldn't he have told her to go to Harvard?</p>

<p>Obviously, as there is no way to verify these two stories, they are worthless. Why people constantly repeat or make up these types of things is beyond me. Do you really think that a Rice swimming coach wanted a swimmer and told her to go to a different school? He wouldn't even be concerned with the academics at Harvard or Rice... he would be concerned with the best swimming team he can get in the water. That's just a dumb story, IMO.</p>

89

<p>Breeze:
Ok you just deflect my points by saying I am "threatened" (which I'm not). I don't take your arguments personally because they have no bearing on my life.</p>

<p>Let me just say this: you are no better than USNews or any other ranking. You look at the number of "institutes" and suddenly the school is somehow great for undergraduate research. I'm sorry, but the number of institutes does NOT prove anything about undergraduate research.
You say you've been to Duke plenty, but apparently you don't know where the medical center is. it is literally ON campus, as in, it's one of the sides of the main quad. Look at the chapel (which is at the center of the main campus, it's pretty obvious, and since you're an expert on duke's campus, i'll assume you know what i'm talking about) and turn right, and guess what, you're looking at the Medical center. Of course, it's expands beyond that, it's a huge building. Anyways, that's a side note.
I didn't know that visiting duke "plenty" suddenly made you an expert. But again you don't say anything. Ok, I've never been to Rice, I'll take your word for it that students do research there. I'm a student at duke, and students do research here too. Professors have their research interests posted online and you just have to talk to them about it. I don't see why a fancy institute is necessary. Different schools have different frameworks.</p>

<p>If you can't understand my "largest paragraph" because you need it split into more posts or whatever you said, sorry. I was just trying to show how you don't answer the questions asked of you. you avoid anything you don't want to address.</p>

<p>I would also like an intelligent discussion of the schools, but this is not the right atmosphere. You're right, I don't know much about Rice, but I don't go around bashing it and not lending any proof. You're set on Rice and you want to reaffirm to yourself that you're making the right choice by starting a debate about how Rice is the greatest. Fine, Rice is a great school. But no school can lay claim to being the greatest, there are too many subjective factors to be considered. But if this is helping you sleep at night, please continue.</p>

90

<p>Your other points aside, ay_caramba, the medical center at Duke is a LONG WAY from the Chapel. You can walk there, but I'm almost surprised you say you can see it from there. You must have an unobstructed view that stretches for quite a ways. Also, do undergraduates live at the chapel? Don't 100% of your freshmen live on the East Campus, miles away? And aren't the others spread out across your massive campus? The Chapel itself is miles away from some parts of campus.</p>

<p>Obviously, you're trying to be obnoxious with your last paragraph. I'm not affirming my choice, and I've already addressed that no one school is the best for EVERYONE. I'm simply spreading the word of Rice because it needs to get the word out a little better in the light of such rankings whores as Duke, WUStl, etc. Again though, those are great schools for pre-med. They just don't have science/engineering status, and their larger size makes them less intimate for liberal arts than Rice as well.</p>

<p>Rice, Rice, Rice! Go Owls. I know... I know.</p>

91

<p>Here is a link of undergraduate research at Rice. Apparently, they are the only school with an actual undergraduate research journal. Impressive! Too bad I won't be an undergrad, but this may interest many.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Erur/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~rur/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

92

<p>where is byerly, come on your school is being attacked</p>

93

<p>oh my goodness. I GO TO DUKE. you can see the medical center from in front of the chapel (not directly in front, but at that location, closer to the bus stop, which is parallel to the chapel). It takes me less than 2 minutes to walk from the chapel to the medical center. yes, freshman live on East campus, 1.5 miles away with buses running regularly so it takes less than 5 minutes to get between campuses during the day... OK i'm not going to even go any farther than this because you have no clue what you are talking about. you're grasping at straws. Obviously you've been to Duke a couple times (or maybe you just looked at a map online and got the scale wrong so you think everything's a mile away from everything else), and it's typical for people to become disoriented before they're on campus for a while. But don't pretend like you know everything.</p>

<p>Once again you push my points aside because you can't respond with anything to contradict what I'm saying. And another thing: not everyone who likes Duke, WUStl are ranking whores! You can't use the fact that they're high in the rankings to discredit the schools! clearly rankings don't validate the quality of a school; that would be circular. But just because your Rice isn't ranked as high as you would like doesn't make other schools above them worse just because you say so.</p>

<p>I am not trying to say that Duke is perfect. Our engineering program is small, and we're changing that right now. There are other things that I would change about the school as well. No school is perfect. None.</p>

<p>Yes, yes I was trying to be obnoxious in the last paragraph, but I think there is some truth in the fact that you're insecure. Rice doesn't have the renown that the Ivies, Duke, MIT, Stanford have, but yet you, a person who has such AMAZING stats that you could get into any school at will but mysteriously couldn't because of some situation, likes the school anyways. That's normal. Rankings are not everything (or anything really - I hate them too, and I go to <gasp> ranking-whore paradise, Duke!!!). No but seriously, calling Duke and WUStl ranking whores is really shallow. You have no idea what the school or the students think about it. If we were rankings whores, why would we be EXPANDING our student population? wouldn't that lower our selectivity rating? I don't call Rice an institute whore do I?!?!</gasp></p>

<p>I just don't think that you're taking the best approach to "spreadiing the word of Rice". Did you learn that by making the most unsubstantiated arguments in order to alienate and offend others is the best way to make a point? You seem more interested in proving Rice worthy of higher regard than some other schools rather than proving it has a good education independent of what other schools do.</p>

<p>I DO see the point that you're making. Rice does not get its due and it is a very very good school. If you do get in and go there you will probably have a great time and learn a lot. But the way you went about this is very typical of the way that many people try to "prove" their points around here: at the expense of other schools. That just really rubs me the wrong way. Do you really have to say that Rice is better than every other school to make your point? What does the fact that you don't respect Duke have to do with your argument?</p>

<p>AND OH MY GOSH THANK YOU FOR THAT LINK!!! I WILL TRANSFER FROM DUKE TO RICE RIGHT AWAY!!!</p>

<p>anyways whatever.</p>

94

<p>I think this thread is getting out of hand. All of the schools mentioned here have advantages and disadvantages, and all of them give good educations to their students.</p>

<p>This is, however, untrue:
"[At Rice] majority of the research opportunities are available exclusively for graduate students."</p>

<p>It's just plainly false. I am a freshman and I do research, and there are so, so, so many opportunities for that. </p>

<p>Also, the Duke medical center is very different from the Texas medical center, from what I understand. I don't believe that the Duke Medical center includes 13 hospitals, 2 medical schools, and schools of nursing, public health, pharmacy, etc. with a total of 42 institiutions. No, I'm pretty sure that they are not the same. I think that this is a major benefit of going to Rice (even as an undergrad, even as a freshman, it is easy to get involved in the med center's activities).</p>

<p>PS. I am finding Breeze's promotion of Rice slightly odd. I wonder if he/she is looking to gain something from this? I love rice, don't get me wrong. But it has its flaws. I personally think it's better than most of the other schools mentioned, but they do have some advantages.</p>

95

<p>
[quote]
Rice doesn't have the renown that the Ivies, Duke, MIT, Stanford have, but yet you, a person who has such AMAZING stats that you could get into any school at will but mysteriously couldn't because of some situation, likes the school anyways. That's normal.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>a_c- you're really getting a little emotional, actually a LOT emotional, and I find it laughable that you think Duke has the "renown" as you put it that Harvard does, but that somehow Rice doesn't have it. Sorry... Duke has its own struggle to get its name out, as does Rice. Everyone has heard of Harvard and Stanford, hence the title of this thread. That's not true of Rice and Duke, yet (unless you are talking about Duke Basketball, but even its own fans don't realize Duke is an academic powerhouse as well).</p>

<p>About "you, a person who has such AMAZING stats that you could get into any school at will but mysteriously couldn't because of some situation" -- what does that sentence really mean? You are implying that I "couldn't" get into Harvard/Stanford and so therefore have ended up with my sights on Rice? Therefore the implication that everyone who can go to Harvard/Stanford goes, and everyone at R had H/S as a first choice? Or are you impying that I "mysteriously couldn't" enroll in any graduate school at all, implying that I will go to Rice when I can get over the "mysterious situation"? Fill me in on the specific accusation you are making.</p>

<p>Better yet, skip it... it's not all about Rice vs. Duke. You say Duke has "renown" that Rice doesn't, the Bureau of Economic of Statistics says that people accepted to both choose Rice slightly more often than Duke. Whatever... it's not all about Rice vs. Duke! I'm sorry for any role I have played in drawing Duke so far into this thread.</p>

<p>I don't mean to "alienate and offend" you as you have said (and you are doing so much better endearing us all to Duke I guess), but you've really yet to point out any flaws in anything I said with the glaring exception of the location of the medical school. Looks like I was wrong about it being far away from dorms. If you say it's in the Duke Chapel right next to the pews, and the students all live in the rafters of the Chapel, then I defer to you... it's really a strange thing to be upset about, I guess it was your biggest point that Duke has a medical school "ON campus" and that the 2 medical schools next door aren't close enough to Rice. You must admit your campus is confusing (or campuses, as you have labeled them now West Campus, Central Campus, and East Campus with buses running between them).</p>

<p>There are schools that I have more disdain for than Duke... and I think it is surely a positive that Duke is increasing the size of its engineering school. A lot of research strength comes from having a solid foundation in engineering and science. Any school with over 50% of its engineering students in one major can not be taken but so seriously when you end up in discussions with people from schools like MIT, Rice, and yes, Stanford.</p>

<p>Anyway, enough about Duke. This is a Rice thread. I won't compare it directly to Duke any longer, as it makes the thread ugly. I'll try to make no futher direct comparisons, as you're right, it alienates people at Duke University when I say that Rice has "three times the endowment-per-student as Duke", even if it is true. I won't do it anymore.</p>

<p>Jen- yes, this thread is getting out of hand... and it's strange that it has debased to Rice vs. Duke currently instead of Rice vs. Harvard/Stanford. Rice and Duke may both be in the south, but they're very, very far away from each other... it's strange that they are seen by many here as direct competition to each other. For what reason other than they are both southern?</p>

<p>Jen, I didn't realize that there are 13 hospitals at the Texas Medical Center. 13?? I'm not a med student, or a pre-med student, but that mind-boggling to me.</p>

<p>My promotion of Rice is really fanatical, I admit it. It's weird you say "I wonder if he/she is looking to gain something from this?" though, because what could I possibly gain from this? What is the worst case scenario of all possibilities on the anonymous Internet, how could I profit most from promoting Rice? It's not like I'm going to pull out a link to "Breeze's admission tips to get into Rice, only $19.99" or something... </p>

<p>Yes, I am fanatical... don't know what to tell you. I didn't apply to Rice way back when I was in high school, never even heard of top schools like that. I'm just glad that there's a way to reach current high school students who might not know what Rice University is all about.</p>

<p>I've just yet to find the person who looked into Rice University and didn't really like what they found.</p>

96

<p>
[quote]
Breeze-
I need to clarify-
The amount of the National Merit awards at Rice are need-based, ranging from, if I recall, $750-$3000/yr. For better or for worse, we only qualified for the $750. Hey- it buys books and sundries!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Sounds like someone shouldn't have reported that offshore income! That's a good way to do it though. $750 is $750... but I have a feeling that the $750 isn't what swayed your son's college decision.</p>

97

<p>"Here is a link of undergraduate research at Rice. Apparently, they are the only school with an actual undergraduate research journal. Impressive!"</p>

<p>I didn't know the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ) wasn't an actual undergraduate research journal. I gotta tell my roommate that the advanced polymer synthesis experiment he is doing with his chemical engineering professor is all going to waste. The journal is a fake!</p>

98

<p>Email them about that! Not being a Rice student, I found it on the Internet. Maybe the Stanford one only includes Stanford research? The Rice one calls itself "the only international undergraduate journal..." ... maybe they're the only one that includes research from around the globe... ? Or maybe the Stanford journal really is a fake! Most Stanford people can't even spell their own names (just kidding...)</p>

99

<p>I have to agree with Jen. I am glad that breeze is so passionate about Rice, and I enjoyed the opening post, but the tone of the thread has taken a turn for the worse. As supportive as I am of Rice, I must admit that even I find the fanatacism a bit of a turn-off, and I don't think that is at all breeze's intent. It is beginning to feel like being approached by a moonie at the airport that I would avoid (no offense to any past or present moonies). I am beginning to believe that not all the responses are even being read by the few that are having this verbal tug-of-war, as I'd mentioned a few posts back that my s. selected Rice for Rice, not for the token Merit money. I already said that the merit money was not a factor in my s's decision.
Please, this is not the "overrated-underrated" thread. I am all for educating people about the benefits of a school, and the purpose of CC is to share this kind of information, but please, lets be careful not to alienate people in the process. I don't think that was your original intent.
And FWIW, my son spent 2 summers at Duke. His only complaint was that the dorms weren't air-conditioned which, in the summer, was not fun.</p>

100

<p>I think Rice is indeed a good school. I do not understand why someone would try so hard to promote the school by denouncing other institutions.
I have a nephew who applied and was accepted to Rice. He opted to matriculate at Boston College. I guess he could probably come up with a list of reasons why Boston College is a better choice (for him). He still thinks Rice is a good school or he would not have applied there. He was even offered some merit aid at Rice and turned it down. Imagine that.</p>