I’m currently conflicted between these four colleges. Financially, Rice and Emory offered me the most (three times as much money as Berkeley) and UVA is in the middle. My family is middle-class so the financial factor is pretty important to me; however, it would be possible for us to afford Berkeley if I decided it was the one. I’m planning on majoring in Anthropology, though I also like English–honestly, I’m not completely sure on what I want to major in, but it’s definitely going to be in the humanities/social sciences. There’s a high chance I’ll be shooting for law school after undergrad so I’d also like opinions for which school would be best for that. I’m also very big on art so I’d like a good art scene at the school.
Rice-- I’m currently leaning towards Rice because I love their residential college system and student life in general, but I think their humanities program may the worst of the four :/? Also not a very good art program… Not sure if the school favors STEM majors over humanities people
Berkeley-- Great programs in my areas of interest, but the most expensive option. It’s also a bit big in my opinion. How hard is it to develop close relationships with professors?
Emory-- I have the option to start at their Oxford campus so that might be cool, and also I think it’s pretty solid in the anthro and English departments. Not sure about much else though.
UVA-- I know they’ve got good programs in my prospective majors, but it’s also got the size issue. I was put in the Echols Scholars program, so that is a perk. Unfortunately I don’t know much else about it.
I only have the time and money to visit one of these schools, so I’m hoping people on here can give some advice!!
I studied English when I was at Rice (graduated 2013), and though I wasn’t an anthropology major, I took anthro courses and am very familiar with the department. Here are my thoughts:
UC Berkeley is absolutely one of the very top schools in both English and Anthro, but the size, like you said, is a huge issue. You'd probably be much happier at Rice or Emory.
The English department at Rice is excellent. I know Rice is biased towards STEM, but English is actually one of the largest majors, and the faculty are really caring and supportive. You have several big names on the faculty, and they're all very approachable; you can work on research projects and write theses with them with no issue. The same will probably be difficult to say of Berkeley, I'm guessing. The graduate student community is also really supportive; the department sets you up with mentors among the grad students, which is really helpful. The creative writing program is also quite excellent.
The anthropology department is small, but you shouldn't underestimate it. It holds some extremely sharp and prolific scholars. The fact that the department is small means that your classes are nearly all taught by someone with vast amounts of experience and knowledge. Cultural Anthropology, which is one of the top journals in the discipline, is currently based at Rice and edited by Rice's faculty. As a student, you get direct access to some of the biggest names in the field; and here too, the graduate student community is quite friendly.
There’s no going wrong with either Rice or Emory, but all I’m trying to emphasize is that if you’re tending towards Rice, don’t let anything stop you. Rice is really into STEM, but that doesn’t mean other fields are weak. I’ve had excellent experiences with both departments, and I’ve known students to go into top graduate programs as well as top law schools.
And btw I was just glancing at the parallel thread on the Emory forum, and someone said that the anthropology program at Emory has become more like pre-health. Not being an Emory student, I have no way of verifying that; but I just wanted to say that that’s not true at all about the program at Rice. Rice’s program is very serious anthropology with a dedicated group of scholars.
@grreat : I didn’t say that about the faculty, I said it about the undergraduate course offerings (which definitely have slants toward health, biology, development, and sustainability) and the students majoring in it (the biological anthropology BS degree has become basically like human biology at Stanford, the next best thing to a biology major). No doubt the faculty there are really (with many quite well known for acheological projects) dedicated. It would be considered perhaps one of the best departments there if you evaluated it on that criteria. I was speaking on the size of the program and the undergraduate specialties/concentrations of each program. What is there not to know? There are departmental websites where the specialties of each become apparent and specifically highlighted.
Never conflate the undergraduate offerings with what happens with the graduate students and faculty.
Both Emory and Rice are great schools, but putting the two head to head, I’d vote for Rice. Agree that the residential college system is a great resource, which you seem to like. Good luck!
My daughter is a freshman at rice and a anthropology major archeology track. Her experience at Rice has been fantatic. There is not a college in the world that could have worked out better for her then Rice. She already as a freshman landed a job in research in the acheology lab that will end up getting her name into published research. She loves her professors and they are eminently accessable.She has already taken a class in field methods that she loved doing a dig in houston. Her professer is sponcering in a independent research next year and has talked her into a summer program in Africa. The only thing about Rice that is less then perfect is that she misses the north east a little. The anthropology department is small but closenit.
Thank you so much for the responses everyone!! I’ll be visiting Rice next week and maybe Emory the week after, so hopefully I’ll come to a decision soon
By the way, a person who did a keynote speech at the parents reception at freshman orientation was head of the alumni association and a major donor to Rice. He graduated Rice with an anthro degree and is now in law.
