<p>My D is between two schools - Rice and Cornell. Rice offered her 27K(merit scholarship) and Cornell offered her 41K(36K grant, 2K work study, 3k loan). She is planning on attending graduate school, and maybe even go for a PhD afterwards. She plans on majoring in Electrical Engineering. Which one should she go to?</p>
<p>D is having trouble deciding which one she wants to go to. Please advise (advantages/disadvantages, etc.). Thanks.</p>
<p>Congrats to her for these great packages! At this point it all depends on what is important to you guys. One of my closest friends is doing Elec here and he is absolutely brilliant and doing circuit board design already in his freshman year for his internship in a lab. He really likes the program as far as I can tell and (like everybody) LOVES Rice’s social aspects. Cornell is a great academic school, but I personally wouldn’t like it there because based on the pile of research I did last year when I was applying, the environment seemed very cut-throat, the college life bland, and the area rural, dark, and depressing. Rice is very comparable academically to Cornell even though people seem to know more about Cornell. If not for the fact that it is old and an Ivy I don’t even think it would get much attention if everything else was held constant. I firmly believe Rice is the best and happiest place to be an undergrad overall. Your daughter would get more attention due to undergrad emphasis, a superb college-life experience, and very easily-attainable research positions where she wants to work. If not for the money I would say outright choose Rice, but it depends on your own situation and what is important to you. Feel free to pm me if you need more advice. Also post this to Cornell forums too to get a fairer opinion from both sides. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>Also I VERY strongly encourage her to visit during Owl Days. Many are unsure until they do. :)</p>