<p>hard to believe with my mediocre grades and everything i got into both rice and cornell. now comes the hard part, which one should i chose?</p>
<p>rice is in houston, cornell middle of nowhere
rice is stuck in summer half the year, cornell's got the four seasons
rice around the biggest med-center in the world, cornell near a gun company ;)
rice #17, cornell #12</p>
<p>haha I'm in the exact same situation, but I'm not deciding till I do both Owl weekend and cornell days</p>
<p>Haha, those are the two schools I suspect I'll be choosing between. I take it you are Cornell CALS or else you'd still be waiting to hear from them, right? For me it's a no-brainer due to fit (I won't say which one though). Oh and forget the rankings, cuz as someone who knows a lot about each and is a fan of both, Rice is underranked and Cornell is overranked, to the point that both should be about tied.</p>
<p>i'm caught in the exact same predicament.
rice - lack of internships, good engineering, good student body, good size, good city life, #17, food-meh, cheap education
cornell - lots of internships, good food, too many rich snobby kids, too large, middle of nowhere, great engineering, #11, not to mention ivy status, too expensive</p>
<p>I was choosing mainly between Rice and Cornell as well. I came to Rice ultimately because while heat sucks, cold is worse, I got more aid from Rice, it's close to home but not too close, residential colleges, and more.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say Rice has a lack of internships. Career Services holds a lot of info sessions and fairs and stuff like that. There's also Leadership Rice, which connects students with internships. The food in the serverives is not bad but not fantastic, but there are tons of great restaurants in the Village and all over Houston.</p>
<p>To address a few points:
Houston summers are miserable, but then again, that's the part of the year that school isn't in session, so spend the summer somewhere else. And while there are a few unpleasant days of rain and cold during the winter, I always get to gloat about the number of days when it's sunny and 70 degrees in January or February.
I can't compare it to Cornell's, but Rice's food is actually better than I've seen at most universities.</p>
<p>"Haha, those are the two schools I suspect I'll be choosing between. I take it you are Cornell CALS or else you'd still be waiting to hear from them, right? For me it's a no-brainer due to fit (I won't say which one though). Oh and forget the rankings, cuz as someone who knows a lot about each and is a fan of both, Rice is underranked and Cornell is overranked, to the point that both should be about tied."</p>
<p>not CALS, I got one of those early likely letters from engineering. and from what I have heard that's 99% in. right now I'm stuck between engineering at Cornell or premed at Rice, both of which seems really good.</p>
<p>My son also got a likely letter yesterday from Cornell Engineering, and he's in ID at Rice. You might want to do a search on this forum -- I recall some discussion last year of several students who transferred to Rice from Cornell.</p>
<p>lack of internships at Rice is totally untrue. Houston is second to New York I believe in the amount of Fortune 500 Companies in a city, in addition right across campus there is the largest medical center in the world with whom Rice has a very tight partnership. Students volunteer, intern at labs there all the time. Also, Rice students are loved by Houston employers especially and because of its small size the University has an easier time catering to your needs via career services etc. Its facilities are also top notch and with faculty advisors abundant.</p>
<p>Simply put, there is almost NO difference between the top 25 universities when it comes to performance and quality as a whole--there is mainly a name and excellence in special areas (i.e. MIT engineering). That being said, Rice Engineering is equal to Cornell in my opinion because you can push yourself just as much here, but you get FAR more attention. Rice is much much much more personal and has all the resources you could need.</p>
<p>Go by where you like more, academics are insignificant b/w top 25 universities. In fact, many Ivies have grade inflation whereas Rice is fairly neutral and a 3.0 here is well respected. If anything, I would say Rice engineering is second only to MIT's. Rice's natural sciences is second to Princeton or Cal Tech.</p>
<p>Grad school is totally different though. Rice grad school is good, but not excellent.</p>
<p>that said, do undergraduates at Rice actually transfer to Cornell?? (or any other university for that matter?)</p>
<p>I know several people who transferred to rice from cornell. both are great schools -- you have to compare other things i.e. social life, etc.</p>
<p>Also, there are plenty of internships here. 4th biggest city in country, mind you.</p>
<p>I live at ithaca and my house is 5 minutes from Cornell. All I can say is that while Cornell is #12, that is only because of the public schools that brings it down. People say that Ithaca is gorgeous, and it is...when there's no rain and snow that constantly swirls around the city. But it does have one of the best college food. People from Cornell do kill themselves a lot...not necessarily because Cornell is hard, rather than the depressing weather. Right now, the sky is grey and it has been like that for an entire month. We just had the biggest snow storm last weekend too. Ithaca basically has 2 seasons, snow and rain. :D</p>
<p>^^Strange, I live near Ithaca (more than 5 minutes, though) and I've always thought that those public/not-public sectors actually BOOSTED cornell's reputation. People in China wouldn't know any more about Cornell than Emory if it weren't for it's #1 agriculture school in the world and all those things. Still a great school, mind you, but, I don't think those areas are bringing it down.</p>
<p>I know a few Cornell students who transferred to Rice and a few people who got accepted to both, but chose to come to Rice. The main complaints were the weather, location, and large student body.</p>
<p>Ha, i was right. I am picking between Rice and Cornell...I pick Rice! Yes!</p>
<p>To the OP: I think you should ask the same question in the Cornell's forum. Sure the opinions will be biased in either forum, but at least you will get perspectives from both sides.</p>
<p>Clendenator ... you picked well.</p>
<p>One correction: If you believe Cornell is the #1 ag school in the country, you've got to visit some real ag schools... Penn State, Wisconsin, GA, AR,KS and a whole bunch more. Cornell's is very academic and environmentally PC. Aggie it ain't though.</p>
<p>From what i have seen and heard so far i will probably pick Rice. with financial aid i will pay $8500 a year, which is like 10K cheaper than the UC's and cornell. also my family's moving to Galveston, one hour away from Rice. besides Rice is probably best for doing premed.</p>
<p>going to pay that deposit soon :)</p>