Rice vs Cornell

<p>I'm almost decided, but I wanted a few more opinions. </p>

<p>My Background: I'm from NY. I'm Chinese, and I plan on majoring somewhere in the sciences / engineering (most likely biological / biomedical engineering or environmental engineering)</p>

<p>Rice:
(+): Very community like/friendly, I think I'll be slightly happier there, Will offer me a very new experience, Urban, smaller class sizes / more attention</p>

<p>(-): Very very far away, ~15000 more expensive per year than Cornell, It's in Texas, very very demanding work</p>

<p>Cornell
(+): 15,000 cheaper a year than Rice (because I live in NY, I get a discount at the CALS school), Awesome academic opportunities, many other extracurricular opportunities, offers strong environmental / business programs, Should be fairly happy there, Beautiful / lovely campus, some friends are also going there</p>

<p>(-): Less community / friendly (I'm a little concerned about being able to make friends in college.. i'm not amazing at socializing), extremely demanding work, freezing winter (not as big of a deal.. i'm used to it), major part of campus life is frats / drunken parties (i've asked around.. and got very mixed opinions... can anyone comment on this?)</p>

<p>Basically, the only thing that I'm concerned about is happiness at the two schools. Both Rice and Cornell easily satisfy my other goals. </p>

<p>My parents prefer that I go to Cornell... Also, due to the significantly cheaper cost of Cornell / the fact that the problems I mentioned don't seem TOO significant, I really am leaning towards Cornell. </p>

<p>Thanks so much.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/698130-rice-vs-cornell-concerns.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/698130-rice-vs-cornell-concerns.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Does anyone know what the numbers/rankings are for Rice’s poli sci/ir program?</p>

<p>It’s really hard to justify an extra $60,000 to turn down Cornell.</p>