Rice vs. Duke (BioE/BME)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
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<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I'm considering Rice and Duke for Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering. I know this seems kinda late, but I've been accepted off the Duke Pratt waitlist, so I face a tougher choice. I'm leaning towards going to medical school after undergrad--it's not entirely set in stone though. I won't have time to visit Duke, although I want to, and I've visited Rice, whose campus is nice.</p>

<p>*Finances for both schools = NOT a problem</p>

<p>I'd really appreciate it you give me suggestions (preferably backed by data) for both schools in these following aspects(all the information I've looked up so far has been kind of inconsistent, though):</p>

<p>--Strong BioE/BME program</p>

<p>--Premed preparation/med school acceptance</p>

<p>--Faculty-Student Interest/Interaction & Class Sizes in Science/Engineering</p>

<p>--Student Life (1-10) (10=cutthroat, 1=collaborative)</p>

<p>--Campus Location (Durham vs. Houston)</p>

<p>--Prestige</p>

2

<p>I don’t go to Rice (YET) but here’s what I’ve heard about Rice:</p>

<p>Biomed: I find US News’ college ranking list extremely stupid, but Rice is 6 and Duke is 3. That’s evidence to suggest that both colleges have awesome programs. At an undergrad level, I don’t think that is an issue at this level. </p>

<p>Rice: Purely from observation, I feel as if Rice has a very good acceptance level to medical schools. I have a friend who graduated in two years and was off to med school. Especially helps with Bayler being right there and all. But truly, acceptance to graduate and medical school is more based on what you DO at college and not as much where you go. </p>

<p>Facult-Student Interest: Rice has a ratio of 5:1 and Duke has 11:1. That, alone, is enough to tell you how much Rice is truly an undergraduate university. This goes along with the next question, but there is a reason Rice has been voted happiest students: the professors take personal care into their students’ education. Also, being near NASA and the city of Houston, the Engineering and Science departments do a lot of cool things. [Rice</a> students create a new way to feed giraffes at the Houston Zoo - YouTube](<a href=“Rice students create a new way to feed giraffes at the Houston Zoo - YouTube”>Rice students create a new way to feed giraffes at the Houston Zoo - YouTube)</p>

<p>and
[Improving</a> air quality on Houston buses - YouTube](<a href=“Improving air quality on Houston buses - YouTube”>Improving air quality on Houston buses - YouTube)
these are just two example. look through their other videos on their youtube channel. Has a lot of awesome things… </p>

<p>student life: 10/10. Their three-in-a-row ranking shows you that. Some of my friends at Duke have told me there is a ton of cut-throat competition there, where people steal each others’ projects, deletes each others’ papers… etc. But I can’t exactly speak to that. </p>

<p>Houston is amazing. Clean, modern, big. But if you desire, you may stay inside the peaceful hedges and stay on campus at Rice. </p>

<p>Prestige: most people would quickly say Duke gets this round. But, that also depends on where you go. For a lot of people in the South, if you ask Rice or Harvard, they’ll say Rice. In addition, a lot of upper education people find Duke to be just a little over-rated.</p>

<p>If it were me, I would pick Rice anyday. looks like you’ve got some thinkin to do :slight_smile: good luck!!</p>

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<p>On the whole I would say that Rice has a more collaborative, less stressful undergraduate environment. I’m a Rice undergrad and have a few friends from high school that go to Duke. That said, they have not told me that Duke students are “cutthroat”. It’s just not the residential college system.</p>

<p>However, if sports are a big thing (they are to me), Duke basketball would be a huge draw in comparison to Rice.</p>

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<p>

Duke has an 8-1 student to faculty ratio; I’m not sure where you got that 11:1 figure from. Rice may be a bit more undergraduate focused but there’s a hardly a major difference in this regard.</p>

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<p>Rice is across the street from the largest medical complex in the USA and the MD Anderson cancer center. They have also just opened a $300 million building for collaborative research between Rice and the hospitals.</p>

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<p>my bad. princeton review said 11:1 so that’s where I got my statistic</p>

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<p>I graduated from Rice last year, but I had had a similar dilemma when I was trying ot figure out where to go (I was also BioE at that time). Two of my roommates are form Duke, and we’ve talked a lot about our college experiences. I’d be happy to discuss your dilemma; just PM me.</p>

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<p>Myrmidon73: why not share with all the rest of us in the similar situation? We’d like to hear about it.</p>

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<p>My DD had the same choice several years ago. Academically both schools are top notch but she chose Rice for two other reasons. </p>

<p>First, at Duke all freshmen are housed at East Campus dorms, requiring either a bike ride or bus ride to campus. Rice integrates freshmen with all other classes in the College system. My DD preferred to be involved with all classes instead of being isolated in all freshman housing environment that is located away from the main campus. </p>

<p>Her second preference involved social life. At Duke the Greek scene is very popular whereas Rice has the College system. This is probably the greatest difference between the two very fine schools. (In the Greek system you are chosen by fraternities and sororities…there is no guaranty that you would be accepted by your first choice. In the Rice college system you are randomly assigned to a college much like Harry Potter, but without the sorting hat.) </p>

<p>She loved the College system and was involved in loads of extracurricular activities. Her one complaint would have been common to both Duke and Rice and that was she chose to major in engineering. Due to ABET requirements, that is going to be a common factor at any accredited engineering program.</p>

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<p>And without themed populations since each college has roughly a proportional sample of the undergraduate population.</p>