<p>Hello everyone! I was fortunate enough to be accepted to both Rice and Duke. I want to carefully consider which would be the better choice for me before spending four years and a whole lot of money.</p>
<p>-I'm premed (so I really want as close to 4.0 GPA as possible, though I really do care about learning)
-That being said, I really need to get involved with clinical, research, and volunteer opportunities for medicine.
-substantial interest in economics (I'd love to double major in biochemistry and economics)
-studying abroad would be nice; I also would love to work in business/econ-related internships because I'm considering going MD/MBA
-the cost would be the same at both schools
-I want to have some fun in college (though I consider myself more the studious type) but I strictly don't drink and will never change that. I'm not that spirited but that's because my entire high school isn't.
-I love tennis, but b-ball isn't my thing (I kind of suck) but I never really got into it. I'm also into Indian classical dance
-I like good weather (no tsunami, blizzards, earthquakes, droughts, etc.)
-I like healthy competition but not the cutthroat kind.</p>
<p>Also accepted to: CalTech, UChicago, WashU @ St. Louis, UC Berkeley, UCLA</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! And please don't go crazy with rivalries or anything!</p>
<p>So is your choice between Rice and Duke and the others are off the table? Or are you considering between all of them? Yes, the link that sciencegirlmom posted may help, although it does not specifically address your issues.</p>
<p>I believe that Rice would be a good choice :)</p>
<p>Thank-you for the comments! As a premed, I am picking between Rice and Duke. I would rather go to UChicago or Caltech, but I am afraid my GPA will suffer and I won’t get into a good medical school (if I get into any at that point).</p>
<p>Both schools have about a 90% acceptance rate to med schools. It’s just not about GPA though. You will need to do research and volunteer which you can adequately do at both. You will need to do well on your MCATs. If you don’t like basketball… then that would be an easy choice, correct?</p>
<p>We just came back from a visit to Rice and we spoke with real students who are currently pre-med ( physics, bio, and chemistry) majors. The advantage Rice has is the unique ability for the majority of its students(85%) to conduct undergraduate research right there in Houston. Their location is so advantageous and the smaller undergraduate size ensures you get more personalized attention from your professors. Houston has so many medical centers not 5 minutes away from campus! They also have the Baylor-Rice program ( super hard to get into but an amazing program) for medical school. Rice just seems to be a lower key, friendlier place to be. </p>
<p>USNWR’s undergraduate ranking is probably what put Rice on the map as a university so there’s no reason to denigrate that ranking system. Lets face it, Rice doesn’t have any renowned graduate programs (top 20) and it has no professional schools.</p>
<p>Both these schools will set you up well for medical school but Duke is a nationally recruited university for jobs and Rice is not.</p>
<p>ennisthemenace wrote: “Lets face it, Rice doesn’t have any renowned graduate programs (top 20)”</p>
<p>This is obviously incorrect and it demonstrates this person’s bias. A quick check will reveal that Rice has six graduate programs rated in the top 20 and chemical engineering at 22.</p>
<p>My DD narrowed her choice down to Columbia, Duke and Rice … all great schools. She planned to major (premed) in biomedical engineering (Rice ranked no. 6 in undergraduate and no. 9 graduate (UNWR)). Her application qualifications included 3.98/2350 and 2nd in her very competitive class.</p>
<p>I have an uncle on the engineering faculty at Duke who was also a Dean then and now. (He was unaware that she had applied to Duke.) As far as academics, there is virtually no difference for undergraduates at highly ranked schools in similar programs (you’ll find that most faculty members support this position). She ended up choosing Rice for the student atmosphere, the residential college system (no fraternities!), low student/faculty ratio and the ability to work with faculty on research projects. (She was also accepted at Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Cornell and MIT (WL at Yale).)</p>
<p>The other factor that mattered to her was the fact that Duke freshmen were housed in dorms (East Campus) that were separated and well away from the upperclassmen dorms on the main campus. She wanted to interact with all classes, not just her freshman class. </p>
<p>Note that I ran into the parents of a student currently at Duke and he loved the fact that freshman were separated into dorms on the East Campus. He joined a fraternity and that is important to him. He did say that he was surprised at the low level of the work load (humanities major). So what appeals to one student may be an unattractive feature to another. Thank God we’re all different!</p>
<p>My DD graduated from Rice in four years and is now attending a great med school. I wouldn’t be too concerned about your GPA as med school admission offices have a good understanding of GPA variation from various undergraduate programs of study (engineering and different undergraduate programs) as well as schools.</p>
<p>My DD simply felt that she would have a better undergraduate experience at Rice (in fact, she loved it). Your expectations may be very different.</p>
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