As many of you may already know both schools are early decision, and there is a clear advantage in terms of acceptance rates for both universities.
I want to major/minor in one or more of these fields(if the college lets me): nanotechnology, applied math, business, and biomedical engineering/computer engineering.
So my question is: which college is better in terms of:
A. Cost
B. Which one has the most entrepreneurship and job opportunities
C . Finally, which college best suits my majors/minors
I know this question has been asked many times in the past. However, often times the discussion lands on the the topic of which college has the best atmosphere, or the best class size, or best social life. Those things, while important, arenāt the factors I will base my college decision on.
Thanks to Everyone who answers, and who provides any additional info.
Hope this helps someone else on the same boat.
This is a very individual decision. My daughter ended up in the same position as you and was admitted ED to Rice. The primary driver for her was the nanotechnology and ChemE programs at Rice. Surprisingly, Duke didnāt have formal programs for either. OTH, biomedical engineering is a specialty at Duke, as it is at Rice. Dukeās STEM offerings tend to gravitate around its outstanding medical school, and Rice around its adjacency to the Texas Medical Center. So both are great options if that is your direction, and both will have terrific research/internship opportunities.
As to cost, Rice is a little bit less expensive, but likely not so much as to be a decision driver. You might have a little better chance of getting merit aid at Rice. Not sure about Dukeās entrepreneurship emphasis, but Rice is definitely investing in that direction.
I think you are wrong to overlook these things. This is four formative years of your life, going somewhere that is a good fit is important. Undergraduate education tends to be more similar than it is different among selective schools, but the college experience varies quite a bit.
Anyway, as the poster before me said. Rice is a little cheaper, and a little bit more generous with aid. And as you mention nanotechnology, that is a major at Rice, it is not a major at Duke.
Iāve attended both Rice and Duke. They are great institutions.
Rice doesnāt have computer engineering, and idk about Duke. Thereās computer science and thereās electrical engineering with a focus on computers. For CS (my major) Iām guessing the scaleās pretty balanced. Rice does really well with recruiting, but Duke also has name recognition so Iām guessing they get plenty of good companies recruiting on campus as well. Itās only 2 or 3 thousand more undergrads than Rice, so you wouldnāt have the problem of a huge applicant pool that large public universities can have.
Also itās totally cool to enter college with several disparate interests and not knowing which youāll pursue, but can I ask what your reasoning is for each? Those cover a really wide spectrum of experiences! Again, no need to be worried, Iām just curious
Sure,
nanotechnology is what I really want to do, iāve done research in the field, and believe that it will really make an impact.
applied math: not only does this have to do with fluid mechanics, and process based math, but also with math applicable to business, and the economy in particular, which will be important for business
business: because I feel like entrepreneruship is what I want do with my life, and hopefully through rice I will be able to not only be inspired to make a change, but also be able to pick up skills for entrepreneurship.
and
biomedical engineering/computer engineering.
Biomedical because I feel as though that should give a solid alternative, going to med school i guess.
Computer Science because nanotech, and honestly any business at this point is not going to be successful unless data sets, and functional code is written for the purpose of advancing the processes.
Dukeās BME program is top notch. I donāt know much about the math program.
The two schools are vastly different. Duke is in a small college town with a huge emphasis on sports and school spirit. Rice is located in a sleepy suburban section of Houston. Duke has a law, medical, business and engineering school on the same campus. Rice has the TMC nearby but no medical school of its own.
Partially true, partially false. Computer Engineering is lumped together with Electrical Engineering; you would major in āElectrical and Computer Engineeringā and specialize in Computer Engineering starting junior year.
Look at the Rice Electrical and Computer Engineering website.
@THEWINNER1
Those are noble reasons to study what you want! However, let me clear things up:
Rice does not have a business major. You can still minor in it and take classes like Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance. (The minor is 6 courses long). Furthermore, check out Entrepreneurship@Rice.
Bioengineering ā medical school is a bad idea. Most people that come into Rice like that either flock out of bioengineering for an easier major or drop any plans for medical school. Itās not impossibleā¦ but BioE is known to be brutal.
All in all, best of luck in this yearās admission round. If admitted, do come to Owl Days! Youāll see what Rice really is about there.
Not sure how much you know about Rice so let me provide a description of the area,
Rice is in the City of Houston, with 2 million ++ residents. Itās the fourth largest city in the USA.
Alongside the beautiful tree lined urban campus youāll find many of Houstonās top museums. The area of the city is the Museum District.
Also in walking distance are Rice Village, the zoo and Hermann Park.
While on the Rice campus, the skyline you will see is the Texas Medical Center which is right next to campus. The TMC is the worldās largest medical center. Many of the gorgeous city homes surrounding Rice are owned by TMC doctors.
Rice has a stop on the MetroRail, which is a light rail connecting the city of Houston. Rice students can easily go to the Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera, see the Houston Astros, Houston Texans and the Houston Rockets.
The city is quite diverse and has a large and vibrant Chinatown.
As a Duke alum (early 80s) and the father of a current Rice sophomore, Iād like to offer a brief rejoinder to the perspective offered by @sgopal2.
Unlike the happy Blue Devils who appear as backdrop for basketball broadcasts from Cameron Indoor Stadium, I hated my time in Durham. I was consistently appalled by the anti-intellectualism and general ābro-ismā (to use a now-current term) that characterized campus life at Duke.
Iām not sure how much of that has changed in the intervening years. As far as I can tell, the primary differences seem twofold: First, Duke has become much more of a ātarget schoolā pipeline for investment banking and consulting jobs than it was then. Second, anti-intellectualism in the form of philistinism has been supplanted (or, perhaps, supplemented) by anti-intellectualism in the form of extreme political correctness. Itās as if the institution embraces a kind of medieval political theology whereby its hiring of an extremely āradicalā humanities faculty is tantamount to the purchase of an ideological āindulgence,ā thereby earning the non-humanities divisions of the university penance for their whole-hearted devotion to pre-professionalism.
Dukeās campus is standard-issue faux-Gothic (or, more precisely, faux Princeton), plunked down into a NC town with a high crime rate, a stark racial divide, and a long tradition of town-gown animosity. Riceās campus features beautiful and singular Mediterranean architecture (though it reminds me in some respects of such CA schools as Scripps, UCLA, and Stanford) nestled amidst oak trees and shaded walkways . . . and all in a major metropolitan area (opera, symphony, museums, and the usual amenities) whose multicultural population belies Houstonās reputation as an overgrown Texas backwater.
You can get a fine engineering education at either school. Dukeās larger size and success on the hardwood render its national profile much higher than Riceās among the general population. If brand prestige is important to you (and it may well be; nothing wrong with that), then Duke is the clear winner. I would say that if quality of life is important to you, then Rice is the clear winner. For what itās worth, I discouraged my daughter from even bothering to apply to Duke; she hasnāt regretted her decision to take my advice.
@Fredjan
I had a few more questions regarding computer science at Rice
How is the entrepreneurial scene for computer science there?
Is Rice University good for Data Science?
If I can pick computer science in my junior year, then is there no way to learn comp sci before that?
Finally, how does Riceās computer science program compare to other programs like GT, and Princeton in terms of research opportunities, recruiting, and internships. (I know this is Rice vs. Duke, but I figured I should ask here rather than make a new thread).
@ClarinetDad16 I know Houston especially the West U section quite well since I used to live there.
The Rice campus is nice but is located in the shadow of the TMC and in a suburban area. There really isnāt much to do in West U itself except a few coffee shops and restaurants. Almost anything else in the Houston area will require a car. As a student you probably wonāt be driving around much. although Houston is a massive city most of it will generally be out of reach unless youāre willing to navigate the bus system.
In terms of school spirit there is no comparison Duke is the winner. But in terms of education both schools are similar.
@THEWINNER1
I can answer your third question best:
Computer Science (COMP) is different from Electrical and Computer Engineering (ELEC). However, both majors require you to take the intro computer science class (COMP 140) your first semester of freshman year, AND you will also take the first Computer Engineering class (ELEC 220) your second semester of freshman year for both majors.
I donāt know much else about the comp sci department to answer the rest of your questions; you might be able to find more information on Quora!
The neighborhood is not the suburbs, and it is not a big city like Manhattan, but it is somewhere in between. The drive from school to the center of downtown Houston is less than 10 minutes. Anyone who wants a feel for the neighborhood should look at Google satellite view and Google street view.
About 45% of the students at Rice are from Texas, and a certain number of those bring their cars to campus. I know of students who have driven their cars from states 700 miles away. Zip cars are available for rent on campus, and another option for getting around is Uber.
You said there isnāt much to do around town. Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S., so its hard believe there isnāt much to do.
There is a lot to do off-campus, but Rice is such a welcoming, inclusive and close-knit community that the students tend to stay on campus involved in school and activities centered on their residential colleges. The colleges are the distinctive element to the Rice experience and education. Students are so engaged at Rice that the University actively encourages them to explore Houston by shutting down the servers (dining halls) on Saturday nights. Yet life continues to revolve around the campus and manifests itself in Riceās perennially high quality of life and student happiness rankings on Princeton Review and Niche.
@sgopal2 Youāre right about West U ā itās mostly residential besides Rice village. However, itās really easy to get to Montrose, Midtown, or River Oaks, all of which have a lot of food and culture. Itās also not a long drive to Bellaire or Downtown if you want to branch out more. Youāll always have friends with cars who want to go out to eat on Saturday, so getting places isnāt really a problem.
@THEWINNER1 The entrepreneurial scene for CS is pretty good and accessible for anyone interested. Itās not a huge community but thatās because there are only a couple hundred CS students in the freshman class right now.
Iād say Data Science is Rice CSās strongest subject. Not only do they have a good number of classes dedicated to it currently, but they are also forming a Data Science specialization in the Electrical Engineering department. The effort itself is cross disciplinary and involves at least the STAT, CS, and ELEC departments. Theyāre hiring a few new faculty for it currently.
To add to what @Fredjan said, most people specializing in Computer Engineering take more than just those two classes. Those are just the minimum requirements, but itās pretty common to see ELEC students in CS systems-level classes.
Riceās recruiting is probably on par with the other two. Maybe for mid-level companies without campus recruiting at a ton of schools, Princetonās name would have more pull, but the Big 4 and other good companies do plenty of on-campus recruiting so itās not hard for a good student to get several prestigious internships. If youāre interested in med-tech, then Rice might have an advantage because there are a lot of those kinds of startups in Houston and they hold Rice in extremely high regard. Good Rice CS students getting startup jobs in Houston is like shooting fish in a barrel IMO.
I never did research with a professor, so I canāt give much info on that. I asked and was offered it for the summer after freshman year, but then I got an internship so I decided not to. The number of research opportunities at Rice is probably smaller than at larger programs just because of the number of professors, but itās still pretty easy to get research opportunities I think.
