<p>I'm now between Rice and Emory. Since I'm outside the srates, visitiong schools is impossible for me. </p>
<p>So please recommend one for me based on reputation in the states, your peers' feedback, and any others you know.</p>
<p>MANY THANKS!!!</p>
<p>They are both excellent schools and you really can't make a wrong decision. They are similar in many ways -- both in the southern part of the United States, both have large, beautiful campuses in areas of town that are nice, both are located in large, vibrant cities that have a lot of cultural and job opportunities, both have large endowments and are constantly improving their campuses, and both are ranked the same on the latest rankings. The biggest difference I see is that Rice is more selective in who they admit (with higher average SAT scores) and Rice has residential colleges. The residential colleges at Rice allow for the students to feel welcomed to a "family" from the outset. When you arrive, you have been assigned to one residential college that you will be associated (and live in and eat in) your entire 4 years. The residential college provides a lot of support and serves as your social network, allowing you to be a part of everything. This leads to another difference I've seen between the 2 schools -- at Emory when I was there I saw a lot of self-segregation -- blacks walking with blacks, Asians walking with Asians, etc. At Rice, there is much more integration of all ethnicities and races because people tend to hang out with people from their college, and not self-segregate. It's a really supportive, inclusive environment. </p>
<p>There are a number of other threads that have discussed these two schools. I suggest you do a search for them, and especially look in the Emory forum and the Rice forum to decide what environment you're looking for. Congratulations on having two wonderful schools to choose from!</p>
<p>Emory gets a lot more students from the northeastern US. Rice gets some, of course, but Emory has a more "northern" feel.</p>