<p>Okay so initially I thought Princeton (engineering) was the obvious choice...now things are complicated because of Rice's awesome offer (engineering, Rice/Baylor MSP, century scholar, trustee scholar)....opinions?</p>
<p>The more you visit Princeton, the more you find it is very pretentious. The more you visit Rice, the more you find exciting and the more you see how awesome everything is. On our first visit to Princeton we thought is was the greatest, but that wore off everytime we visited.</p>
<p>Yeah, I visit both of them and I sort of get what you’re saying about Princeton(which was amazingly beautiful). Still, at Rice I also got this awesome vive of a diffused and down-to-earth, yet intellectually rigorous atmosphere, and I like it. I’m leaning towards Rice, but I just want to make sure I’m not making the wrong decision considering that Princeton has a lot to offer as well.</p>
<p>No question that Princeton has so much to offer – a superb faculty and some of the best hoagies around (Hoagie Haven on Nassau St.). I used to visit Princeton, years ago, to do research at Firestone Library, and it was a must on the college tour my son and I set up two years ago. What struck us immediately was a heavy sense of entitlement. Worse, the only student might son could engage in conversation just wanted to talk about Swarthmore. It was a strange day.</p>
<p>The students I’ve seen during my three visits to Rice are thriving! Just walking the campus, I picked up a terrific sense of connection, and each time I stopped students
to ask questions, they’ve responded in friendly and engaging ways. They’re excited about their research, their classes, about an op ed piece they just read. Intellect is alive at Rice – but not in a self-conscious, uppity way at all. There are so many places to sit down with an iced tea and open up a laptop, talk with a friend or prof.</p>
<p>Likely, you know all about Rice’s student/faculty ties, the residential colleges, Rice Village … it’s not an easy decision to make. needmoresleep, in what sort of environment do you hope to wake up each morning?</p>
<p>I know someone who had the exact same choice (Princeton, Rice-Baylor w/ $)–initially, he matriculated at Rice. However, after having several days of buyer’s remorse/sleepless nights, he withdrew his offer to Rice and matriculated to Princeton. The fact is, Rice is a terrific school with a great down-to-earth atmosphere (my cousin is currently there), and you’ll have no problems thriving there. But every time things are a little bit rough (maybe you have a bad professor, or a particularly unimpressive lab partner) you’ll wonder what Princeton would have been like and wished you had gone.</p>
<p>Also, I think it’s a bit presumptuous and unfair to say that Princeton has an air of “pretentiousness” or “entitlement”; baseless (and antagonistic) stereotypes should not define a school. I have no doubt you’ll find the atmosphere there just as amazing as Rice’s – if not more so. As Princeton is an undergraduate-focused institution (unlike, say, Harvard), you can be sure that the professors will be approachable and friendly, and you’ll have no problem obtaining cutting-edge research opportunities while you’re there.</p>
<p>You have a fantastic choice to make – one that most would die for! However, we’re comparing a national top-tier school to an <em>international</em> top-tier school, and the doors that Princeton will open for you, no matter your career, will be invaluable. Rice will definitely not set you back, but if you do well at Princeton, you can be several steps ahead of anybody else.</p>
<p>Shadow, how does that not apply to Princeton as well? I could just as easily say, “Every time things are a little bit rough (maybe you have a bad professor, or a particularly unimpressive lab partner) you’ll wonder what Rice would have been like and wished you had gone.”</p>
<p>I agree that it may be a bit presumptuous to say that Princeton is pretentious, but at the same time I don’t think that it is unfair to mention stereotypes. Stereotypes have their genesis somewhere, so there is a hint of truth. It is especially relevant to mention this stereotype when comparing Princeton to Rice, which in my experience is one of the most socially leveling and anti-pretentious atmospheres I’ve ever experienced.</p>
<p>Needmoresleep, you have two fantastic options, and either one is going to be great for you. But once you make that decision, you have to be able to maintain full confidence in your decision.</p>
<p>Do you wanna go to a top-10 medical school? Princeton is a hard school to do well in since their grade deflation is terrible. Rice is also hard, but a little less hardcore and not as cutthroat. This decision really isn’t that hard… your undergraduate education is less about where you go than it is what you do while you’re there. While it’s important to go to a good school, as long as you’re in a top tier school you will be ok. Besides, Rice is undergrad-focused, Princeton is not… </p>
<p>If you go to Rice, you will have just as many doors opened for you, if not MORE, since you already have guaranteed admission to Baylor. You won’t have the stresses that all premeds have, about getting all A’s and acing the MCAT. You can actually have a chance to enjoy your 4 years in college at a great school (Rice), then go to a great medical school across the street in the largest medical center in the world.</p>
<p>This is really a no-brainer… I’m not even premed but if I was, I know that Rice-Baylor would be pretty much the best program in the world. You can basically slack off compared to other premeds and get into a top 10 med school and make big $$$ as an M.D. when you make it through Baylor. Or you can work really hard at Rice and excel in your academics and research, and still have a guaranteed stop at Baylor if you don’t get into one of the other top 10 schools. Either way you will be making big $$$ and you will have a great career. If you go to Princeton, there is no guarantee… and you will have to work a lot harder. </p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>I had an economics professor who taught at Princeton for about 8 years. He has now been at Rice for at least 15 years. Essentially he said that the best students at Rice and Princeton are both off the charts, and while one may argue that Princeton has a higher proportion of off the charts people compared to Rice, overall the learning environment and community at Rice is better. That was his take on it. </p>
<p>But I know exactly what he is talking about with the learning environment (if that’s your thing). It really is fantastic. I can’t compare it to Princeton directly of course, but I have the feeling that I will have learned more at Rice than at the vast majority of other schools, primarily due to the academic freedom which I came in with due to AP credit – Rice gave me more than my flagship state university. </p>
<p>As Rice/Baylor you will have even more freedom. I know a Rice/Baylor Psych major, and one that was a Kinesiology major, which is probably the easiest major at Rice. There was also a Sociology major that used to post here (jenskate?). On the other hand, there are still insane Rice/Baylor people that go overboard for some reason. But you can definitely look at your time at Rice to explore and major in basically whatever you want and still go to an awesome med school. If you are set on going to med school, then Rice is an ridiculously amazing choice.</p>
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I don’t know, I have to say I am skeptical of this kind of advice. Rice is an <em>international</em> top-tier school. I wouldn’t trust international rankings if this is what you are going off of though. I just read one in which Texas A&M was ranked above both Princeton and Rice, so what now should needmoresleep go to A&M? </p>
<p>Both Rice and Princeton easily made the top 100, though. Since there are at least 20,000 universities in the world, they are both no doubt in the 99.5+ percentile! Yes I know, I said they are flawed, but if anything they are biased against schools like Rice if what you are using them for is where to go for a bachelor’s.</p>
<p>But seriously from the undergraduate perspective, Rice focuses more on teaching and doesn’t have the baggage of an elite reputation. Yeah, I think it is actually baggage. A friend of mine from Harvard told me that when Harvard students tell people honestly where they go to school it is called “dropping the H-bomb” because it totally changes the conversation and how people look at you. I would absolutely hate that. </p>
<p>A psychology professor I worked for told me that Stanford (which I always thought would be better than Rice) is just a giant version of Rice that cares way more about research and the graduate level than teaching and the undergraduate level. In fact, according to him professors there can buy their way out of teaching with credits so that there are full professors with no teaching duties at all. At Rice, professors are expected to teach. Not to say they are all great at it, but it’s definitely a priority on campus. He summarized Rice and Stanford by saying that admissions is more selective at Stanford, but undergraduates have it better at Rice. He said for graduate study, go to Stanford, for undergraduate, go to Rice. </p>
<p>In fact, most schools acquire their reputation through graduate programs, research dollars, tons of faculty, and the like. For Rice to enjoy the great reputation it has through such emphasis on undergraduates and as an extremely small school has to tell you something. It got to where it is by being good at exactly what high school seniors want it to be good at.</p>
<p>Wow. After your input, a long discussion with my parents (sigh), and some research, I’m thinking Rice for the following reasons- correct me if I’m wrong:</p>
<ul>
<li>Med School Guarantee</li>
<li>Scholarships (20k at Rice with perks as compared to 50k at Princeton per year is big and my family is not strong financially) plus Baylor seems like a relatively inexpensive med school </li>
<li>Residential Colleges/Undergrad. experience</li>
<li>Great Location (an insane number of hospitals right on Rice’s doorstep + Rice village)</li>
<li>Weather XD (reminds me of CA)</li>
</ul>
<p>And yeah, since I’m set on med, it seems safer to not gamble on Princeton getting me into a med school as good as or better than Baylor. Thanks for your feedback, it def helped.</p>
<p>^Yay! Some people would think you’re crazy, but I’m so glad you’re making an informed (and good!) decision!</p>
<p>needmoresleep, you made the best choice, guaranteed acceptance into Baylor trumps Princeton any day.</p>
<p>Rice Village is awful–it’s just a collection of high-end strip malls.</p>
<p>Riceward – if you think Rice Village is just high-end shops, you haven’t looked hard enough. Yes, with 300 shops and restaurants, it has its share of national stores like Gap, Banana Republic and Sephora. But it also has some real one of a kind, local places like a real down-to-earth dime shop (Variety 5 & 10) with its original old time cash register. [Welcome</a> to VarietyFair 5 & 10](<a href=“http://www.varietyfair.com/history.html]Welcome”>http://www.varietyfair.com/history.html) There’s also a local coin shop, bead shop, etc. And there are lots of non-chain restaurants you’ll find as well, including Kahn’s Deli (owned by the son of the family who operated Houston’s legendary Jewish deli, Alfred’s, for many years).</p>
<p>I used to think that Rice Village only served the yuppie soccer moms in West U, but then I realized that there were a lot of restaurants that are great for people on a college budget.</p>
<p>Rice Village is much more than high end shops. Some of places I go to there are the Bicycle shop at West U, Croissant Brioche which is a nice French cafe with coffee that comes with free refills, Half Price books, Jamba Juice, Jason’s Deli, and Urban Outfitters. These aren’t really yuppie mom places. </p>
<p>For restaurants to go to for dinner, there’s all kinds, such as thai, indian, turkish, italian, spanish, french, vietnamese, american, chinese. I’ve been to a lot of them and they are mostly fine price-wise. </p>
<p>Plus when you are 21+ the village looks entirely different at night.</p>
<p>Son had same decision vs Harvard. Chose Rice?Baylor and has not regretted for a second. If you become a Texas resident while at Rice (the quickest way is to buy a homestead, i.e., condo, med school at Baylor will average under 10k per year at today’s rates.</p>
<p>wobudong, wow that helps a lot…cause so far all I heard of was the guy who took Princeton over this offer. As NYSKINS 1 said: you have to be able to maintain full confidence in your decision- so I’m trying to reassure myself that I’m making the right move. Thanks</p>
<p>I would kill for the Rice/Baylor opportunity, you are definitely making the right choice.</p>
<p>My roommate freshmen year chose Rice over Caltech. A girl in my year also chose full-ride at Rice over MIT, so I don’t know, this kind of stuff definitely goes on. I don’t know of anyone who has regretted a decision like that. If anything, people regret not going to state schools! I can’t believe how many times I’ve heard people thinking about what life would be like at UT or wherever else.</p>