<p>So here's the deal: I've narrowed down my final list of colleges to Rice and UNC Chapel Hill and I was hoping that all of you smart CC posters could give me some insight into the two schools.</p>
<p>I'm looking for a college experience where I learn a lot (duh) but I can also have a good time and won't be stressed to the point of suicide. I'm thinking about majoring in chemistry or biochemistry, and then going to med school or grad school, but I also want to enjoy my time in college. I'm looking for somewhere where there's a good sense of community, lots of things to do and in general a nice place to be.</p>
<p>There is about a $6000/year cost difference between the two (Rice being more expensive) and I don't qualify for FA. Although both my parents went to Rice and would be more than happy to pay the extra money, if I got to UNC I will get the difference between the costs for tuition for grad/med school.</p>
<p>DISCLAIMER: I understand that this is an extremely personal decision and I should make it based solely on my own ideas, but I am not going to be able to visit the schools until mid or late April, so I want to get a head start on comparing them. I really fell in love with UNC when I visited in August, but it has been so long I don't really remember why I loved it so much and am starting to feel very confused/anxious about making this decision. Any insight into either school would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Rice definitely has great med school placement, and the atmosphere here is very different from a big state school. I transferred here from one, so if you would like to know more about the differences between them, let me know.</p>
<p>The community here is very tight. The residential college system is great for knowing a good group of people, from all different majors. When I was at my state school, I pretty much only hung out with the people on my floor, in my major, or from my clubs. At Rice, you get these, but the college system is a really great way to create bonds as well.</p>
<p>However, UNC has some major pluses. First off, you will build a bigger (and potentially more useful) network there. This is useful if you find out that medicine isn’t your calling. Secondly, you do get about $25,000 to pay down toward med school, which is pretty spectacular. My suite-mate is from the Chapel Hill area, so I can also talk to him to find about more about UNC’s culture, etc if you’re interested.</p>
<p>I’m just going to come out and say that, as a huge Duke fan, I am very biased on this matter. HOWEVER, I have many friends that go to UNC, and from what I’ve heard, it tends to be very cliquey, with people mainly sticking to a certain group of people and very little branching out. Also, and you can take my word on this because I’ve been around it my whole life, UNC kids tend to have this “I’m better than you attitude” because they go to UNC, which, for some reason, they think is something to be proud of.</p>
<p>In between Rice and UNC, Rice is definitely the better school. And UNC has recently been called out for a ridiculous amount of grade inflation, so that might hurt its reputation a bit when it comes to applying for grad school/searching for jobs.</p>
<p>I think it is easier to get research experience and develop close associations with profs at Rice. If you’ve read my other posts (sorry - I’m all over this board!), I’ve mentioned that my son managed to find a great full-time summer research job with a prof he respects and admires in HIS field of study, which includes travel to another state and specialized training in high-faluting equipment, with continued employment etc throughout the following year - and this with literally NO experience in any research. My son’s resume read like this: grocery clerk, Target clerk, camp counselor… If he was at one of our flagship U’s, I know he would have been passed over for this terrific opportunity. My daughter was able to walk across the street to the huge med center to do a practicum in medical translation. She got a post-graduate Rice scholarship to travel, and has spent the last year in Turkey, compliments of Rice, studying and working with a refugee and civil rights organization. While at Rice opportunities just seemed to fall in her lap; she traveled to Nicaragua with a Rice Engineers without borders (which was virtually free; and even though she is not an engineer), studied in Chile, and Armenia, taught in China, studied Persian at a free intensive program, and I could just go on forever. I think a better way to think about it is like this: at UNC, there are a lot of opportunities - let’s call them cookies. There are 500 cookies and 28,000 students to share them. At Rice, there are 300 cookies, and there are only 3000 students to share them. At Rice, there are a lot more cookies per student. You don’t have to fight for your share; there are more than you can possibly eat. Don’t worry about paying for grad school now. There are plenty of kids at Rice that end up fully funded for grad school. Right now, your job is to find out where you’d like to be for the next four years. :)</p>
<p>I would definitely come to Rice. We have a good Bioc/bio program with a large number of people wanting to go to med school ending up where they want</p>
<p>I personally love the place. If the money isnt a big issue, go for it.</p>
<p>(Visit if you can. It should be the clincher)</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses! They are very helpful!!</p>
<p>One of my growing concerns about Rice is that the atmosphere may be a little too competitive/stressful for my tastes. My interview mentioned that he found his years at Rice to be harder than med school, something that I found a little alarming. Can anyone tell me if there is any reason to be concerned about this?</p>
<p>Rice’s curriculum is a lot tougher than most state schools’. For example, one of my friends is in Austin, visiting his brother at UT this weekend, and he sat in an intro to MATLAB class. There was a pop quiz, and he crushed it. In fact, he said he learned most of this material on the second or third week of class, and the work that they were doing in CAAM 210 (the Rice MATLAB intro class) was way tougher.</p>
<p>UT is a really good comp sci and engineering school too. In that sense, Rice expects more from its students, as far as work quality and effort. I wouldn’t consider it to be cutthroat or anything though. If anything, the college system produces a really chill atmosphere, where people tend to help each other out a lot.</p>
If he was at one of our flagship U’s, I know he would have been passed over for this terrific opportunity. My daughter was able to walk across the street to the huge med center to do a practicum in medical translation. She got a post-graduate Rice scholarship to travel, and has spent the last year in Turkey, compliments of Rice, studying and working with a refugee and civil rights organization. While at Rice opportunities just seemed to fall in her lap; she traveled to Nicaragua with a Rice Engineers without borders (which was virtually free; and even though she is not an engineer), studied in Chile, and Armenia, taught in China, studied Persian at a free intensive program, and I could just go on forever. I think a better way to think about it is like this: at UNC, there are a lot of opportunities - let’s call them cookies. There are 500 cookies and 28,000 students to share them. At Rice, there are 300 cookies, and there are only 3000 students to share them. At Rice, there are a lot more cookies per student. You don’t have to fight for your share; there are more than you can possibly eat. Don’t worry about paying for grad school now. There are plenty of kids at Rice that end up fully funded for grad school. Right now, your job is to find out where you’d like to be for the next four years. :)</p>