<p>Any input in regards to engineering?</p>
<p>UCLA
USC
Rice</p>
<p>I would put it in this order, but I'm biased anyway :)</p>
<p>USC
UCLA
Rice</p>
<p>Rice is an engineering school; that is its identity. If you are serious about engineering, Rice is the best of the three. Having said that, the best of the 3 for you may very well be USC or UCLA. It's all about identifying a good fit for you. </p>
<p>FWIW, US News ranks Rice #18 among undergrad. engineering programs, UCLA #22, and USC #31. You can't go wrong with any of these schools.</p>
<p>If you look at <em>graduate</em> engineering programs, you get a very different picture. USC is ranked #7 in the country, well ahead of the others, #15 UCLA, #29 Rice.</p>
<p>You didn't mention which engineering discipline you want to pursue. At the undergrad. level, UCLA is #13 in E.E., #14 in ComputerEng., and #15 in Aerospace. Rice is #11 in Biomed.Eng., #15 in both E.E. and Environmental, and #21 in Chem.E. USC is #16 in E.E. and #19 in ComputerEng. You should take all of these rankings with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Each of these schools is so different that I'm surprised that they would be together on one person's list. Rice is medium-sized private engineering research university in suburban Houston, USC is a large private research university in an urban setting, and UCLA is a huge public research university, all very different animals with very different student bodies.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.
I too heard Rice's Undergrad Engineering program ranks higher overall. I really don't know what field I want to pursue, although I'm leaning towards Mechanical. I guess I want to go to a school that would allow me to find the field that suits me and that will offer the best education, regardless of specific engineering field.</p>
<p>But also take in accounts the location... USC and UCLA are both in gorgeous SoCal while Rice is in Houston (which is ew).</p>
<p>PhysicsTeacher, where are you getting all these detailed rankings? Do they have those for every major?</p>
<p>its NOT disputable</p>
<p>Rice comes first. DUH</p>
<p>Those rankings are from US News. Again, I caution you against placing too much emphasis on these rankings. Each of these schools has a fine engineering program. It is my opinion that an undergraduate engineering degree is best pursued at an engineering school, e.g., Rice, Georgia Tech, etc., but a motivated engineering student could thrive at any of the three schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>Rice is up there with Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Cornell--maybe not as pretigious, but definitely comparable and its own standing, debatable among these elite schools</p>
<p>As for USC and UCLA, well they are not even in the same league</p>
<p>Pfft, USC is underrated...but that's just my opinion, and I'm biased anyway :)</p>