My daughter has been accepted at both schools and is trying to make a decision. They’re very different schools but she can see the value of each. Big school in college town vs. small school in big city, traditional dorms vs. residential colleges, etc. She’s interested in Government/Politics/Public Policy. Rice has the Baker Institute and UVA has the Batten School, though there’s no guarantee of admission to Batten. Just wondering if anyone has experiences with both schools and can provide insight. Thanks!
Your daughter should make every effort to go to Owl Days. I have two at Rice and Owl Days made all the difference in helping them decide.
Thanks for that. She can’t make Owl Days, but we’re going to visit the next day. I’m guessing your kids have had a good experience?
I cannot say enough good things about Rice. They love the residential college system. We have a son visiting his sisters next week. We hope he applies ED!
I have a daughter at UVA in a similar field. She loves UVA and has really loved living in the international residential college. It seems to me she has two good choices.
I just had to post this. Rice has the residential colleges. Each has a college coordinator that helps bridges any bureaucracy. I just called that person. She knows my daughter by name and is willing to make special arrangements for our request. No wonder they have the happiest students in the country.
My daughter is deciding between Rice and UVA, too. They are both great schools with different vibes for the reasons you mentioned in your post. Visiting both, if you can, may make deciding easier. We have been to UVA and found the students to be friendly, engaging, and very happy to be there. We are going to Owl Days next week.
One difference to consider between the two schools is access to the classes and majors that your student wants. We haven’t been to Rice yet, but my impression is that accessibility is better at Rice. It is easy to change majors at Rice since a student is not accepted to a particular school within the University. At UVA, we were told there are a limited number of openings for the engineers to earn the business minor, for example. As you mentioned, acceptance to the Batten School is not guaranteed. However, as long as our students are open to being flexible about their potential majors/minors, either school will be a great choice.
With an interest in government/public policy I would lean UVA, but Rice is a great choice too.