Rice with Aid v/s Cornell without

[8bagels]

Congrats! Rice is awesome. As pointed out my many in this thread, many people would choose Rice over Cornell even if the costs were the same. With a $160,000 difference, Rice is a clear choice.

[krishdesai]

@SeekingPam

Are you international? Given that you used “maths” instead of “math”? Are you concerned about international reputation? Again if you are getting a US Phd in the future, should not matter unless one school has a higher admit rate in your chosen field.

I am indeed international. You caught me with the math/maths. You call it math in the States?

I’m not really concerned about international reputation for reputation’s sake itself. What I am concerned about though is if that reputation affects grad school admissions. Does it?

[8bagels]

Rice and Cornell are equals.

[krishdesai]

@nw2this , @PurpleTitan , @LoveTheBard -

Regardless of financial need, Rice has a full tuition ($43K) merit scholarship available to internationals that is not available to U.S. students. The top merit aid scholarship for domestic applicants is $26K, with an exception made for engineering students who can get anywhere from $10K to full tuition.

I don’t know much about how Rice calculates financial aid, but I get the impression that it is limited for international students.

Given that OP got nothing from Cornell and $40K from Rice and given the way the original post was worded, I’d say it’s a good chance that the OP is international and that the money is for merit.

I am indeed international but the grant is need based, not merit based.

You are right when you say that Rice gives very limited need based aid to international students. I was told that I was one of the 12 international students selected for a full scholarship.

[PurpleTitan]

As I mentioned in another post, Rice and Cornell are both top 10 in the whole country (out if some 600 or so unis and colleges) in the percentage of undergrads who they send in to PhD programs.

I know that Rice doesn’t have the international reputation of Cornell, but in the US, they are deemed equals (and both are considered very elite). In fact, if you asked any American professor if they thought Rice’s reputation would hold you back in PhD admissions (compared to Cornell), they would look at you funny.

It would be akin to you asking them if they thought attending Columbia instead of Cornell would hold you back in PhD admissions.

[csdad2]

OP, you’ve got lots of comments about how good Rice is in general (and I agree with them), but I haven’t seen anything about the specific fields you mention, math and physics (and also not so much specifically addressing grad school admission). Well, here’s a post (from a trusted CC source) that lists Rice (as well as Cornell) as one of the top schools for physics in the country:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/14239165/#Comment_14239165

(I know more about physics than math because my son, currently a junior, is interested in studying physics, so I’ve kept my eye out for threads about schools for physics.)

Here are sites/tables showing Rice as one of the top schools in the country for where students getting PhDs went to undergrad, for the fields/categories Science and Math, Math and Statistics, Physical Sciences, and Physics:

http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-colleges-where-phds-get-their-start/

I think you can rest assured that Rice puts you on a good path for grad school in math or physics.

[CHD2013]

I agree with the consensus that Rice is the obvious choice.

I would quibble with the suggestions that Rice would be a better option even if there were no cost differential. In that scenario geography should be a factor. If the student would ultimately work on the East Coast, Cornell would have a geographic advantage.

Again, for this student Rice is a no-brainer.