<p>I had decided to go to Rice and payed deposit before I received an email from WUSTL last evening which told me that if I was still interested in WUSTL they would like to admit me from waiting list and I should reply by this evening. I didn't considered WUSTL after I was put into WUSTL' s waiting list. So it is a very tough choice, especially in such little time. I have not decided my major. I have read some posts about Rice/WUSTL and found many similarities of these two schools, both have great academics, quality of life,etc.
I really want to hear the pros and cons of either of them (difference between Rice and WUSTL, social life, reputation...) Any aspect will be fine.</p>
<p>Do you have any idea what you intend to study: science, social science, humanities? Would you prefer a school with 3,000 undergraduates or 6,000? How do you feel about TAs? Does the residential college system appeal to you? Do you enjoy the change of seasons?</p>
<p>I knew that WashU is well known for medicine, and Rice is well known in engineering, architecture and music. What about the field of business?
Actually I am really not sure what I want to do in the future. I think college will be the place where I explore my interests and figure out what I intend to do.</p>
<p>I LOVE RICE. Go with your first instincts, man. Plus Rice is awesome at pre-med guiding, as well; either way, you’re going to a top notch institution. . . but Rice is awesome.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I didn’t know schools admitted people off the waitlist before May 1… Anyway, I would say you should consider quality of life, since both schools’ academics are similar (though Rice’s engineering is better). Rice students tend to be VERY happy (as you can tell from people on this forum). Plus, Houston > St. Louis. I talked to a WashU alumna who said that “St. Louis wasn’t [her] favorite city…”</p>
<p>I got admitted off of Rice’s waitlist on April 27 three years ago. By this time of the month they can usually get an idea of whether the class is going to be overfilled.</p>
<p>There are a lot of threads on this subject, since WashU and Rice have a lot of admissions overlap. I’m going to say what I’ve said in all of these threads. I have a friend who transferred from WashU to Rice. When another of our friends was transferring from Lawrence to either WashU or Rice, we encouraged him to write to her arguing for Rice. We expected him to write a paragraph or two —*he wrote six pages, single-spaced. I don’t know exactly what filled that document, but the fact that he was able to come up with that much content shows a lot.</p>
<p>Bit of a disclaimer: my friend who transferred really liked WashU. He really didn’t want to transfer, but WashU was cutting his financial aid, while Rice was offering him an almost full ride. So this isn’t some anomalistic case of someone who just didn’t fit in at WashU — this is a fairly typical case of someone liking one school, but liking another school more.</p>
<p>I think that one of the biggest differences he cited was that Rice respects its students. You can take that to mean what you want, but I think what he means is that at Rice students are treated as assets, not customers.</p>
<p>Elaborating on what NYSkins said, WashU is also notorious for playing the “admissions game.” In fact, they already played you, firstquartermoon. They tend to admit a smaller number of applicants to keep their admit rate down and keep up their yield rate for USNWR, and then take a massive amount of people off the wait list. While its understandable why they do that, I find it sort of manipulative and skeevy.</p>
<p>My friend’s brother graduated from WashU. He liked it, but always complained about how crappy St. Louis was, and how much he hated winter there.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that Rice doesn’t have RAs in the traditional sense who monitor your hall or conduct room checks and searches. We have a family of college masters who live in a house next to each college, and we have two to four faculty members living in the college itself. They are not there to police the students; they’re there as social and academic mentors. The RAs at my college have never even been in my room. They don’t care if we have alcohol or parties or anything like that. This provides Rice students with a lot of freedom that I wouldn’t sacrifice for any other college experience. WashU may have a similar policy, but if they don’t, you should definitely consider the advantages of this at Rice.</p>
<p>You’ll receive a top-notch education at both schools regardless of your major (unless its engineering or architecture or music), no doubt, but I think you’ll be happier and, therefore, more productive at Rice.</p>
<p>“WashU is also notorious for playing the “admissions game.””</p>
<p>People always say this when they get rejected or waitlisted, but do you have any prove to that statement? Also, yield rate isnt counted towards USNWR ranking.</p>
<p>“My friend’s brother graduated from WashU. He liked it, but always complained about how crappy St. Louis was, and how much he hated winter there.”</p>
<p>Well, St. Louis isnt that crappy if you compare it to other midwest cities besides Chicago. Also, STL winter isnt that bad. It’s the best place to experience all the 4 different seasons without actually suffering from the harsh winter like in Chicago. </p>
<p>“You’ll receive a top-notch education at both schools regardless of your major (unless its engineering or architecture or music), no doubt, but I think you’ll be happier and, therefore, more productive at Rice.”</p>
<p>WashU is well known for its high quality of life, so I dont think he’ll be happier at Rice. I mean, they’re equal. There is no such thing as one college for everyone, it always depends on the individual.</p>
<p>As to answer the OP’s question, I would say choose Rice! They wanted u first, and u already paid ur deposit there. I chose WashU 2 years ago because WashU wanted me first before Duke took me out of its waitlist.</p>
<p>BearCub, I’m genuinely sorry if I offended you. My post was a bit strong. Not being sarcastic. I really am sorry.</p>
<p>I’m definitely not bitter towards WashU. I wasn’t rejected or waitlisted. I didn’t even apply. It was on my short list for a long time when I was looking at schools, but I ultimately decided that I didn’t want to live in St. Louis largely because of the winter. And that was long before I knew anything about the alleged “admissions game.” I’m from the south, so yes, I do think St. Louis is rather cold in the winter. Sure, it’s warmer than Chicago, but I never gave serious consideration to Northwestern or UChicago for that very reason. I really do find cold weather depressing, so that had a lot to do with my post. To the OP, I apologize if that’s not clear.</p>
<p>Besides the weather, the whole happiness comment had a lot to do with the assumption that dorm life at WashU is more restrictive. For the record, I just looked at some other sources regarding that issue, and it sounds like dorm life at WashU is just as liberal as dorm life at Rice. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I take that back unless proven otherwise.</p>
<p>True, but yield is generally higher from the waitlist, since students first have to accept a spot on the waitlist. Higher yield means that you need to accept fewer people to fill a class, and acceptance rate is counted in rankings.</p>
<p>That’s not to say that I actually believe that WashU plays the admissions game. to my knowledge, they didn’t take anyone off of the waitlist the year I was applying for schools.</p>