<p>Having a second thought is very natural. This isn’t deciding which show to watch on TV or going to Mcdonalds or BK. This is four years of your life. I didn’t get into any colleges I wanted as a frosh, but when I transferred I spent hours upon hours choosing which colleges I wanted to apply to. I made formulas, made grades for each schools in areas such as greek life, sports, social, location, networking, professors, reputation, atmosphere, etc. I basically researched every aspect possible and I still had second thoughts about going to my dream school USC. And since I’ve been here I’ve wondered what life would have been like if I went to the other schools I got into and if I should have applied to any other schools, did I limit my choices to much. I think if you choose Rice, you did so for good reason, it’s just that the schools you got into you didn’t really have a clear choice that was telling you “this is your school” since those schools are fairly similar. Rice is a good school in Houston, one of the largest and best cities for post graduation jobs. Even though money wasn’t an issue, the price gap is fairly large and that will give you a larger fund to draw from for a grad school.</p>
<p>Slik Nik, I wouldn’t worry too much about being at Rice. You’re right, it’s not Emory…it may be better, hard to tell. Houston has a lot of advantages over Atlanta. Many more Fortune 500s for internships, a million more people in the metro, NASA, the beach, and less crime. Houston is also a lot more urban than Atlanta, and you’ll spend a lot of time in some really cool parts of town like the Rice Village, Uptown-Galleria, Museum District, The Heights, and so on. It is the nation’s 4th largest city after all, trailing only NYC, LA, and Chicago. Uptown-Galleria is easily more impressive then Buckhead in Atlanta, if you’re looking for shopping and wealth. You’ll really fall in love with Texas.</p>
<p>Considering Rice is known for its excellent undergraduate programs, it will probably be a better fit. Personally, I’ve always admired Rice. Emory has a cool logo, but I think Rice’s is cooler with the owls on it. The architecture and feel of the Rice campus is amazing, with sweeping arches, the lush canopy of live oak trees, and really colorful ornate academic buildings. Plus, Rice Baseball is legendary.</p>
<p>I’m going to Stanford. I’ve even had some second thoughts (though not very substantial) about turning down my state school. Like others have said, this is a complex decision. For example, one negative of the state school was the quality of students compared to Rice and Stanford, but that could just as well be a positive- I’d stand out considerably more.</p>
<p>Hate to complicate things but you can try to contact Emory to see if they would match Rice package. It is not that far apart between the two. All schools you listed are exceptional, congrats and good luck.</p>
<p>I contacted Emory regarding matching Rice’s package back in April before I made the college decision, and they said they would not match the financial package that Rice offered. I wrote a very compelling plea too. That is one of the reasons I turned Emory down; I was mad that they wouldn’t match Rice’s package. It didn’t make sense to go to a slightly less intellectual school (in my opinion, Rice has a better academic quality and quality of life than Emory) and pay 15k more a year. Oh well, that’s Emory’s loss… I now feel that I made the right decision (I think the bout of second thoughts is gone now).</p>
<p>I’m glad that you feel more set about the decision to go to Rice. I don’t agree with the advice telling you to contact these other schools – it seems that you have already made peace with your decision to go to Rice, and you made the decision for the right reasons – both academic, financial, and social. Good luck at Rice next year; I’m sure you’ll have a blast!</p>