Seeking advice. Rice or Emory? UR or Brandeis?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I’m trying to finalise my college list but I have problem deciding between Rice and Emory, UR and Brandeis. Basically here are the things I’m looking for:</p>

<li>The neuroscience programme. It’s my favourite major. It seems that all four have a pretty decent neuroscience programme but I don’t know which one comparatively better. </li>
<li>Academics in genera. </li>
<li>Cost and financial aid. I know Rice does not offer FA to international applicants, but does any body know the prospective of getting a merit-based scholarship in Rice? I’m applying as a freshman, international.<br></li>
<li>Opportunities for internships. </li>
</ol>

<p>Any other thoughts on these colleges? </p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I know I have kinda posted quite a few threads on neuroscience and the above colleges. I want to know as much as possible before making the final decision. Any thought will help. Thanks!</p>

3

<p>Well this doesn't fit into your criteria but Emory is in Atlanta which is in a constant state of drought. At one point very recently (last year) they basically ran out of water.</p>

4

<p>What's UR? University of Rochester? Not very familiar with Rochester or Brandeis, other than that those are good schools, but the other two I can talk about a bit.</p>

<p>I'm heading to Rice this fall but I also was accepted to Emory. I don't know much about Rice's neuroscience program, but given the quality of Rice and Emory, I don't think a program at one school would be significantly better than the other. That goes for academics as well.</p>

<p>Emory has this core curriculum kind of thing that ensures their students receive a liberal arts education, while Rice's distribution requirements are much more loose and flexible.</p>

<p>Rice costs $6-10k less than Emory without financial aid and scholarships factored in, so it'd be more practical to attend Rice if you want to save money for grad school (for example). You are right though, Rice does not offer financial aid to internationals; as for Emory, you'll have to look that up on their website as I don't know their policy to internationals.</p>

<p>Rice does offer some great merit scholarships, but they go to the top 1-5% of their acceptees--it's not that easy to get one.</p>

<p>Given their locations in Houston and Atlanta, I think you'll find it easy to get internships at either Rice or Emory. Rice is literally a walk across the street from Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical district--TMC loves Rice students and you'll find it very easy to get research and internship opportunities there if you want (considering you're asking about neuroscience I'm assuming you're interested in medical internships). Rice greatly encourages undergraduate research (one of the many reasons why I love it) and you could be performing research within the first month of matriculation.</p>

<p>As for Emory, I know the CDC is in Atlanta so I think you could get internships there. Someone who's more familiar with Emory/Atlanta can elaborate on this.</p>

<p>I would be able to help more if you could specify what exactly you're looking for in a college beyond the academic aspect... like location, social life (Greek or not, etc), environment, people, campus life, etc whatever.</p>

5

<p>your comment on the drought is completely ridiculous. As someone who lived through it I can say that it is not constant and that we did not "run out of water." We had to conserve for a month or two and then it was over.</p>

6

<p>hotasice: Yeah, UR is University of Rochester. Anyway, thanks for sharing the info. Seems that Rice and Emory are really quite on par with each other. In fact, I'm also looking into the diversity and variety in college lives, in terms of ECAs, courses offered, and student population, etc. Could you tell me more about that? </p>

<p>Actually, why did you choose Rice over Emory?</p>

7

<p>You still have plenty of time, I don't see why you can't apply to all 4. </p>

<p>By the way, according to Wikipedia:

[quote]
There are only eight colleges that are need-blind and full-need for all applicants, including international students. These are Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Middlebury College, MIT, Princeton University, Williams College, Yale University, and Amherst College.

[/quote]
</p>

8

<p>I would suggest applying to all four, then visiting after you're accepted. </p>

<p>Definitely check out the Emory Scholars program...they give great merit aid! Also, Emory does NOT have a core curriculum...where in the world did you get that from??? They have general eduction requirements just like Rice, which were reduced even more starting with the class of 2013. </p>

<p>Emory has a Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology major, which is more interdisciplinary than a traditional neuroscience program. You get to take classes in bio, chem, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology, thus exploring a unified topic through multiple viewpoints. </p>

<p>Emory has TONS of opportunities for internships... if you want one, it's pretty much guaranteed you'll find something.</p>

9

<p>There are already a few threads that compare Rice and Emory. You might want to look at these:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/480641-rice-emory.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/480641-rice-emory.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/emory-university/480639-emory-rice.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/emory-university/480639-emory-rice.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

10

<p>I chose Rice over Emory for a lot of reasons... but then again, I'm biased.</p>

<p>I think Rice is slightly above Emory, but the academic differences are so inconsequential that they are essentially same academic quality. It IS more difficult to get into Rice than Emory, and even though I haven't visited Emory, I knew Rice was for me the instant I stepped foot on campus. If you click those threads, you'll find that I'm quite adamant about Rice being the better choice over Emory ;) But for the sake of being open-minded and other Emory-minded people, I will refrain from too much opinion, haha.</p>

<p>And okay, Emory doesn't have a core curriculum, but they have some sort of GE thingy that has a LOT of requirements that students complained about (took too long to fulfill it while also taking classes for your major) and that's why right now they're made it less strict and chipping away at the liberal arts education requirements. Maybe that's your thing, I don't know, but at Rice the distribution requirements are a lot looser and more flexible to your taste.</p>

<hr>

<p>So, you wanna know why I chose Rice over Emory? :) Prepare for a long read...</p>

<p>Cost.
Princeton Review ranked it #1 Best Value Private College in 2008. It indeed is one of the few elite college best buys, and its base price is $6-10k less than comparable counterparts ($50-52k for Northwestern, Emory, WashU, etc)--and this is without financial aid and scholarships factored in. So, theoretically I'd save maybe $40k over four years, if I didn't get financial aid and/or scholarships, for a great academic experience and education. That's a pretty good deal to me! Granted, it doesn't give financial aid to international applicants, but it is need-blind to everyone else and is quite generous with financial aid. It has one of the biggest endowments, somewhere around $5-6 billion, which is pretty incredible for Rice's size.</p>

<p>Unique characteristics and traditions.
Rice's most unique characteristic about it is that it has no Greek life or system, rather having a residential college system. You may heard of such a system at Harvard and Yale, but it takes a whole other meaning at Rice, where the residential college system is incredibly integral and vital to the entire undergraduate experience. It's often likened to the Harry Potter house system, and people become very spirited about their particular colleges, even more so than their Rice pride--there's even a President's Cup in which all the residential colleges compete in intramural sports, akin to the Quidditch Cup in Harry Potter. (Whereas at Emory, there really is NO school spirit).</p>

<p>Okay, but here's the best part... the TRADITIONS.</p>

<p>Rice is most famous for its Beer Bike tradition, where each year all the residential college teams come together and chug down beer before letting off academic steam by bike-racing each other around the track. Baker 13, if you're at Baker College, involves you streaking across campus on the 13th and 31st of every month wearing nothing but shaving cream. It's pretty ridiculous. Oh, and Night of Decadence (occasionally hits Playboy's list of top college parties) is basically a nude party where people wear lingerie and whatnot. There are lots more, but I don't want to make this too long. It gets pretty crazy... Rice parties and social life are just pretty amazing in general; Rice is also a wet campus so you don't need to go off campus if you wanna drink/party. At Rice, students work hard and party hard.</p>

<p>Oh, and I almost forgot to mention O-WEEK (short for Orientation Week), which I hear is pretty crazy amazing, basically summer camp but even more fun! I haven't personally attend yet (I will in less than a month!) but I hear it really will be one of the most fun-filled weeks of your life. The O-week advisors have a lot of fun planning it and there's like a new theme each year (or something like that), depending which college you're in.</p>

<p>Location/Opportunities.
Situated in Houston, the nation's fourth largest city. Known as the energy capital of the world and serves as a hub for the big energy and oil companies. Business is booming in the Southwest and in Houston you're gonna find amazing opportunities--Houston is #2 behind NYC as the location for most number of Fortune 500 companies. You'll def find internship opportunities if you want--a Rice degree in Houston has more influence than an Ivy one (as you'll realize, Rice incredibly prestigious in Texas).</p>

<p>I know there are a lot of Houston haters out there, and believe me it gets really hot and humid, but the place where Rice is in Houston is incredibly nice. It's situated in downtown Houston but it has these really beautiful hedges that serve as a buffer between the college and the bustling sounds of the city. It's incredibly safe and not in a sketchy area at all--there's this nice Rice Village nearby with a lot of good shopping and restaurant places.</p>

<p>Noting its low costs of living and booming energy and tech industries, Forbes recently rated Houston (along with Austin and Dallas) as the top three best cities for recent college grads, and Houston's average starting salary for those with bachelor degrees is the second-highest in the nation. </p>

<p>Not to mention, Houston is well-known for its restaurants--you'll find lots of great places to eat here!!</p>

<p>Academics/Reputation.
Top 20 school. Great 5:1 student-faculty ratio. 3,000 undergrads. Great grad school placement rates--last year had 90% medical school placement rate. Rice is a very respected degree and the workload here is pretty intense. While its mostly known as an engineering school, a lot of people don't know its got a top-ranked Shepherd School of Music as well as one of the best architecture schools in the country (#2 in the nation behind Cornell's)--its even harder to get into those schools than to get into Rice's other school divisions.</p>

<p>It is <em>undergraduate-oriented</em>. That means, undergrads are not overshadowed and overlooked by faculty and resources because of grad schools and grad students (not the case at Berkeley or Harvard). Its grad schools really aren't that prominent at Rice, so really you can get one of the best undergraduate experiences at Rice.</p>

<p>Rice also has an honor code system, which means you can take your exams unsupervised anywhere you like, at any time you like. Its a key part of Rice.</p>

<p>D1 sports/school spirit.
I covered a bit about school spirit with the residential college system part, but Rice is incredibly well known for its D1 baseball team, which fell short this year in the College World Series--it fell to LSU. Anyhow, the entire student body goes crazy at baseball games because Rice is really a powerhouse in D1 baseball, and it's really good to have an awesome sports team to rally school spirit. Rice football isn't as great as its baseball but a lot of Rice fans still come out to show their support. </p>

<p>School spirit and a good sports scene mattered to me so this served as a major plus in me choosing Rice over Emory (and other schools).</p>

<p>Student body/Undergrad experience.
About 20% of its undergrads are National Merit Scholars. In 2007, Princeton Review ranked Rice #1 in Best Quality of Life, #3 for Best Overall Academic Undergraduate Experience, #1 for Lots of Race/Class Interaction (lots of diversity!), and among the top 20 schools where students Never Stop Studying.</p>

<p>The people at Rice are extremely friendly and very approachable--people are of all socioeconomic backgrounds and very diverse. </p>

<p>Oh, and the gorgeous Spanish Mediterranean architecture doesn't hurt either ;)</p>

11

<p>while your post is descriptive about why you like Rice, it does not have any comparisons between it and Emory (aside from broad over-generalizations and baseless assertions).
You state that Emory has "no school spirit" even though you also admit that you have never visited the school. A lack of D1 sports teams does not mean that Emory has no school spirit. If you are going to do contrasts I would encourage you to focus on things that you can actually back-up with facts instead of hearsay.</p>

12

<p>You're right, I haven't visited Emory. However, from actual Emory students there, they have told me that Emory has no school spirit, despite having great D3 sports. I never said just because Emory doesn't have D1 sports that it doesn't have school spirit. Do you attend Emory? My Emory friends have told me that sometimes they wished Emory had a football team because of the lack of school spirit. But, I have to admit, Emory does very well in D3 sports, it's just that not a lot of people (other than jocks) seem to care enough to attend the games.</p>

<p>And I didn't even include "broad over-generalizations and baseless assertions"--that would be the stereotype that Emory has cliques and JAPs, now that you mention it. But I know those are just stereotypes, and that the college experience is different for each person. Emory does, however, have a sizable Jewish population, and a lot of rich kids who are able to pay the full ride. </p>

<p>But I do have several Emory friends that have testified that Emory students are to an extent cliquish in that they tend to self-segregate themselves and aren't very open to others.</p>

<p>My post was not designated to compare Rice and Emory--it was to explain why I love Rice and backed it up aspect by aspect. I do not profess to know a lot about Emory.</p>

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<p>A few things to mention...</p>

<p>Bikers don't chug and chuggers drink water, if they want to win. Beer Bike is a confusing thing to explain to people even if you've experienced it. It's probably impossible to explain if you haven't. </p>

<p>Baker 13 is not just Baker students. </p>

<p>NOD isn't really a "nude party." It's a very little clothing party. And I'm pretty sure the Playboy story, at least as you've told it, is a myth. </p>

<p>I haven't run into many people who've held the view that Rice is primarily an engineering school. I think that view is perpetuated mostly by people who say "Rice has a reputation as an engineering schools, but..." As you've noted, Rice has strong programs in Architecture and Music. It also has strong programs in the humanities. There's no need to be defensive. It just suggests that there's something to be defensive about.</p>

<p>While I agree that Rice is undergraduate focused, Rice DOES have graduate programs, and some of them are quite good (and prominent?). Rice is not a liberal arts college. </p>

<p>We have take home exams, but not all exams are take home exams. Some are taken in class.</p>

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<p>I also forgot to mention that the endowment, according to Wikipedia, is $4.7 Billion, not $5-6 Billion.</p>

15

<p>Wow, Rice sounds like a really exciting place! The study hard yet party hard spirit, the flexible and prestigious academics. I especially love your analogy to Harry Potter, hotasice! Haha. The only thing is it does not offer FA to international students, sigh... Guess I'll still apply and try to get scholarships to cover my tuition.</p>

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<p>Oh yea, thanks everybody for the info!</p>

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<p>Rice rocks, I hope to get in. I am aplying for a post professional master in architecture.</p>

18

<p>dou -- Rice now does offer a limited amount of financial aid to international students.</p>

<p>"Rice University will offer need-based financial aid to a limited number of international undergraduate applicants entering Fall 2009. Citizens of foreign countries who apply under Regular Decision and request need-based aid will be reviewed as a separate group."
Financial</a> Aid at Rice University</p>

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<p>Yea, I realized that too. Hope I can go Rice!</p>

20

<p>Houston might be the 4th largest city in the US but I've heard, culturally speaking, it's a terrible city, consistent with the Texas stereotypes (including heavy racism, which I've also heard is true of Rice itself from a few friends that go there). I really like Atlanta's culture, however. The people in Atlanta have all been very friendly, laid back and open-minded. Most of my friends at Emory come from the Atlanta area. Atlantans, imo, are some of the best people in the country.</p>

<p>In another note, Emory runs one of the best hospitals in the country and it's right on campus. And beyond being in Atlanta, the CDC is also right next to the school. The two campuses literally touch each other. So I don't know that you can argue Rice will have better opportunities for a medical internship, although I have never tried getting one myself.</p>