<p>I'm gonna apply to one of these two schools early. I'm a prospective philosophy, economics, or poli sci major (I'm not sure which of those three I will eventually choose). I'm an intellectual and nerdy, but I'm also not a super hard diligent worker. Rice is 8k less per year (important but not the deal-breaker). Each school has its own merits for me, and I'm unsure of my choice. I liked both schools a lot. Advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I am very familiar with both schools and both are wonderful. I give Rice the edge because it DOES have D1 sports (however weak they may be in most sports) and the residential college system is wonderful. It is also very undergraduate focused. Chicago also cares a great deal about the undergrads, but with their own med school and law school, it doesn't have quite the same undergrad vibe as Rice. Both have excellent academics. Rice may be a touch more balanced in terms of fun v. intellectual pursuits, but I am not one of the people who thinks Chicago is full of nerds who never do anything social.<br>
Rice has a HUGE edge in climate and campus location. My daughter (Rice '07) found Houston to offer a lot of cultural opportunities, besides the many that were right on the Rice campus.</p>
<p>FYI Claremont McKenna offeres PPE program. which is if you dont know a combined philosophy/poly sci/econ major.</p>
<p>Many other top schools do this, CMC just happens to be equally strong in all three.</p>
<p>Sounds like Chicago is a good match for you. Their economics is very strong. Their core is very humanities based. Students there are very smart (I think..)</p>
<p>Did you visit both schools?</p>
<p>I find that physically visiting a school's campus and experiencing it affects your opinion about a school a lot. At least, it did for me.</p>
<p>Also, I'm sure that you know this already, but note that Chicago has EA while Rice has ED. </p>
<p>Both are very fine schools and while Chicago has the edge in economics and that overall very "intellectual vibe," I consider Rice to have the better all around campus life vibe and atmosphere. Rice students are very smart as well, don't get me wrong, but Rice kids have a much better balance of work and having fun, while I'm not sure I can say the same about Chicago. All sorts of cool traditions, residential college system, D1 sports, lower tuition, 4th biggest city, beautiful sunny (very humid at times though) weather all year round.</p>
<p>At the same time, there is a specific kind of student that Chicago appeals to, and if it does appeal to you a lot, then I'd say go for Chicago. </p>
<p>If you haven't visited either campus, I'd highly recommend doing so, granted that it is financially feasible.</p>
<p>i've visited both and know that Chicago is EA and Rice is ED. I'm gonna make up my mind tonight (as of now I'm slightly leaning towards Rice) and write the application tomorrow (no school because of Columbus Day). thx everyone so far.</p>
<p>hotasice could you comment on the intellectual feel at Rice? Do students bring the classroom discussions out of the class and into real life or is class and residential college life two separate things? could you also comment on strength of the Rice departments in the subjects I'm interested?</p>
<p>lets bump this considering i wanna make my decision tonight</p>
<p>U of C is outstanding in all aspects. The only downfall is the neighborhood. You will know where and where not to go very fast. Good luck.</p>
<p>First off, let me say that Reed and UChicago are in that group that is very "intellectual," and in comparison to them Rice is not as "intellectual" in that aspect--yes, you will have people discussing classroom topics outside the classroom, but don't expect it everywhere you go. </p>
<p>That is to say, and take this as a freshman's perspective, that at Rice if you WANT to have an "intellectual" discussion there are definitely professors out there and other classmates who probably would be happy to have one with you, but the general majority are talking about other things, like what's going on campus, a speaker they just saw at the Baker Institute Student Forum, the results of the latest powderpuff game, etc. I seriously cannot pigeonhole what Rice students talk about and what they don't talk about, and I don't like trying to narrowly categorize and generalize like you're asking me to do.</p>
<p>Rice kids work hard and play hard, that's the best summing up I can do. The library is packed at midnight and it's hard to find a free computer, but you can find a lot of people at pub on Friday night and having a good time. Campus life is alive and thriving, and people are out and about doing things with friends or attending events, not sitting around discussing "intellectual" topics--generally speaking. There might be a few exceptions. Rice is sort of a nerdy school as well, actually, as in there are a lot of people who study all the time, but not so much as Chicago.</p>
<p>In general, however, I presume Chicago students are more "nerdy"--please excuse my generalizing, but to a certain extent it holds very true--and more inclined to "intellectual" discussions of probably quantum physics and what have you.</p>
<p>Do you understand the residential college system? I don't really understand what you're trying to say. If you know anything about Harry Potter and the four houses--Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor--Rice's residential college system is pretty much like that. If you are asking if people try to incorporate ideas into residential college life, that would be referring to student involvement and student government, which I can say students are very involved.</p>
<p>Chicago's economics department is top in the nation, I will not dispute that. Rice's economics program is decent, although the intro course is not very good (from what I'm experiencing right now). I'm taking ECON 211 right now, and every Rice student you ask who has taken that course will say it's a difficult course, but it gets more interesting and better as you progress through the program. But both departments at both universities will be tough. </p>
<p>As for philosophy and political science, Rice is quite strong in the humanities and social science divisions as well. Rice has the Baker Institute for Public Policy that is quite renowned and has had a lot of famous visiting speakers--you can visit the website here: James</a> A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Rice University</p>
<p>John Bolton is actually coming to speak there on Tuesday night, and I've already secured a spot to go hear him talk. </p>
<p>Also: I know that knowing what your major is definitely helps you narrow your college application choices, but keep in mind that rarely do people stick with the major they intended to pursue, for all four years of college. It's good that you're targeting schools based on specific programs or majors, but do not completely brush aside a school simply because one program is "better" than another, when both schools, considered holistically, are in the same top tier and excellent all around (that is, obviously Chicago's econ will be much better than State U's econ, but Chicago and Rice are comparable universities).</p>
<p>So what I'm trying to say is, the quality of departments is not so divergent between Chicago and Rice to really pick one over the other based on supposed superiority of one program over another (granted, Chicago's economics department is top in the nation), so I would highly suggest you focus on more of which school you "fit" and "match." Where you could see yourself living for the next four years, et al.</p>
<p>Also, to add to the "intellectual" feel to it--Rice is very much an academic school, make no mistake about it. The only good D1 sports we have are Rice Owl baseball (which went to the College World Series last year, but unfortunately lost to Fresno State, I think?) which really consistently go onto the College World Series. So it's not really a big sports-oriented school like Michigan or OU, for example.</p>
<p>Other than that, it's definitely no UF party school atmosphere, and I think you understand that. It is a very wet campus though, and you will definitely have partying going on Thursday and onwards into the weekend (although my Vanderbilt transfer friend says Rice's campus feels like a deadzone compared to Vandy's social life, but then again, Vandy parties extremely hard, haha).</p>
<p>If you mean intellectual as in working and studying constantly, Rice is quite intellectual in that sense, as Princeton Review ranked it in its top 20 schools in which "Students Never Stop Studying" in 2007. If you mean intellectual as in having midnight 3 am discussions about classroom topics, I'm not saying it never happens here, but it's highly unlikely, unless people are finishing up homework/problem sets or studying for exams.</p>
<p>I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck on your applications!</p>
<p>Here are more elaborate explanations of why I love Rice:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060632629-post31.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060632629-post31.html</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060633612-post33.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060633612-post33.html</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060729038-post10.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060729038-post10.html</a></p>
<p>thx a lot hotasice you answered a lot of my questions. i framed the question pretty badly--what I was trying to get at was whether Rice students were as passionate or almost as passionate about academics as Chicago students, who are notoriously passionate about academics, because I want to be around smart, dedicated, passionate students. I know a lot about Rice and just wanted to get a sense of the student mentality. I really like Rice's very good balance, with top academics and yet the students are still very happy according to everyone. I think I'm gonna go ED to Rice.</p>
<p>One last question hotasice--when you are confused about your schoolwork or looking for extra help, are your professors often available to meet one on one with you, or do the professors seem more concerned with their own research/publications?</p>
<p>I'm glad I helped you and answered your questions, that's what I'm here for.</p>
<p>When I'm confused about my schoolwork, I generally either a) ask my friends who are in the same classes, b) go to the discussion sections headed by a TA, or c) go during office hours to see the professor. Not in that particular order, as it's a case-by-case basis per class (some classes don't hold TA sections), so mostly it's either the a) or c) route that I take.</p>
<p>If you want to meet with the professor, you would go during his/her office hours. If for some reason you have class conflicts or can't make it to office hours that week, you either email him/her to set up an appointment for another time that's more convenient to you and see if the professor can do the same.</p>
<p>All my professors have been very approachable and accessible. Like I've said in other topics, Rice is very, very undergraduate-oriented and I've gone in and talked with my econ, chem, and psych professors to ask questions and such. I've never had to go to a TA if I wanted to reach the professor him or herself.</p>
<p>I completely understand your question though, and it's very legitimate. I was concerned with the same thing as well and fortunately I haven't had the problem of having a difficult time reaching my professors or being brushed away because of research obligations and whatnot. </p>
<p>However, I also think it depends on the class and particular professor as well. For example, Douglas Brinkley (you can google/wikipedia him), a very distinguished history professor at Rice and a very famous author, will probably be harder to reach than say, your CALC 101 or PSYC 101 professor. That probably holds true for most famous faculty, but in such a case, I'm sure that if you're very determined and persistent you can definitely meet with your professor. </p>
<p>I'm not going to blanket-statement say that all professors are very accessible all the time, but Rice (like many other universities) requires professors to hold office hours, during which professors must be available for students. So basically you gotta find time in your own schedule to go during a professor's office hours. Simple as that.</p>
<p>I'm glad to hear you'll be applying ED to Rice! :)</p>