<p>Rice is probably one of the most if not the most underated school in the US. Personally after visiting Harvard, Yale AND Princeton, I think that Rice is a hidden gem. </p>
<p>But what about on an international level? How does it fare abroad? Do many or any people know about Rice outside of the US?</p>
<p>Dunno bout being underrated. US colleges are the best in the world as far as I know, and so being one of the top US colleges basically means it's one of the best in the world. </p>
<p>I can't comment too much because I don't really know how things are outside Japan, but this is the info I got from talking to people who hire from US colleges:
Rice doesn't have much of a reputation to the general public. But it does have awesome reputation to the people who matter, meaning employers and academica. e.g. my orthodontist shreaked when my mom told her I'm going to Rice. She never took a step outside this island. My father works for an accounting firm and interviews job applicants sometimes. He knows Rice, and regards it highly. On the other hand, my friend's parents, who run a small calendar company, never heard of Rice. They only hire from Japan.
Basically, the impression that I got is that Rice has a pretty good history, and its graduates built up a great reputation in their fields. But Rice doesn't really appear in newspapers all the time, so not everybody knows about it.</p>