<p>may 1st is rapidly approaching! ^^ anyone mind giving me some advice?! =)</p>
<p>i'm international and haven't visited either campus.. from what i gather, both appeal to me in different ways. rice's "random" residential college system and its friendly welcoming atmosphere appeals to me. on the other hand, NU's econs/engine dept seems stonger. it has also greater name recognition. not to mention, i know people fr my countrygoing to NU. so in a way, that might be good. i doubt there're any fellow countrymen in rice.. </p>
<p>i'm q sure i'll major in econs+engineering (if that's possible without having to kill myself). after college, i'll be heading home to work. enjoying my college years and getting a feeling of "a home away from home" seems impt to me (though i'm not sure if its possible)..</p>
<p>any ideas on which would be a better bet??</p>
<p>thanks in advance! :D</p>
<p>Dude, no question about it. Northwestern. Awesome city of Chicago, beautiful campus, great academics as well. Prestige is kind of a relative things and in many cases depends on whom you asks. I will tell you that Rice is known in Texas.....and by students who are applying to college. Otherwise, not too many people in the US even know about it. And I am talking professional people, not Joe from the grocery store.</p>
<p>smashin, I think Northwestern is the school for you. The econ program at NU is on par with UPenn and other ivies. The engineering program is much better at NU also. If you want to go into business, you can apply for one of the ceritificate programs from Kellogg after your sophomore year, and the managerial analytics one is designed for engineering majors. In terms of prestige, Northwestern is more widely known than Rice and I live in the South (though not in TX). Both have high prestige in their respective areas, but NU has more recognition in the entire US than Rice.</p>
<p>there really is no reason to pick rice over NU except if you prefer warm weather over all other factors, or prefer to go to school in the south over all other factors.</p>
<p>northwestern has a one-up on rice in virtually everything else:</p>
<p>career recruiting
academic strength
location</p>
<p>i'm not really sure how the social scenes compare, since i don't know anthing about rice's, so it is possible that if you prefer rice's specific social scene that is another reason to choose it, that would be an objective choice on your part.</p>
<p>smashin: I faced the same sorta situation you're facing. I'm not an international, but I am a US citizen living abroad. I (literally just) chose NU over Rice. My dad has alot of friends who are professors at various universities, and they said that for engineering, NU wins over Rice hands down in their opinions. They also felt that NU is also much better over a wide range of departments than Rice is and has more brand name recognition in terms of grad school placement.</p>
<p>From what I hear, Rice's social scene is more welcoming than NU's (no greek life) and the residential college system is supposed to be amazing. However, I visited Northwestern a couple of years ago and really loved the campus (given that it was during spring) and the overall feel of it, while I never got to visit Rice. I also loved Chicago which also influenced my decision. My opinion is slightly biased, but I hope it answers some of your questions.</p>
<p>Rice's engineering is VERY well respected. I know this forum is biased, but I am also trying to decide between NU and Rice, and I find these responses here a bit disheartening.</p>
<p>I considering as well econ+engineering (plus math), and one great thing about Rice is that you are admitted not to any specific school such as the college of arts and sciences at NU, but rather just to Rice itself. This allows easy course selection without worrying about cross enrolling and what not.</p>
<p>Also, besides freshmen, who are not allowed to join frats and sororities, 50% of NU's student body is involved in Greek life. This number might seem large to you, or it might not.</p>
<p>Your 2nd to last sentence is incorrect and confusing to many. Freshman are in fact the ones who do most of the joing of frats and sororities during the "Rush" after the winter vacation. This puts the total % of greek life at around 35-40%.</p>
<p>Students in engineering can enroll in basically any Arts&Sciences class, and vice versa, provided you meet any prerequisite classes that a particular class requires prior to enrollment in it.</p>
<p>The number of students involved in Greek Life is NOT 50%. It's 35%. Again, anyone could see that as high or low. While subjectivity is fine, reporting bad information is potentially dangerous.</p>
<p>It is 35% including freshmen. But freshmen are not allowed to join. If they were allowed, I'm sure many of them would, so it is more accurate and realistic to take the ratio of students involved in Greek life divided by the whole student body minus the freshmen. Surely this number is greater than 35%.</p>
<p>brackis I just saw your post. Let me specify during fall term, the statistic is higher? I guess things get more confusing now. The whole point I was trying to make is that NU has a lot of students involved in frats, and Rice has no frats, so there really is a fine line and you should consider it before making your decision.</p>
<p>right. in terms of econ/engine, i guess NU's significantly better. just wondering, is rice's friendly atmosphere and grt residential college system worth giving up NU for?</p>
<p>nightflarer,</p>
<p>Your number for % student body in Greek is wrong. It's much lower than that:
<a href="http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/2005-06/f.htm%5B/url%5D">http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/2005-06/f.htm</a>
men: 32%
women: 38%</p>
<p>As a student at WCAS, you are allowed to register for courses in other schools for the most part provided you have the prereqs. Exception are core classes for journalism/music/theater majors...</p>
<p>I don't know how economics compares, but I think you're mistaken to think that Northwestern is considered better (much less significantly better) than Rice for engineering. Rice has a very strong engineering program with great resources and abundant opportunities for undergrads to be involved in research.</p>
<p>you should go to the school that lets you get the most out of college. that means both academically and socially. go to the school that lets you grow in many ways (you are now becoming an adult). if NU's great econ/engineering departments will allow you to learn a lot and work with some fantastic professors, that's great. if Rice will allow a more lax, friendly, and warm environment for you, one that you would enjoy being a part of for four years, then that's also good. try not to think in terms of giving up one school for the other. rather, both schools want you, and go to the one that fits you, not the other way around as they say</p>
<p>nightflarer,</p>
<p>Look at the common data set again (F.1), it has two columns:</p>
<ol>
<li>freshmen students</li>
<li>undergraduates</li>
</ol>
<p>The fraternities/sororities % for freshmen are 25 (male) and 34 (female), NOT zero.</p>
<p>blackeyedsusan,</p>
<p>NU's economics has been ranked anywhere from #4 (citiation ranking) to #8 (US News ranking) in the nation. It's heavily targeted by elite firms in the business world partly because of that and partly because of the halo effect of Kellogg, which just started offering undergrad certificate program. NU's engineering is considered better by smaller margin with 7 programs in the top-20. The material science is arguably the best in the nation and the management sciences program is also highly ranked (#6).</p>
<p>You are welcome. I hope that helps alleviate some of your anxiety about the Greek. At least it's not as prevalent as you might have thought previously.</p>
<p>smashin,</p>
<p>Econ + industrial engineering & management sciences is a popular combo at NU. They are both highly ranked (8th and 6th, respectively). There are also two Kellogg undergrad certificate programs, financial economics and managerial analytics, you can apply to at the end of sophomore year. The managerial analytics is mainly for engineers.</p>