<p>Hi all, I've recently been accepted to all three schools and am seeking insightful input on which school would be best to go to if I wanted to do</p>
<p>a) Business
b) Premed</p>
<p>I know those are two very different fields but right now but please rank those schools for each category.</p>
<p>Also, can anyone give me some more insight about Rice's reputation nationwide? I know it's just as selective as Duke but not as well known because of Duke's basketball and athletic reputation. </p>
<p>I've heard that Rice is considered the Harvard of the South - how true is that statement? I know that some of the biggest application overlaps with Rice include Duke, Stanford, and Harvard. But a lot of people don't really know about Rice from my school.</p>
<p>Of these three, I'm heavily leaning towards Rice, since it's got the smallest pricetag of them all among other factors, but I am very open-minded and am very willing to hear other opinions!</p>
<p>I agree with your leaning towards Rice. My daughter graduated from there last year, and her four years were wonderful. It is very strong in pre-med and that is probably the most intense and competitive major. The campus is beautiful and the school has a strong academic reputation. My daughter found the faculty excellent in all areas. She was a music major, but took a variety of courses in the humanities as electives. She loved Houston (to her surprise) and found the cultural offerings outstanding. On and off-campus housing is both good. The climate is good- you won't be there for the worst of the summer heat and humidity. Northwestern and WashU are both excellent schools, of course, but Rice wins.</p>
<p>Rice is an excellent school with a great reputation (stronger in the south) and solid academics but I am almost positive that there is no business major and the business minor is a relatively new feature. If you are leaning towards business over premed, then obviously Rice is not the place to go. If the opposite is true, follow your heart to Texas. :)</p>
<p>I think you're right in choosing Rice. Since you're interested in business/premed the low sticker price with such a great undergraduate program will work wonders at preparing you for future studies.</p>
<p>As far as prestige goes, I'd say that Rice is second in the South only to Duke and is VERY highly regarded in Texas, especially if you decide to work in Houston.</p>
<p>I was very impressed with the undergrad business dept. at WashU. Also, NWstrn and Rice don't have them. I don't know too much about premed except that if you want to work your ass off for four years, WashU can help you. Apparently their premed students are crazy. Think about location (rice-south, hot; washu midwest, mild, but unpredictable; nwstrn chicago, freezing). All 3 are great schools, but more of a nat'l prestige for nwstrn. great rep for washu and nwstrn is best in midwest and rep is best in south for rice. all 3 are great schools so look at academic interests, social interests, location, weather, and try to see where you see yourself attending school</p>
<p>There is obviously no "winner" here. If you're pre-med, all will prepare you well and be looked upon with similar favor by medical school adcoms. If business is your thing, Rice will place extremely well regionally but is also very well respected nationally. Northwestern, of the three, probably places best overall nationally drawing a recruiting pool across all fields that is hard to match. </p>
<p>All are great schools. I'd tell you to follow your heart and wallet. Rice is a very different place from Wash U and Northwestern - much smaller and with a much more intimate feel. The residential colleges there are a very supportive system. On the other hand, Northwestern has Chicago at its doorstep with great internship opportunities. Chicago for college students, in my mind, way trumps Houston which way trumps St. Louis. If all things are otherwise equal in your mind and Rice would be significantly less expensive, I wouldn't hesitate to let your wallet place your vote.</p>
<p>I was gonna say how NU got all these different business-related minor/cert...etc + econ... But the truth is unless you are rich, I'd just end the debate and go with Rice if I were you. I say this as a NU grad.</p>
<p>I agree as a fellow NU grad. It sounds like the OP needs a deal-breaker among 3 very excellent choices, and if Rice's price tag indeed is appreciably smaller, that's as good of a deal-breaker as any.</p>
<p>But are the cost differences significant enough to warrant fast dismissal of the others? Perhaps they are for some students, but if not, I could not more strongly encourage you and others to visit. </p>
<p>Of the three, Rice probably receives the fewest number of visitors. I attribute much of this to its more distant location for applicants from the Northeast and the Midwest. But for those who make the trip, expect to be impressed by and maybe even surprised at the campus beauty and the intimate feel of the residential college system at Rice. It is a unique, very warm, environment. I have said many times that if Rice were located in Philadelphia, it would be a fixture in the Top 10 colleges in the USA (with a brand reputation similar to what Dartmouth has today). </p>
<p>The same could also be said for Wash U and Northwestern as these colleges often get overlooked by some students who favor the historical prestige of the NE colleges. IMO, Wash U and Northwestern can match the non-HYP Ivies in nearly all aspects of undergraduate life and each offers a compelling undergraduate experience. </p>
<p>As you already know, there is not a bad choice among these three colleges as all three can prepare you well for a career in business or in medicine and all are well regarded by employers and grad schools. I hope you have the chance to visit each and see which environment best suits you.</p>
<p>I live (and work) 1 mile from Rice, my dtr is a freshman at Wash U and my son will be applying next year to NU. I don't know as much about NU/Chicago, but I have often noted that Houston gets shorted on CC. It is the 4th largest city in the country. To imply that there aren't many internships in Houston is absurd. It also has the largest medical center in the world with 2 med schools, pharmacy school, nursing school, optometry school, school of public health, numerous museums and fine arts, immense oil and gas business, NASA, substantial real estate development, growing population, is relatively recession-proof and has a low cost of living. </p>
<p>The weather is not bad most of the year, but summers are bad. If you go to Rice you miss most of the bad weather. You can also play baseball, swim, football, etc. outside with very comfortable weather almost all year. </p>
<p>My kids ant to leave town for college (I think that is a good thing), or they would apply to Rice. (BTW Rice has 4200-I believe-undergrads and WashU 6200- not a real big difference)</p>
<p>My dtr works very hard and is surrounded by very bright, hardworking people at Wash U. She is happy there.</p>
<p>You have three choices: real good
real good
real good</p>
<p>Depends on where you feel more comfortable. You can't go wrong.</p>
<p>"I have said many times that if Rice were located in Philadelphia, it would be a fixture in the Top 10 colleges in the USA (with a brand reputation similar to what Dartmouth has today)."</p>
<p>OMG- I can not POSSIBLY think of anything that would ruin Rice faster than putting it in Philadelphia! (speaking as a parent of a Rice grad, a current Penn student and a Philadelphia-area native). I would never have wanted my daughter to attend if it had been in Philadelphia. I'm having enough trouble with the crime at Penn! Besides, you would lose the weather advantage. Not everyone wants gloomy grey weather for much of the year.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the replies! I'm actually visiting WashU in a couple weeks for its Multicultural Weekend--thought it was very kind of WashU to pay for me to visit. :)</p>
<p>Rice actually didn't give me any financial aid, which surprised me...</p>
<p>I just viewed Northwestern's financial aid offer online and through Federal PLUS Loans and a Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan I could take out $39,500 in debt this year out of the $52,221 total estimated cost of attending Northwestern (yikes!!), and my parents could front the rest. Even so, that's a huge amount of debt for one year...not to mention for the other three years! :(</p>
<p>As for WashU, my dad didn't send in the FAFSA on time so didn't really get a complete response from WashU, but WashU definitely sent in more stuff and contact information about financial aid. I'll probably call them up next week or talk to their financial aid office when I visit in 2 weeks.</p>
<p>I was just wondering, though, would it be wise to maybe notify Rice the financial aid package that Northwestern offered me to maybe bargain for financial aid? I've heard of people doing such things and getting favorable results. And I think it would help because Northwestern and Rice are comparable schools in terms of academic quality, etc. so Rice perhaps would be receptive and apt to negotiate?</p>
<p>I mean, it's kind of early right now as I'm still waiting on more schools but Rice and Northwestern are definitely on my top 4 list and I'm working on a financial aid chart to see which one would be most financially feasible to go to.</p>
<p>is it cheapest with your financial aid? yeah, i'm having the same dilemma with Rice and WashU - both excellent schools, neither are northeast (which is what I want) and both have different benefits. I really like the house system at Rice but I really like the $$$ Wash is offering. Go with your heart!!!! :)</p>
<p>and I hope to see your at Mulicultural Week because I'm going too!!!!!!</p>
<p>MOWC and samlee,
I wasn't trying to pick on Philadelphia (although I'll concede that I'm no fan of Philadelphia and share your fears about the neighborhoods around U Penn to the north, south, and west of the campus), but used that city as the example to make the point that if Rice were physically located in the northeast, its reputation with many top students and academics would be much stronger. Being located in Texas just takes it out of the view of the mainstream media as many high achieving students in the northeast and the midwest have never heard of the school (sort of like how some folks in Texas know little about the non-HYP Ivies).</p>
<p>^^ Let those people stay in the northeast. Plenty of talented students manage to find Rice. They don't seem to be hurting for applicants and the school's reputation is very strong. I think it is better known nationwide than Williams is, and I love that school, too.</p>