<p>Hedoya that is the reason why Duke is a better place to be if you're more academically oriented. Also, for those of you bashing Rice, it has a 5:1 faculty to student ratio...I also don't know if you pay attention to the Princeton Review rankings but it recently got best quality of life for students...I would say that Emory, Rice and Vanderbilt are all in the same drawer, but Vandy has a bit of a southern stigma that the other schools don't have, and Rice tends to have a superior academic reputation.</p>
<p>Rice superior academic rep really depends on what academic disciplines you are talking about. As my final decision came down to Vandy/Rice... I found that yes for things like engineering/science, Rice seemed to be pretty well thought of academically (perhaps better than Vandy) but overall, A&S, etc... Vandy seemed better.</p>