namaste

rice has more flaws than UCLA in my opinion

what are ucla's flaws: it's overcrowded - hard to get classes sometimes, housing is expensive and crowded (almost all freshmen get triples), the area is expensive and apartment managers are often unreasonable if you live off campus, LA can be a brutal scary place if you're some small town kid, there is a lot of race/class/background issues (but you'll find that at any public school and we do make conscious efforts to address them unlike a lot of midwestern or southern colleges), lack of parking and good public transportation, and the quarter system - endless midterms and finals = endless stress , if ya let it get to you

more importantly ucla has so many benefits, which are amazing programs, overall great faculty, cheap price, beautiful campus/location, endless opportunities - you can get into any industry if you make the effort, a great alumni network (they say USC is so amazing... well we have 340k living alumni and many are willing to help IF YOU MAKE THE EFFORT), proximity to the best city in the world, a great on campus housing experience (if you skip the triples), endless academic resources (world class libraries, free tutoring, people who will help) some of the best dining hall food in the country, a diverse student body - almost anybody can find a niche through hundreds of student groups and of course, our top knotch athletic program that brings the campus together. there's much more.

to sum it up: ucla can suck if you sit in your room and go to class. it's what you make of it. the world is at your fingertips. dig in, there's no limit.

at rice, well, great school i'm sure. great programs. great faculty. but what's the world surrounding rice? are you surrounded by a world class research universtiy? an incredibly diverse megapolis with endless opportunity and allure? dont think so

of course, if this is all too overwhelming, which i understand it is for some people (and LA chews some people alive and spits them out), rice by all means