I am a student from Australia who was admitted to Amherst and Rice. I’m looking to apply to MD/PhD programs in the future.
Pros for Amherst:
Pros for Rice:
You might find it of Interest that both of your choices appear in this site:
Because so little information is offered, I cannot make any recommendation other than to note the different weather / climate between the two schools.
Amherst College offers a true 4 season experience which includes snow during the winter months, while Rice University offers warm weather to hot & humid weather.
Both are outstanding schools, but they are located in different regions of the US.
Are you a U.S. citizen? If not, you need to understand that admission for international students to medical schools in the U.S. is a VERY small number and the vast majority come from Canada.
These are 2 of the best US colleges anyone could consider going to. Congratulations on obtaining admissions.
One clear advantage for Rice is that you can get a direct flight between Houston and Australia , and it is easy to get to Rice from the airport, which is just 1/2 hour away. The nearest airport to Amherst is an hour away and it’s not easy to get transportation from the airport to the college because it is remote from the airport.
Rice has a large international presence - almost 25% of its students, which is about 1000 international students. Amherst College has a small international presence - about 8%, or 150 students. The town of Amherst itself has more than 30,000 students at 3 different colleges, and almost 4000 undergraduates are international students.
I am a student from Australia who was admitted to Amherst and Rice. I’m looking to apply to MD/PhD programs in the future.
Internationals are at a very severe disadvantage when it comes to MD/PhD programs. This is because the vast majority of MD/PhD funding comes from the NIH’s MSTP program (Medical Scientist Training Program) --which requires all grant recipients to be US citizens.
Last year only 10 international students were accepted into all US MD/PhD programs combined.
https://www.aamc.org/media/6146/download
If you are willing to pursue a PhD only, you will have a much easier time finding an acceptance and funding.
Getting into a US medical school as an international student is extremely difficult. Many of the private schools will have a few students each year who are international, but its not a lot.
It gets even smaller when considering MD/PhD combined programs. Please take this into consideration. If you are intending to go back to Australia to practice medicine, then this should be taken into account. The medical education system in US is post-graduate (after bachelors) whereas in Australia you attend medical school right after high school.