At this point, I think Rice is more prestigious on all objective measures. See, e.g, Niche https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/best-overall/ I also sense that it is on the rise whereas as much as I hate to say this as a feminist, I’m not sure about the future of women’s colleges. That said, the Connecticut River Valley is a lovely place to go to school and I have a good friend who went to Smith and whose daughter went to Smith and they are not radical feminists so it is possible to go to Smith, get a good education and avoid the politics. I think coming from New Jersey, Rice will open up worlds for your daughter in a way that a Northeastern college will not. The distance is an issue for trips home, etc. but I think that if I were in your position (and I may be next year), I would go for Rice.
Didn’t see direct references to it, but the Residential College system at Rice and no Greeks really appealed to my son. He didn’t get in, but he is now at a Res College at Northwestern and loves it.
Thanks for the input. The fact that Rice does not have fraternities is a big plus to my daughter. I think all things being equal Rice has become her first choice. Now the only thing holding her back is that with the travel Rice would cost another 2500 a year over Smith which would mean more loan debt at graduation.
How would back and forth travel add up to an extra $2500 if you live in NJ? Many OOS students come home only for winter and summer break which greatly reduces travel costs.
My tickets from Boston to Houston were ~300 dollars each way on Southwest. If your daughter comes home for Thanksgiving, winter break, and summer, that’s around $1800/ year (not sure if you’d be flying out of Logan, but I would assume from your other posts that you’re close). I’d say a Rice degree is worth an extra 2K/year.
Rice gave a little less financial aid then Smith plus the extra cost of travel adds up to 2500. Some thing like 1250 more plus 1250 travel. A lot of the travel is for the first year, we will need to drive out to move her in. After that we can use storage. So that adds up to like being 10000 further in debt when she graduates.
We renegotiated the financial aid package to Rice university and now it is better then what Colgate offered her. Ever since she started looking at colleges Smith College was always her first choice, until she did Owl days at Rice. Tonight is my 56th birthday and I will be submitting her deposit to Rice tonight. I am a little sad she will be 1000 miles away but Rice seems like a great place for her to find herself.