<p>^Interesting, my old neighbor’s son was also admitted to both schools and chose Rice as well. He is from the northeast, interested in Political science and decided that with the $25million donation for the new social science building, the school will put a lot of money to pump social sciences as it moves aggressively to become a more geographically diverse university and will also give him a different edge for graduate school since there are so many schools that are concentrated in the northeast. Keep in mind that Rice has more space to go up in the rankings and it is a very wealthy school that only recently started to market itself in such a degree, similar to what UChicago has been doing. </p>
<p>BTW, OP except from the hospitals across the street from Rice, there is also the Bioscience Research Collaborative, again, across the street, where researchers from Rice and the hospitals do research together. [About</a> the BRC : BioScience Research Collaborative](<a href=“http://brc.rice.edu/about.shtml]About”>http://brc.rice.edu/about.shtml)</p>