<p>Help? I’m interested in Engineering, and GATech and Rice are probably the best in this category, but I’m also really interested in International Relations and Foreign Languages.</p>
<p>Help?</p>
<p>as for the engineering, rice and gt are probably your best bets.</p>
<p>not sure about the other schools, but rice has the baker institute for public policy: [James</a> A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Rice University](<a href=“http://www.bakerinstitute.org/]James”>http://www.bakerinstitute.org/)</p>
<p>notable speakers include kofi annan, vladimir putin, and nelson mandela</p>
<p>Rice probably offers the best combination of the two disciplines that you want. However, try and see if you can cross-register with GTech and Emory (I’m not sure you can). If you can, that might be your best bet, although you will be swamped with work.</p>
<p>I know about 100 people who go to Georgia Tech, and I can tell you that a lot of these people absolutely hate the place. They say that being in town saves the school from being unbearable, but they’re always complaining about how the classes and grading curves are set up to promote grueling competition. A lot of my friends made the mistake of applying there EA, accepting the offer because it’s a great school, and not applying anywhere else. Many of them are seriously regretting it now. I know how amazing engineering is there, and I used to think I was going to end up there, but I’m so happy I didn’t. The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs is supposedly pretty solid, but most people consider UGA and Emory to have better programs.</p>
<p>For quality of life alone, Emory would be a better choice than Tech, but a lot of my friends (I know at least 20 people there) complain about a disjointed campus social scene and severe lack of school spirit. And I do believe Emory has a joint engineering program with GT, but it’s a lot of travel back and forth (the campuses aren’t especially close… I’ve heard Stinger buses go back and forth, but I’d say a car would be essential if you end up doing this). Also, there’s not much of a point in spending a fortune to go to Emory (unless you have good financial aid or a scholarship) if you’re going to end up taking so many of your classes at GT.</p>
<p>That narrows it down to Penn, Rice, or WashU. Penn engineering isn’t all that great, unless you’re sure you want to do Bioengineering. BioE is top ranked there, but overall the School of Engineering at Penn is nothing special and has the highest acceptance rates of all the Schools at the university. WashU engineering overall is ranked even lower than Penn. Any of these universities are going to have top-notch programs in political science (international relations) and foreign languages. Rankings aside, I would go with Rice. It has everything you’re looking for: awesome engineering, a great political science department (which I am personally very happy with as a Poli major; the Baker Institute is fantastic), and an opportunity to study languages (I’m also an Hispanic Studies major… the faculty is small, but incredibly engaging/knowledgeable and very personal). Plus, wearing shorts in January doesn’t suck.</p>
<p>In terms of poli sci, WashU has the number one poli sci department in the country.</p>
<p>WashU is #1 for its graduate program. Undergrad political science programs aren’t really ranked.</p>
<p>Personally, I would take Rice. It’s a mini Stanford.</p>
<p>Both my kids really enjoy/enjoyed languages at Rice, and very close relationships with the profs. First semester my DD ended up in a Spanish class with 8 students! Though she really disliked high school language classes, she found that the Rice language classes were terrific - and soon becames a foreign language junky and is now learning a 4th. You can’t go wrong with Rice for the undergrad experience and the support and friendly laid-back, fun-loving, serious academic programs.</p>
<p>I go to Rice and love it; my sister goes to Georgia Tech and loves it. I probably would not like Tech. She might like Rice. We’re not the same person.</p>
<p>That probably doesn’t help at all, but I wasn’t really trying to help.</p>
<p>I know someone who transferred from GA Tech to Rice. Likes it better here. </p>
<p>I would go to Rice if it is financially feasible</p>