<p>In my opinion, Rice is a very good engineering school. Some department/area may be ranked higher, may even be in the top 10. But overall, I would rank Rice as one of the top 20 engineering schools in the nation. It does not matter how you want to slice this - peer survey, research citations etc. In any one of these lists Rice should be on the top 20, if not I would even go to the extent that the list is flawed. In my opinion, overall Rice program in the second half of the top 20 rankings along with say USC, University of Wisconsin Madison, and I would even put Columbia in this groupings. Top 10 typically tend to be schools like MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, and state schools like Purdue, University of Illinois, Ga Tech. </p>
<p>Where Rice really stands out are three great aspects that are very unique and you cant beat. 1) Nice small friendly university college system that this campus offers which is truly great. 2) Great undergraduate research opportunity, with very small student to faculty ratio with renowned mentorship that these faculty provides . 3) Great location, the museum district of the Houston is just too lovely a suburban feel.</p>