Sounds like you’ve gotten some good input about the UC’s. My D applied to Rice, Vandy and Wash U. All are fairly similar in some ways but this was her thoughts/opinons:
Vandy - One of my daughter’s top choices. She loved the location and thought the campus was beautiful. Fairly big Greek system which was a negative for my daughter. All the freshman live and eat in “Ingram Commons” which is a cluster of “houses” (dorms) and eat in the same cafeteria. Has quite the southern vibe with girls wearing dresses and cowboy boots to football games.
Wash U - Very pretty, self-contained campus in a largish city. Another campus that has somewhat self-contained housing for freshman. Not a ton of “school spirit” in regards to sports. I thought this was a perfect fit for my daughter but for whatever reason she just didn’t completely connect here. They talk a lot about their “collaborative” atmosphere but she has heard from friends it can be quite competitive - not sure how accurate that is. My daughter was bothered by the lack of obvious off campus hang outs, restaurants, etc for students. There is definitely an area nearby but I think she would describe it was a little “sketchy” - at least the walk to get there. It might have helped if she’d seen that area when school was in session.
Rice - My daughter ended up here so we are little biased. It’s another pretty campus in the middle of a large city. Rice has a true residential college set-up meaning students are randomly placed in a college their freshman year and it’s their home for 4 years. They don’t have to live there for 4 years, though MANY do, but it’s definitely the center of your social life for 4 years for most students. It’s sort of like a fraternity or sorority, but co-ed and there is no real sense of elitism since placement is random - none is “better” than the other (though all say theirs is the best). Has a very collaborative atmosphere - kids are competitive with themselves, not each other. There are tons of study groups for each class and students help each other. Upper classman in each college serve as academic fellows/tutors for different subjects/classes. Definitely the smallish of the 3 schools - currently about 4000 undergrads but increasing to 4800 in the next few years. School is across the street from the largest medical center in the country so there are tons of opportunities for research, etc. Not a lot of school spirit, though the kids tend to support some of the smaller sports because they usually make friends with athletes in their residential college. School is located in very upscale area of the city (similar to Wash U) and there is a nice area within walking distance for shopping and food. I would say the social life on campus, especially for underclassman, is ON campus for most kids and not so much at off campus bars, etc.
Good luck to you!