<p>I’ve narrowed my decision down to Rice and Carnegie Mellon, but I’m not sure which would be better, and I’m also not completely certain on my major; as a side interest, music is also important. Finances aside, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll bite. As a CMU alum and with a son who is a current student at Rice, I’m pretty familiar with both schools. Both are very strong academically, so the differences really have to do with the social culture of each school. The students at CMU typically know what they want to study from the start and are uniquely focused, serious and intense about their major. At Rice, while students are serious about academics in general, many tend to have a lot of interests and Rice makes it easy to explore other areas and to switch majors. Rice students also tend to be more collaborative and supportive of each other. The biggest difference, though, is the social life. CMU doesn’t have a lot going on other than some lame frat parties, and the students there tend to self-segregate by ethnicity and/or area of study. Because of Rice’s residential college system, the social life is much more inclusive. And with the substantial budgets the residential colleges are given, there are a lot more parties. Given that there is Div I sports at Rice v. the Div III sports at CMU – sports play a larger role at Rice. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>DD really enjoyed (as a non-music major) participating in Rice Chorale, and one of the student-produced gilbert and Sullivan operettas (Rice Light Opera Society). She also loved the free/cheap passes to see the Houston Symphony (Passports to Houston), Ballet, Opera, and all the concerts at the music school - plus the student bands at the coffeehouses, etc. Lots of music stuff going on, and lots of student sports (even though it’s definitely NOT a jocky culture- more like, “everyone who wants to can play”) Lots of participatory sports, not so much watching sports.</p>
<p>My brother and sister in law went to CMU and got amazing educations. Both are brilliant and have been very successful. S is at Rice. He narrowed his choice to CMU, Rice, and JHU. The deal breaker for him was the culture at both schools. He felt that the social life at Rice would be better.</p>
<p>One consideration that I had was ease of selecting majors. CMU has a major in computational finance which was an interest of S’s. However, at the time, it was limited to 10 students at CMU, and there was a competitive process to get into the major. Rice has a similar minor and S is majoring in Mathematical Economic Analysis and may minor in computational finance (it may have a different name at Rice). Outside the music school and architecture school it’s easy to switch majors at Rice. I was concerned that this would not be the case at CMU. Also, he was admitted to several of CMU’s schools, but wasn’t really sure of his major. I was concerned that it would be difficult to switch schools (e.g. Tepper to Engineering). This is not the case at Rice. I would suggest you look into ease of switching majors and switching schools at CMU.</p>
<p>Have you visited both? That may be the tie-breaker.</p>
<p>Music at Rice for non-majors is great. I took private cello lessons from a top notch grad student last semester and loved it. It’s really easy to sign up for non-major music courses, although you do have to pay a little extra for private lessons. However, the fee is much cheaper than what I paid my teacher in high school. The Campanile Orchestra and the Rice Symphonic Band are very solid ensembles that are open to all undergrads. Also, you get credit hours for both private lessons and ensemble classes.</p>