<p>In looking for schools this past year, I decided it would come down to WashU and Rice because of their similarities. They may not be identical, but they have much more in common than Rice and other colleges of the same caliber. I visited both, and besides the weather, there weren’t too many HUGE differences. Yes, the engineering is better at Rice. It isn’t surprising then, that many of the applicants overlap between the two colleges. Similarly, when I go to sites like Princeton Review to check out college stats and characteristics, I’m not surprised to find WashU in the “Similar Schools” to Rice and vice versa.
My point is that Rice and WashU have many things in common, among them a great quality of life and the happiest students. While I will not claim either of the schools is better than the other, I will say that I did ultimately choose WashU over Rice, only because of financial opportunities (full scholarship at WashU v. 30k scholarship at Rice). If it weren’t because of the money difference, I’m not sure which I would’ve chosen.</p>