Hi! I’m planning on applying to either rice or brown early decision this fall. I love both schools but don’t know which one to use my ED card for. I want to know which school gives more work/harder to get an a in. My primary goal is to get into a fantastic medical school and I don’t know which one would be better- rice or brown. I don’t want to be only studying day and night- social life is important to me. How are research opportunities at both the schools?
Even the slightest bit of information really helps. I’m sooo stuck!
Thank you so much!
Please note that students at Brown can drop a course about a week before the final exam without implications. So the grade distribution you see in the courses factbook does not mean that it is easy to get an “A”. If you watch the video I have linked above, you will see that a large number of Brown premed students take organic chemistry in the spring semester of freshman year (only offered once a year). People who don’t do well in orgo can move on early (do CS etc.) or take a step back (take it again next year) without implications to their future endeavors. You only need 30 courses to graduate; so theoretically you can drop(fail) a course twice if you keep a 4-course per semester load at Brown.
For Brown’s students, academic pressure is from within, not from outside. When students are surrounded by other brilliant students, they work harder to bring out the best of themselves. They can choose how they suffer. lol. The tragedy happened at Penn will never happen at Brown.
Open curriculum at Brown vs. a more standard set of distribution requirements at Rice
Northeast vs. Texas location and weather
Compare research opportunities
Brown's housing vs. Rice's res colleges
Compare cost if you are full-pay (and run NPC if you are not. Actually, run NPC anyway...)
Providence vs. Houston
Compare social vibes -- Brown's relatively more liberal/hippy vibe vs. Rice's relatively more nerdy vibe.
Both are going to offer mostly small classes once you get past the survey level, excellent academic support and teaching quality, good career/post-grad support, and other markers of quality you’d expect from highly selective private universities.
If you go to Brown and you don’t have a hair dryer, your hair will literally freeze in the winter. You don’t have this problem at Rice. BTW, we have quit eating Korean noodles, they all taste the same and like those two girls in the video, you need to drink a LOT of water …
Also, don’t worry about published research. AOs know that most of the merits belong to their parents. What do you like about each school? It is very important to be able to articulate the reasons using your own words. That is more important than your research.
My son is premed sophomore at Rice. He is majoring in Cognitive Science (on the neuroscience track) and is minoring in biochemistry. Rice just started offering a neuroscience major this year that looks really solid. He is using AP credits for the two gen chem and two gen bio classes. He has taken gen bio lab, two physics, org chem 1, and statistics premed requirements at Rice so far. He is currently taking an advanced biology class, org chem 2 (with lab), and cognitive psychology for further premed requirements. I think that covers it. He is very happy with his courses and professors. He has made lots of friends, many of which are premed who he tells me are quite happy as well. Since he began he has also found several clinical volunteer and research opportunities. His first semester freshman year he started several hours a week at a federally qualified outpatient health center directly helping patients with setting up social services and follow up clinical services. He also started at an AIDS hospice clinic at the same time several weekends a month. He did these throughout his freshman year and into this summer. He started a very nice clinical research position with a Baylor Med School MD/PhD working at TX Children’s Hospital this summer and has carried this on into this Fall semester. Moreover, he has just secured a new volunteer spot (3 hrs a week) as an ER patient discharge advocate (I think that’s what they call it) through Baylor Med School/Ben Taub county hospital Patient Discharge Initiative. He has rejiggered some of his volunteer time in order to make this all work and still keep on top of his academics. My point is that if you pursue them the volunteer and research opportunities are readily available. His closest premed friends have had the same success at securing volunteer and research spots. Houston is a very big city and Rice has a wonderful reputation and history of providing volunteers, premed researchers, and part time employment to hospitals, clinics and local med schools. As you may know, the TX Medical Center complex is directly next door to the Rice Campus.
You won’t have problems getting into a good med school if you do well in either school. Your stats are kind of low for admissions to either school. If cost of attendance is important to you, Rice is a good choice, especially with its recent announcement of free tuition offer for income less than $130,000.
If possible, visit both schools and spend as much time on campus as you can attending classes, spending a night in the dorms, etc. Rice offers overnight visits for seniors. https://riceadmission.rice.edu/portal/visit-overnight
For the class of 2022, Brown filled 44.3 percent of its class with ED applicants. Rice filled about a third of its class with ED applicants. If you like both schools equally well, the odds would say ED at Brown. If not admitted at Brown ED, then RD at Rice. Rice offers some merit scholarship as well as meeting full financial need. If Rice is the best fit for you, and if they both are affordable, follow your heart.
This can’t be emphasized enough. It is literally the world’s largest hospital complex, and right across the street.
My D was considering neuroscience at Rice, and this was one of the draws (in addition to “happiest students” and the stunning campus). She met with a prof during her visit, and the prof was saying that there were ample research opportunities at the Texas Medical Center for undergrads.
(It’s true that Rice students are almost shockingly happy–I’ve known 15-20 over the years, and even the ones who were disappointed not to have been admitted to HYPS wound up giant Rice boosters.)
“It’s true that Rice students are almost shockingly happy”
That was our impression on our tour. I loved it; felt like a summer camp for smart and totally unstuck up people. My son - more of a mad scientist introvert type - found it odd and was suspicious. While I was busy figuring out how to go back to college so I could go to Rice, he was visibly withdrawing and commenting “it’s so weird, mom. They’re all just so, so nice!” I tried to convince him to apply as a diversity admit - he could be the Lone Pessimist on campus.
@13vanillalover You should compare course offerings and class sizes in your areas of interest, but I recommend focusing on the major differences between the two universities (weather, curriculum requirements, house system at Rice, etc.) rather than getting too bogged down on minor differences in neuroscience course offerings or research opportunities. You don’t need access to one of the world’s largest medical complexes to get into a good medical school.
Keep in mind that it’s not unlikely you’ll change your mind about medical school – about half of those taking the MCAT don’t apply to medical school, and many more drop pre-med long before that. A lot of high school students are 100% sure that medicine is for them, only to discover a new passion in college. Pick a college where you’ll do well and be happy regardless of what you’re studying.
Are you interested in a combined (BS-MD) medical program? Surprisingly no one has mentioned them yet. Rice admits fewer than 6 students each year to the Rice/Baylor program, whereas Brown PLME accepts about 50 each year.
Actually 95 PLME students were admitted to Class of 2021 and 88 PLME students were admitted to Class of 2022. For financial and other reasons, some did not choose to attend. I guess starting next year everyone will be fighting for those around 100 spots at NYU med school. As I always said, “you can’t complain about the free stuff”. ;
For those of you who are comparing schools’ premed programs, I would recommend that you pay attention to the number of applicants from each school (mentioned above) and the majors which students graduate with a degree in. Rice has much fewer students in traditional bio-related majors (see https://oir.rice.edu/students-scholars/outcomes/majors-and-programs-completed) Rice has more than half of its students who graduate with either a business-related or engineering related degree. Brown has close to 1/4 of its students who graduate with a degree categorized as “Life or Medical Sciences”. (https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/institutional-research/factbook/degrees-and-completions click “Undergraduate Completions”)
In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lemiUwKzWgU&list=PLZd0XUJhKv3-ZYrSgUMT_fGiwNID4wwpb&index=2), these two girls (one from Brown) are talking about their “research” in freshman year. We don’t recommend our kid to do wet-lab research too early. As you can see from the video, one girl said she is not doing much (as expected). It is best for freshman to focus on academics. For example, do well in organic chemistry, physiology, statistics, etc. Statistics is very useful for internships.
My kid only did medical related volunteer works during freshman year; then this past summer, for three months, working at a tippy top hospital associated with a tippy top medical school doing clinical research. It was a great experience. The acceptance rate for the program was less than 15%. Most of the accepted students were from big-name schools. Few were freshman. Some are in gap year. No research can compensate for weak academics. That is the biggest mistake/misconception most “failed” premeds make/have. They thought their ECs can rescue them.
:-/