@prezbucky : And they are still very different. I think if the social life element they felt at Rice is more important then they should go there because if they don’t know how the programs or academic atmosphere at each differ by now (especially in those fields), then it likely was not worth researching or gauging (and is a bit late). Based on their description, they seem to like Rice. I think the residential system and everything will keep them plenty occupied with other things to do (since they were worried about the effect of the STEM bias). I just think that Emory is better if you actually seriously plan to engage whatever humanities or social science disciplines outside of the classroom. When it comes to STEM, especially physical sciences, I do believe Rice has most medium/small privates between 15 and 25 beat except maybe Cornell (okay, not exactly medium but still not USC) and CMU. But again, that wasn’t really a consideration of OP, and Rice initially stood out to them.