@Philery English If I remove context (intellectual, facult, etc) of each department, it is pretty close:
http://english.emory.edu/home/undergraduate/academic-opportunities/literary_union.html
Emory may only be a little stronger because they offer a 4+1 BA/MA program and is trying to be a little more modern (especially with lower division and non-major courses). Both are loaded clearly (several awards and some grant funding).
The only differences I see in the reward and award structure is that Rice is rewarding most achievements after the fact (which is perfectly fine) whereas Emory has a few more that actually fund research (like research grants to go abroad or somewhere in the US). Both have the equivalent of a literary union so this is excellent (Rice’s appears to take the form of Master Classes whereas Emory’s literary union is an apparently kind of new and popular more informal, but formal workshop environment). Academic requirements seem similar (requiring most courses to be 300 level +). Regardless, I don’t see the weakness for Rice’s department here. Emory is simply a better place to “be” an English major because of the faculty and events, but a strong intellectual environment in Rice’s dept or in their residential life can probably make up for this.
Anthropology: Rice’s smaller program can seriously have some benefits. For example, appears it is more geared toward those who may want to do research in a certain area (like they require a capstone or honors thesis and they can only do that because they are probably significantly smaller than Emory’s). Emory’s has quite a bit of flexibility (also has a club and things of that nature) due to the several concentrations and joint majors it has. However, if you look at the curriculum, there is a notable slant toward more medically-related, sustainability, or biological topics. If you are more interested in the humanist perspective then the joint major in religion may be of interest. Or if you are interested in more quantitative training, do it as a substantive concentration with QSS (which does offer undergraduate fellowships and have other neat opps). However, Rice’s size could be advantageous if you want to more seriously engage anthropology in the areas it specializes in (don’t get me wrong, Emory has a good context for that major, but also has almost evolved into a default pre-health major which may explain how it has become more or less “generic”. The department that compares well to the size and academic seriousness/requirements of Rice’s anthropology major is the environmental sciences major at Emory).
Seriously, think about what you want. Your extra-curricular life could end up stronger at Rice, but the co-curricular opps associated with your majors could be better at Emory (especially in the case of English).