<p>Hi all, hope you don’t mind me resurrecting a year old topic, but I know that at least one other member and I are grappling with the choice of these two schools. I’ve already posted in the Mudd forums, but I’ll reiterate my own situation:</p>
<p>I’m mostly attracted to the intimacy both Rice and Mudd offer undergrads. I’m shooting for engineering (MechE or EE) or CompSci, and my current goal is to go for grad school. Right now, I really value research experience/opportunities to know your professor in my undergraduate education. My financial situation at Mudd will be a little worse, but its nothing to complain about. I’ve visited both schools, Rice through Owl Days, Mudd through the Changing Faces program, and I can easily see myself as a part of both student bodies, and through the visits and these forums, I have a good picture of the slight differences in the student population that I’ll definitely think more about.</p>
<p>Again, I think I’ve already seen a lot of positive points on why a Rice education is valuable from the posts above, so as in the Mudd forum, I’m only asking questions that are concerns. Hopefully no one takes them the wrong way. Both of my questions are in response to Stevedad’s post #5. If you’re still around, or if anyone could explain them, I’d be really grateful.</p>
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<li><p>“What are the odds that you’ll want to continue schooling after your bachelor’s degree (and the appropriate school may differ if you are thinking of Medical/law school v. phd)?”
I know this point has been made several times, but I was wondering if there was a website/pamphlet from Rice that listed the grad schools engineering alumni have gone to. Mudd has an excellent example in their viewbook. Is this something I should email Rice admissions about?</p></li>
<li><p>“How important are the pro’s and cons of one school being a research university and one not? (All profs selected/tenured based primarily on teaching ability vs. more cutting edge research available immediately on campus.)”
I’m not sure which school goes where in reference to Stevedad’s second sentence. My impression was that both schools selected professors based on their commitment to teaching, although I have heard that there are some so-so TA’s at Rice. And don’t both provide excellent research experiences?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I’m pretty confident that both schools will provide ample opportunities to participate in research. However, even though I did get the Century Scholarship at Rice, I was told that it was a sort of crap-shoot to get good mentors, and I got the impression that freshmen might not have the necessary skills to do meaningful work until they’ve gone past the intro classes.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>