<p>SAT scores are in no way an indication of intelligence. George Bush did horrible on his SAT, and look at him now… wait, horrible example. The point is, many brilliant individuals have horrible SAT/ACT scores. Those tests measure your test-taking ability, not intelligence or knowledge. Why do you think so many people with 2350’s get rejected from MIT, while others with 2100’s but that have demonstrated their intellectual ability in their extracurriculars and GPA might get in?
Even GPA in high school is more a measure of how hard one works, not how smart one is… measuring intelligence would require looking at many other factors, and I don’t think there is a way to accurately compare two great schools such as Rice and Mudd in terms of student intelligence. </p>
<p>And again, even if Mudd engineering is better, it won’t matter if you’re not happy there. Your happiness at a school will enable you to be productive and take advantage of the opportunities presented to you. </p>
<p>And then of course you have to determine how important the financial difference is (remember you will also be going to Grad school after college).</p>