RICE VS OTHER T20

College Search & Lists
1

I’m a rising high school senior from Washington state who has never heard of Rice before. After looking at different forums and rankings, it’s clear to me that it’s a T20 school.

Being intrigued by the school, I did some research and to my surprise, it was established in 1912, making it one of the youngest schools that is also highly ranked. Compared to other top tier schools, it’s relatively small. Yet, it has also been able to amass an astonishing 6.8 billion dollar endowment. It definitely attracts smart students. 1450-1560, 33-35 average scores and recently one of its humanities professors won the Pulitzer in history.

How has Rice gained so much recognition in such short time perio.d? think it’s unfair to compare it to most T20s given it youth and smaller size (with the exception of like Caltech, Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton). Yet, it’s been able to gain prestige.

I’m very interested in applying but I think it’s not as prestigious as other T20s and I’m not sure if it’s smart to apply to a school that is still developing and growing. What would you say makes Rice special?

2

The City of Houston was not founded until about 1836. That is also the year Texas won its independence from Mexico. Other schools in the northeast like the Ivies are centuries old. A wealthy man William Marsh Rice left his entire estate to found Rice University in 1912. Houston really took off as a city during the 20th century oil boom and space race. Rice has a large endowment because it owns a lot of valuable real estate in Houston and elsewhere and many other investments. This endowment allows Rice to spend a lot of money on a relatively small student body. https://investments.rice.edu/reports

Rice’s campus is beautiful. Rice is well known in Texas but less well known in other parts of the country. There are quite a few students at Rice from Washington State. If you want to take a virtual tour of campus or chat with current students they can answer your questions. Have a look. I think you will be impressed. https://admission.rice.edu/schedule-my-visit

3

I don’t think your research has been based on meaningful premises. For example, Harvey Mudd College was founded in 1955, enrolls 889 students and registers a higher standardized scoring profile than nearly any other college in the country.

4

“I’m very interested in applying but I think it’s not as prestigious as other T20s and I’m not sure if it’s smart to apply to a school that is still developing and growing.”

This is silly. By alumni achievements, Rice already is at the same level as the other (non-HYPSM) Ivies/equivalents.

The biggest challenge for you will likely be getting in.

5

@merc81 I don’t think it’s fair to compare a university to a LAC. Yes, Rice has a small liberal arts college feel to it, but a university with a total population of 7,000 can’t be compared to such a small liberal arts college.

I think OP wants to compare Rice to other T20. Which in this case, Rice is new to the scene. I think it can be compared to Pomona, which was founded in 1887, still a small LAC, but with a huge endowment 2.3 billion. They are both pretty young compare to their peers in their respective categories.

IMO, I think Rice is one of the few T20 that doesn’t really play the ranking games and care more about finding students who will fit in the Rice community.

@trus49539 i think you need to do more research besides data to decide if Rice is a good fit based on your interests

6

Rice is an outstanding school and plenty prestigious. It is highly selective and attracts some of the smartest students in the country.

It also ranks near the top of every list attempting to rank the happiest campuses. Its residential college system builds community and it has a thriving social scene. It is also small enough that undergrads can get involved with research.

7

My daughter just completed her freshman year at Rice. We live 1000 miles away and being from the Midwest, she honestly had never heard of it before she started researching colleges. Rice continually came up when researching schools good her in major and while she had no desire to go to school in Texas she was intrigued when she read descriptions of it’s student body and atmosphere. We didn’t have time to visit though and she actually took it off her list as she went through the application process. About a week before applications were due she admitted she really regretted not applying and buckled down to get her application in before the due date. When she was accepted we had to schedule a visit and decided it was a really good fit for her.

In my opinion Rice does have equal prestige among employers and grad schools as many other T20’s. Depending on where you are from though, it might not have the name recognition among your peers. If you are in the south or California it might, but here in the midwest not a lot of people have heard of it. So if that marker of “prestige” is important to you, you may be disappointed. But you know what, most Rice kids don’t care. As @NEC2022 said, Rice is looking for kids who fit their community, not just the kids with the highest test scores. And most the kids at Rice chose it for the fit as well and not just the perceived prestige.

One last note: Please be open minded when going through the application process. Students who get hung up on prestige and rankings are often disappointed. First of all, T20’s are HARD to get into. Many, many, many kids with perfect stats get rejected every year. Every year we see kids here who figure that since their GPA’s and scores fall within the averages at “top” schools, they are pretty much guaranteed admissions. There is always a kids or two who does not build a truly balanced list with real safeties and ends up shut out of all their schools or very unhappy with their options. Or, they are unprepared for the cost. At my D’s high school the majority of top ranked kids end up at our state school (which is a very good one) and I am sure that is not what they expected when they started the process. In addition, if all you are worried about is prestige, it is hard to honestly express to a school why you are good fit with what they personally offer.

Good luck!

8

Much credit to you for discovering Rice on your own!

It is an incredible place to get an education, so you should definitely keep it on your list. I won’t bore you with the details because you can read them on your own, but if you have any specific questions, please post on tour own.

For fun, read up on the murder of founder, William Marsh Rice, whose fortune was almost stolen before it could used to establish the Rice Institute. The murder mystery led to one of the most sensational trials of the century and has been worthy of both a book and a movie about it.

College sports fans know Rice as they’ve won 10 bowl championships including the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and 4 Cotton Bowls. Their most recent championship was the 2014 Hawaii Bowl. Rice Field hosted the 1973 Super Bowl. Rice won the 1947 NCAA men’s doubles championship in tennis and the 2003 NCAA baseball championship.

9

Like others have pointed out, even though Rice might not have the name recognition of other schools, given its regional popularity and relative youth, it’s still a top tier university.

Last year their acceptance rate was 8.7% while this year it was 10%. More students are starting to learn about Rice and the amazing opportunities it offers, especially in music, architecture, and STEM. As people mentioned before, Rice attracts the brightest students from around the country, and you should be proud if you do get in. That’s the biggest task at end.

You’ll get an amazing education, still a T20, and you’ll be among a community that has consistently been ranked as having some of the country’s happiest students.

10

Rice has enrolled highly academically prepared students for a long time, as this Life article from 1960 should indicate:

https://books.google.com/books?id=ykQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=life+magazine+1960+college+admission+tufts+bowdoin&source=bl&ots=5BKi5WV8SQ&sig=GFl_LycVnJV8AGIXLX2P9kW97I0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sO1TT4uPK-jm0QG8ifC3DQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1897982-the-historical-selectivity-of-colleges-by-sat-score-tiers-p1.html

11

“College sports fans know Rice as they’ve won 10 bowl championships including the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and 4 Cotton Bowls.”

This is such a misleading statement, those bowls were all in the 1940s and 50s. Very few college football fans know Rice after they left the Southwest Conference. And the Rice-Fresno State Hawaii Bowl had the lowest rating in the past 10 years. If Hawaii is not in the Hawaii Bowl, very few people, relatively speaking, watch it.

“By alumni achievements, Rice already is at the same level as the other (non-HYPSM) Ivies/equivalents.”

Another gross over-exaggeration, Rice does not have the accomplishments of Michigan or Northwestern, just to name two. Yes they’re older and bigger, and maybe that’s why they have more, but you can’t make some claim and not back it up.

Are you really saying that Rice is on the same tier as Michigan or Northwestern in journalism, media, sports, entertainment, business, government?

Maybe medicine, but UM’s healthcare systems is superb, one of the best in the world. Maybe Oil and Gas, but those are dominated by UT and A&M grads.

Take Pulitzer prizes which the OP brought up, Rice has one, NU has 38, Michigan 35. Only Harvard and Columbia have more. By your logic, Rice should be in the 30s right, since it’s journalism or writing program is the same tier of non HYPSM colleges? Well it’s not even close.

12

Just like @PrdMomto1 , my daughter (from the Midwest too!) also just finished her freshman year at Rice - and loved it! Every day while studying from home due to the pandemic, she expressed her desire to be back on campus. She really has found her people there - and is involved with several different things - and is getting a great education.

She, however, has been exposed to Rice for her whole life as her father/my husband is a Rice alum. When I met him, I had never heard of Rice either - I grew up in Seattle. He ended up at Rice from Milwaukee because his father (professor) applied for a job there and although his father didn’t end up working there, my husband got a great scholarship/financial aid to go to Rice.

My daughter was considering other places like Wash U, Brown, Northwestern, etc. Rice wasn’t really on her radar but then my husband took her to Rice for a visit and she was smitten. She applied ED and the rest is history.

The campus is beautiful and the students are exceptional. And the school takes great care of their students. The size is great - small enough to be personal and large enough to have a variety of offerings and activities. Rice has made a significant effort to attract a more diverse student body over the years - economic (Rice Investment), geographic (more non-Texans), etc.

Happy to answer any question you might have about Rice!

13

I take it you’re a Big Ten alum? LOL.

What do Pulitzer Prizes have to do with the quality on an unergrateate’s experience? I’ll take the small classes at Rice over the large lecture halls at Michigan any day of the week.

I also take it that you are not a sports fan, just a football fan. Rice won a national baseball championship in 2003. That’s not recent enough for you? I brought up the football bowl championships to show that they have a long and storied history with lots of tradition. Sure, their days of winning the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Biwl are over, but they remain competitive at their level as evidenced by their Hawaii Bowl championship in 2014, the Liberty Bowl in 2013, the Armed Forces Bowl in 2012, the Texas Bowl in 2008, and the New Orleas Bowl in 2006.

The issue here wasn’t about Rice’s excellence in football or any other sport but about whether anyone outside of Texas has ever heard of them. Anyone who follows the football bowl season obviously has heard of them. They also have an outstanding college baseball team which has not only won a national championship in the 21st century but has also won numerous college championships. These are facts and they’re not even arguable. So why are you arguing?

14

I find these arguments strange and unnecessary. It’s hard to compare numbers when you’re looking at schools of completely different sizes. Rice has about 900 faculty members for it’s 7,000 students. In addition, different schools are known for different things. Rice is particularly strong in music, architecture and STEM fields to name a few. They also have a highly rated Sports Management major - go figure. Their pre-meds end up at great medical schools. But you can’t compare medical schools themselves since Rice doesn’t have an MD program of their own. They are not ranked as high in some other areas but I would say most of the kids who choose Rice choose it for the fit. Just like many kids choose strong Liberal Arts colleges because of the unique opportunities offered based on their wants and needs. I wouldn’t suggest their education is lesser because they maybe don’t have access to as strong of an engineering program as Michigan.

OP wanted to know if Rice is considered as prestigious as other T20 schools. In my opinion, it’s ranked high for many reasons, but I guess it just depends on whether or not those reasons are important to you!

15

RIce is a fabulous school! Even though the undergrad populatein is almost double what it was whe DS#! arrended, its still very small, and you will get fabulous attention and an incredible education. GO owls!

16

Don’t listen to anyone who says Rice is not as prestigious as other T20. It will give you a great education, offers small classes, individualized support, and you will be more than prepared for whatever you decide to pursue.

Like some people said, I think you can’t compared huge schools with Rice. I would argue Rice is more comparable to Dartmouth and Brown for example given the undergraduate focus they all 3 possess and their smaller size. No matter how young Rice is, it has become an academic powerhouse and you should be proud if you’re able to get admitted.

Best of luck and GO OWLS!!!

17

I take it you’re a Big Ten alum? LOL.

I tried to think of non-HYPSM schools with football programs and those two came up, maybe could have used Notre Dame or Vanderbilt as well.

“also take it that you are not a sports fan, just a football fan. Rice won a national baseball championship in 2003.”

Ok, Rice finished 122 in the Sears cup standings this past year, unfair to compare to Michigan, agree on that but NU finished 45th.

“What do Pulitzer Prizes have to do with the quality on an unergrateate’s experience?”

The OP brought it up, that’s why I used it as an example, you brought up the football argument when he or she didn’t even mention it.

“Anyone who follows the football bowl season obviously has heard of them. These are facts and they’re not even arguable. So why are you arguing?”

Bowl games are facts, but the statement anyone who follows obviously… is pure opinion. These are minor bowl games based on payout, and ratings, two more facts.

“It’s hard to compare numbers when you’re looking at schools of completely different sizes.”

I agree but it wasn’t me that said Rice was equivalent to non-HYPSM, based on alumni achievements, there should be some evidence of that, whether it’s nobels, pulitzers, emmy’s, or super bowl winning quarterbacks.

“Rice is more comparable to Dartmouth and Brown”

I recall reading a NYT article sometime back which theorized that yield and cross-admit percentages are the best measure of prestige at least among like schools, Rice is at 40%, the the other two at 60, all three use ED. I’m not a huge fan of using parchment data except to get a starting point, Rice wins the cross-admit vs Michigan, loses to Dartmouth, Brown, NU and Duke.

18

Apologies for the keyboard snafus. Can’t say enough good things about Rice, the Marching band is a riot, and the baseball team is great too, if you are looking for that.

19

@theloniusmonk I think Rice is comparable to Brown and Dartmouth as well, but not in regards to prestige/which one is more reputable overall or which one students would choose. I think it’s comparable because out of all the T20, these three schools are really undergraduate focused (in addition to Princeton). Forbes ranks Rice #21 for best value, ahead of Brown (#33), Cornell (#43), Georgetown (#57) and JHU (#75). For undergraduate teaching, USNEWS ranks Brown is #3, Dartmouth #5, and Rice #8. Maybe as a whole all the other T20s are more prestigous/chosen more often, but for undergrads, Rice among Brown, Dartmouth and Pricneton lead the pack and that is undeniable.

20

Rice tends to be a little less expensive than its peers, but it is still expensive for full pay students. Rice meets full financial need and has recently rolled out The Rice Investment which attempts to attract middle class students. Some choose Rice for the quality of the education and because it is the best economic choice. Of course, many state schools are going to be cheaper for in state applicants. https://financialaid.rice.edu/rice-investment-faqs