“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.