Why is that annoying ? You did apply to schools in different environments. You could have applied to only Boston schools - Harvard, Tufts, Brandeis, Suffolk and been done with worrying about the city.
Alas, that is the problem with choice - having to make one.
Agree to disagree.
Northeastern is WAY easier to get in, in particular (assuming you count NUin etc) at least in my area. Our HSs acceptance rates to Northeastern are 2x-3x Tufts and BU is in middle…
I concede they can have very different institutional priorities etc and regional norms or whatever that could mean YMMV.
I think they meant in stature - but they are vastly different in size - I’d think more Ivy (above), Wesleyan as a match, and Brandeis and Rochester as like - below in heft.
maybe? I still think Tufts has a stature exceeding them……especially if you take historical norms… and not just the last 15 years….I would have had Tufts has a target way back when and BC was literally my safety. BU/Northeastern wouldn’t have made my list. “Stature” is vague - I am not THAT old, many of those professors still teach.
And today, it also depends on one’s fields, of course. In my fields (I have worked in a couple over the years), I encounter nobody from BC as an academic or coworker, but many more from BU or Tufts (and some from Northeastern) so we are all biased that way depending on where we are from… If I worked in a different industry I very well may say opposite.
Again, yes and no. Both Boston and Houston are very big cities, and you are not really going to run out of things to do in your time off campus in either.
To me, the biggest single distinguishing factor is actually the climate. I personally love a four-season climate, and it would take a LOT to persuade me to spend four years in Texas. Other people are the complete opposite, and would hate to go through four Boston winters. So that’s an easy one if any of that matters to you.
The other thing which is sorta true is Boston is then relatively proximate to NYC, Philly, and DC. Again I think realistically, this will mostly be a non-factor for most students, as in they will spend most of their time either on campus or somewhere in the Boston metro. And Houston has direct 3-4 hour flights to all these cities anyway. But for a few kids, being able to, say, train or drive to these cities might make a difference.
Wondering where the OP is planning to spend their summers, assuming there is no concern that their student visa might get messed up.
Houston summers are brutal. But it’s actually pretty great during the school year if you like mild winters.
One factor may be travel. If OP is from Europe, it’ll be a lot easier from Boston to Europe than Houston to Europe.
For some reason, Northeastern has become extremely popular in our area. They’ve done an amazing job marketing their school. Maybe it’s because families are more focused on ROI and drawn to their co-op program.
Again in my circles there is no real generic hierarchy for Boston area schools, it depends.
BC might be the favorite in this set among preppy/sporty/pre-professional kids, and/or Catholics. These are the sorts of kids who might have Harvard as a favorite, and be cross-shopping Notre Dame and Wake Forest.
Tufts is usually more the academicky kids, the type who might have Yale or Brown as a favorite, and be cross-shopping WashU and William & Mary.
Northeastern is usually more the engineering kids, the type who might have MIT as a favorite, and could be cross-shopping Case Western and RPI.
These are just examples, but point being they are on different branches of the college family tree, such that different kids could have different preferences, and indeed might not even apply to the others.
I note Houston does have a lot of direct flights to different European hubs. But they are basically passing over Boston after 3 hours or so in the air, so I would agree that isn’t a small distinction if there would be frequent trips.
My Rice son never came home for the summer. He had internships in the area after sophomore and jr yrs. First summer he worked at the sleeps way camp he had attended as a kid. PS they do have air-conditioning in Houston. 
I plan on interning as much as possible in finance and consulting, as these fields are good at creating breadth of knowledge and experience in the young days of a carreer. Hence most probably in NYC with its hub of both consulting and finance internships.
Make sure you understand the logistics around this in terms of OPT, as well as the effect it will have in terms of any OPT you were hoping to use after your degree.
It is difficult for international students to get internships in the US, and becoming increasingly more difficult. Many internship jobs postings specifically say no non-US citizens or green card holders.
Assuming you will have a typical student f1 visa, you can only work approved CPT internships in the summer, if you want to work off campus. You have more latitude if you stay on campus.
You will have to work closely with your school’s DSO/international student department to make sure you are doing things the right way.
Here are some links to get you started on your research.
Or pre-completion OPT, but that affects how much OPT they will have left to use after graduation.
CPT can be tricky, depending on the college, exact major and exact nature of internship.
Are non-STEM OPT’s hard to get?
Hmmmm - it doesn’t just happen. You’ll need a lot of ‘heft’ for that and your international status will make it many multiples harder.
You might see who is placing where. Btw schools don’t place you, so you know. You will work very hard to find something and it’s unlikely you will in the U.S.. I’m not seeing as much personalized data from Rice.
I would want to know intern and career outcomes of internationals.
Rice will have some finance (IB) opportunities in Houston. Tufts in Boston. I’m not seeing either a power. This is going to be a tall task for you but I wish you luck.
Yes, thanks for the clarification. Here’s Rice’s pre-CPT info:
Fundamentally, OP will be looking for a company that will allow a non-US citizen to compete for internships and jobs. I would counsel OP to start by looking at international companies here, but defer to the college’s international student dept (eg. OISS at Rice.)
Having helped my two kids with summer internships and/or post-grad jobs for the last 7 years, the vast majority of listings do not allow internationals to apply.
I’m less experienced with non-STEM, non-Finance jobs so don’t know for sure what proportion of non-STEM jobs an international student could potentially apply/compete for.
Yes I’m aware of this. I have a pretty strong network in many finance fields already, so that will help give me a leg up, but otherwise I agree a lot of the work will be on my shoulders haha. And I just checked, any intenrship will take away CPT time (of which I have a cumulative 12 months) however it wont affect my post grad OPT, so that’s a good thing.
It depends on college but my understanding is that cogsci mostly counts as stem, economics seems more variable (at undergrad level anyway - PhD programs in Econ I think are always or almost always stem classified)