Good choices!
My daughter is at Rice and her final 2 choices were Rice and Michigan. It was a hard decision, and the biggest negative for Rice was it was a lot further from home, but as someone else mentioned, it’s a pretty quick direct flight.
As for the weather - yup, it’s hot and humid the first month or so and then get’s pretty nice. Summers are brutal if you are on campus. Spring is absolutely amazing and we’ve been pretty jealous to be looking at snow out our window when it’s in the high 60’s - mid 70’s there. After living there my D can’t imagine every living in a truly cold climate again. She says she’s just happier when the weather is nice.
And finally, the “name recognition”. We were worried about that too and were told that for the people who matter (admission folks and top companies) the name is known just fine. My D has a great internship this summer for a company in California and she thinks the fact that she goes to Rice was what got her in the door. She has MANY friends doing internships with top tech companies this summer and quite a few attending top medical/graduate programs. I am going to link to grad school and employment stats from Rice and you can decide what you think!
One thing that has really helped my D is the size of Rice. Her program is relatively small (maybe 40 in her grade) so the students and faculty get to know each other well. She is an engineering major and has been working on an independent design project and the amount of help and support she has gotten has been phenomenal. She has great options for recommendations who truly know her well. She is an engineering major and while my husband was also an engineering major at a top school he feels the practical knowledge she has already is way beyond where he was at graduation.
You have some wonderful choices! Good luck to you!