<p>Funnily enough I had the SAME EXACT problem when I was deciding on colleges (double the cost, didn’t get into honors for ChemE, worried about rank, etc). I chose Rice for a multitude of reasons and stomached the extra costs with the support of my parents. I would definitely do it again and don’t regret the decision at all (even though I have some debt I will be paying off). If you want to, go search through my old posts to get more input to help you make your decision. It is a very difficult decision, but I ultimately think that given that you want to go into engineering, the extra costs will disappear after a few years in the industry and you will get far more opportunities here at Rice.</p>
<p>I can do my own research project incredibly easily here at Rice and I had a job working in a lab 3 weeks into school as a freshman. The grad school acceptance rates here are great and you meet so many brilliant people here. I felt I would be a number at UT and based on the input from friends over there, it basically is the case.</p>
<p>Last word of advice: don’t get fixated so much on rankings. A lot of the rankings have little to do with things that will matter to you (e.g. part of the rankings are based on how professors at one university view profs at other ones). If you only focus on these you may lose out on much more important opportunities. If you feel you will fit well enough at UT and that the difference isn’t worth the extra money, you should go there, if not I believe you will find Rice is well worth it.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>