Rice vs. UT Austin

kathryn07
Sat, 07 Oct 2006 23:44:00 +0000

I’m actually applying to both UT and Rice from out of state, so I don’t know how people feel about this in Texas… but I know how it is viewed in my part of Alabama at least. As far as I’m concerned, Rice ranks much higher on my list than UT, mostly because of the size, location, and atmosphere. I plan on majoring in bioengineering, so Rice also has a lot of good connections and resources for that particular field. However, so does UT.

As far as Alabama is concerned, UT is much more well known… but mostly because of sports. Alabama is all about football, and well… Rice isn’t exactly known for it’s football. I hadn’t even heard of Rice before I started my sophomore year, but once I started telling people that I wanted to go to school there, I was suprised at how many people knew about it (and thought very highly of it, I might add). It just doesn’t receive that much attention where I’m from… but I don’t go to a private prep school that sends kids to places like that all over the place. Most of the kids from my school go to Alabama or Auburn (with exceptions, obviously).

I did read the other thread… and I think it’s an interesting debate… but it’s kind of hard to compare two schools that are so different in both their demographics and their focus. Honestly, I believe it comes down to this: they are both great schools, but it depends on the individual as to which one they will ultimately prefer.