Rice vs. UT Austin

JWT86
Sat, 07 Oct 2006 23:04:29 +0000

I started an interesting debate in the main forum:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=245851

It’s basically comparing UT-Austin’s superior faculty/academic departments/grad programs to Rice’s superior undergraduate experience (stemming from its higher selectivity and smaller size).

My main contention is that according to the National Research Council, UT is #1 in Texas in the majority of academic fields surveryed (something like 30 out of 37) and at least top 20 in the nation. This corresponds with other academic ranking sources that place UT’s departments in high regard. Yet, even in Texas, Rice seems to get more respect (by non-academics at least) because of its more selective reputation. However, even according to USNWR, the undergrad peer reputation rankings are exactly the same. My question is how many potential Rice students consider UT and vice versa? If you are not considering UT, is it because of its size, its selectivity, or maybe just not being aware that it actually has the stronger faculty and departments? Its fair to prefer the smaller, more selective experience for undergrad. It’s just not correct to assume that automatically makes Rice somehow superior.