<p>Elaborating on what NYSkins said, WashU is also notorious for playing the “admissions game.” In fact, they already played you, firstquartermoon. They tend to admit a smaller number of applicants to keep their admit rate down and keep up their yield rate for USNWR, and then take a massive amount of people off the wait list. While its understandable why they do that, I find it sort of manipulative and skeevy.</p>
<p>My friend’s brother graduated from WashU. He liked it, but always complained about how crappy St. Louis was, and how much he hated winter there.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that Rice doesn’t have RAs in the traditional sense who monitor your hall or conduct room checks and searches. We have a family of college masters who live in a house next to each college, and we have two to four faculty members living in the college itself. They are not there to police the students; they’re there as social and academic mentors. The RAs at my college have never even been in my room. They don’t care if we have alcohol or parties or anything like that. This provides Rice students with a lot of freedom that I wouldn’t sacrifice for any other college experience. WashU may have a similar policy, but if they don’t, you should definitely consider the advantages of this at Rice.</p>
<p>You’ll receive a top-notch education at both schools regardless of your major (unless its engineering or architecture or music), no doubt, but I think you’ll be happier and, therefore, more productive at Rice.</p>