<p>I think the primary benefit of Rice over Stanford (assuming similar costs) is the research you can/will do as a Century Scholar. Other benefits probably include slightly better weather, very small class sizes (some classes have 1 student, but Stanford also has many small classes), residential colleges, and (depending on how you view it) the semester system. If you are not that into research, you don’t mind being on different scehdules than your HS friends, and you really don’t like residential colleges, then Stanford should be the easy choice unless you really don’t like it there. If I were deciding (which, by chance, I am) it would be between Stanford and Rice (Stanford has the edge, but if I were a century scholar it would be a different story). I haven’t heard many bad things about either school, all the students and alumni I’ve talked to loved their experience. On the contrary, I have heard some negative comments about Duke.</p>