<p>While buying a college education over the Internet has its problems, I think these two sound like the sort who will bloom anywhere. They are all good schools and they sound pretty adaptable and mature.</p>
<p>This ranking list is about two years old and is for graduate faculty rankings (I forgot what the source was or what the basis was). But here we go.</p>
<p>school, Bio-medical,Ch. E, Civil, EE (max rating 5)</p>
<p>UCB: 4.08,4.63,4.56,4.69
NU: 3.82, 3.75, 3.96, 3.16
Penn: 4.28, 3.97, xx, 3.11
Rice: 3.94, 3.35, 3.28, 3.36
Duke: 4.33, xx, 3.21, 2.71
JHU: 4.25, 2.95, 3.22, 3.23</p>
<p>Rice is an undergrad focused institution, and the grad school is well-regarded, but not quite as strong as undergrad in the rankings. Above are the grad rankings. Regardless; all of the schools should serve you well in terms of job opportunities!</p>
<p>Sons of Marlowe? :)</p>
<p>Well to make matters even better, (and a great deal more confusing), the first of our acceptance packets came rolling in and we discovered that we’ve both been awarded Lovett Scholarships at Rice, (half - tuition) :). In all probability we’ll be smiling throughout today and then discover that we, uh, haven’t exactly, *chosen a college yet<img src=“we’re%20right%20now%20in%20the%20midst%20of%20calls%20to%20the%20US%20consulate%20to%20see%20if%20we%20%5BI%5Dcan%5B/I%5D%20actually%20get%20visas%20in%20this%20short%20time,%20bite%20the%20bullet,%20and%20actually%20visit%20these%20colleges.%20(Otherwise%20we’ll%20possibly%20self-destruct%20with%20a%20combination%20of%20happiness%20and%20confusion%20:)” alt=“/I”></p>
<p>as I said before let the money talk.</p>
<p>K-twin-“calls to the US consulate to see if we can actually get visas in this short time, bite the bullet, and actually visit these colleges.”</p>
<p>I can’t wait to read those college visit reports 
</p>
<p>and, congrats to the twins on great financial news !</p>
<p>k-twin and shrivats:</p>
<p>Bite the bullet and start the visa procedures asap…for fall. These days, lots of colleges report that internationals miss the start of school because of visa snafus. Students applying from the ME may encounter even more delays.
If you manage to get visas on time for school visits, all the sweeter. </p>
<p>PS:The Rice option sounds better by the day.</p>
<p>We’ll only be able to start the visa app process once we choose! 
(The I20 and all of that)</p>
<p>Rice has jumped to the top of the list though… </p>
<p>Re: the Middle East: As we’re Indian Nationals, it’s a bit easier, also just last week, the Embassy here made the application process a lot more streamlined. They’re trying to combat falling numbers of students from the Middle East, so the visa shouldn’t (touch wood), be a problem.</p>
<p>That said, we’ll definitely start the second we get our responses from whichever college we go to.</p>
<p>Update: I’ve just been accepted into BME at JHU. (Just received the acceptance packet)…</p>
<p>I don’t really know how this plays into it really. (I’m inclined towards considering JHU seriously now.(Kaushik didn’t apply for this program))</p>
<p>congratulations! a great school --might be your chance to find a separate identity from your brother but keep in mind that the neighborhood surrounding JHU has a bad reputation although campus life should be fine!</p>
<p>"Yes there is crime in Philly,hello it is one of the largest urban areas in the USA, but if you are cautious about where you walk alone off campus at night and walk with a friend you will be fine.</p>
<p>So if anything Philly should be a plus not a negative."</p>
<p>I lived in the “neighborhood” (around 47th and Baltimore) for 12 years. Yes, there was crime - but more of it as you got closer and closer to the university. I think the neighborhood is consistently given a bad rap because there are - horrors of horrors - lots of folks with different levels of melatonin.</p>
<p>Wow. I spent 8 years living a block (47th & Springfield) from where mini lived.</p>
<p>I also lived at 49th and Windsor. My business was on 47th, between Springfield and Baltimore. We never experienced ANY crime there.</p>
<p>That’s a little sanguine. While we never really experienced any crime (car broken into once, trash cans disappeared then “found” and returned to us for $10), we were certainly aware of the possibility of crime all the time. There was a murder on our block that was originally thought to involve Ethiopian politics, but later turned out to be garden-variety sexual jealousy. In the early 90s, my kids wound up with an impressive collection of empty crack vials with different colored lids. But it’s true that the whole area around Penn has more of a reputation for crime than actual crime.</p>
<p>“But it’s true that the whole area around Penn has more of a reputation for crime than actual crime.”</p>
<p>It has been a long time since I lived there, so two heaping fi s<em>t</em>fuls of salt. But, in my day, the closer one got to UPenn, and the less melatonin of the residents, the higher the crime rate used to be. There were murders in my time too - on 41st. And drug rings - often run by UPenn students (there was a really BIG one that, as I remember - it’s a long time ago - involved some Wharton students, was busted around 1986, and sent the campus spinning.) But we honestly didn’t see much of that around where we lived. (I lived next door and above the Ethiopian restaurant for a time.)</p>
<p>My business operated all hours of the day and night, and the majority of employees were women, most of whom walked home at night. We were there for 15 years (1979-1995) without a crime. I suspect the neighborhood is wealthier - and more pinky-grey - now?</p>
<p>That was true when I was there, too (roughly 1983-1993, in two slightly different areas), but that’s not really a selling point for Penn. The areas with lots of transient undergraduates tended to get somewhat more petty crime, and those tended to be clustered right up against the edge of the university. As you got farther west and south, the neighborhoods were more stable, and more diverse in terms of race, income, and age, and there was hardly any street crime. (But, unfortunately, if you kept going and went even farther west or south, or a similar distance north of Drexel, there could be a more serious crime problem.)</p>
<p>Front Page today’s Phila Inquirer-
A City’s Cry;“Enough is enough” …
5,500 people gathered last night-to hear messages of peace and a plea to put down arms and unite against violence"</p>
<p>Updated Homicide count 104</p>
<p>Segment on CBS news last night about Philly’s alarming increase in murders
this year, and that the police force had been reduced by 500.
The people of Phila deserve better, innocent victims are dying.
Mayor proposes more police force now.</p>
<p>“That was true when I was there, too (roughly 1983-1993, in two slightly different areas), but that’s not really a selling point for Penn.”</p>
<p>Agreed! Actually, the point that could be inferred from what I wrote was that crime around Penn was just as likely to involve Penn students as “the neighborhood”.</p>
<p>If anyone’s interested in an update… (I do apologize for dragging this post up from the netherworlds of the 5th page. :))</p>
<p>We’re both definitely visiting the US in the coming few weeks for a mini-great College Tour (However oxymoronic that may sound)</p>
<p>We’ve also confirmed that the Regents Scholarship at Berkeley does offer us 100% of Need, in the form of Merit Aid. </p>
<p>That said, our choices come down to:</p>
<p>Berkeley (100% of need met, this should make it come to about 30K)
Rice (15 K Merit Scholarship, which should take it to about 26 K)
JHU (No Aid - 50 K)
Penn (Not sure about Scholarship (Package hasn’t arrived) - 50 K)
Duke (Not sure about Scholarship (Package hasn’t arrived) - 48-50 K)
Northwestern (Not sure about Scholarship (Package hasn’t arrived) - 48-50 K)</p>
<p>45-50 K remains within our budget (especially if one of us choses to attend Rice or Berkeley)</p>
<p>We’ve planned something along the region of flying into Houston, then flying out to Philly, taking a Greyhound/Train to Baltimore, and then flying to Berkeley, from where we then fly back to Dubai. Kaushik and I will be doing this by ourselves…</p>
<p>Any advice in this regard from more experienced cross-country trekkers? :)</p>
<p>How about doing Dubai-Houston-SF-Phil - Baltimore-Dubai. You will get less tired returning home.</p>