<p>Whoever said that Texas A&M is more highly regarded in the South than Rice must be a tad deranged… TAMU is a perfectly acceptable state school, but is far below UT-Austin, which is farther still behind Rice. The former two are good schools, but Rice is a GREAT school (I almost attended UT and was simply waitlisted to Rice, so no bias whatsoever).</p>
<p>Honestly, before coming on CC, I can’t remember hearing anything about JHU, Northwestern, or Chicago; very little about Cal (and that’s just because this girl at my school went there); and I discovered, and consequently thoroughly researched, CalTech only after my choice to major in engineering.
Yet again reinforcing that name recognition simply cannot ever equal prestige, especially in academia.</p>