<p>@ ring<em>of</em>fire: </p>
<p>You cannot simply say that “most educated people have not heard about the school.” First of all, you have nothing of substance to back that statement up. If you are going to make that claim, organize a scientific survey and post your results. </p>
<p>Anyway, I have discovered the contrary: that educated people have heard of Rice and realize it is an amazing school. In fact, one of my family friends, who is a professor at Miami University, visited today and was describing how it was the excellent university. He even stated that it is the best university in the South.</p>
<p>Another case in point: the father of a daughter my private college counselor is counseling was telling the counselor that he heard of Rice in India. </p>
<p>One of my grandparents’ friends was saying that he knows of students who turned down Harvard, Yale, and Stanford to attend Rice, and he holds the university in high regard.</p>
<p>A relative of mine that lives in Chapel Hill, which is about 15-20 minutes from Duke, has heard of Rice and also said it is a distinguished university.</p>
<p>Finally, my former supervisor, who is a graduate of Columbia University, was very impressed that I was admitted and was going to Rice… she was saying it was a very great school.</p>
<p>I don’t know what is up with your high school’s lack of knowledge about Rice… Like you, I proudly graduated from one of the top public high schools in the nation (ranked #48 in U.S. News and World Report in 2007), and all four of the counselors have heard of Rice and hold it in high regard. One of my counselors met with Rice admissions representatives and visited the campus in May. And my high school is in Ohio, which is not that far from Michigan.</p>
<p>Now, ring<em>of</em>fire, I agree with you that the average American has probably not heard of Rice. But consider this: the typical Joes think that University of Pennsylvania, an esteemed Ivy, is Penn State. They can’t name all the Ivies and don’t know how excellent Dartmouth and Brown is. They think Stanford is an Ivy. So, just because they have not heard of the school, does not mean the school is inferior to HYPSM. </p>
<p>I also agree that you that Rice does not hold the same prestige as HYPSM or even Duke, but in my opinion, most of Duke’s prestige comes from its basketball team. I first heard of Duke in second grade, and that is because they won the NCAA basketball tournament. Ever since then up until high school, I always viewed it as a jock school. I was very surprised to find out in 9th grade that they were ranked sixth in USNWR, and I then started to respect Duke more and hence applied there. Duke is an excellent academic school, don’t get me wrong, but most of its prestige and national recognition comes from Coach K’s success with the men’s basketball team.</p>
<p>And, in my opinion, Americans who are intelligent, educated, and hold college education in high regard know and greatly respect Rice University. All these anecdotes I told you happened to me in one week… and this is all in Ohio, which is very far from Texas. Almost everyone that I have encountered who is educated, intelligent (some people can be educated and not intelligent), and hold college education in high regard know about Rice … sure there are exceptions, but I think those are in the minority. Now, I can’t 100 percent prove to you that most educated people know about Rice since all this evidence is anecdotal and is only pertinent to me, but this should at least shed some light to you that the intelligent, educated American knows about Rice.</p>
<p>@OP:</p>
<p>I apologize for sidetracking this conversation… I just needed to clear some misconceptions that ring<em>of</em>fire had about Rice. Please do not let these conversations prevent you from applying to Rice or Duke… they are both excellent universities and will fulfill your academic needs.</p>