<p>the college system really…my top 2 schools are rice and uc san diego and they both use the college system, but i like rice more b/c its a small school (3,000 compared to ucsd 23,000) which can provide better one on one teaching/research. and plus my visit was awesome and im an athlete so the D1 status really helps their case…um what else…all their traditions are really cool and they have a superbowl stadium, track stadium, and a really nice varsity gym and non varsity gym…and the campus is big but not uncomfortably huge like you could walk everywhere if you wanted…and its in the worlds largest medical center and im in biomedical engineering so thats a huge +…and the running coach (im a distance runner) is known for taking distance guys and making them really good middle distance athletes and thats what i want to do, so its just a perfect fit for me…i would suggest walking around the campus for a few hours and just see if it ‘feels’ right…i think you will find out why rice is right for you</p>