I resemble that remark, actually. But I was waitlisted, not rejected, from Rice (Shepherd School at that). Fear not, my brother (Plan II) declined his acceptance to Rice. I can think of a dozen Plan II/BHP kids I know who did the same. And another dozen who turned down Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and/or Penn.
I love jealous horn fans picking on little old Rice in sports! Rice's superiority is "diminishing rapidly"? Based on what? The latest US News rankings? You guys come in at #47 in the 2005 rankings, Rice is at #17. Somehow I think Rice academics will be ok... For crying out loud our endowment at Rice (~2900 undergrads) is bigger than UT-Austin's (~40k(?) undergrads) endowment! You won't catch up.
You know I have a fair amount of respect for UT's undergraduate academics. Even I can admit that it's a great school. I will take exception when somebody attacks Rice's academic standing (vj23k) out of the blue, however. I will say this though. I've worked with some plan II grads, and they have told me that the "unofficial mascot" of Plan II is the Owl... no joke. Their words, not mine.
From an engineering perspective, you're better off going to Texas or Texas A&M as an undergrad. More job opportunities, national exposure, and bigger alumni bases. On the other hand, if you're interested in liberal arts, Rice might be a better choice. Natural sciences are a tossup as both schools have well esteemed faculties. There are plenty of Rice grads that go to Texas for grad school, my brother being one of them. The MBA program at Texas, although struggling, is still a decent school. The graduate engineering program is #12 in the nation.
You can't question Rice's superiority in academics over Texas.. What percentage of the Rice kids could have gone to Texas? What percentage of the Texas kids could have gone to Rice? Although I want Rice to fall to 18th.. since my school is sitting one spot behind Rice in the rankings, and I'd like to pass them.... I'm glad we have a academic school like Rice in the state... there are few in their league in this region of the country.. Basically unless you go to the Northeast or West coast.. the only top 20 schools are Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wash Univ in St Louis, so we should all be happy Texas has one of them..
What happened to the celebratory thread I created? How has it turned into this discussion about academics? Thank you, hornfans. Go celebrate your victory over Coppin State someplace.
bigtexx.. I apologize, it was my fault for the remark I made which apparently triggered it.. Congrats on your victories... is UH that bad this year.. or is Rice pretty good at basketball?
bigtexx.. actually I take that back.. if it was a debate between Houston and Rice academics I'd take the blame.. but I never made a reference to Texas
anybody go to the Rice-LaTech game? http://homepage.mac.com/grungy/iMovieTheater27.html reliant looked like a ghost town.
And you can back this up? We haven't had a kid go to Rice in 12 years(Trust me, it's not because none of them could get in). Since then, we've had several go to Harvard, several go to Yale, several go to Brown, and several to go to Plan II and business honors. I believe NIKEstrad turned down freakin' Yale for one of Plan II/Business Honors. First off, I'm not a horn. I'm a high school senior. And the latest US News rankings? Yeah, that's what academics use to compare colleges.... I'm not saying that Rice academics are bad or even getting worse. I'm saying that the disparity between the education offered at Texas and at Rice is already small and sure to decrease in the future. I don't necessarily agree with these rankings(Berkeley at 2???), but it's interesting... http://www.nus.edu.sg/iro/docs/world-rankings-16pages.pdf Texas at 15, Rice nowhere to be found in the top 100. First, you aren't one to talk about attacking schools out of the blue... Second, how did I attack Rice's academic standing? By comparing two schools? I'm an objective high school applicant(Hell, I'm even applying to both; Business Honors at Texas), comparing Rice and UT. So how is that an attack? "He saves that for Texas(Though Rice superiority in education, already questionable, is diminishing rapidly), because he knows the Owls can't compete with the 'horns on the field/court/course/anywhere." That's without a doubt an attack on Rice's athletic standing(I see no one bothered to argue that), but it's not an attack on their academic standing. That's not really a fair argument at all. Texas is a public school required to take pretty much anyone who graduates in the top 10% of his or her graduating class. That's simply a numbers game. Since Rice has only about 3000 undergrads, and UT has close to 40,000, I'd say all Rice kids could have gone to Texas and about 7.5% of Texas students could have gone to Rice. Comparing number of national merit scholars is about as worthwhile as the above questions. And I don't really see the need for the apology. You and I both know there's about a .01% chance that this thread was really started in celebration. In reality, it was just one of what is now a plethora of posts meant to rile up and anger others.
Just as I thought...unsubstantiated claims, pretentious bashing, whining, and, when called out, no replies in sight.
It was beneath me to continue quibbling with you about this topic. Your list of disjointed and irrelevent facts did provide me with a chuckle, however.
I don't think I've used even 10 times in my whole posting career, but this post begs for it... And...that's twice in this thread. Get off it. It's not beneath you, and my facts were neither disjointed nor irrelevant. I will admit that the "beneath me" statement is handy when you have no idea how to respond, though. Edit - Just wanted to say that I hate what your posts do to my posts about Rice. I like the school...why the hell else would I be applying? I would love to be in Houston, and Rice is a fine academic institution. But if there's more than two of you there, so help me God.
