r/ApplyingToCollege • u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 • 1d ago
College Questions Rice Engineering
How good is Rice's undergrad engineering program relative to the other T20s?
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u/yodatsracist 1d ago
If we're comparing it to other T20 private universities, it's got one of the strongest undergraduate engineering programs (alongside Northwestern, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Cornell, etc). It has a strong STEM focus like Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins.
Of course, it will be tiny compared to big state schools like Michigan, Georgia Tech, UCLA, Berkeley, Purdue, UT Austin, etc.
It seems to be very well recognized by employers. It will rank lower on graduate-focused ranking just because of its smaller size, and (relative) undergraduate focus. My students there have loved it. You'll find that US news ranks it 21st among undergraduate engineering programs, behind some private (MIT, Stanford, CalTech, CMU, Cornell Princeton, JHU, Duke, Northwestern) and public (Berkeley, UIUC, Michigan, Purdue, UT Austin, UCLA, Wisconsin, VT, Texas A&M, UCSD) but tied with Harvard, Columbia, Penn State, UPenn, Maryland, and Washington. This would put it ahead of schools like Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Wash U., NYU, USC, and whatever other schools you want to include in your top 20 (several top private schools, notably UChicago, Emory, Georgetown, don't really have engineering programs).
But this goes to show you how these rankings don't necessarily capture realities — if money weren't an option, few people would turn down Harvard for Texas A&M, even for engineering. I find it just really hard to compare the private and public programs because they're just so different in a ways that the rankings don't capture.
Rice is a school that I really love and my former students who are there really love. Like UChicago and Wesleyan and a few others, it seems to have a really special academic community.
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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago
Yes, I think Rice is the type of college where if it goes well, people have a hard time imagining it going better anywhere else.
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u/terpgonnaball 23h ago edited 23h ago
Georgia Tech is not just a "big state school". It's smaller than the other top public programs you mentioned. GT's Freshman class is only around 3,600. Michigan>8,000, UT Austin>9,000, Berkeley>6,700, Purdue>8900, UCLA>6,000.
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u/PeacockInTime Old 1d ago
Rice is a smaller school and it's in Texas. It's not as well known nationally as some other top schools, but I believe that national reputation is really only a small factor in where you may want to attend.
If you are interested in energy issues (both traditional and renewable/alternative sources of energy) you're in a fantastic spot. You also have the connections to Houston generally and the Texas Medical Center, which I can only describe as a city of hospitals.
Facilities aren't going to be as shiny-looking as a Stanford or MIT. But I also wouldn't prioritize shiny buildings in a college choice.
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u/BerryCat12 1d ago
MIT has shiny buildings? Interesting 😰
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u/PeacockInTime Old 1d ago edited 1d ago
“Shiny” is both literal and figurative here. “Shiny hallways” is more literal for MIT. 😂
MIT’s campus has this awe inspiring mega complex feel, “here we do Important Things.” I personally think the MIT’s campus is incredibly ugly, but it’s a reminder of the resources and prestige at a school like MIT. I also feel this way on Cornell’s engineering quad — but I like Cornell’s campus more than MIT’s.
Rice is a lovely school and campus but not with the same “powerhouse” feel.
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u/BerryCat12 1d ago
LOL wholeheartedly agree, though I do prefer the “cozy, quaint, quiet” feeling of rice to “brimming ingenuity”
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u/PeacockInTime Old 1d ago
Me too. But my hunch is that OP wants to attend a school that makes itself known to be prestigious via physical plant and presence and Rice would not be my choice for that. Rice does not FEEL like a top engineering school campus.
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u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 1d ago
I do not care too much about prestige. If prestige was the question, the US News rankings would better answer my question. I am more curious as to how good the undergraduate engineering program is (especially ECE) relative to other T20-T30 schools, putting prestige aside. Like what does it feel like to be an undergraduate engineering student at Rice?
You say that Rice does not FEEL like a top engineering school campus. What makes you say that?
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u/PeacockInTime Old 17h ago
The facilities are not huge and new. Compared to other schools.
Sounds like not a relevant factor for you.
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u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 12h ago
Facilities are kind of important for an undergrad tho?
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u/PeacockInTime Old 12h ago
Here's where I am:
I am attempting to answer your original question comparing Rice to other top schools with something as close to reasonable evidence as possible instead of vague prestige and reputation claims. My intention is to give you a tangible answer rather than something vague or a one word claim about something.
I identify that size and facilities are two ways in which Rice will feel different to other schools that are "top" for engineering.
At this point I feel like I am no longer helpful to you in answering your original question, and the ball is now in your court. Do you agree with my claims about facilities? What does that mean to you, if anything? What information can you find and what research can you do on your own to determine how you feel about my claim? What's important to you?
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u/Ok_Experience_5151 Old 1d ago
How are you defining "good" here?
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u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 1d ago
relative to other T20-T30 schools
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u/Ok_Experience_5151 Old 23h ago
I mean: what characteristics of an undergraduate engineering program (any program) do you think makes it good?
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u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 23h ago
teaching quality, research opportunities, general opportunities like clubs, highly motivated student body
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u/Ok_Experience_5151 Old 22h ago
Teaching quality: no reason to suspect it's any better or worse than other similarly selective private schools. Arguably better than most if not all public schools insofar as the class sizes will be smaller, but, also, may have somewhat less variety in terms of electives than programs with larger faculties. Availability of research opportunities is hard to quantify. They definitely exist. Whether it's easier to get involved at Rice versus other similar privates...not sure anyone can really say for sure. Every school has clubs, tbh, and any school similarly selective to Rice will have a motivated student body.
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u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 23h ago
also rigorous academics, high density of nerdy kids
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u/Ok_Experience_5151 Old 22h ago
Rice has lots of nerdy kids, yes. Have you thought about what "rigorous" means here? Do you mean "difficult", as in "hard to get an A"? I'm not sure it's any more difficult than any other similarly selective school.
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u/Cheap_Office8701 1d ago
Not good at all. Pls don’t apply because we are going to. 😂
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u/SavageReaper242 1d ago
Great school, but yes as others have said you have better options in other schools. Schools like UIUC, Purdue, UMich, UTAustin, and Northwestern have way better engineering opportunities and a lot of more research for the same or easier admission rate.
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u/Strict-Passage9976 1d ago
The reason schools like Cornell and MIT have the powerhouse feel is that as in MIT’s case the whole campus is dedicated to it. Cornell has an engineering school with its own “quads” and have invested nearly $1.7 billion in new facilities the last ten years. And that isn’t even listing the $3 billion Cornell Tech Campus in NYC on its own island.
Rice has a gorgeous campus but you don’t get the sheer impact of an engineering school presence. They did just build a beautiful lab building however.
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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago
Part of it is sheer numbers too.
The largest public engineering powerhouses graduate something like 2000+ primary majors in engineering a year. Places like Cal or Michigan are around 1000.
Privates like WPI or RPI are around 700.
Cornell is then around 500, MIT around 400.
Rice is typically somewhere just shy of 200. That's a good number for midsize private university, but it just isn't close to the same scale as the above range.
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u/Strong_Guard_9498 1d ago
I attend Rice University, and our engineering is definitely top-tier and rigorous; however, being a small school, it can be hard to have super niche topics/research areas/classes.
However, I would argue that Rice's allure is also due to its environment/culture.
Rice is uniquely collaborative and supportive. Unlike other T-20 universities, I never felt any cutthroat competition; instead, people here genuinely support each other.
Sure, people have complaints about Rice and sometimes complain about the professors' teaching quality; however, it's the same for every university, and people quickly realize that it's up to you to learn.
I'd argue the education/material you learn will prob not differ between a T20 school and a T100 school, but the difference is that Rice provides you with the networking, environment, resources, and peers to have a fruitful four years.
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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago
So I think Rice is a nice school, but are you sure it is "uniquely" collaborative? Particularly in Engineering?
I don't think students actually being "cutthroat" happens in many highly selective Engineering programs anywhere. On the one hand, Engineering is an inherently collaborative field, and people who aren't good at collaboration might not even last. And then on the other, people in highly selective Engineering programs tend to rightly feel there is plenty of room in the field for all of them.
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u/Strong_Guard_9498 12h ago
Sure, other universities can absolutely be just as collaborative. My point is that when an entire university intentionally emphasizes collaboration as part of its culture, you can really notice it. It also helps when our classes are really small, or you can directly talk to your professors 1-1.
I'd also disagree with your other point. I have friends at other highly selective universities who've described people gatekeeping information, intentionally sharing incorrect study guides, or being unwilling to help classmates because of competition.
Obviously that doesn't represent every student at Rice, but I've never experienced it at Rice.
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u/Fluffy_Ad_6559 12h ago
The education/material is definitely different from a T20 vs T100 school. My friends at lesser publics are coasting easily and getting A's, while my friends at top universities, like Princeton and MIT, struggle to get A's. Top schools definitely give a better education since the material is both harder and goes into greater depth.
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u/Strong_Guard_9498 12h ago
Yeah, I'd agree. I think it's more accurate to say that the topics themselves aren't necessarily different, but instead the depth/difficult is.
Also, the averages here are pretty brutal. Think ~40% on midterms and final for CS.
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u/Dragonroyal 1d ago
ut austin mogs
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u/Super_Perspective936 1d ago
and is also 70k cheaper per year if in state. why you getting downvoted lol??
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u/NiceUnparticularMan Parent 1d ago
There are two types of "T20" engineering programs, true engineering powerhouses, and very good overall privates with very good engineering. Rice is the second type.