boston university or rice university

Boston University

 

It was 6 degrees Farenheit last night, and it's snowing to beat the band as I type this.

 

I was always intrigued by Rice since I had a nerdy cousin who graduated with an engineering degree there. And my mom tells me he is really successful now. A lot of my high school friends and my older sister went to BU. But my vote is for Rice, it sounds nerdier and closer to an Ivy League level in my opinion.

 

As regards an overall academic university brand reputation comparison among the two (BU or Rice); I would say RICE. Another private university I’d similarly compare in scholarly name to Rice (or vice versa) would be Northwestern.

 

I'm from Texas too and I can assure everyone in here that Baylor is not on the same level as UT-Austin, Rice or TAMU. Those three are tops and there is a big gap before the rest come in.

Baylor is in the SMU, TCU, Trinity category which is big private rich person's school. Huge frat scene, more connections being made rather than studying, where the upper middle class rub elbows. Those schools are good but never seen as really all that prestigious.

University of Houston has been climbing like no other university in the State. It's making a big image change and is the State's best kept secret. I have several friends that attended and when I went to visit them this past year I was floored at what I missed out on in my own hometown. I was under the same impression of it being "Cougar High" but was completely misinformed.

Back to the original topic, Rice is the nerdier, more Ivy Like school, right? It sure looks like it too. Actually, the school looks more like Stanford aesthetically.

BU, when I visited the campus, seemed more like a mix of NYU and Columbia. Urban campus, spread throughout the city with pockets of real campus feel. Beautiful old Ivy covered buildings of French architecture. It certainly had the feel of an NYU or UCLA.

That aside though I am looking more for what each university can offer more. Sure Rice is an Ivy clone but I fear it being situated in Houston would limit the number of guest lecturers and opportunities to meet interesting people in their field. I think that BU, being situated in Boston, would attract a great deal of guests, opportunities because it's such an academic hub.

Rice though has such a good name.

 

The BU "campus" is spread over parts of Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge; the *main* campus is within walking distance of Kenmore Square, which is the home of Fenway Park and many, many popular nightspots and restaurants. Plus, as much as we natives make fun of the "T" (MBTA....public subway, bus, and trolley system), it's very efficient, and you can get to any other part of the city and the suburbs fairly quickly and cheaply.

For atmosphere and history, I think Rice will have a hard time trumping BU.

 

BU doesn't really advertise their beautiful Charles River campus enough (the Bay State side). When I first got off the T and took a look at the campus I thought it was basically just a row of buildings lining Comm Ave. Then I went near the river and saw a totally different campus. Gorgeous brownstones, ivy colored French architecture administration buildings, people rowing on the Charles, tree lined streets, the Castle and the BU pub. It was quite a site.

Besides the Castle, the only pics I saw of the campus were of the Chapel, the rec center and the buildings lining Comm Ave. By the looks of the pics online, it just looked like a city college.

And imagine the professors ranging from Eli Weisel to Howard Zinn (RIP) to Robert Pinsky.

With Rice though you have a Stanford style, Ivy atmoshphere, complete with national and international recognition that probably rivals some of the lower ivies.

I just figured BU would be more of a hub to meet people, network and take advantage of opportunities.

 

The reality is that BU is spread out across the entire city. There is no "campus." It's Comm Ave with a bunch of buildings spread up and down the street. As for Weisel, Zinn and Pinsky, they may be on the faculty but you'll never see them. This is not the way to choose a school.

 

Well, i wasn't planning on attending their dinner events. I was just saying that the caliber of professors they have is top notch.

 

It sounds like you have made a decision!

 

If I were advising my kid - and money was not an issue, I think I would go with Rice. However, BU is an excellent school as well.

 

Rice = Northwestern, Duke, U.Chicago

BU = NYU, Tulane, UT-Austin

?

 

Guess all that needed to be said has been said?

 

Good luck, whatever you choose.