If you're a Texas resident, good luck getting into Rice. I was a National Merit Scholar from the Houston area, and couldn't get accepted. They really really like out-of-state students - so your brother is in luck. Rice is an outstanding school in a really cool city. Hands down the best and most rigorous undergrad institution. There's also a huge endownment, so students actually pay very little after financial aid/scholarship packages.
Obviously, I'm a little biased, but Baylor provided me with a great education in the both sciences and liberal arts. A brand new $103 million science building opened in this fall; the faculty members are great; the classes are small. The largest class I had was about 120 people - and it was a freshmen level chem lab. The smallest class I had was three students, and classes overall probably averaged about 20. The campus is beautiful and the people are friendly.
Someone earlier said they got the impression that Baylor is not a difficult school - that may be because state schools in Texas, by law, must accept anyone that graduates in the top 10% of their high school class and UT and TAMU aren't able to take many more students than the 10%ers. So alot of people end up going to smaller state schools or private schools. That's fine - but I cannot count how many of my acquaintances at Baylor were NM Scholars, valedictorians, salutatorians, 10%ers, and other intelligent people. So I don't think that assessment holds water. ;-) Honestly, I think it is easier to get into Baylor than some of the state schools, but I also think it's alot harder to stay there.
*sales pitch over*
Best of luck!
