Texas schools vs. the rest of the country

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TheRealMD

TheRealMD

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To keep in the spirit of all the other silly "vs." threads people are starting, let's go with Texas schools vs. the rest of the country. Who will win? WHO SHALL BE THE VICTOR?

Discuss. :p
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OK, I'm a bit jealous of TX schools. I have a SO there and I would love to go to any of those schools. I like the environment and the south in general. Alas, I'm out of state and I'd like to think I'm better off in my own state schools although I know nothing about schools in TX.
 
Cataract said:
OK, I'm a bit jealous of TX schools. I have a SO there and I would love to go to any of those schools. I like the environment and the south in general. Alas, I'm out of state and I'd like to think I'm better off in my own state schools although I know nothing about schools in TX.
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You should have leveled up that SO to husband/wife and taken advantage of our wonderful schools. :p

j/k!
 
lol.........i have a question....whats the deal with Rice kids???

do they really believe that they go to an elite school? is it an elite school? i had never heard of that school till going to a Baylor interview.
 
TheRealMD said:
I wonder if it's worth the tuition....
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I have heard (not verified) that Rice has a HUGE endowment, and they are quite liberal with their granting of scholarships and aid packages. I've known several people who went there, some well-off, some not so. They are, however, all VERY smart, driven people who have gone on to higher degrees and done great things. Professionally, anyway. One of them has totally whacked-out her personal life.
 
Sol Rosenberg said:
Are you serious?

Rice is one of the best universities in the country:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php
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maybe its bc im from california.......when people think elite out here they think berkeley, stanford, cal tech...MIT and some of the IVYs.

i suppose every region has regional bias. honestly had never heard of Rice, other than their ...their...:laugh:...football team of course.


i also never see rice kids on the interview trail around the country.....i see ivy leagues, vandy, and stanford, berkeley.....thats it.
 
Rice is the only ivy-esque school in the South and has very high standards for admissions. I should know. . I was rejected :laugh:
 
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BigMDT said:
maybe its bc im from california.......when people think elite out here they think berkeley, stanford, cal tech...MIT and some of the IVYs.

i suppose every region has regional bias. honestly had never heard of Rice, other than their ...their...:laugh:...football team of course.


i also never see rice kids on the interview trail around the country.....i see ivy leagues, vandy, and stanford, berkeley.....thats it.
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Every heard of Bucky balls aka fullerenes? (o chem) That's a Rice professor invention.
 
TheRealMD said:
You should have leveled up that SO to husband/wife and taken advantage of our wonderful schools. :p

j/k!
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If only...

Besides being in classes full of other texans, what's the downside to TX schools?
 
cpa2md said:
Every heard of Bucky balls aka fullerenes? (o chem) That's a Rice professor invention.
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Berkeley has a legacy of around 22 nobel laureates (the entire country of Canada only has 18)......so in response to fullerene i would say "yawn"


also.....looking on Rice's website....it looks like 25% of kids get into Rice--about 2000 out of 8000--

even Berkeley (which according to US rankings is astonishingly ranked below Rice a few spots) accepts only 7,000 out of around 40,000 applicants. higher admissions standards, really? also, Berkeley has more top 10 departments than any other institution in the country. (not to mention it frequently ranks #1 in chemistry)



ooooo.....hurtz donut??
 
BigMDT said:
lol.........i have a question....whats the deal with Rice kids???

do they really believe that they go to an elite school? is it an elite school? i had never heard of that school till going to a Baylor interview.
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I've only known one person that was a Rice student. She was alright; not a snob or anything at all. Charming girl, albeit a bit quiet.

A friend of an ex-friend, however, was supposedly a joke by virtue of his self-important spewing of how he was a Rice kid. I have no idea how true that is since I never knew the guy.

That said, Rice is typically held to be a good school. As for TX medical schools, well, this state is just good like that. :thumbup:
 
i eat Rice at chinese restaurants..........lol.......are there any other edible universities in TX?



oooo....i forgot about the Longhorns, teehee.
 
ufgrad00 said:
They aren't in Florida. :p
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That's entirely right. We aren't forced to evacuate our cities 3 times a year because of the hurricane season. :D
 
baylormed said:
That's entirely right. We aren't forced to evacuate our cities 3 times a year because of the hurricane season. :D
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Hmmm, from one gulf state resident to another, let's keep the "H" word on the D L . ;)
 
I still don't understand why Texas has a completely different application. I know we're just special like that:p but still

Do any other states have a different application
 
ufgrad00 said:
Hmmm, from one gulf state resident to another, let's keep the "H" word on the D L . ;)
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No joke. Damn H thingies.

skyeblue0610 said:
I still don't understand why Texas has a completely different application. I know we're just special like that:p but still

Do any other states have a different application
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Pretty sure it's just us. Some states/schools have agreements (i.e., WWAMI), but as far as an app service goes, we're just special.
 
Kind of picking on rice.....

its a great school, but its also very small (~3000 undergrads), so thats probably the largest contributor to somebody not knowing about the school. Try something more substaintial than a couple of stats to discredit the quality of somebody's school.
 
Monarch Kong said:
What the heck, when did U Virginia go neck to neck with Berkeley?
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i dunno.....they rigged it. all i do know is that virginians cant spell



UVA???? shouldnt it be UV? that would be like a UCLA student saying they go to UCALA
 
zakp said:
Kind of picking on rice.....

its a great school, but its also very small (~3000 undergrads), so thats probably the largest contributor to somebody not knowing about the school. Try something more substaintial than a couple of stats to discredit the quality of somebody's school.
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wow. i think name recognition goes hand in hand with academic prowess.


go anywhere in Asia and Europe, or the Middle East.....and say the names Harvard Yale Princeton Oxford Berkeley (huge research and academic powerhouses) and foreigners drule to send their kids there.

say the name "Rice" and they think you are asking them out to dinner.
 
BigMDT said:
maybe its bc im from california.......when people think elite out here they think berkeley, stanford, cal tech...MIT and some of the IVYs.

i suppose every region has regional bias. honestly had never heard of Rice, other than their ...their...:laugh:...football team of course.


i also never see rice kids on the interview trail around the country.....i see ivy leagues, vandy, and stanford, berkeley.....thats it.
Click to expand...

Rice is definitely an elite school. Its where the most intelligent texans go who don't want to leave the state and can afford the tuition or can get financial aid. It has about a 50% instate student body which is very high for a private university of its caliber. This is probably the main reason its not that known outside of the South.

They may have a 24% acceptance rate but I think this has to do with self selection (not that 24% isn't pretty damn low, same a Berkeley according to collegeboard). 25% of Rice students scored higher than 1540 on their SAT while the same cutoff for berkeley is a 1450 and the UC system is known for being ridiclously number oriented.

The fact you haven't seen Rice kids on the interview trail is probably because most of them want to stay instate and that they have a relatively small class size.

Also I think schools that are not on the coasts rarely have more than regional appeal except for schools in Chicago. Most people just aren't looking to go to texas for Undergrad unless they are Texan.
 
BigMDT said:
i dunno.....they rigged it. all i do know is that virginians cant spell



UVA???? shouldnt it be UV? that would be like a UCLA student saying they go to UCALA
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University of Vermont is UVM. UCLA isn't very ambiguous. Personally I think UCALA pronounced phonetically has a nice ring to it, much better than saying UCLA. :laugh:
 
Drogba said:
Rice is definitely an elite school. Its where the most intelligent texans go who don't want to leave the state and can afford the tuition or can get financial aid. It has about a 50% instate student body which is very high for a private university of its caliber. This is probably the main reason its not that known outside of the South.

They may have a 24% acceptance rate but I think this has to do with self selection (not that 24% isn't pretty damn low, same a Berkeley according to collegeboard). 25% of Rice students scored higher than 1540 on their SAT while the same cutoff for berkeley is a 1450 and the UC system is known for being ridiclously number oriented.

The fact you haven't seen Rice kids on the interview trail is probably because most of them want to stay instate and that they have a relatively small class size.

Also I think schools that are not on the coasts rarely have more than regional appeal except for schools in Chicago. Most people just aren't looking to go to texas for Undergrad unless they are Texan.
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Rice kids are in love with Baylor.
 
TheRealMD said:
Rice kids are in love with Baylor.
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Rice is to Princeton as Baylor is to Harvard Med School ;]

I had to leave houston though, atleast for a while. Kids that do the houston HS to Rice to Baylor thing are nuts.
 
Cataract said:
If only...

Besides being in classes full of other texans, what's the downside to TX schools?
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The snowboarding in Texas sucks. And the weather in Texas really sucks. And Texas politicians suck most of all.
 
searun said:
The snowboarding in Texas sucks. And the weather in Texas really sucks. And Texas politicians suck most of all.
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I have to agree with all of the above. Houston mostly sucks but has some ok areas and Austin is awesome. I am not a big fan of the rest of texas, nor am I a big fan of the very conservative atmosphere of Texas outside of Austin.
 
searun said:
The snowboarding in Texas sucks. And the weather in Texas really sucks. And Texas politicians suck most of all.
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Snowboarding is definitely a lost opportunity in TX :cool:
 
BigMDT said:
wow. i think name recognition goes hand in hand with academic prowess.


go anywhere in Asia and Europe, or the Middle East.....and say the names Harvard Yale Princeton Oxford Berkeley (huge research and academic powerhouses) and foreigners drule to send their kids there.

say the name "Rice" and they think you are asking them out to dinner.
Click to expand...


The schools you mentioned have name recognition because they are in fact very large institutions. And I'm not talking about size of student body, but the extent of their influence in respective fields. They are all well known in many undergraduate and more importantly graduate fields and that's why they're known worldwide.

That being said, take University of Virginia for instance. I'd say that it's not as well known outside of the US, but a quick glance will tell you it is a top 20 undergrad, top 15 business school, top 10 law school, top 25 med school, and probably many other top institutions. Who's to say UVA lacks academic prowess? (BTW I have no connections with UVA so don't think this is a fanboy post)

Name recognition nowadays is fueled by pop culture and media as it is by actual academic achievement so don't discount schools that don't make foreign parents drool.
 
Erm...doesn't 'extent of influence in respective fields' correlate to 'academic prowess'? Not to say that UVA doesn't have academic prowess (cuz it's an amazing school), but not as much as harvard, etc.
 
TheLesPaul said:
Erm...doesn't 'extent of influence in respective fields' correlate to 'academic prowess'? Not to say that UVA doesn't have academic prowess (cuz it's an amazing school), but not as much as harvard, etc.
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Yea, I'm just saying that name recognition may not always come with academic prowess.
 
Houston's not that bad. It's just like any other big city just with really bad weather:eek: You'd think you're on Maui or something year round.

But as far as crime, a long ass commute, etc it's the same as any other major city.

I use to want to go to Rice when I was younger but I didn't like the vibe....it felt a bit too snobby/stuff for my taste. I know 3 people there right now and they like it okay.

I absolutely hated Baylor. I thought I would love that school. But it didn't have a good vibe either. It was sort of a "we really don't care" vibe.....I could just feel the party and unfriendly vibe so I axed that plus.....Waco is :scared:
 
skyeblue0610 said:
Houston's not that bad. It's just like any other big city just with really bad weather:eek: You'd think you're on Maui or something year round.

But as far as crime, a long ass commute, etc it's the same as any other major city.

I use to want to go to Rice when I was younger but I didn't like the vibe....it felt a bit too snobby/stuff for my taste. I know 3 people there right now and they like it okay.

I absolutely hated Baylor. I thought I would love that school. But it didn't have a good vibe either. It was sort of a "we really don't care" vibe.....I could just feel the party and unfriendly vibe so I axed that plus.....Waco is :scared:
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Baylor College of Medicine is not in Waco.

Baylor University is. I'm not sure which one you visited...it seems weird it would be BU, since I don't think it has a "we really don't care" vibe. People there are very friendly, sometimes overtly so.
 
skyeblue0610 said:
Houston's not that bad. It's just like any other big city just with really bad weather:eek: You'd think you're on Maui or something year round.

But as far as crime, a long ass commute, etc it's the same as any other major city.

I use to want to go to Rice when I was younger but I didn't like the vibe....it felt a bit too snobby/stuff for my taste. I know 3 people there right now and they like it okay.

I absolutely hated Baylor. I thought I would love that school. But it didn't have a good vibe either. It was sort of a "we really don't care" vibe.....I could just feel the party and unfriendly vibe so I axed that plus.....Waco is :scared:
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Baylor undergrad and baylor med are worlds apart. Houston's only has a few cool areas. It suburbs are really ****ty in my opinion, but then again I've never been attracted to cookie-cutter suburbia.
 
baylormed said:
Baylor College of Medicine is not in Waco.

Baylor University is. I'm not sure which one you visited...it seems weird it would be BU, since I don't think it has a "we really don't care" vibe. People there are very friendly, sometimes overtly so.
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I meant BU. BCM is in a great location, expect once dark hits it's time to get indoors and lock up:laugh:

Drogba said:
Baylor undergrad and baylor med are worlds apart. Houston's only has a few cool areas. It suburbs are really ****ty in my opinion, but then again I've never been attracted to cookie-cutter suburbia.
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Houston has so many suburbs and they are far from cookie-cutting, I'm sure some are but most aren't
 
Drogba said:
Baylor undergrad and baylor med are worlds apart. Houston's only has a few cool areas. It suburbs are really ****ty in my opinion, but then again I've never been attracted to cookie-cutter suburbia.
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There are a lot of nice, affluent suburbs surrounding Houston. And they aren't cookie-cutter.
 
The ones I've been to or lived in are extremely cookie cutter, care to mention which aren't?
 
Drogba said:
The ones I've been to or lived in are extremely cookie cutter, care to mention which aren't?
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Hunters Creek, Piney Point, Hedwig, Bunker Hill, Hillshire, Spring Valley is up and comming, and those are just sround where my parents live.
 
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