Hardest Texas colleges to get into (Houston, Dallas: how much, school, pros and cons)

[UnfairPark]

I think both Rice and UT are great schools but totally different from each other. If my kids were applying in Texas, I would recommend Rice for undergrad education, if they could qualify for Rice.

[Shock]

But would mommy and daddy help their child pay 250k once they finish at Rice?

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by DanielWayne

UT has 50 billion students and rides off of enormous oil endowments and the most state funding support of any US university. Tiny Rice has 6000 students but at the same time Rice probably has as many PhD offerings as most large flagship schools in the SEC or Big 12, and they also have collaborative research degrees with Baylor College of Medicine. So yes if you look at volume, then UT wins by sheer size. But pound for pound, like Floyd Mayweather, Rice leapfrogs UT in a big way.

Yes, I always have wondered, not asked anyone or group that might know, but why does The University of Texas still get all the oil-related endowment money as being ONLY one of many STATE schools. Texas A & M finally got a piece of that money some years ago, however, why not the rest of the STATE schools?

[DanielWayne]

Originally Posted by Mark Senior

Yes, I always have wondered, not asked anyone or group that might know, but why does The University of Texas still get all the oil-related endowment money as being ONLY one of many STATE schools. Texas A & M finally got a piece of that money some years ago, however, why not the rest of the STATE schools?

Yeah I would agree. The state of Texas only has 2 flagship universities, which is anemic considering the size of the state. There should be 4 along with the funding to go with it.

[Westerner92]

One thing I will point out is that the oil endowment for UT and A&M was established through an amendment to the Texas Constitution in 1876. It can only be used for facilities and administration, and the money is spread throughout each school system. The managers of the funds invest quite a bit of it, so any investment returns save taxpayers money. I don’t see UH and TTU being able to convince anyone to amend the state constitution to share the funds, but perhaps there are still some state-owned lands that could be designated to fund them.

I'm a biased UT alum, but comparing UT and Rice doesn’t seem right since they have somewhat different goals. Rice is about being at the cutting edge of research. It has almost as many grad students as undergrads. If you plan on going into research and being at the forefront of your field, Rice is fantastic. I’d say it’s comparable to taking the highest performing quarter or third of a UT’s natural science, engineering, liberal arts, and music schools and isolating them on their own residential campus.

But if you want to go into the professional world, UT wins out. Engineering, business, law, communications, applied sciences, architecture, nursing, UT is ranked in the top 10 or 20 in almost every degree program in those fields. The combo of large numbers of students in top degree programs like that means that recruiters always stop at UT.

[TexasRoadkill]

Originally Posted by asknow123

Sure, UT has 47 schools/specialties that rank in the top 10 on graduate school rankings from US news and world report.


Texas A&M has 9


Rice has 2


https://news.utexas.edu/2019/03/12/u...duate-schools/


Rice is a good school all around where you probably can get a good all around education, but when it comes down to specific disciplines (engineering, business...etc)-- UT ranks higher.

Unbelievably bad logic.
I have worked as an engineer in Texas for over forty years, most of that for NASA. NASA historically recruits only the top tier students out of UT, A&M and Rice.


I can attest there are many underqualified recruits from A&M and UT, many I wouldn't trust to engineer a mouse trap. But in forty years I never met a underqualified or even average Rice graduate. All have been amazingly mature, professional and over qualified.


And no I am not a Rice alumni nor has anyone in my family graduated from there.


IMHO: UT, A&M and University of Houston are all equal, but the first two have better press agents!

[UnfairPark]

I’m sorry for a mistake, actually Rice’s current acceptance is 8.7% not 16%.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by Shock

But would mommy and daddy help their child pay 250k once they finish at Rice?

They have an exceptionally generous financial aid initiative for families with income below $250,000 and there are merit and athletic scholarships for outstanding candidates. However, if you don’t qualify for financial aid or merit/athletic award, likely it’s really expensive but so are Ivy League schools and all other top private colleges.

[asknow123]

Originally Posted by TexasRoadkill

Unbelievably bad logic.
IMHO: UT, A&M and University of Houston are all equal, but the first two have better press agents!

That's hilarious... UH is equal to UT and A&M? Really?

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by asknow123

That's hilarious... UH is equal to UT and A&M? Really?

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/tx

In this and most other national level ranking lists UT and A&M rank much higher than UH so they aren’t equals or even similar tier. UH is similar tier as UTD and Texas Tech.

Top 20
Rice #16

Top 50
UT # 49

Top 100
SMU# 59
A&M#66
Baylor#77
TCU# 80

Below 100
UTD#129
UH#171
Texas Tech #187