Opinion

UH’s successes spell the end for Rice’s reign

rice

David Delgado//The Daily Cougar

Respect is hard to gain. The cliché of having to give respect to get it comes into play when talking about UH. Houston has been continually lacking in respect for years now.

Unfortunately, UH has consistently been ignored as a valued university — until now.

Three years after being awarded with the title of Tier One research status in January 2011, we are beginning to gain some respect within the city of Houston.

Located in a city with multiple universities, UH sometimes gets overshadowed by others. The university that casts one of the largest shadows is Rice University.

Rice: the Goliath to our David, the Broncos to our Seahawks and the Bayou to our Bucket. Yes, I am making UH the victorious one in this analogy.

Rice often gains attention from outsiders by being considered a sort of Ivy League college of Texas, a proverbial Harvard of the South. However, UH should not be forgotten.

Despite the fact that Rice often stands in front of UH, preventing the world from seeing our potential, our university is beginning to make an entrance onto lists that highlight what we have to offer.

The most recent list that UH has graced is the Princeton Review’s list of the nation’s 150 “Best Value Colleges,” while Rice has dropped off the Top 10 List.

Though the space between UH and Rice is still notable, it’s interesting seeing Rice taken down a peg.

The Princeton Review reported that this list is compiled from surveying 2,000 universities in the 2012-2013 school year. These surveys take academics, cost and financial aid awards into account.

With great pride, UH sits in the top 150 of this prestigious list. Also, not only is UH joining the list for the fourth time, it is one of five schools to be featured on this list from Texas.

Houston Culture Map said Rice’s qualifications for the Top 10 haven’t diminished, but they haven’t improved, either. This fact has caused other schools to gain traction instead of Rice.

The Houston Chronicle showed that UH has recently been added to another list.

In 2013, UH was added to the U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of best colleges. It sits at No. 184 of 199. Once again, while this may seem on the lower end, UH holds this ranking above thousands of other universities.

These rankings prove that UH is not stagnant. It is striving toward greatness and is moving up the ladder to gain respect.

UH is proud of its Tier One research status and is constantly doing things to better the college community, further proving why we are Tier One.

Rice seems to be slowly creeping further down the lists, which makes one dream of a future when UH may pass Rice in rankings.

In regard to the cost of tuition, it is difficult to compare because Rice is a private university and UH is a public university; however, if one is purely judging on price, UH is considerably cheaper.

And while I often joke that attending UH costs an arm, leg and a kidney, it seems to cost an arm, leg, kidney and part of one’s liver at Rice.

When it comes down to it, I don’t go to Rice — I go to UH. I love my school and am proud to be a Cougar. Though UH does not receive the same type of recognition as Rice, there is no doubt that UH is still a great school and should be respected as one.

Senior staff columnist Kelly Schafler is a print journalism junior and may be reached at [email protected]

7 Comments

  • Yeah! We’re all winners! Universities are for getting an university-level education, yet many football players read at a grade school level. Awesome!! They should get scholarships because they can run around on a field!

    I hope I don’t get death threats like this whistle-blower:
    http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/ncaa-athletes-unc-response/

    CNN article detailing what many students already knew about the illiterate college athletes:
    http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/

    • Those articles you posted shouldn’t have shocked anyone. Spend some time tutoring them, and you’ll see first hand how dumb many of them are. But hey, they can dunk a basketball or catch a football. LOL!

  • Why should UH be respected because of some stupid games? UH should be respected if it can educate students for the competitive global workforce. Glad to know what is important for earning “respect.”

    • I agree that these rankings are meaningless. Sadly connections have the biggest impact on getting a job. Know-how comes somewhere in the middle. However, it definitely can be an advantage to have a proper education since there are a few people who have made it by using their education and skills as a way to make a name for themselves over the incompetent people that were hired due to nepotism, networking, and politics.

  • “In addition, another article from U.S. News and World Report showed that UH is No. 48 of 100 on the list of Top 2013 Law School Rankings. A small victory is that Rice is not even on the list.”

    Um… do you know why Rice isn’t on that list? It may have something to do with the fact that they don’t HAVE a law school, but don’t let facts get in the way of your argument or anything.

    Don’t get me wrong, I am a a proud Coog, but the LAST thing we need is people like you going on the attack. Be proud of who you are and what you do. Build yourself up, but don’t tear down others in the community around you. That’s just petty. Respect is given to people who can rise above being petty.

  • I doubt Rice students spend their time worrying about UH. They may hear about UH on the local news when a Loomis truck is robbed.

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