Academic Decline

<p>I just opened my rice admissions letter today, and I read the little section saying that academic decline is a reason for Rice to rescind my enrollment. Now, this year for me has been a little different. 1st semester, I drove down from my suburban private school 4 days a week to take Calculus III at the University of Cincinnati. Since this took so long, I missed quite a bit of my classes at school. I had to drop out of one elective because I could only be there on fridays and it was a participation-based class (Ethics), but I'm taking it next semester. I was there only 10 minutes out of a 55 minute class 4 days a week for AP Gov, so my grade suffered because I had to learn everything on my own, a B. And I missed a little of AP Chemistry every day too, a class that I would have struggled with regardless, and I think I'm going to end up with a C in there. Additionally our AP English teacher was decided to be worthless in the first two weeks of school, so more than 60% of her students dropped down into a regular english class.</p>

<p>So basically my record is going from all A's and one B per year in the most challenging courses in the school to a mix of everything with fewer classes, but all are still challenging. I'm worried that Rice is going to be suspicious of this shift, and I was wondering if anyone has heard of someone having their admission taken back because of something like this. Should I write them a letter explaining how my University of Cincinnati class basically took over my life for a semester, and my grades won't reflect my effort level senior year? Or may that be seen just an excuse, something that they don't want to have to read? I would appreciate some advice, because I am very worried right now... thank you...</p>

<p>Dont worry too much. First of all, your grades would probably need to drop more than that for Rice to deny admission. But if you are still worried, go ahead and send a letter. It can't hurt at all (you've already been admitted). Congrats, by the way.</p>