<p>My name is Nick. I am a caucasian male from a Dallas suburb (Texas). I am going to be a senior this next year and I have been looking into colleges. I have only found 2 that I have interest in -- Rice and the University of Texas at Austin. </p>
<p>I believe my rank soph. year was 25 out of 550 students. I just recently got back from a year long study abroad program to Chile. I did the Rotary Youth Exchange scholarship and ended up in Chile for a year where I had the best time of my LIFE. For this reason, I do not have a big long list with EC, EC, EC like everyone else. I am sure that if I had my junior year, I would of been president of clubs, a possible qualifier in the 500 yard freestyle for STATE CHAMPIONS, and had time to study material useful for the ACT and SAT's...however...with my year abroad I spent time learning spanish, teaching poor kids, going to private catholic school, and I did not have time to practice swimming. So I gave everything up. I am basically applying for college with minimum credits.</p>
<p>TOP 10% of Class
Varsity Swimming 9th 10th - Lettered in 500 yard freestyle 12th
Elected Class Reporter 9th 12th
Student Council 9th 10th 12th
Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship to Chile 9th Grade (Left August of 2005 and Returned Home June 5th of 2006 -- just 2 weeks ago!)
Community Service: Teaching Kids in Chile
ACT: I'm thinking 25-29 depending if I study and get a Geometry tutor since I have not taken that course yet.
AP Courses: Sophomore Year AP World History (only one available) Senior Year will be taking AP Spanish Lang 4, AP US History, Possible AP Spanish Literature, AP US Gov't and Politics, and possibly more.
So much more...</p>
<p>That being said. I am going to be a senior next year. After coming back from a year in Chile I have sparked an interest in Anthropology, Linguistics, History, Spanish, Latin American Studies...etc.</p>
<p>What are my chances into colleges like Rice and UT Austin (UT Austin without thinking about top 10%)? What are your suggestions for colleges I should look into? I just don't know where to look - and would I stand a chance as a candidate in the admissions process?</p>
<p>So most kids would focus on their billion EC's, but YOU have something different. I'm envious, milk the year in Chile for all your worth, it's definitely something different. </p>
<p>I'm afraid I can't help you with chances since I never looked at those two, but have you thought of looking outside of Texas? What are you looking for in a college?</p>
<p>Good Social Sciences programs, a diverse campus, good languages programs, and location is coming to be very important to me...I'd really like to go to a decently big city.</p>
<p>Plenty of colleges will fit your needs. I'd suggest asking college reps at college fairs or if they visit your school to talk about what you're interested in. Your interests might change, mine certainly did. =) You could always buy a huge thick college guide book, but I find those a tad bit intimidating. And never, never look at rankings please.</p>
<p>If your academics were stronger, you would have a strong chance, but as of now, I say your chance is small. 25 on the ACT isn't very attractive to Rice in my opinion, but heh what do I know.</p>
<p>I don't really want to go to an ivy league school. I don't know why. I don't have the money for that and I probably wont qualify for financial aid. I wont get a 25 on it. I will probably score a 27 to a 29 -- if I study hard. My math is going to kill me because of my lack of classes while I was abroad. While I think that Rice is a reach school, I do not believe that my chances are small. And as far as my academics go, how is going abroad for a year on a paid scholarship not part of academics? I would of had AP classes like all of you guys all over my list and transcripts if I had chosen to stay here. But I didn't, and I chose to do something that I was interested in. I don't think that is a valid statement.</p>
<p>no i think you should apply to rice and UT austin. Never hurts to apply right? and besides you are different and that could make you an attractive canidate. </p>
<p>By the way we have a lot in common both do swimming and both have been in Chile (although i didnt spend a year haha). Are you going to try and do swimming in college?</p>
<p>Okay, a couple of things--don't bother applying to any Ivies--your AI is only 193 and you need about a 211 for the Ivies.</p>
<p>Second--Rice's cutoff for ACT's is about 29 to 30 at the low end--so work hard on that ACT test preparation if you really want to go there. </p>
<p>Third--At the University of Texas, Austin the mid range for ACTs is 23 to 28--so you should have no problem getting in there.</p>
<p>Fourth--Do you realize that Rice is a private university and that the yearly tuition is $23,000 per year (plus room and board of around $9,000 per year)?
You might want to look closely at the Univ of Texas at Austin, since the cost there right now is only $8,000 per year (plus room and board of $7000 yearly), which is a bargain by comparison.</p>