Chance for Rice ED? Asian Junior

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

Hi! I’m currently a junior and am looking at where I should apply to this year. It’s mainly Texas schools since I really like it here.

New Sat: 1470 (Will this hurt my chances at rice?) Will take again I think
710 verbal and 750 math

Sat 2s: Got a 740 on my practice US History (Pretty good in my opinion) and got a 760 on my practice Math 2 (Ik it’s trash). Will also take the Bio one.

UW GPA: 3.92 out of 4

Rank: top 10% (doubt it’ll be in the top 7%). I had a dip sophomore year. No excuses. Just lazy.

APs: Not really that good; bunch of 3’s and 4’s. No 5’s. Didn’t really care bout these that much.

courseload: 7 APs so far, gonna end with 11/12. Kinda on the higher side when loo

Major Awards: Nothing lol.

Extra Curricular:

Science Olympiad (10th grade) - Really didn’t like it that much so I didn’t felt like I contributed that much. Might not even put it on the app. We went to state tho (Forgot where we ranked).

ACDEC (10th,11th, and 12th) - Went to state both years, really love doing it. Will continue to do so.

Tennis (JV 9th and 10th, Varsity 12th) - Unfortunately I couldn’t take tennis this year (schedule conflicts) so I had to make do with monthly tourneys and hitting with friends. Will colleges see this as a bad thing? Some regional and district level doubles awards (I’m not a good enough player for singles lol). Also, teach kids for a small fee and donate that money to charity.

Piano (12 years) - I’m really fitting the stereotype aren’t I? Anyway I do Piano recreationally, sometimes competitively, and I’m certified and all that crap.

BPA (Parliamentarian as of next year, 11th) - Poured my heart out on the web design project with my good friend and we absolutely crashed (in terms of rankings). I had fun doing it though so that’s all that matters. This really got me into technology and comp sci stuff btw (it’s great), so thanks, friend! We will prevail next year.

Job/Work experience and Summer Activities: Volunteering at 2 (maybe 3 starting from the summer) hospitals. Really cool stuff, I have access to confidential patient info which is really cool IMO, also work at a tech startup- started after the BPA stuff- program for them and brainstorm new ideas with them and other miscellaneous stuff.

Note: One hospital was super tricky to get into, like a sub 10% acceptance rate, should I mention it?

Community Service: Only really the hospital stuff. Probably got a hundred or so hours over there. I really don’t like doing random crap for the sake of hours. I’d rather watch youtube and/or procrastinate on homework.

I’ll probably get my recs from my ACDEC coach and my physics teacher. I talk about politics with my ACDEC coach a lot (We had a lot to talk about this year) and my physics teacher knows me as the guy who sleeps in class (lack of sleep) but works hard at home (We get along well).

Have no clue about essays, but I fancy myself a decent writer. I know these are important for Rice so I will try on those.

Major: Undecided
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income: 230,000 ish???
Hooks: Nothing, I’m an Asian male looking to get into STEM. I’m screwed.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this!

2

@CollegeHopeful? I would recommend over the summer doing the practice ACT book. They give you real practice for the ACT in September. Find out the areas you are not good and get the practice book for the area. My son had trouble with grammer so he bought that extra workbook. He did quite a bit better on the ACT than the Sat. if you are better at math and science then this could be the test for you.Don’t send the sat unless you find out you are not able to do better than the sat. My son got a 1500 on the new sat which was equivalent to a 33 ACT, but then took ACT and got a 36. All his friends did better than their sat score plus you don’t need to send Sat II. The math SAT II they would like to see an 800. They also like to see leadership not sure if I saw that. Did you get any academic decathlon medals? my son did tutoring. It is important for them to see something you feel passionate about and how you may fit in their school.if you get do some research over the summer that would be something good since they are a research school. Also make sure to visit and do an interview. Other ways to see you as a person. It is very competitive in texas. My son also did ED your odds are a little higher then because it shows how commited you are. Make sure to see if it affordable though with the net price calculator before you do ED.

3

I did the ACT actually and got a 32. Forgot to put in up. After taking both, I prefer the SAT so I’ll stick with that. Also, I did get 2 medals (3 including top scorer for my school) at state for ACDEC, but since they weren’t at the National level I think they are kinda insignificant. Should I include those?

4

I also got a few science olympiad awards at state for some group events.

5

Forgot to ask. How do you think my chances are right now?

6

For ED that is

7

@collegeHopeful? I feel like if you could raise up either the sat or ACT your chances are better, but If you look at the ED thread for the past year there were amazing people with very high scores not get in but got into vanderbilt so you could do everything right and not get in. Just be yourself in your essays. Try for more leadership at your school and just do your best to convey where you fit at the school and if they have that need and you are qualified your in. It is hard in Texas because it has been said they could fill the entire school with the top 1 and 2 of the school, but they don’t . I would include all awards even if they are not national ones. I don’t think it would hurt I know my son told them about latin medals, AD medals. Most of my son’s awards were all from the boy scouts and that is how he sold himself. He wanted to be a trip leader in R.OP.E because of all his outdoor experience, leadership and awards. I am not sure how much practice you did when you took the ACT, but if you didn’t the practice books help! There was a 28 ACT get in regular decision, but I am thinking it had something to do with sports. They did not really say. GoodLuck

8

I’ll look into getting the practice book for the ACT, see if that helps. Thanks for the advice!

9

Does your school have Naviance? How have students with your grades and stats done getting into Rice in the past? This should be a good indicator of your chances. Rice uses ED to fill part of its class but not nearly to the extent that Vanderbilt, Duke, Wash U, Northwestern, U Chicago and other schools do. Rice does not have ED2. Some students from my D’s private school in Houston got in Rice ED including an Asian male but others were rejected including an Asian male. Some students also got in RD including an Asian female. The majority of Rice’s students are from Texas.

10

We had 4 kids from my school get into rice this year from RD, but I don’t know how reliable the data is cause this is the 3rd year this school has been open. One also got waitlisted. The ones who got accepted had slightly lower ( like .05) GPA’s, no sports, higher SAT/ACT, and a couple of decent EC’s. I know all of them personally and they said that the essays are huge for rice. 3 who were accepted were Asians and one was white. The one who got waitlisted was also Asian. Our school does pretty well for a new school ( Top students go to Harvard, MIT, Duke, Johns Hopkin, Yale, etc) and the majority of those people are Asian, so I don’t think to be Asian handicaps people that much.

11

Make sure you demonstrate interest in Rice by visiting and interviewing. The interviews tend to fill up, so get on the schedule well ahead of time. You can sign up online for the tours and on campus interviews. My daughter spent the night at Rice and stayed with a freshman student the night before her interview. She got a great feel for the campus and the experience helped her with her interview and “Why Rice” essay.

12

Already visited the campus - it’s why I want to go so bad . I’ll make sure to book an interview early on. Is the interview a big deal?

13

@CollegeHopeful? My son interviewed. It is a good way for them to learn about you in a personal way.They said if it doesn’t go well it could hurt you, but it really wasn’t bad He had someone that worked in admission. My son sent a thoughtful thank you. My son also interviewed the first day of school which was kind of cool and could be done in the summer. My son asked if he’d like his resume at the end though the interviewer didn’t really see it for the interview, but it did have a copy of a graduation picture to go along with it hoping they will remember him. Less applications to sift through ED. My son loved knowing where he was going to school in December and was alot less stressful. It is funny about the essays because my son is not the greatest writer, also finish the application early. I believe you can start in August filling out the application Though write from the heart and it helps. It shows how much you want to go maybe. My son missed a day of school just finishing up applications. He filled out some other applications just in case so he could have other good schools.

14

Thanks for the Advice!

15

Think you have a great chance… def apply to rice and see how the results turn out.

16

new sat score came in … 1490 lol. Can’t seem to break that 1500 mark

17

Also thank you @harvard2021! I’m afraid that no one has a good chance at a school like rice, unfortunately. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a rejection letter.

18

@CollegeHopeful? I am a senior this year and was accepted to Rice with a 1480 SAT and 33 ACT. Just work hard to make your application really stand out and your passion will shine through :slight_smile:

19

Congrats! I can’t believe I forgot to add my class rank, it’s 42/607. Will this hurt my chances? My school is very competitive so there isn’t much of a difference between the people in the top 10%.

20

BUMP