<p>Class Rank: 120/754
UW GPA: 3.5866
W GPA: 3.98 with very strong upward trend (went from an F freshman year to all A's in 4 AP's by Junior year)
Without Freshman year counting: 4.3066 W
SAT: 700M 800W 750 CR 2250 total
SAT II: 710 Lit 760 USH
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Income: ~50,000
State: TX
Single parent
Desired Major: English with Secondary Ed. Certification</p>
<p>ECs and Volunteering:
10 hour a week job tutoring at Kumon
I'm president of the recycling / humanitarian club at my school, 2 years (adopted a house for habitat for humanity also)
I'm founder and president of my school's Gay Straight Alliance, 2 years, raised money for local LGBT homeless youth shelter
I've been a member of Young Democrats for 3 years, president for 1 and historian for another year.
I'm the Vice President of my school district's pilot team for a new district initiative that is in charge of making all energy conservation policies for my school and for the district overall. Changes we've made have saved the district about 1.25 million so far (2 years)
Volunteer hours are about 150, many at the downtown shelter for homeless Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender youth
Member of Science National Honor Society 1 year
Member of National Honor Society 1 year
Member of our school's Peer to Peer tutoring program 2 years
French Club Vice President for 1 year, member for 2 years
Member of Spelling and Vocabulary UIL team (placed at regionals for individual)</p>
<p>Hooks (? possibly): LGBT with LGBT single parent</p>
<p>AP Scores and Courses:
WHAP - 4
APUSH - 5
English Lang - 5
Chemistry - 4
Human Geography - 5</p>
<p>Will be taking sr. year:</p>
<p>French IV AP
Gov / Eco AP
Environ. Sci AP
English Lit AP
Stat. AP
Euro History AP</p>
<p>I know my GPA isn't that hot. But I'm hoping it doesn't ruin all my chances. I'm going to apply ED to Rice next fall and RD to Columbia, Stanford, Yale, Cornell, and Berkeley.</p>
<p>I also forgot to put that I founded my school’s National English Honor Society and that I’m doing a summer program run by U of H and Rice where I’ll spend 6 weeks M-F 10-6 analyzing literature. These are what I consider my two ‘major related’ EC’s.</p>
<p>Here’s my transcript.
Format (Semester 1, Semester 2)</p>
<p>Freshman Year
English Honors(B,A)
World Geography Honors (B,A)
French 1 (C,D)
PACE (required credit by state) (B)
Health (B)
Biology Honors (B,B)
Comp Sci Honors (C,F)
Algebra 1 (B,B)</p>
<p>Sophomore Year
English 2 Honors (B,A)
Geometry (B,B)
Chemistry 1 Honors (A,A)
Child Development (A)
Principles of Education and Training (A)
French 2 (A,A)
Photography (A,B)
World History AP (A,A)</p>
<p>Junior Year
English Lang (A,A)
APUSH (A,A)
Algebra 2 (A,A)
Chemistry AP (A,A)
French 3 Honors (A,A)
Human Geography AP (A,A)
Physics 1 Honors (B,A)</p>
<p>Your GPA is a bit on a lower scale but I guess mostly it comes from your freshman year. Personally, I think your freshman year MIGHT harm your chances (I say might because Rice likes an upward grade curve, plus, your junior grades are almost perfect) since an F is still unacceptable of a school at such caliber. I love how you found so many things, which is really cool, but I feel like with almost all the extracurriculars under 2 years, it might not show as much dedication or perseverance for some of them (that’s not that big of a deal though, just saying).
Your SAT is perfectly fine, your AP scores are up to standard. I think you have a shot at Rice, but I don’t know if it would be that likely because of your freshman year (I know that you’ve changed but it’s still part of the records 
)
Try to write awesome personal statements and answer all of Rice’s supplements wholeheartedly. Spend your time on it. The essay is a crucial component of your app that can turn you from uncertainty to acceptance. </p>
<p>Thank you so much. I plan on dedicating myself to my essays for at least a few weeks, making them absolutely perfect. I want to major in English, idk if that helps my chances at all. I plan on interviewing also. I feel like I can write good essays and I will have an amazing teacher rec. I’m crossing my fingers Bc Rice really is the school my heart is set on. </p>
<p>Your stats are good and amazing . I think what’s important is writing a stellar essay. Speaking from experience I didn’t have the best Test score (28 act) but my gpa was good (3.92) and my essays were great. Also got into Carnegie. The think is you don’t have to sweat urself to get perfect scores. Just make sure you write an essay you love and jus pray they love it too :-)</p>
<p>@analogcadaver Also don’t try to hide the fact that you had poor grades. If there was a reason that you struggled, discuss it. If you don’t, then they will assume you weren’t interested in trying, which will look really bad. This can be part of your essay, or you can write it elsewhere (they give you space for additional comments. If it doesn’t fit the theme of your essay then don’t force it.</p>
<p>Hey, analogcadaver! My advice would be to definitely work the English major angle. I think Rice wants more competitive English majors, since they have floods of engineering and biochem students coming in every year. If you present yourself as a strong English candidate, I think you’ll definitely have an advantage! </p>
<p>I was recently admitted, and I had some English-related EC “hooks,” as it looks like you do. I wasn’t in honors math or science, but I loaded up on honors English courses to show how I was strong in that way. I made sure to write my “Why Rice?” essay about how I felt I could succeed as an English major at Rice. I talked about specific Rice English professors with whom I was looking forward to working, and I made sure my passion for English came out in all aspects of my application.</p>
<p>My only advice if you want to spice up your application a little bit would be to get your writing published in some way, shape or form. Rice prides itself on being a research university, and if you want to show them you can really thrive there, you should engage in some sort of outside English project (such as doing an independent study with a teacher, publishing an article in your local paper, or even just starting a blog). You still have some really amazing ECs, though, so you may not even need that–it’s just a suggestion! Best of luck to you!</p>