Chance me for Rice And Harvard!! Urgent!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I’m unsure right now if I’m gonna Early decision rice or early apply stanford or Harvard. Need help to see which one I have a shot at!!

Gender: Male
UW GPA: 3.7 (the reason it is so low is bc of an illness I had)
W GPA: 4.3 (I took 16 AP classes)
SAT 1: 1540
SAT 2: Math 2: 780, chemistry 690
Class rank: 4%
Major: chemical engineering, will go to med school probably
Essays: 9/10 (essay about how illness affected me and gave me passion for medical world)
Race: Asian
State: Texas

EC:

  1. Founder of charity: donate 3k dollars, I run a support group for ill children
  2. Internship at hospital: published author in medical journal
  3. Science olympiad president (state qualifier)
  4. Debate president (regional qualifier)
  5. Math honor society president (AIME 4 time qualifier)
  6. Worked with mayor to do service projects
  7. Eagle Scout

Hooks: Sister goes to rice, nothing else

Questions I have:

  1. Does legacy advantage go away if I don’t ED rice?
  2. Would it be better beneficial for me to early decision rice or early action harvard?
  3. What are my chances at these schools?
2

I think your chances are better at Rice than at Harvard. That said, you can apply to both, just that if Rice ED accepts you, you have to withdraw from all other applications. Good luck!

3
  1. It helps, but it is not necessary. It honestly depends on the school to which you are applying. Some schools explicitly say that legacies should, and some don't care.
  2. Well, Harvard will be a reach for you, even with early action. It's not against you; Harvard is a reach for everyone in the world. Because of the clear advantage of early decision for legacies at most schools, you are probably better off applying ED to Rice, all things being equal. But you have to ask yourself, "Which school do I WANT to go to?" If you clearly like one over the other, apply to your favorite. You'll be accepted to a great school either way if you're admitted, so this isn't a clear Yes or No question.
  3. Rice - low/mid reach, Harvard - high reach (but it is for everyone, so...)

Hope this helped!

4

Thank you so much for your responses! I understand that Rice ED is higher chance that Harvard REA, it’s just that I really want to go to a Harvard but I don’t want to risk getting rejected from both.

So my main question is what are my chances of getting into Rice regular decision. Thank you!

5

I think so. If you are rejected/deferred from Harvard, Rice regular decision is still a viable option. Your academics and extracurriculars are solid, so I definitely think you have a good chance at Rice RD. But, of course, if you did it the other way, and you get rejected from Rice ED, then you are at the mercy of Harvard admissions, one of the most competitive in the nation. This scenario makes it much more likely that you will be rejected from both.

So, apply REA to Harvard and RD to Rice, and you will have a good chance at getting into both schools.

6

Your EC is extremely good but… just wondering, how come you do so well in math competitions and etc but only get 780 on math ii and 690 on sat chem? 690 is almost below average, this is going to hurt your chances.

7

I agree with @Nojotennis . Applying REA to Harvard and RD to Rice is what I’d do, too. I think your ECs are nice, so that’ll help you a lot @bellsbugs . I would explain your situation (namely your illness) in the additional information box, if you haven’t made it clear in your personal essay that your illness is the reason your GPA is relatively bad. If they know the reason, I’m sure it won’t be that much of a problem.

@Linusky Well… There could be plenty of reasons. I myself have competed in multiple national and one international competition/olympiad, in which I have won bronze once, was a prizewinner once, ended in the top 10 once and was ‘just’ a finalist multiple times and have also scored a 780 score on the Math II SAT, lol. For me, this relatively bad score was because of multiple reasons. 1) A loved one of mine passed away not long before the test and 2) I slept precisely three hours (lol) & I’m not a morning person at all (it’s 1:28 AM atm xd). However, I think a 780 is not that bad, especially if you’ve got a decent reason… After all, it’s way above 700. But a 690 will probably hurt, yeah, even if you have an explanation… An SAT score of 1540 is great, though!

Good luck with your application!