Chance me for Rice ED 2019

State Forums
1

I’m a junior right now and my dream school is Rice. I just wanted to know, how is my app looking right now?

SAT I (breakdown): 1540 (750 reading, 790 math)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (35E, 35M, 36R, 33S), essay 10

SAT II:
Biology M (800)
Chemistry (790)
Math 2 (800)

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99
Weighted GPA: 4.61
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%

AP (place score in parenthesis):
Biology (5)
Chemistry (4)
Macroeconomics (5)
Microeconomics (5)
Psychology (5)
Physics I (4)
Physics II (4)

IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: most challenging available
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Top 50 USA Biology Olympiad 2016 and 2017, NM Semifinalist (predicted)

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
MUN (10-11) (President): founding member and president, 3 gavels at Princeton, NYU, and Seton Hall
Dance (9-11) (President): raised over $6,000 for funding schools in India
Science Bowl (11): founding member, haven’t competed yet so we’ll see how that goes
Some state-level awards

Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: About 100 hours at the local library, about 100 hours across hospitals and food kitchens
Summer Activities: Research summer 2017 and 2018
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1 (rating 1-10, details): Chem/physics teacher: 7.5-8/10, she really loves me and she let me see my rec but I don’t know how good it’s gonna be relative to other people
Teacher Rec #2 (rating 1-10, details): Math teacher: 8.5/10 I’m guessing, she said she wrote me a really good one but again no standard of comparison

Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details): 5 or 6/10, she hasn’t written a new rec for anyone in 10 years
Additional Rec (if any) (rating 1-10, details):
Library coordinator: 9/10, I’ve ran a trivia night with her for 3 years every other month at the library and she absolutely loves me (she put me in touch with professors she did grad work with)
Research mentor: 9/10, he wrote me a good one and I’m working with him again this year, hoping to actually start a project
Interview (if any) (rating 1-10, details):

Other: N/A
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biomedical engineering or molecular biology
State (if domestic applicant): NJ
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public magnet
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 150K+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Again I am a junior so I know a lot will depend on my essays next year. I just wanted to know, should I even be thinking about Rice or shift my focus a bit?

2

My daughter attends Rice and was accepted RD last year with similar academics and somewhat comparable ECs. Rice has just announced a greatly enhanced finanxial aid program that may pay a substantial portion of tuition for family incomes up to 200K. You stats are definitely up there and ought to be competitive at Rice.

If your family knows it can afford the ride, best advice is to apply early, where the acceptance rate last year was twice the overall rate and a greater multiple of the RD rate. There’s a great discussion of this point on the Rice 2022 RD or waitlist thread.