Chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>I'm a rising Senior from SA, Texas. My senior courses are pretty much locked in at this point. The EC leadership positions are already earned, I'm just assuming that I'm not going to get impeached or anything. (: And my CS hours are all still works in progress.</p>

<p>Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Mexican-American/Hispanic
Income: ~30,000
Single mom household</p>

<p>Rank: 11/700some.
(My school is ranked jointly with a very competative magnet school that comes in 17 in the nation. From my school alone, I fall somewhere between 2-4.)
GPA: 3.9996/4.0 // 99.9985/100</p>

<p>Middle School:
Algebra 1
CommApp</p>

<p>Freshman Courses:
English 1 Pre-AP
Geometry Pre-AP
World Geography Pre-AP
Biology Pre-AP
Debate Honors
Latin 1
Art</p>

<p>Sophomore Courses:
English 2 Pre-AP
Algebra 2 Pre-AP
World History AP
Chemistry Pre-AP
Debate 2 Honors
Latin 2 Pre-AP
BCIS</p>

<p>Junior Courses:
English 3 AP
Pre-Calculus Pre-AP
US History AP
Physics Pre-AP
Debate 3 Honors
Latin 3 Pre-AP
Chemistry AP</p>

<p>Senior Courses:
English 4 AP
Calculus AB AP
Gov/Eco AP
Physics AP
Latin 4 Pre-AP
Independent Study Mentorship Honors
(This will basically be a continuation of my Debate career because TX doesn't offer a Debate 4.)
Statistics AP</p>

<p>Summer/Night School courses:
Health
PE
PE foundations</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
•Debate- 4 years; Treasurer Sophomore year & President Junior/Senior year
•NHS- 2 years; President Senior year
•Latin Club- 3 years; President Junior/Senior year
•Student Council- 2 years; DASH committee chair Junior year & VicePresident Senior year
•BPA- 2 years; Secretary Junior year & President Senior year
•Literary Magazine- 3 years
•SixFlags- 1 year; employee for the entire 2010 season</p>

<p>Honors:
•Debate: I've placed in several tournaments in both Student Congress and Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking. I was chosen as the Novice of the Year my freshman year, and Varsity Excellence my Junior year. I also won my school's course award for Oral Interp. I hold a degree of Superior Distiction with the National Forensics League.
•BPA: Placed 5th in region for Extemporaneous Speaking
• Science Fair: I've made it past preliminaries and competed in my school's Science Fair all three years, winning third place my Junior year.
•Latin: I received a Magna Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam
•English: I was a member of my school's society of English scholars both freshman and sophomore year. My school didn't continue it this past year.
•Hispanic Merit ___: My counselor informed me that I qualified for Hispanic Merit, but I don't know yet how far I'll go yet. </p>

<p>Volunteer:
•Recycle pick up with StuCo approx 100hrs
•Miscellaneous with StuCo events approx 30hrs
•Trash pick up with NHS approx 15hrs
•Miscellaneous with NHS approx 30hrs
•Community library approx 50hrs</p>

<p>SAT:
800 CR
650 Math
730 Writing
Total: 2180</p>

<p>I'm registered to take the Lit and Math2 Subject tests in Oct.</p>

<p>ACT:
29</p>

<p>First time, little to no preparation. I got really frazzled on the math, and it threw me off for the rest of the test. I'm registered to take the next upcoming one.</p>

<p>I plan on applying ED to their School of Social Sciences to pursue Policy Studies.</p>

<p>I need you all to be brutally honest, because I have no idea where my likelihoods for this school stand, and I'm afraid of getting my hopes too high.</p>

2

<p>Also, I have a few questions…
(Sorry this is so long!)</p>

<p>•Musical Instruments: I’ve played the Clarient since 5th grade, but I didn’t pursue band in HS because I knew it’d take a lot of time that I felt would be better used in academics. Can I still list that I play, or would it be better left off my app because I didn’t pursue it. Similarly, I took guitar lessons for 2 years 5-7th grade and still play, but not publicly. Is it worth mentioning?</p>

<p>•Multilingual: My native tongue is Spanish, but it’s become extremely rusty for me to speak because I rarely (if ever) use it. It’s my mom’s primary language, though, so I’m still very clear on it and know exactly what is being said. Should I list myself as multilingual? I myself can hold a slightly choppy conversation, but I understand the language perfectly. I never pursued it in HS because I thought Latin was much more fascinating and wanted to be challenged. Should I leave it off since I don’t have anything to tangibly attest for my proficiency?</p>

3

<p>your credentials will get you in. you have an excellent shot, even if you rd (not ed). mention truthfully any and all your talents and accomplishments. application is not a place to be very humble.</p>

<p>i also think, you may have a shot at other top schools, so i wouldn’t lock myself at rice if you want to explore more choices - stanford, all ivies, vanderbilt, duke etc. are good choices for you and can provide good fin aid.</p>

<p>strongly encourage retaking sat and act with good prep.</p>

4

<p>Rice has pretty much been my dream school since middle school. I really can’t picture myself anywhere else. (:</p>

<p>Thanks so much for your feedback; I’ll go ahead and list them, and I’ll definitely retake my SAT/ACT to get them farther up there.</p>

5

<p>PleaseRice - Your stats are good and put you in range to get in. Work on your SAT to try to boost the math, if possible. Being a URM will help a little</p>

6

<p>You’re in good shape, but you should try to break 700 on the SAT Math to improve your chances.</p>