If Rice holds true to form for previous years, there is no advance warning for anyone applying RD in the form of likely letters. The RD decisions appear in the portal shortly before April 1. Last year it was Friday March 24 around 5 pm Houston time. Recruited athletes have different procedures and mostly signed on signing day and/or were admitted ED. As others have said, getting invited to the SOAR or VISION programs usually is tantamount to admission. Those programs are for URM or socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Rice makes concerted efforts to recruit a socioeconomically and racially diverse class. This year Rice admitted 51 QuestBridge scholars as part of ED admissions.
Also important to note is that the ED release this year did not follow patterns from previous years (Fridays at 5 pm) and instead came out with no advance notice on a Thursday at 5 pm. There is a new VP of enrollment at Rice - the former dean of admissions at University of Pennsylvania - so almost certainly there have been some changes this year to the way in which Rice reads applications. Not sure if this will impact the release date. See https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-elite-colleges-review-an-application-in-8-minutes-or-less-1517400001; Rice is mentioned.
@Faulkner1897 at VISION she indeed did say they had adopted a new, more efficient and holistic way of reading applications. The director of admissions didn’t mention a specific admission decision day either when we asked 
anyone knows the exact date of notification release?
Like @MaybeHarvard2022 pointed out, da Silva’s new “technique” is one she brought from UPenn. Though this wasn’t stated at VISION, the technique was discussed more in-depth (and with an interview from da Silva herself) by the Wall Street Journal in an [url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-elite-colleges-review-an-application-in-8-minutes-or-less-1517400001]article:[/url]
In essence, the new application review form is basically assigning two (or sometimes more) readers to different aspects of an application, creating a smaller “admissions committee.” This new form does bring with it the caveat of the reader pairs/teams being the last eyes to see an application in the review process. All I hope is that it brings good luck to those accepted to schools like Rice for other admissions decisions.
I’m just trying to understand this new process, but I’m having some trouble. Does this mean that one person only looks at stats, and if they’re really good, has to defend your honor from somebody who read a mediocre essay? Usually it would work with poor grades and amazing essays, but not sure how it would fly this way.
As always, it’s also really scary to think about all my 4 years of hard work and effort put into my application judged in 8 minutes by a school I’ve loved for years. :-??
GA Tech has adopted the same system. There is a really good post from their AD on his blog. The way he described it in their model was that a full-time admissions officer focused on the academic stuff and recommendations which built upon history/knowledge of each school in their region (what each transcript looks like, what AP courses exist, etc). They have part-time admissions people that they hire for the season that are then assigned to read the essays and review ECs. After each reviewed their part, they discuss together and generate the initial evaluation. They claimed the advantage was 2 people looked at each application initially vs one and each could focus more on individual areas. The FT person brought knowledge of the school and recommenders while the essay/EC evaluator wasn’t expected to need that level of detail. It is true that with 10Ks of applications and a limited number of AOs and time they must process each application in only a few minutes of person-effort. That is true whether they have 1 or 2 people do the initial read.
@anxiouswreck :
I first want to address the last part of your post. As universities receive larger volumes of applications (this year being one in which many universities received record numbers, from UPenn and Harvard, to Stanford and MIT), they can only dedicate so much time, especially in the time window of January through March. To some extent, 8 minutes is the “golden time,” where on occasions some schools are as generous as to offer 15 minutes to an applicant, and in contrast I think some only give 4 minutes.
The benefit in this new process is expediting the understanding of yourself as an applicant, while also facilitating the decision making process. Now, a person can determine your academic caliber, while another understands who you are on a personal level. Thereafter, the team can piece the puzzle of you together, and see how you’d fit in at the institution. I genuinely don’t believe this process is too bad, as it does strengthen the decisions AOs make (since they can be dedicated to a singular aspect of the applications). Again, my only concern is the teams are often the “final say.”
@tvpeople My understanding of AO routines at private schools before was that a regional officer read your app, and if they liked you, they fought for you in front of a committee, which then voted accept/waitlist/reject. I agree with your last concern. Now it looks like it’s just a 2 people glimpse and done. I see why they have to do it, and I don’t blame the colleges- it just kind of sucks that the effort you put in is over in a matter of even less minutes and less people than before.
Does anyone know how many were deferred this year? What are the percentage chances (approximately) that the deferred will be accepted? Thank you!
What do you guys think my chances are? Rice is my top choice and I’m really anticipating the decision. 36 ACT, 1540 SAT, 800 SAT 2 Math 2, 4.3 GPA, high rigor of AP courses and good extracurriculars
@07anxiousaf It’s very clear your numbers are there, but you know that Rice will look at much more than that. Nobody but an AO will be able to tell you your chances after reading your essays. Best of luck, and congratulations on all your achievements!
Has anyone heard how many students were deferred from Rice in the early round? Also, does anyone have any idea when decisions will be released? Thank you so much.
@Burke1 most likely march 23rd.
Thanks for letting us know. Also, do you know what percentage were deferred? Thank you!
@anxiouswreck Dont worry, I think regional AOs still review apps (they’re the first cutoff/gate). I think the team reviewing is for the applicants that admissions are genuinely considering.
I am honestly just so burnt out from this whole process!
I am the most inpatient person so having to wait this long for a decision especially from the two schools I got deferred from is killing me! I just need to know already.
I spent three summers on Rice’s campus for camp and loved it. I really hope they have a holistic approach when reading applications.
@PBern123 I’m pretty sure they look at it holistically. I got deferred and I have a 1370 on the SAT. Plus, I accidentally sent them some bad subject test scores under 700.