<p>Hi there everyone. I just applied to Rice RD! I would have loved to apply ED but since Im an international who needs financial aid, I wasnt able to.</p>
<p>Anyhoo, I was looking at the class of 2017 profile and something that really stood out was the lack of diversity in terms of countries the students hail from.</p>
<p>Theres just like 18 counties and around 70% of the international students are from Korea and China. Even for a private small university, this looks odd.</p>
<p>Im not trying to hate on Rice or anything. Just wondering why this is so? Personally Im a citizen of a country that isnt represented in class of 2017 and was born and raised in the Middle East which again isnt represented in the class of 2017. So this worries me a bit....</p>
<p>Question remains. Why so low on diversity!!!!</p>
<p>^
Maybe it’s because there weren’t any people qualified to attend Rice in your area of the world. Rice promotes diversity and wouldn’t reject anyone simply on the grounds of race. A lot goes into their decisions, much of which we do not know. However, I cab tell you with 100% certainty that if a person from the Middle East applies to Rice and is qualified, they would stand just as much if not a greater chance of being admitted than any Texan, Chinese, or any other nationality for that matter.</p>
<p>^
“Maybe it’s because there weren’t any people qualified to attend Rice in your area of the world.” Frankly, that statement comes off as a bit arrogant and is very inappropriate. It’s very ignorant of you to think that people from a certain “area of the world” aren’t qualified enough to attend Rice.</p>
<p>For clarity’s sake I’d like to mention that I didn’t intent to insinuate that Rice rejects applicants based on their race.</p>
<p>The fact remains that just 18 countries is too less.</p>
<p>There’s no need to get all defensive especially since I already did mention that I myself am applying to Rice.</p>
<p>Did I say that people from the middle east were less classified? No. I said that the reason that no one from the middle east is represented is because they were not picked by the admissions officers, most likely because if there were any applicants from the middle east, they must not have been qualified to attend. Otherwise, they would have gotten it. It’s not some kind of big conspiracy. There is no reason why a perfectly qualified person from the middle east would not be admitted. I’m not attacking your region of the world, I’m simply stating the obvious.</p>
<p>These are my reasons</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Rice does not have the international brand recognition of similarly ranked schools (Stanford, Duke, HYP/Ivies, MIT etc.) As a smaller and much newer university than the aforementioned, the global alumni base is much smaller, leading to lower exposure.</p></li>
<li><p>President Leebron has increased Rice’s exposure and recruitment in certain areas, especially China. This has resulted in many more Chinese applicants and students.</p></li>
<li><p>Texas has a weird reputation internationally. Most people do not realize how big Houston is, they think it is some small Texas town. Couple that with the Ted Cruzes in the news and European/other applicants have a very unfavorable view of Texas.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My personal story – US Citizen who lived abroad through Middle and high school. Very few people knew about Rice and when I told them, I fielded questions such as “do they have paved roads there” and “do people ride horses around”. So, go figure :)</p>
<p>@DukeHopeful18 :</p>
<p>SgtDoakes is absolutely correct. Rice suffers from a lack of international exposure, limiting the number of applicants from your region. Rice wants international applicants, but it definitely can’t let in sub par applicants just because they were born and raised somewhere. Statistically speaking, given an already extremely low pool of applicants, the number that are up to par will be next to none. </p>
<p>Also, if anything, Rice will give a boost in admissions to someone from a region/country that is not represented at the university.</p>
<p>I’m inclined to agree with Antarius but not SgtDoakes.</p>
<p>It’s more plausible that people don’t apply to Rice from around here than to think that people from here apply and are not qualified enough to get accepted.</p>
<p>…Except that was exactly what SgtDoakes was saying. He wasn’t saying that there are a ton of people that apply from your region but don’t get accepted because they aren’t qualified, just that in all probability there are some that applied, but weren’t accepted. If they were accepted, then there would be international students from that area at Rice. But there aren’t. Thus, stating the obvious.</p>
<p>…except that SgtDoakes didn’t mention anything about the number of people applying and Antarius did…</p>
<p>Also, saying “stating the obvious” doesn’t make anything obvious by default. There’s absolutely nothing “obvious” in the statement “Maybe it’s because there weren’t any people qualified to attend Rice in your area of the world.”</p>
<p>If you are telling me that this statement is supposed to mean " not a lot of people apply from the area but those who do are not qualified enough" then i’m sorry (im not sorry), but he does fail to successfully convey what he wants to say…</p>
<p>This is also going to be my last answer because i do not intend to take part in any petty fight over technicalities. especially on a forum…</p>
<p>Antarius’s answer was the most relevant to this discussion because it was “clear” and to the point…unlike the other ones…and that is all there is to it…</p>
<p>**The discussion was never about my “part of the world” it was about diversity at rice…(refer to the title).</p>
<p>have a nice day everyone!</p>
<p>Anyone from anywhere can apply to Rice. If you are qualified, you can get in. My son’s roommate is from the Middle East! Of note, my son did a “survey” of every student living on his floor last year. Everyone was at least bilingual or trilingual.</p>