<p>Hi, I really want to go to Rice and I would be really happy if you guys could evaluate my stats.</p>
<p>GPA: Literally, it's perfect...Straight A's, toughest courses...blah blah blah...enrolled as dual-credit with roughly 50 hours to date
URM/F/H-Town, Texas
SAT: 680m/690v/670w...retaking in Nov...practice tests look like 720s-790s in all three areas...took SAT IIs in Oct...no idea yet
CR: 1/approx. 60
ECs: Pres 3x, VP 2x, various awards, NHS, debate, etc.
Summer Stuff: Research opp at TX Medical Center/summer school</p>
<p>So assuming I turn in a pretty darn good essay (I'm getting a friend from Rice to look at it), and my box is pretty interesting (No rice grains I promise), what would you say my chances are if I apply ED?</p>
<p>Just kidding I just saw that you answered that already. Being from Texas will make the decision a lot harder but you are a URM so that will help a lot too.</p>
<p>I am a freshmen at rice right now. I didn't have great SAT scores (1300 and mid 600's on SAT IIs), but I had a good GPA and high class rank. I am also out of state and a minority.</p>
<p>Write an essay about some unique experience you have had. If at all possible try to show how you have overcome some sort of difficulty. Never write about a death in the family or travel. I applied ED and wrote my essay on growing up in the rural wilds of Alaska and how difficult it was to transfer into a public high school (hence overcoming difficulty). Also never try to get sympathy as admissions officers will hate that.<br>
I have a question of my own. I had to send in my SAT I scores which were really bad (1100 but I had the flu so it was not a good representation of my ability) and than I also sent in my ACT scores which were a lot better. Anway will they just throw out the SAT I scores and only judge me on ACT?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Travelogues have become trite as time has gone on. I found this really funny article that highlighted some of the opening sentences you should NOT use. I'll try and look through my bookmarks. At any rate, I think the adcomm would consider the test score that best enhances your application. BTW, are test scores in Nov applicable? Best of luck to you dude!</p>
<p>Yeah I just found it on their site November is the last applicable testing date. Goodluck on the essay that is truly the hardest part of any college application (at least it was for me anyway).</p>
<p>lol thanks. i'm about to start writing a supplemental essay. i don't think it should be too difficult. it took me about 1.5 week(s) to get a polished draft of the regular admissions essay. good luck!</p>
<p>I had a long response written to this thread earlier this week and then my browser crashed... I'd given up, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like I need to say something.</p>
<p>Pilebay said something about never writing about a death in the family or travel. I think the more important thing is to have pure motives as to what you're writing your essay for. If you're writing an essay merely to generate sympathy in the reader and to get pity points in the hopes that they'll feel bad about rejecting you, then no, that won't work. If, however, an experience with a death of a close friend or relative has led to a true change for the better in your character, or if that has molded your personality in some way and you want to discuss that aspect of your life, <em>and</em> you can convey that motivation successfully in your writing, then I don't see why you should avoid that topic.</p>
<p>Likewise, with traveling, saying "One time I went to Australia! It was cool! I learned a lot! I saw koalas! Once I saw a kangaroo!" then you're missing the mark again. Your essay is a time to show Rice that you're an interesting individual. If talking about a really awesome travel experience is a way that you can do that, ("Few people would call traveling to Reyjkavik, Iceland, a vacation, but to an avid rock-climber like myself, it was just another step towards getting to the vast arctic glaciers for the greatest adventure of my life,") then by all means write about a travel experience.</p>
<p>Writing about a difficulty that you've overcome is only as good as what you ended up learning from the experience, and showing how it has defined you as a person.</p>
<p>Rice wants to know: Who are you? What makes you tick? Why are you different, what will you contribute to our community, why should we let you live here and work here for four years? Give 'em a reason. Don't be like everyone else, because you're not. Show your individuality. You're not an automaton droid who has mechanically taken all your classes and has outputted a 4.0 and a 2400 SAT score, and Rice doesn't want someone like that anyhow. They'd much rather have the person with the 2070 and the 3.6 who is <em>really</em> interesting and passionate about what they do.</p>
<p>Thank you for the clarity on that aibarr. Excellent points. The only reason that you should not write about a) death in the family b) travel esp. a foreign exchange program c) girlfriend/boyfriend or d) how a book has changed your life is because these are the most common essay subjects. My english teacher handed out an article on how many people write about these things (literally about half of the college application pool will write about something listed above). Once the admissions committee is on their 50th essay on an exchange program to France they just won't be interested anymore. You want your essay to be entirely unique and different from what everyone else is writing about. It should be memorable and stick out when read. If you are an excellent writer and very tactful these topics are fine. For the vast majority of us who stuggle to show passion in writing however, such topics will be almost certain doom in the admissions room.</p>
<p>Hmm...I was thinking about what to submit as "supplemental information"...should I submit a recommendation from a close mentor of mine who's got an awesome doctoral degree from a top engineering school, or should I write an additional essay about how I enjoy the sciences? I'm kind of torn about this...I have already really unique essay (for part II) that has probably never ever been reproduced that shows an intensely personal but humorous side of me. Would it be too repetitive for me to have two essays? Or would it be better to have the recommendation...? Ayudame! :)</p>
<p>If I were you I would go with the essay. It would show a greater insight into who you were especially if it were humerous. Besides think how many people used an additional letter of reccomendation as a supplement. Even I did this. I actually got a totally awesome letter from one of my teachers that went to Yale. If your other two reccomendations were strong go with the essay. If one were a little weak however go with the letter of rec.
Just curious but I was wondering what other schools you were applying to? I am having the hardest time coming up with safety schools that I would actually want to go to.</p>
<p>LOL--MIT is better than Yale :-P I feel great about her recommendation as well as my teacher recommendation, but not too sure about the counselor recomm...>.<....I may just include that and the essay...or is the thicker the folder, the thicker the head?</p>
<p>That's exactly what I was about to say... careful about overstuffing your file. Sounds like you've got a pretty good file already, if you're confident about your essay. You can tell your MIT friend that if she wants to send in an unsolicited recommendation, that'd be okay, but oversubmitting supplemental info is probably not the best of choices.</p>
<p>I wrote about a traveling exchange program for my app last year. I was admitted. If you want to read it I think I still have it on my computer and I can pm it to you. For my supplemental material, I submitted an article about me that appeared in my city's newspaper. I think it might have given the adcom more insight into my personality and I did actually mention about my goals which including graduating from Rice. I think that I also submitted a couple of photos from my exchange trip to Thailand. The trip was really meaningful to me so I wanted to show that in my app continually.</p>