<p>Rice University has not accepted a single student from a large high achieving public school in a new England town. It is very odd because it was the top choice for a number of the applicants who ended up at Ivys and some at flagships. They were outstanding candidates. Naturally Rice is very competitive so it is understandable that none of the students this year were accepted but what about over the last decade? They must consider school and have decided they don't like this one.</p>
<p>I am pretty certain Rice won’t discount a qualified applicant based only upon their school. I also doubt they give that much attention to a single high school in New England. There can be a lot of other factors that influence the process, not to mention coincidence and the fact that college admissions aren’t perfect and are based off of more than quantifiable achievement. I can’t tell you what the specific reasons were in this case, but I can say confidently that Rice didn’t simply decide that it doesn’t like your school. I don’t mean to discredit the qualifications of the applicants in question, though.</p>
<p>No, almost never, unless the school itself in unaccredited. It just shows as the admissions committee often likes to say “the strength of the applicant pool.” Perhaps they were more important factors, such as what they are looking for in students. This was a similar case in my school where a student had not been accepted to UPenn for several years, yet were accepted to schools like Yale and other top LACs. It may depend on department as well. Upenn for instance is very well known for wharton, possibly explaining the difficulty of getting in.</p>