<p>This is for a friend whose son was given a very strong promise of a 90%- 100% athletic scholarship should he choose Rice. He attends a small public high school and has an ACT of 28 and weighted GPA of 4.1 and wants to pursue engineering. His particular sport involves year round dedication and I am concerned engineering at Rice with those stats AND keeping up with demanding athletics might be more than this student can handle. He has also received inquiries from Harvard, Yale and Duke for his athletics. Opinions??? His family is enamored with the prestige of the Ivies and is not familiar with how wonderful Rice is.</p>
<p>Not to be tacky, but I question his dedication to his education now, as his scores/grades are “ok”, but nothing more. It could be that the demand of the athletics has made it difficult for him. </p>
<p>In some ways, college is much eaiser in terms of time commitment. You aren’t taking 6-8 classes every day from 8:30-3:00 and then going to practice for another hour and a half and then getting home to eat dinner, do homework, do chores.</p>
<p>I believe the answer to your question about athletics and engineering at Rice depend on the sport, the coaches, and the student’s ability to manage their time. </p>
<p>If the student is taking only one major and comes in with some AP credits, yes, it is doable at Rice, with the exception of the last couple of weeks of the semester when papers, projects, presentations, and finals are due (that count significantly in your grade). Now if the student has worked ahead (where possible), then obviously there is more time to not be in crunch mode.</p>
<p>Although Rice is Division I, I do think (and don’t have any real “facts” to back this up, it’s just my perception), their attitude toward sports (probably depending on the individual sport) is more like Division III. They want student athletes. </p>
<p>But OI assume they were very bright students with stellar stats to begin with? This young man is bright but I don’t know if he would be competitive in regular Rice admissions. That is why I wonder if he is setting himself up for a very demanding challenge.</p>
<p>I agree 100% with dragon2owl. Balancing athletics and engineering can be really challenging and you may not have a lot of time left over, but if you enjoy it then it is definitely do-able.</p>