<p>Hi guys, I have a really odd, unique question for you knowledgeable CC'ers. Thought I'd ask here before I call those good people at Rice.</p>
<p>So, for UT-Austin, you can establish Texas residency (which my Dad has...and I will be under 18 when i graduate, so I will be dependent on him...which means I will have established Tex. residency as well) and get in-state tuition/fill out the same app. as Tex. high school students.</p>
<p>Now, I know UT is a state school and things like residency matter for acceptance/tuition and the like. I know tuition will be the same for me at Rice whether I am international or in-state.</p>
<p>BUT, will I be more likely to get into Rice because of this residency establishment? UT has that process where you can establish residency, but does Rice have such a policy? Would my acceptance chances go up from having established residency?</p>
<p>I have more questions, but I'll ask if people know the answers to those q's. Don't wanna be annoying asking a lot of q's at once.</p>
<p>NO it will wont have any affect on your admission. The majority of people at Rice aren’t even from Texas(although there is obviously a good proportion from Texas). If anything It would be “easier” to get in out of state but nobody except for the admissions officers can prove that as fact or not.</p>
<p>ok. would you know if establishing Tex. residency would make it easier to get scholarships and such <em>IF</em> i am admitted?</p>
<p>And btw, I am seriously considering UT too, but I am scared that the enormous student body and classes will make intro. sciences classes very hard (intensive weeder classes). Would this be the case at UT? And how are the “weeder” classes at Rice, if there are any?</p>
<p>I would say the science classes are pretty tough at Rice, but I wouldn’t necessarily call them “weed-out classes.” There is no grade deflation, but it requires tremendous amount of hard work to earn good grades in them. It also depends on your ability; some people are naturally really good at science and can earn As without putting much work in (I wish I was one of those people).</p>
<p>I don’t think it will matter if you are in-state or out-of-state for admissions or scholarship… it is a factor, but a small factor indeed. However, it seems Rice does offer a lot of merit scholarships to well-qualified out-of-state students with the hope of luring them to Rice and spreading its name in places where it is relatively unknown. I do know a lot of students from Texas, and even Houston, who also got merit scholarships though.</p>
<p>^^^ *** are you talking about aufossil? Its harder to get into Rice if you are a Texas resident. 54 percent of Rice kids are from Texas (The Majority of Rice kids are from Texas—Aufossil look at college board), as a result Rice is trying to gain more geographic diversity, which means they prefer kids to come from different parts of the country. Viggy Ram, it WILL HURT your chances of getting into Rice if you are a Texas resident. Rice wants to expand its name recognition to other parts of the country.</p>
<p>UT science classes from what I have heard are a lot LESS difficult than the science classes at top 20 schools. Top 20 schools tend to be A LOT more selective than UT, as a result at a top 20 school you are competing with a much brighter student body. From my experience at Emory only the top 15-20 percent of the kids in a certain class are supposed to get As (I am sure thecase is similar at Rice), the rest get Bs/Cs/Ds/Fs. It will be much easier to make As at UT because the student body is not as competitive. I am not trying to scare you ViggyRam, but if you do the work, getting As shouldn’t be a problem. Just be ready to sacrifice the majority of your social life at top 20 schools. (I have to study like 5 hours a day outside of class to do well at Emory).</p>
<p>^^^ Some Rice professors joke with their students when the explain about the difficulty of their exam by saying things like “Well, if you thought my test was too difficult, you should have gone to a party school like UT or Texas A&M”----Source: Former Rice Student who is currently at Harvard Medical School.</p>
<p>and okay according to the Rice website, Rice has 51% from Texas(college board says 54% so I would trust Rices website more fyi) so at the moment Rice is BARELY majority Texans. I DID say that getting in out of state was “easier” but I put it in parenthesis for a reason. How much does residency REALLY contribute to their decision? I would think the ONLY time it would influence their decision is whenever they are a borderline candidate with the decision to either accept them or put them on the wait list. If you are a competitive candidate and deserve to go to Rice…you will get in, residency or not. If you dont get in it is most likely that you were not “qualified” to get in not because you hailed from the Lone Star State</p>
<p>And from what i have heard about admissions, Rice plans to make Rice go under this 50% mark this year so Rice will be majority out of state starting this fall.</p>
<p>^^^ I don’t know about the whole kids from Texas who are exceptionally qualified can still get into Rice part of your comment. I have a lot of friends, from Texas, who were rejected from Rice yet were accepted to Stanford, Yale, MIT.
For example, 1 of my friends was valedictorian of his school at one of the top high schools in Texas, had a 2370, managed to get into MIT but was rejected from Rice. He was quailfied engough to get into MIT but was rejected from Rice. I have seen other kids, with similar stats, from Texas, get rejected at Rice, but accepted to Stanford and Yale. How do you explain that?</p>
<p>which is why i put qualified in parenthesis because every school has there own standards on what they look for so an applicant may be extremely academically qualified but not be the fit that the school is looking for</p>
<p>ok, so would it be easier to just apply as an International and forget about mentioning my Dad working in Texas and that according to UT’s admission policies (idk about Rice’s) I am an in-state resident? I don’t even know if Rice has a similar policy towards establishing Tex. residency (I live in Canada by the way).</p>
<p>And if I don’t apply for financial aid, how much merit aid and the like do they give out? I just wanna get an idea of what the costs would be at Rice vs. UT vs. Texas A&M. </p>
<p>I understand what you guys were saying about the hard work, because the student body is so bright that to succeed among the brightest, you must put in so much more effort. I still don’t know what I want out of my undergrad experience. Med School is the goal, so I know it’ll be hectic in med school. So, idk if I wanna work extra hard in undergrad, THEN work super hard in med school. Idk if a party school like UT suits me or not. </p>
<p>I’m used to being the “big dog”/“big fish” at my school, so I also don’t know how I’d adapt to a place like Rice where so many people will be brighter than me. One things for sure though, I love Houston! My cousins live there and I love visiting.</p>
<p>I think classes at Rice are tough- but my son still has a social life and makes good grades. And spends hours each week organizing and participating in his club sport - so I’m not buying the whole “have to sacrifice the majority of your social life” thing…</p>
<p>Something to think about with smaller schools like Rice is the limited schedule. At UT you will have several sections of each science course to choose from which gives you so much more control and flexibility with your schedule. </p>
<p>Also, you should look closely at representations about class sizes. Last year, we contacted registration to compare class sizes between the schools. Surprisingly, UT actually had smaller sections in many freshman courses. You really need to look beyond the brochures. The course listings and registration numbers tell a different story. Rice may offer one or two sections of a class that UT will have six to eight sections. Although they do not mention it in their high school recruiting visits, all of my friends at Rice had classes pushing if not exceeding 200 their freshman year. </p>
<p>They are both great schools. It’s just something to consider.</p>
<p>ok, ic. does Rice have any formal grade distributions that they adhere to? Like some schools give our X% of As, Bs, Cs, etc. Does Rice have this? </p>
<p>Also, would you say that getting a certain GPA at Rice would be equally as tough as getting the same said GPA at UT or TexA&M? Pretty much, I read that undergrad uni. doesn’t matter for med school admissions (only in rare cases), but I just wanna know in terms of workload/competition. I would assume it would be tougher at Rice due to the limited classes and given that the student body is already quite bright.</p>
<p>Also, Rice has the Tex. Medical Center right near it, which is great for a premed. I guess I should consider that too. And that the dorms and campus seem nicer and more “cozy”, whereas UT is just enormous and for some reason I get the sense that the enormity of it gives it a “Survival of the fittest” atmosphere…which is probably way off what it truly is like, but i’m not sure</p>
<p>I’m premed myself. Rice as a university doesn’t have a policy that only a certain % of students can get As. However, some professors might although I have found that the grading system of most of my professors is quite fair.</p>
<p>ok, that’s good to hear from a person already at Rice. Would you say that you have to work harder/the competition is a large factor in premed classes in comparison to maybe the schools your friends go to (“lower ranked” ones)? </p>
<p>Are premed classes cutthroat and hard to get a high GPA in? And what are the real perks of going to Rice over say UT? And is the majority of the classes curved or not? And does this make a diff. at a school like Rice? And how so?</p>
<p>And I see you were from Cincinnati, what made you choose Rice? (I’m Canadian, so I’m pretty far up north too, so I’m trying to get an idea of what makes so Rice great, now that you’re actually there)</p>
<p>I would say premed here is very tough (as it is at most places), but I wouldn’t call it cutthroat. Students here are quite collaborative. If you work hard, I think you can pull off good grades. As I said, the grading here seems pretty fair, but I have only taking one semester of General Chemistry (don’t know about other premed classes, but I heard from upperclassmen that they are manageable). It’s all up to you.</p>
<p>Some of the reasons why I chose Rice : small size, tight-knit community, beautiful campus, lots of resources, residential college system, and lots of opportunities to get involved. I suggest you check out campus yourself to see it Rice will be a good fit for you (although I realize it will be hard for you since you are in Canada).</p>
<p>I think I am going to go down in the summer (cousins live in Houston, so I can combine the trip and take a few days to visit A&M, UT, and Rice…maybe Baylor?). </p>
<p>I looked at the virtual tours on Rice’s website and it looks beautiful. It looks, honestly, like a place I’d want to stay for 4 years without any second thoughts. I’m just worried about, as most pre-premeds are, about GPA/competition, etc.</p>
<p>And btw, as an international applying for financial aid will severely lessen my chances. So, if you don’t apply for FA, how much merit aid or other monetary rewards can you expect? Did you apply for FA or not? And in either case how much did you get? My family is in that situation where we don’t necessarily need FA, but we also can’t pay it off like its nothing.</p>
<p>It is quite tough to get merit aid at Rice. Rice is a tough school to get into, so it will be harder getting merit aid. However, 30% of incoming freshmen do get it, but you need to stand out in the admissions process. You don’t have to apply for FA to get merit aid… all students are automatically considered based on their application.</p>
<p>I don’t think applying for FA as an international student will hurt you significantly. Contact the admissions office to see if they’re need blind with international students… there are merit scholarships awarded to outstanding international students (check out the financial aid webpage).</p>
<p>About 30% of Rice students get merit aid, but I believe that includes the students who get the small ($2,000 or so?) National Merit award. Rice is pretty generous with merit aid, but as Slik Nik says, there’s tough competition for it.</p>
<p>Students at Rice who apply to med school do VERY well in med school acceptances - so I wouldn’t worry that attending Rice would inhibit your ability to get in to med school. (quite the contrary!!!)</p>
<p>all right! thanks everyone. Basically the only thing turning me away from top schools/good schools is the GPA factor. Also, in a place like HYP, idk if I can manage with such overachievers and people who might seem stuck up. But Rice seems great. I think Rice and UT will be among the top of my list.</p>