<p>Ok, here's my issue. I'm a junior, male, Florida. My grades are good; 4.25 weighted/ 3.9 unweighted. 7 APs by graduation, 5 Dual enrolled, almost all others honors. Very good EC- selected for county leadership program, 4 years baseball, football, NHS, Collegiate studies class rep, ITS- performed at state level, 100+ hours community service. Problem is, I don't test well- 26 ACT, 1750 SAT. What are my chances? I'm visiting next week.</p>
<p>This is just one parent’s opinion, but it seems to me that Rice puts greatest emphasis upon class rank. ECs are probably second and test scores third. Admissions wants to know that you are near the very top of your local learning environment. Having said that, high class rank usually correlates with high test scores, and to increase your chances you need to buy some test study guides and retake the ACT and/or SAT. You should also be aware that if you rely on a SAT score you will also need to take two SAT2s</p>
<p>My rank is #13/ 351. I am in the Collegiate Studies program, which is the equivalent of IB. I am scheduled to take both tests again this spring.</p>
<p>It seems unlikely that class rank could be the thing they think of as most important. There are many high schools that don’t rank their students. My daughter’s high school doesn’t rank, and she’s a sophomore at Rice.</p>
<p>Lorey3–That’s a tough one. Maybe you’ll hear from some current Rice students who were in a similar position, but even then, you may have something they didn’t, and vice-versa. If you’re interested in Rice, you should apply and see what happens. Good luck!</p>
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<p>I co-sign that. If you look at the stats, a good number of admitted students come from schools that don’t rank (see [Rice</a> University | Prospective Students](<a href=“http://www.futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Admission_Statistics.asp?SnID=2]Rice”>http://www.futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Admission_Statistics.asp?SnID=2)).</p>
<p>Anyway, I definitely wouldn’t say that you have no chance of getting in at all. If you see that link that I just posted, you’ll see that they DO admit some students with low test scores. This is probably because those applicants sent in applications that were only weak in test scores.
If I were you, I’d look into investing into an SAT/ACT prep course, take the test again in the fall as a senior, and then send in the better score. At least that’s what I did.</p>
<p>If you’re going to take it in the spring, buy an SAT/ACT book to study and see if you can increase your score.</p>
<p>I think the stats page supports the view that class rank is very important. The page posted by Ohsnap shows a big drop in likelihood of admission as soon as an applicant drops out of the top 5% of their class (ranked #1 = 44% admit; #2 = 42%; top 5% = 35%; 6 - 10% = 14%; lower ranks are worse).</p>
<p>50% of the applicants did not have a class rank and so it cannot be directly used for those students, but the admissions counselors often know a lot about certain high schools. They “know” how to translate gpa and “most challenging curriculum” into approximate class standing. Unranked students have approximately the same overall admit rates as ranked students, but Lorey3 can take some comfort that he is above that 5% class ranking.</p>