High school sophomore, what to do to get into my dream school (Rice)?

Applying to College
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<p>Hi CC! I'm an entirely new member on this forum, and as a first-generation college student, I'm a little lost as to what I need to be focusing on (as far as test scores and extracurriculars) to get into Rice? Rice is absolutely my top choice and Id absolutely die to go there. Seeing as I haven't taken my SAT or ACT yet, I'll try to fill you in on some of my other info</p>

<p>I'm rank 1 in a class of 626, with a weighted GPA of about 109 out of 120, which translates to a 4.0, according to my counselor. I'm a Houston native, economically disadvantaged. I took the PSAT last year and scored a 210, placing me (then a freshman) at the 99th percentile in reading/writing and 98th percentile in math among Texas sophomores. I took the SAT in seventh grade and scored a 690 in writing and 710 in reading (my math score was absolutely horrendous). </p>

<p>For ECs and awards I'm extremely involved in my school's band, with multiple leadership positions, state solo and ensemble, and region band under my belt. I love volunteering at church and Linches of Love, and when I turn 16 I plan on logging hours at my area women's shelter. I'm in student council and plan to become am NHS officer next year. I won Freshman Head of Department in our school's social studies and foreign language department, with star honors in fine arts. I placed in 3 finals categories at Texas French Symposium as a freshman, I traveled to Europe for humanitarian work in impoverished areas in rural parts of Ireland during the summer of 2012 with my church, etc.</p>

<p>I know I don't have much numerical data to go off of, but if anyone (especially Rice alumni/students/fellow hopefuls) has any advice as to what I should be working towards, it'd be greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>Thank you!!</p>

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<p>Forgot to mention my AP scores, I scored a 5 on Human Geo last year (99 average in the class) and I’m expected by my teachers to score 5’s on AP Psych, World History, and French Lang this year (100 averages in Psych and French, 99 average in WH). If you couldn’t tell, I’m a massive humanities nerd (Rice’s School of Humanities or Social Sciences is my goal). </p>

<p>Again, any help is greatly appreciated, even if you detest Rice and have no affiliation with it whatsoever. I’d love anything pertaining to the types of applicants these elite schools look for. </p>

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<p>Totaly an aside but Ireland is a pretty much well developed 1st world country, what kind of rural impoverished parts of Ireland are there that would result in a humanitarian mission? </p>

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<p>One of our church members had family connections to a community living in what I would define as squalor (trash everywhere including human waste, children without sufficient clothing, houses entirely dilapidated). Most of our work was organized toward babysitting some of these children (who normally played unsupervised near roads and swamps) and general cleanup, especially of the human waste. </p>

<p>Humanitarian was probably not the right term, I apologize. Ireland is indeed very developed, this was more of an isolated case outside of an urban area. </p>