Guys just one question.
What is the USPS thinging everyone is talking about?
Also, does anyone know how to log into Esther for Financial Aid?
@WAITINGSOUL apparently you can create an account for myUSPS and it should notify you if you are set to receive a package and from where it was sent. It didn’t work for me. Also, I couldn’t log in to ESTHER either.
FYI - the package has still not shipped. Makes me think if it was related to Rice admissions at all!
I was able to log into my ESTHER account, but I created it back when I emailed the Financial Aid Office requesting my login! All my financial is on there (:
D was accepted! Making plane reservations for Owl Days in April. Don’t think we got any type of money (merit or need-based) so we will have to weigh our options with two schools that did give her some great scholarships… She is thrilled she was accepted though!
How do we get esther log in info? Will they be emailing them to us later?
I think you can email the Office of Financial Aid and request it-- they asked me for my student ID (from the application) when I emailed them back in February. Otherwise, the financial info will come in through the mail in a couple days @anicole45
I heard R/B was out but I didn’t get an email at all… Does that mean i can safely assume I didn’t get it? 
@newbiercer You look at portal, but then eventually they send an email if you got in
Keep your heads up if you were rejected( like myself) it doesn’t mean anything as there are sooo many qualified applicants. Where you get admitted and decide to attend you will surely prosper. To all those admitted CONGRATS, all the hard work has paid of and get ready for your chance to study at one of the best schools in the world!
How do you access your ESTHER account to see your financial aid award. When did they send the log in information?
For those who received a merit scholarship, did you find out through your Rice admissions portal or through the Esther portal? I can only view my admissions result on my Rice portal and I don’t have my Esther login information.
The admissions portal, the decision letter and the scholarship letter were in the same place.
@JuneA
I’ve noticed a lot of students this year for Rice haven’t really been posting these which is kind of sad, because it was helpful for me when seeing others’ for all sorts of different colleges and programs in the years before I applied.
Here’s my admissions profile! (I’m actually ED lol, but I thought i’d post in this thread for general if that’s alright?)
Decision: Accepted
Objective:
•NEW SAT: 1590/1600 (Reading and Writing 790, Math 800) Took ONCE
•ACT: 35 (E36, M36, R35, S33) Took once, did not submit
•SAT II: Math2 (800), BioE (800)
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
•Rank: No ranking/percentile at my school, but my counselor said if we ranked, I would be top 1% in a class of ~120
•AP: Calc AB (5), Calc BC (5), Enviro Sci (5), Bio (5), self study Comp Sci A (5), self study Macro Econ (5), US History (5), self study Eng Literature and Composition (4)
•Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C E&M, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Eng Language and Composition, AP Chemistry, World History/Global Health
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, Top Ten Finalist in Medical Innovations at HOSA-Future Health Professionals Internationals 2016, Toshiba Exploravision Honorable Mention 2016, USABO Semifinalist 2016, 1st Place in Behavioral/Social Sciences at Central Sound Regional Science and Engineering Fair, 2nd Place in Behavioral/Social Sciences at Washington State Science and Engineering Fair
(all were not ‘major’ awards, but worth mentioning I guess?)
Subjective:
•Extracurriculars: HOSA - Future Health Professionals (WA State Board Public Relations Officer, leading ~1900 members), She# Girls Code Outreach Club (President), Peer Tutor/Safe School Ambassador at school (since 2014), Youth Advisory Board for the Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team at Seattle Children’s Research Institute (since 2015)
•Job/Work Experience: Interned as 1 of 40 high school CS/Engineering interns (1 of 10 high school junior interns) at Microsoft for $15 an hour for 9 weeks(summer 2016), Interned over 160 hours at Institute of Systems Biology on aquaponics project(October 2015-June 2016)
•Volunteer/Community Service: Relay For Life Redmond (Social Media Lead, help plan and promote our yearly 24hr event raising funds and awareness for Cancer (since Sept 2015), Volunteering 3hrs a week at Seattle Children’s Hospital in gift shop (since May 2016), Volunteer at Vedic Cultural Center MCing, editing books, and leading Social Media Campaigns for the largest South Asian Cultural Festival in the Pacific Northwest with over 20,000 attendees (since 2012)
•Summer Activities: 9 week paid Microsoft Internship (2016), HOSA International Leadership Conference (2016), Chemistry Class (2015), Week-long internship with Seattle Children’s Research Institute Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team (2015), Precalculus Class (2014)
•Essays: They were okay, 7/10 - I’m not a good writer but I did try my best!
•Teacher Recommendations: My Comp. Sci teacher let me read hers and she really liked me: while it was kind of short, it talked about how I was her definite go-to when anyone needed help and that I was a skilled, passionate leader and why she thought so.
My AP US History was my favorite teacher and he was more than willing to write mine: while I never saw it, he wrote me a very thoughtful email the summer before senior year about how he believed I would go far and he loves that he can see I am ‘truly a learner for learning’s sake’ and being a humanities teacher I assume his letter was similarly well written and thoughful.
My AP Bio/Biomed teacher loves me but she is quite young and so her recc. letter ended up being a rewording of my resume along with some ‘she’s very hardworking and nice’ comments sprinkled in.
•Counselor Rec: She likes me, so it was probably pretty good but nothing extraordinary as she generally has basic knowledge about college admissions (she had no idea that combined med programs even existed till I told her I was applying to some)
•Additional Rec: I got one from the president of the Vedic Cultural Center so he could attest to the work I’ve put into volunteering and leading social media promotions for their festivals promotions for one of the festivals had huge increase in attendance by a couple thousand people under my first time doing promotions)
•Interview: It went okay, not as well as I’d hoped as she didn’t seem that interested in getting to know me - she just asked the required questions Rice had her ask.
Other
•State (if domestic applicant): WA
•School Type: Well-known STEM public school with class size of ~120
•Ethnicity: Asian-Indian
•Gender: Female
•Income Bracket: >200K
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Girl in engineering maybe? (nothing major)
Reflection
•Strengths: I don’t really think I have any particular strengths???
•Weaknesses: The interview didn’t go as well as I had hoped it would. I didn’t prepare super well as I should’ve, and I expected my interviewer to be more talkative and interested in learning about me than she was haha
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I applied ED so I had a feeling I would be accepted whereas I was more unsure about RD, because I’ve got barely there credentials if that makes sense
•Where else you are applying or have already applied: I applied/was applying to schools like WashU, Baylor (for combined med program) Duke, but obviously withdrew all once I got ED to Rice
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: none, i’m definitely not in the position to be giving out advice. still, good luck to everyone who reads this :))
@urenough If you not mind posting all of your stats and extracurricular so people may learn how you were able to get in. Maybe any hooks you had AP classes Junior and senior year income bracket
Is there a groupme? Or a results thread page?
Here’s a condensed version – Accepted
ACT: 35
Awards: NMF, some engineering competitions, academic competitions, a lot of musical awards at higher levels, National AP Awards
Academics: 4.0 uw GPA, class rank 4/900, 15 or so APs, 5 of them senior year, almost all 4s and 5s so far
School applied for: Social Sciences
ECs: Music! Tons of piano. Engineering Competition, Arts Competitions, NHS, Student Goverment, Internships, Community Service, founder of a few service programs and clubs
Essays: Common App very strong, Supplements well written, not that creative, but I talked specifically about the programs I liked at rice and how all my interests could be explored there. Nothing too exciting, but honest and showed commitment to Rice and all.
Recs: English Teacher (extremely strong I think, he’s a published author who is known for his recs lol), Math Teacher (probably well written, idk about content), another English teacher (really good, as well, hinted at my religious side so it might stick out a little), Guidance Counselor (no idea tbh), Piano Teacher (university professor, v educated)
Demographics: White, Midwest, about 130K income
@calmm0231 Is there any logic to the log in user ID? If so, we could use that and request a forgotten pin 
You know some schools have like last letter and application id number. I tied that though and it didn’t work.
Thanks
I’ll also post a condensed version.
Accepted
ACT: 35
Class Rank: 1 out of about 120-140
Awards: National Merit Commended Scholar, not much else comes to mind rn
Extracurriculars: Varsity XC and Track all four years (went to state 3/4 years for XC and districts/sectionals for Track junior year), Volunteered with an organization called World Pediatric Project and the humane society, treasurer of NHS, Spanish Club, Scholar Bowl (I kind of helped my brother revive the club because I’m the only one in my grade and it almost died out)
Essays: Probably pretty good, but I don’t really like to judge my writing so I’m not sure honestly.
LOR: My english teacher wrote one, and he’s super good at writing and likes me and my writing a lot, so that was probably a strong one. My history teacher also wrote one and emailed my mom to say that was one of the easiest recs he’d ever written so I’m sure that was a good one too.
Demographics: white female, Missouri, pretty high income
Does anyone know when Rice will tell you what college you’re assigned to? I’m really hoping for Brown :))