Please give advice: I want to transfer to Rice

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

I’m (most likely) going to TAMU this fall. I’ve already been rejected from Rice this year, and I’ve heard that the only thing harder than getting into a top school is transferring into one. I know I need to seriously focus on college academics but are there any tips for me coming from any Rice transfers?
What should I do in the summers to boost my chances of transferring?
What do admission officers look for?
How big of an impact does the high school transcript make? (given I’ve already been rejected once)
How big of a factor is standardized testing?
Should I try interning at Rice?
What are my chances of transferring?
As someone who is planning on attending med school, is it really the best idea to transfer out 1 year in?
^ I know that question may be answered by my personal experience at TAMU, but I would welcome any other opinions.
I would like to imagine that as a transfer applicant Rice would overlook my history and see my achievements from post-high school, but if it weighs my high school transcript as well as my college one, then I almost don’t see a point in applying as I’ve already once been rejected.

Thanks! Any replies would be appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

If you try and transfer to Rice after your freshman year at TAMU they will only have one semester of college grades to look at and would almost certainly deny you since they denied you based on your high school work.

3

Gotcha. I thought it wasn’t until end of freshman year that you transferred. So then this is it? Do people normally transfer after Sophomore year? And also, does it mean that most transfers didn’t initially apply to the school?

4

If you try and transfer in as a sophomore a college will look at your high school record. To be admitted as a transfer after being denied as a freshman your college performance needs to be a lot better than your high school performance.

5

So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
And also, I didn’t do so hot on my essays first time 'round. You live and you transfer, as the saying goes.

6

IF you do exceptionally well at TAMU.

Also they may want to know what Rice can offer you that TAMU cannot offer, other than prestige.

7

Got it. Besides that, do you have any other advice? Have you personally transferred? If you had, how was the experience? Do you recommend it?

8

I successfully transferred into Rice, so I can give you my own perspective. I will try to answer your questions from an objective standpoint, while also providing my own overall thoughts.

  • What should I do in the summers to boost my chances of transferring?
    You have a number of choices. If you purely want to boost your choices of transferring, you can intern, volunteer, or do other work that is related to your field of interest. Additionally or alternatively, you can do something unique that will set you apart from other applicants. For example, you can volunteer overseas, start your own business, etc. Obviously, this may take a lot more work than simply applying to a company at which you can work, so you may be limited to the resources available to you.
  • What do admission officers look for?
    There's a few common denominators in Rice students. One group of students may be extremely smart (e.g., high gpa, high test scores, genius level intellect, etc.). Another group of students have achievements in a wide variety of fields. That is, they definitely have good experience and skillwork in the field they're studying, but they also have other unique traits. For instance, you may find an engineer who also participates in triathlons. Or you may find an economics major who is very good at coding and CAD.
  • How big of an impact does the high school transcript make? (given I've already been rejected once)
  • How big of a factor is standardized testing?
    I'll answer these couple of questions in the same section as they relate to high school stats. Unfortunately, if you're a first year transfer, they seem to emphasize high school accomplishments quite a bit. As posted above, they will really only have one semester's worth of your college achievements (plus maybe some midterm grades), so there's not of college experience that they can examine. Personally, I was rejected from Rice coming out of high school with an average high school profile compared to other applicants, then I was rejected again as a first year transfer student despite having (in my opinion) pretty good college stats. I basically maintained my college performance for a second year and finally made it in. So I think it took two years for my college achievements to outweigh my high school achievements.
  • Should I try interning at Rice?
    Definitely worth a shot if you can find an opportunity. I'm not familiar with pre-med related internships at Rice, but you can certainly reach out to professors to ask if you can help with their research. However, professors may prefer to give such opportunities to Rice students (e.g., because Rice students can continue to work with them for many years), or you may have to work unpaid. I still think it's worth reaching out to them, just to see what sticks.
  • What are my chances of transferring? Without seeing your high schools stats, I really have no clue. Just know that even if you get a 4.0, have research positions, participate in extracurriculars, and so forth, you may still be held back by your high school achievements and there's nothing you can do about that except retake your standardized testing, which I do not recommend. To add salt to the wound, Rice's transfer acceptance has been dwindling substantially over the past few years. About five years ago, they guaranteed Rice transfers would have housing on campus for at least their first year, which meant they had to decrease their transfer acceptance rate greatly to fit everyone on campus. Additionally, this past year, they added the Rice Investment program and expanded financial aid a ton, which likely makes Rice much more attractive to middle and lower class applicants. Rice's high school applications have already increased dramatically (up 30% or something) compared to last year, and I can only imagine that would increase transfer applications as well. Further still, for the past few years, Rice has over admitted freshmen, which led to some housing shortages. So to mitigate the housing issues, they may decrease the number of transfer acceptances as well.
  • As someone who is planning on attending med school, is it really the best idea to transfer out 1 year in? This is where things plunge into a grey area. As a former transfer, I know the mentality of being shut out of your dream school. You probably did well in high school, at least well enough to compete for a spot at Rice. And you may very well deserve a spot. However, going into college with the mindset that you are attending a place that you feel is below you is poisonous. College is an experience, not an end result, that you should enjoy. If you go in with negative feelings about TAMU, you may not open yourself up to having a good experience there. Moreover, as a pre-med, it really doesn't matter where you go for undergrad. At the end of the day, med schools will see your overall achievement, which includes your GPA, leadership activities, MCAT score, extracurricular, essays, interviews, etc. The name "Rice University" is simply a name that gets tacked onto that application. Sure, a 4.0 at Rice may look better than a 4.0 at TAMU, but it sure doesn't look as good as a 4.0 at TAMU plus medical research, scribe experience, ambulance volunteering, and EMT certification. And who knows, maybe you'll be able to achieve that 4.0 at TAMU a bit more easily too. But again, I know what it's like longing for more, so if you feel the need to transfer, you should apply, even if just for a small victory of solace that you did everything you could to get into Rice.
  • Final thoughts Make sure you understand why you want to transfer. Are you looking to transfer to anywhere that's highly ranked or Rice in particular? In any case, why? For prestige? Because as I mentioned, your undergrad university is just a name. For something only offered at Rice? If so, make sure that something is worth the effort at Rice, and make that abundantly clear when you apply (e.g., on your essays). I have spoken to a surprising amount of people who have, at one point, highly considered transferring (not necessarily relative to Rice) but did not end up applying to transfer, and they seem happy with where they are at. I personally think my decision to transfer was, without a doubt, the right decision, but they ended up being for reasons that I did not expect to play such a huge factor, such as the weather, the city, and the student body that is second to none.

If you have any other questions, feel free to message me directly as well.

9

Congrats ChiGuy123!
I can’t PM since I haven’t met the ‘Junior Member’ quota, so I’ll just post a reply here:

Thanks for the well-thought-out response.

I have a few questions:

First off, what school did you transfer from? I’m curious because this may play a large factor for Rice admissions.

Also, could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘an average high school profile compared to other applicants’, since this could mean salutatorian or something still insanely competitive?

Do you think it was worse transferring the second year as opposed to first?

How did you get your professors to write for you (clearly) outstanding recommendations?

What major are you pursuing at Rice?

Did you apply to other Universities besides Rice as a transfer, or just Rice?

Thanks!

** My thoughts on what you said

I agree with doing things related to my field in the summer, and I fully intend on trying to earn an internship at Rice, if not, then at a hospital or with a researcher.

I have a few friends that were accepted into Rice, and I definitely agree with what you said admission officers look for.
Yes, I know you can’t predict my chances of transferring but I’m not ready to publicly disclose my stats yet. I’m especially worried about how so many more students are applying to Rice, and over-enrollment issues specifically.

I completely acknowledge that going into college with the ‘I don’t belong here’ mentality is unhealthy, so I’ll be doing my best to love the aggie lifestyle. I’m definitely doing it more for prestige than anything else, but that’s not to say I don’t recognize the huge research and social opportunities Rice provides me.

Huge thanks once again!

10
  • First off, what school did you transfer from? I transferred from a top 40 or so university (you can sift through my profile to check precisely which school). I've also seen people who have successfully transferred to Rice from schools ranked near 100, from schools in the top 10, from small liberal arts schools, even from a nearby school beyond top 200. So there's a pretty wide spectrum.
  • Also, could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘an average high school profile compared to other applicants’, since this could mean salutatorian or something still insanely competitive? I had slightly below average test scores and GPA (for that time, it's definitely below average now), but had pretty decent extracurriculars (e.g., graduated early to intern full-time) and a unique circumstance. I think my stats were competitive enough to receive a second look at my application, but maybe not impressive enough to push me over the top.
  • Do you think it was worse transferring the second year as opposed to first? Hard to say. I did lose a year because of transfer credits and ended up graduating with my bachelors after five school years. That definitely hurt my pocket more, but I also was able to gain additional valuable experience and enjoy the undergrad experience a bit more. With that extra year at my previous institution, I may have also been able to self-reflect more, thereby gaining some further insight about what I desire in an institution that was insufficiently fulfilled by my previous institution. So I was able to adjust more easily and pursue the experience that I sought at Rice.
  • How did you get your professors to write for you (clearly) outstanding recommendations? I was really able to connect with one professor, almost like a personal friend. He was really chill and understood my perspective about wanting to transfer. He not only taught a class that was really interesting, but he was a fun person to talk with and we conversed outside of the classroom, such as about baseball and other non-school related topics. Plus, I worked my tail off for his class, which was basically a class that he created by himself, so he probably appreciated my effort and show of interest. My other letters of rec were from my respective curriculum advisors. I really didn't talk to them much and I wonder what they actually wrote for my letters of rec. I did do well in the respective classes they taught, but other than that, there wasn't a whole lot that they could write about me.
  • What major are you pursuing at Rice? I actually graduated already with a degree in mechanical engineering.
  • Did you apply to other Universities besides Rice as a transfer, or just Rice? The first year I was just going for a few higher ranked schools, so I wouldn't have wasted too much time/money in case I ended up not wanting to transfer. I ended getting rejected from all of them, which included Wash U and Northwestern from what I can remember, in addition to Rice. The second year I simply wanted to get out, so I applied to a few more places just to see what would stick. I ended up doing pretty well, but was rejected from Northwestern (again) and Tufts, which were, peculiarly, the only two decision that I received after I had already accepted Rice's spot.

Thoughts on your thoughts
If you are very set on transferring to Rice, make sure you have specific features of Rice that you can discuss, other than the prestige. Not only can you find prestige anywhere (e.g., an honors college at any university can be considered prestige), but it’s a bit of a cliche reason for wanting to transfer.

Also, meet as many people as you (comfortably) can right off the bat. It sounds like a given, but I think it might be especially important when wanting to transfer. Sometimes, just having the right group of people you know is enough to convince you stay. I’ve seen it happen first hand, both at Rice and at other institutions. And if you still want to transfer despite having a good group of friends, then maybe a change of scenery is what you’re looking for after all.

One thing I do want to mention is that you may face a significant amount of backlash from people who do not know you personally. What I mean is that, surprisingly, people who don’t understand your situation or your side will relentlessly try to poke holes in your reasoning and persuade you not to transfer. Annoying as it is, take that as an opportunity to hear things from their side. If you think their arguments hold water, you may have to re-evaluate your decision. Don’t simply ignore what they say or convince yourself that your own reasons are better, but actually approach their arguments head on and nullify them. Or some issues will never go away.

11

One thing that I’ve noticed about transfer applicants, is that they all have a compelling reason on why they need to transfer. The reason is usually academic, but not always.

What does Rice offer that is not available at A&M? My guess is that there aren’t that many majors that are at Rice which are not available at a big school like A&M. You might have a more compelling reason to transfer if you were to go to another school besides A&M. It will make for a weak application if you enroll at A&M as a pre-med, and then apply for transfer to Rice with the same course of study. Since both schools have premed coursework, the reason won’t be compelling.

As pointed out above, the prestige of undergraduate degree is given very little weight in the med school admissions process. It is taken into consideration, but overall your GPA and MCAT will be the key determinants. Go wherever you can get the highest GPA. Will you be able to maintain a high GPA at Rice? To be competitive you’ll need a 3.8 GPA.

12

May be but size and academic level of classes are bound to be different at Rice type selective schools compared to A&M type elective schools. Also Rice is a small residential community in an urban environment, not a mega campus in a small town. As far as undergrad doesn’t matter for pre-Med philosophy, it undermines the fact that pre-Meds are still young scholars with only one shot to fully benefit from an undergrad education they crave. Just because someone is doing pre-Med, doesn’t have to limit their educational experience to trade certification.

13

@Asiankid10 I think that you might find the premed classes at Texas A&M to be significantly more difficult than you are expecting. You should go in planning to work exceptionally hard in very difficult classes. If you want to go on to medical school, or if you want to be able to transfer to Rice, then you are going to need a lot of A’s, and very few grades other than A’s. If you are premed you will also want to do some volunteering in a medical situation.

Do not transfer to Rice with the hope that it will help you get accepted to medical school. It won’t. If you are going to transfer to Rice, do it for some other reason with the understanding that a change in schools after your sophomore year may make it more difficult for example to get good references, and might be a bit disruptive to your academic studies or just to your life.

14

One other point: each medical school applicant has to have a letter from the Health Professions Committee. A school like A&M has many many more students to review compared to Rice. Also the ability to get a professor recommendation that is more personalized might be easier at Rice.

But apart from these differences, your chances at med school admissions won’t be considerably different from A&M. Your chances at a school like Baylor will probably be harder if your transfer to Rice. Because of the existing combined program between Rice and Baylor, they are less likely to accept students who are not part of the program.

15

Not true, percentage wise Rice and Baylor send most students to Baylor School Of Medicine, even though both have combined programs.

Rice is a much smaller school so in terms of sheer numbers they don’t send as many but the percentage getting in is high. However, if Med school admission is the only reason to do an undergrad then it doesn’t matter where you go.

16

My son who is currently at Strake Jesuit was accepted to a premed program (BS Bio or chem) at a Jesuit college with a presidential merit scholarship with GPA of 4.3 and ACT 33 but is inclined to accept Biomedical engineering offer at UT Dallas (doubtful if he can get any merit scholarship) per my advice that if he decides not to pursue medicine then he can stand on his own with an engineering degree. I heard a lot of stories from friends/parents of being unable to get into med school which leaves them with few options with their regular premed tract.

17

It’s not only an issue of not being able to get in, many hop (or pushed by parents)on pre-med wagon without knowing their aptitude and interest, they benefit immensely from being able to find a major they feel passionate about and get a solid undergrad education before deciding on a profession and envision their future.

18

@DadTwoGirls
I’m actually applying to volunteer at Methodist this summer. I’m definitely not expecting TAMU premed to be easy at all.

At the current moment, I face another dilemma: I’ve been admitted to eng which is just general eng for all freshman. I’m worried that with such vigorous courses, my GPA is gonna be affected and I’ll struggle to maintain a premed worthy GPA. Am I hurting myself by choosing to major in engineering with the goal of medicine?

Here’s what led to this:

  • bioengineering, according to my parents, offers more ‘opportunities’ as in if I suddenly decided medicine isn’t for me, I’ll have a viable ‘fallback plan’. The problem, the way I see it, is that this ‘fallback plan’ may be a self-inducing prophecy, as now it’ll be (much?) harder for me to pursue a med track with a tough freshman year course.

-If I instead transfer to biology, will I be able to graduate with any useful skills if I decide not to pursue medicine?

19

@Riversider
Yea, that’s why I’m actually majoring in bioeng, so if nothing else I’ll have a chance in the workforce.
My parents don’t push me, and I’ve just loved biology. I don’t really have a lot of job exposure at the same time, but when I shadowed 2 doctors in the past I’ve definitely felt more inspired that anything else.

20

@sgopal2
Not only do I look for personalized education, but I also definitely think that the environment you are put in (especially for college) affects your temperament greatly. At least from personal experience, in my high school being completely swarmed with people who are all competitive has made me much more competitive compared to myself in middle school.

I never heard of the Health Committee letter. Have you applied to Med school in the past? Can you tell me a little about your undergrad experience if so?