<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): 2000 (Reading-720 Math-630 yeah I’m Asian and my worst subject is math Writing-650) I didn’t send my SAT scores. I will forever despise the SAT. Sorry, those hours of SAT were torture for me. It’s just like the amount of sections just wore out my brain. I really prefer the ACT’s four sections.
•ACT (breakdown): 33 (English-32 Math-32 Reading-33 Science-34 Writing-10)
•SAT II (place score in parentheses): n/a
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): (2 out of about 600)
•AP (place score in parentheses): (World History-4, U.S. History-5, Chemistry-3, (I didn’t want Rice to see this, but it got sent in my Questbridge application because they recommended I submit all my scores, and then I realized that I couldn’t take it out before I sent it to Rice. Since I got accepted though, I don’t think the 3 hurt me very much.) English Lang.-4
•IB (place score in parentheses): My school doesn’t offer these.
•Senior Year Course Load: Band, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Government, AP Economics, AP Biology, AP Seminar, AP English Lit.
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Questbridge Finalist, National Merit Commended, AP Scholar with Honor</p>
<p>Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):Wind Ensemble (1st band-1st chair bassoonist), Marching Band, Indoor Percussion, National Honor Society (Treasurer), Interact Club, TMEA Region Band, Tutoring, Yuan Ji Wu, Hospital Volunteer
•Job/Work Experience: n/a
•Volunteer/Community Service: Over 300 hours of volunteering from hospital, animal shelter, babysitting, tutoring, library, NHS related Activities. (I didn’t tell Rice that I volunteered so much though, I just told them about the volunteer stuff that I was involved in the most.)
•Summer Activities: Hospital Volunteer
•Essays: It took me so long to write these. I just couldn’t come up with a good idea. I think one of my essays was kinda cliche but I still tried to convey my personality to the admission peeps. The other essay talked about unconventionality, which is pretty important to Rice. You know, unconventional wisdom and what not.
•Teacher Recommendations: They’re both teachers that I really loved, so I think they were good
•Counselor Rec: She’s really nice and amazing, but I didn’t know her very well when I asked her because she was new. I’m sure her recommendation was good though.
•Additional Rec: n/a
•Interview: I had an interview with an admissions person who was very nice. I think it went pretty well. It wasn’t extremely amazing, but it wasn’t bad either.</p>
<p>Other
•State (if domestic applicant): Texas
•Country (if international applicant): U.S.A.
•School Type: Public School
•Ethnicity: Asian
•Gender: Female
•Income Bracket: under $25,000
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): 1st generation</p>
<p>Reflection
•Strengths: I showed a lot of interest in Rice. I did an interview, campus tour, overnight stay, information session, etc. and then I used my experiences of Rice in my “Why Rice?” essay. I also told them that Rice was my definite first choice. Questbridge finalist.
•Weaknesses: Chemistry AP score, not high course load freshman, and sophomore year (I was always discouraged from taking advanced classes because I wasn’t put in the “advanced” program in school, but then I found out that my rank was high, and after that I decided not to let others hold me back and began taking the advanced classes that I wanted to take. So life lesson kids. When people don’t believe that you can do something. Prove them wrong…Wait let me add a condition. Prove them wrong as long as it doesn’t endanger your/anyone’s life and as long as it doesn’t cause mass destruction & chaos.)
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Being a Questbridge finalist definitely helped me stand out. I also showed a lot of interest.
•Where else you are applying or have already applied: I applied to UT, A&M, Baylor, and Tulane. I was going to apply to Emory, Pomona, and Washington University in St. Louis regular decision, but then I got my Rice acceptance.</p>
<p>General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: Believe in yourself. I went through this whole college application thinking that I wouldn’t get into Rice, my dream school, and that put a lot of stress on me. So, I know that even if I tell you not to stress out, you’re probably still going to stress out. I was like that too, but still. Try to enjoy yourself. Believe in yourself. Do whatever you can possibly do to help your application. Do whatever it takes so that you won’t regret not doing it later. Also, show interest in Rice. Maybe talk about unconventional wisdom in an essay or something. That’s like Rice’s motto. In the box picture thing you have to submit please don’t put a picture of rice, the food, put something unique to you, I put a picture of my pet rabbit that I love a lot, it doesn’t have to be something that will impress the admissions office, it just has to be something that is important to you.
Sorry for this super long post, but I know that when I was looking for help through the application process, I was grateful to people who spent time typing out information for other people to see, so this is my attempt to do the same and help ya’ll out. </p>
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