Rice Low GPA/High SAT chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>I have a very erratic application. Wonderful scores/ECs, pretty good service, semi-hook, poor GPA. This is gonna make for some interesting college app decisions..</p>

<p>I don't want to waste anyone's time with a 7 page long list of achievements or something. But here are the most important parts of my App. I left out a lot of less important stuff where I didn't have leadership positions and whatnot.</p>

<p>My application is based a lot around my interest/activities in the environment, my scores, and my achievements outside of school in various activities. </p>

<p>Everything I XX is stuff I will particularly try to highlight somewhere in my app.</p>

<p>XX SAT: 800M, 800CR, 750W
SAT IIs: 740 Math I, 720 Math II, 750 Literature, 700 biology</p>

<p>GPA: 3.48 Unweighted/4.17 Weighted (Top 8% in class) In magnet school. But yes my GPA is bad for top schools.
But my first senior semester GPA was a 3.85 </p>

<p>Leadership:
XX Tennis team captain/3 year MVP (Top rank of 17th individual in my State)</p>

<p>XX Environmental Action Team President/founder</p>

<p>Founder of Ultimate Frisbee Club at School</p>

<p>XXX Leader of several service projects at school including one called Food Wars, which won a National award for creativity and success. Other projects included sending hundreds of letters overseas for troops, collecting books for soldiers, and planning/doing special olympics.</p>

<p>XX Youth Activities Organizer in my Apartment Complex (plan festivals, fairs, etc.)</p>

<p>Head Tutor at where I tutor (1st-8th grade students)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars</p>

<p>XX Tennis Team (Captain)</p>

<p>Ultimate Team (Co-captain)</p>

<p>Math Team (State Champion team)</p>

<p>XX Environmental Action Team (President)</p>

<p>Envirothon team (7th place at State competition)</p>

<p>XX Top 10 ranked high school chess player in my state, top 100 player among all players in my state.</p>

<p>Academic Achievement</p>

<p>XXX Winner of State Spelling Bee in 2008, Attended Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.c., PLaced 60th out of 273.</p>

<p>XX Accepted to Keystone National Youth Policy Summit, debated/drafted Environmental policy there. Chosen as one of 6 students to propose final policies to local officials.</p>

<p>AP Scholar with Distinction (Becoming National AP scholar this year) Average of 4.2 on exams.</p>

<p>National Merit Commended Student</p>

<p>1st Place at Regional Science Fair and other county awards</p>

<p>Winner of Presentation contest for Research Symposium</p>

<p>School-wide Essay contest winner "Why 9/11 should be remembered"</p>

<p>Mu Alpha Theta/National Honor Society (Not really important)</p>

<p>Community Service</p>

<p>XX Community Tennis Coach for underprivileged (60 hours)
Community Tutor (40 hrs.)
XX Youth Activities Organizer (40 hrs.)
XX Goodwill Emporium volunteer (25 hrs.)
Elementary School Fundraiser volunteer (20 hrs.)
adopt-a highway participant (20 hrs.)</p>

<p>And a bunch of other smaller stuff. About 250 hrs. total.</p>

<p>My essays are great. And my recommendations were very nice.</p>

<p>So what do you guys think? Do I have a real shot?</p>

2

<p>I’d say, even with the bad gpa, you still have a shot. You’re still in the top 10 percent, so your gpa doesn’t make you totally disqualified. Applying is definitely worth it; you never know what could happen. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>

3

<p>I would look into [Rice</a> Environmental Club](<a href=“http://enviclub.rice.edu/]Rice”>http://enviclub.rice.edu/) and draw ties between what you’ve done in enviro high school circles and what you hope to add to the campus. You’ve done so much – and maybe a note from your college adviser can set your GPA into perspective. You sound like you have a lot of energy and experience to add to campus. I think strong essays could go a long way! Lots of good luck and kudos for all you’ve done!!!</p>

4

<p>Or try this … [Rice</a> University Enviro-Web](<a href=“http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~cses/]Rice”>Center for the Study of Environment and Society)</p>

5

<p>Rice does not just look at the GPA and decide. They compare your strength of schedule and your class rank as well. A 3.48 at a top school (which is top 10%) is better than a 4.0 where you take no upper level classes.</p>

6

<p>I don’t think this is a mixed application at all. This is an extremely strong application, including the GPA. The difference between the weighted and unweighted indicates that you took and did well in rigorous courses, and being in the top 8% indicates that you have a high GPA relative to your high school. Since GPA only carries any meaning relative to your high school, that’s all that matters. Each school calculates GPA differently, grades differently, and has different students, so there’s no one GPA number to shoot for - your class rank says a lot more (which is why a lot of schools manage to hurt their best students to protect their middle- and low-ranked students by refusing to report rank).</p>

7

I have very similar Stats compared to yours. Rice is my number one choice right now.
I am curious whether you got in Rice three years ago.

8

Looks like the op never responded but got into Vanderbilt and likely went there.