Rice University ED Class of 2020 ****OFFICIAL THREAD*******

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

Hi everyone-just wanted to make the thread for this year’s decisions, discussions, and questions regarding Early Decision at Rice University. Here is the template to post for the decisions in Mid-December. In the meantime, feel free to use the template and post your credentials now and update later. Thanks!

Choose One:
Decision: Accepted
Decision: Deferred
Decision: Rejected

Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown):
•ACT (breakdown):
•SAT II (place score in parentheses):
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
•AP (place score in parentheses):
•IB (place score in parentheses):
•Senior Year Course Load:
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
•Job/Work Experience:
•Volunteer/Community Service:
•Summer Activities:
•Essays:
•Teacher Recommendations:
•Counselor Rec:
•Additional Rec:
•Interview:

Other
•State (if domestic applicant):
•Country (if international applicant):
•School Type:
•Ethnicity:
•Gender:
•Income Bracket:
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection
•Strengths:
•Weaknesses:
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:
•Where else you are applying or have already applied:

General Comments/Advice/Hindsight:

2

Put this in the Rice forum.

3

Guess I’ll start! I’ll update with status when I get it in December. I want to go to Rice so badly. Hopefully I get it…

Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t send
•ACT (breakdown): Composite (33) English (33) Math (31) Reading (36) Science (30) Essay (8)
•SAT II (place score in parentheses): Didn’t send
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96 unweighted, 5.30 weighted
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 out of 391
•AP (place score in parentheses): Calculus AB (3) Chemistry (3) English Literature (4) Environmental Science (4) Studio Art: 2D Design (5) English Language (3) Psychology (5) World History (5) Human Geography (5)
•IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
•Senior Year Course Load: Honors PLTW Biomedical Innovations, Dual Enrollment Composition I/II, AP Government, AP Biology (double blocked as Biology 2 Honors), AP European History, AP Calculus BC, AP Micro/Macroeconomics
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction, National Merit Commendation, Alliance for the Arts Honorable Mention High School 2D Design

Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Key Club (President since 11th grade), Recycling Club (founder), National Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society (Treasurer 10/11 grade), Learning for Life Medical Explorers (Vice President and Historian since grade 11), Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce Junior Leadership, 4-year varsity swim team (co-captain since grade 10)
•Job/Work Experience: 6 months (April to October) at local bowling alley, had to quit for school work
•Volunteer/Community Service: 181 hours currently (will gain more)
•Summer Activities: Volunteering once a week at local hospital for about 4 hours, online courses, traveling
•Essays: Fairly good, I could have improved my common app one a tad but I thought they were overall good
•Teacher Recommendations: I believe it was good. My AP Chem/Bio teacher wrote it and she said mine was “easier than most”
•Counselor Rec: I know my counselor well. I bet it was good
•Additional Rec: n/a
•Interview: I’m not doing one. I could only do an off-campus one, and I don’t think it will contribute enough to go through the stress of it

Other
•State (if domestic applicant): Florida
•Country (if international applicant):
•School Type: Public
•Ethnicity: White
•Gender: Female
•Income Bracket: $150,000-$200,000
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Physical disability. Also, I have a few connections at the school. Will not specify.

Reflection
•Strengths: I believe my essays, rank, GPA, workload, and extracurriculars are good
•Weaknesses: I’m not sure my ACT is high enough. May be just average for Rice. My AP Exams have been weaker mainly because of poor teaching
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: n/a
•Where else you are applying or have already applied: University of Florida (pending) and University of South Florida (accepted)

General Comments/Advice/Hindsight:

4

Does anyone know the exact date Rice sends out the ED results?

5

December 15

6

Actually the Rice website says that Notification of Admission will be made “By December 15”. Last year the decisions were posted at 5 p.m. EST, on Friday, December 12. This year the equivalent would be on Friday, Dec. 11 or Monday, Dec. 14. I’d bet on the 14th though they reserve the right to announce as late as the 15th.

7

How do you get decisions? Are they announced online or by email? Or by mail…?

8

The decisions are announced through Rice Student Portal

9

Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t send
•ACT (breakdown): Composite (34) English (33) Math (35) Reading (33) Science (34) Essay (8)
•SAT II (place score in parentheses): Didn’t send
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.79 unweighted, 4.54 weighted
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 13 of 639
•AP (place score in parentheses): World History (4) US History (3) European History (4) English Literature (4)
•IB (place score in parentheses): Spanish (6)
•Senior Year Course Load: AP Anatomy & Physiology, AP Government, AP Macroeconomics, IB History, IB Math, IB Biology, IB English, IB Information Technology in a Global Society
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Honors, National Merit Commendation

Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): International Club (Historian), Student Council, National Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Gay Straight Alliance, Muslim Students Association, Junior World Affairs Council, Future Medical Professionals
•Job/Work Experience: N/A
•Volunteer/Community Service: ~100 hours
•Summer Activities: Volunteering weekly at library, traveling
•Essays: Fairly good. I’m sure every kid of foreign parents wrote about their other culture like I did. Second essay was about being an atheist in a religious family, so maybe that will be a little unique.
•Teacher Recommendations: Good but probably didn’t bring anything new to the table.
•Counselor Rec: My counselor told me that the CommonApp “rec” was just her filling out some stuff so idk
•Additional Rec: n/a
•Interview: I’m doing mine tomorrow. Will update.

Other
•State (if domestic applicant): Texas
•Country (if international applicant):
•School Type: Public
•Ethnicity: Asian
•Gender: Female
•Income Bracket: ~$100,000
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation

Reflection
•Strengths: My essays?
•Weaknesses: Honestly everything about me is pretty average
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: n/a
•Where else you are applying or have already applied: UT Austin (accepted)

10

Did you guys get an email about ESTHER today? It made me make a login, but when I logged in everything gave me an error and said it only supported Firefox?

11

I got the email, but I haven’t started it. I wouldn’t worry about it until admitted or rejected.

12

Back to OP

Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): Super Score of 2020
•ACT (breakdown): 28 Composite, 36 on the Essay
•SAT II (place score in parentheses): 680 Math 1, 710 US History
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 4/695
•AP (place score in parentheses): World History (5), Spanish (4), US History (4), European History (5), English Language (3); currently taking Economics, Government, Statistics, and Psychology
•IB (place score in parentheses): Not Available at my School
•Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP Economics, AP Government, Professional Communications, Teacher’s Aid, AP Psychology, Dual Comp 1, Dual Comp 2, Dual Sociology
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Hispanic Scholar, AP Scholar with Distinction, State and National Competitor for NJROTC

Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Student Council (President), JROTC (Chief of Staff, Former Commanding Officer), FCA (Co-Captain), RGV LEAD Student Ambassador, NHS (Executive Secretary), First Robotics, UIL Academics
•Job/Work Experience: McDonald’s Employee (Summer 2015), Intern for Local Newspaper (Got Published)
•Volunteer/Community Service: Week Long Mission Trip to Navajo Nation, Tutor for at-risk-freshmen-drop-outs, over 500 Community Service Hours with JROTC Alone
•Summer Activities: Interned as mentioned above; Train Freshmen Cadets during Fish Camp
•Essays: I don’t know, they were okay, I guess
•Teacher Recommendations: Written by my Math Teacher who I had for two years. It was lovely, made me cry.
•Counselor Rec: I’m sure it was great
•Additional Rec: English Teacher wrote it, not bad
•Interview: Off Campus, it went well, I talked a lot, I think she liked me, we’re both Liberal Arts people and bashed on STEM Majors

Other
•State (if domestic applicant): Texas
•Country (if international applicant):
•School Type: Public
•Ethnicity: Hispanic
•Gender: Male
•Income Bracket: 100,000 +
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Generation College Kid, I have hobbies lol, I taught myself piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, and box drum in my four years of High School

Reflection
•Strengths: I’ve got a great Resume
•Weaknesses: I don’t know, I want to say my essays were great, but I feel subpar, my test scores aren’t too high either tbh
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: We’ll find out
•Where else you are applying or have already applied: A&M, UT, UNT

General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: Pray

13

Yeah I got my link over the weekend. I registered fine on my phone via Safari

14

I haven’t gotten an email from Esther but my friend also EDing to Rice did. And so did you guys. Highkey freaking out here.

15

I wouldn’t worry at all. Those mass emails take about a week to reach everyone. You’re okay.

16

Last year the decision came out on Dec 12. I’m really hoping that they do the same this year, maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be earlier. This wait is killing me :stuck_out_tongue:

17

Holy crap, I’ve been actually lowkey freaking out for the past 2 weeks

18

I went back through the CC threads of the past four years to see when Rice released ED decisions and there is no clear pattern.
2014 – Friday, Dec. 12 at 5 pm EST
2013 – Monday, Dec. 16 at 12 pm EST (supposedly issues with California somehow delayed things - ??? )
2012 – Friday, Dec. 14 at 12 pm EST
2011 – Thursday, Dec. 15 at 5 pm EST
Next Friday, the 11th, seems to early. Most likely is Monday, the 14th, or Tuesday, the 15th.

19

I know, I can’t wait either! I think once we get our decisions, whoever feels comfortable posting it on here along with some stats/personal info should do that. And if we get some Rice students to answer prospectives’ questions that would be nice too.

20

Decision:

Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): superstore 2200(math-740, reading-740, writing-720). First time 2050 second 2180.
•ACT (breakdown): 30-didn’t send
•SAT II (place score in parentheses): 630 chem 590 molecular bio
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.74 unweighted 4.44 weighted
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 33/413 top 8%
•AP (place score in parentheses): World History(3), Computer Science (3), Statistics(4), Chemistry(3), APUSH(4), Lang(3)
•IB (place score in parentheses):
•Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP lit, AP bio, AP gov, and AP eco.
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
AP scholar, 1st place essay writing NSF

Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Lots of band stuff: marching band(Pit captain)-two years state finalist, indoor percussion-won state championship, full orchestra,and solo and ensemble-state , tennis-varsity dance, NHS(vice president), mu alpha theta, Hosa, maybe a few other minor ones.
•Job/Work Experience: Research trainee/intern at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Not sure if this is considered work but earned a stipend.
•Volunteer/Community Service: NHS, Project Cure, Disability camp
•Summer Activities: Camp counselor, research, Rice writing camp
•Essays: I have no idea. I only showed one person.
•Teacher Recommendations: Two teachers I knew for 3 years. 8/10
•Counselor Rec: Completely new counselor but she seems nice. 6/10
•Additional Rec: NA. I wish i did send an extra one in.
•Interview: I had an interview back in august when school started. It was on campus and went ok. The person was very nice, but it took me awhile to get comfortable. It took a little over 30 min.

Other
•State (if domestic applicant): Texas
•Country (if international applicant):
•School Type: public
•Ethnicity: Indian
•Gender: female
•Income Bracket: ~180,000
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection
•Strengths: Reseach, extracurriculars
•Weaknesses: my sat II scores are horrible, Gpa,
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:
•Where else you are applying or have already applied: UT -accepted biochemisty, A&M- accepted biomedical sciences

General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: