Right now he thinks Mechanical with some interest in Aero
Anyone off the wait list yet?
Not sure if it means anything, but an admissions rep called me yesterday to aak if I was still interested in Rice (I’m on the waitlist). They said that they’ll probably take some students off the waitlist, but not until later.
My son was accepted off waitlist last night! They called around 6:30 pm asking if he was still interested in Rice and if it was his first choice. When he told them that it was, he was offered admission. He has to let them know by May 1st.
^ Ditto.
Same thing with my son. Thought it was strange they would call before May 1 but very glad they did!!!
That’s really interesting that they decided to make waitlist calls last night! My friend also received the call last night, said yes, but was just told spots were opening up. Knowing her, she probably sounded doubtful as she’s pretty set on UT (Rice doesn’t have Aero).
Even more odd because yesterday I was notified I recieved a merit scholarship (one of the higher ones too) even though their website said all merit aid offers came with offers of admission. We called the AO and they again told us that merit aid offers came with admission, checked my account, told me that the scholarship was correct but that they couldn’t tell me more over the phone O_o I assume someone else turned down the scholarship but it’s odd they seem so secretive. Guess I was on the waitlist of merit aid LOL
Torn between Rice and GT right now…
@peppermintgum where did your merit scholarship appear?
@silverdrop i received an email that was entitled “You have been awarded a merit scholarship from Rice” dated April 22 that described the scholarship amount. I checked the rice applicant portal and it said “new status update” with the same message I was emailed. The scholarship also came up on my ESTHER account.
I assume you get an Ester account once you accept the offer and enroll in Rice???
@funtimes123 no, I received an email to set up my account in January, and I am most definitely not committed.
Are there still people on the fence about Rice out there. The school must know something somehow if they are already taking people off the wait list before national commit day. Are these genuine offers of admission now or a notification that they are expecting to pull people off the wait list next week and seeing if someone is still interested?
I appealed my daughter’s financial aid and they turned it around in in a couple of days for the better. My daughter is 90% sure that she will accept the offer to Rice.
Our daughter received the phone call Wednesday late afternoon. She was blindsided and didn’t know what to say, although she did express that Rice was still her top choice. We were out of town visiting another school at the top of her list. Rice subsequently sent her an email at 5:30 today saying her admission status had been updated. It was an official offer of admission. We are thrilled!
My sons was an official offer of admission and he has til May 1 to commit.
i was admitted off the waitlist as well 2 nights ago! I don’t know what to do though. I sent my deposit to Brandeis already and I am struggling to choose between Rice and Brandeis. I want to be pre-med and I know both schools are excellent for pre-med and have high acceptance rates to med school afterwards. Both schools are similar size too (which surprised me because I didn’t realize Rice was smaller than I though and Brandeis was larger than I anticipated LOL).
Does anyone know how difficult it is to maintain a good GPA (3.7 +) for pre-med at Rice? Because I don’t want to kill myself at Rice because even though I am a hard worker, I know everyone else there is, too.
I live in 1.5 hrs away from Brandeis and idk if it is worth going so far away to Rice.
Any advice as I need to make a decision before may 1st?
^I would vote for Rice. It is an amazing school. My son is struggling between Rice and another school that will be more work and harder to maintain GPA than Rice.
The big question is do you want to go halfway across the country? It’s a long and expensive trek to and from Houston.
Life at Rice–incredibly bright, talented, high achieving students (compare average SAT scores/GPAs/class rank for both schools), residential college system, honor code with take-home/un-proctored exams, beautiful campus, strong school leadership, ethnically one of the most diverse, lots of Texans, southern accents, Houston, NASA, rodeos, the medical complex across the street, US News rating, squirrels.
Brandeis–Boston, snow, Jewish population and culture, possibly less difficult academically, the Castle, Greek life, great reputation of professors. importance of social justice causes, New England culture, canoeing on the Charles River, The North End Italian food, liberal, Democratic politics, proximity to so many other elite universities, not sweltering when you arrive in August, whale watching.
Good luck!
@ TexasMom15 Congratulations on your D’s admission to Rice. My D has committed to Rice and she is excited to go there. We love Rice and my D gave up some really good schools to go there.
Having lived in the Boston area for 10 years, I agree with everything you are saying above except that you can get some reasonable airfares to Houston from either Boston or Providence since Southwest flies to Houston Hobby (if @JMarkel is west of Boston, Providence is an easy drive too).
@JMarkel are the costs at both schools the same for you or is that not a consideration? My vote would be Rice but in the end it is what you are comfortable with that matters. Regarding maintaining a 3.7 GPa, check out this link from Rice’s Academic Advising …
http://oaa.blogs.rice.edu/files/2014/07/Health-Professions-Advising-20140627.pdf
… basically if you put in the effort 3.7 is just above the mean GPa for all Rice pre-med applicants (last year there were 196 of them).
@AopsMaster804 I had to make the same decision! Very difficult, as both are fantastic schools with really different vibes. Just know that you can’t make a bad choice.