That’s what I wrote mine on. Do what it takes to answer to the prompt though 
@bigbuddy What is your class rank?
@Nevets04 my high school doesn’t rank, the top students in the state come here so it would be unfair to give rankings
Is it worth applying with a 31 and 3.7?
I say give it a try. Your essays and EC’s would have to be fairly compelling though.
I have a 4.01 weighted GPA and a 2280 D:
(Plus I’m an Asian male…it’s over…)
@cappex do you want to be at a school where you will be in the bottom 25% of the class?
To ClarinetDad16: Don’t you find your question “Do you want to be at a school where you will be in the bottom 25% of the class?” to be rather imperious if not petty? My guidance counselor always told me that I should try to get into the best and most competitive college I possibly could because it will not only humble me every day to be around students smarter than I but it will also challenge me to work harder and to be better. I would hope such an aspiration is not beneath you. And to whomever your comment was directed, I would simply say, if you want to attend Rice and you think you have something substantial to offer, then by all means apply. Thankfully there is far more to the typical Rice student than grades and SAT scores.
@ClarinetDad16 It seems to me that you are trying to dissuade applicants in order to give your own child a marginally better chance
rather than be fixated on perceived prestige and choose your college based on artificial selectivity from a ranking from a failed magazine, it is a more intelligent and more mature decision to pick your college because you fit in.
Do you want to achieve your dream? I would hope that relates to what you do in life. Getting into a school, only to get weeded out of a major is not winning. If the goal is medical school for example, who will have a better shot the kid with the B-/C+ average at Rice or the kid from a “lower ranked” school with an A- average?
And you realize that music students are admitted via audition on their instrument? Competing for perhaps a single spot overall in a studio? So unless the OP is a clarinetist and my child was auditioning at rice there would be no competition?
It feels so good to finally hit submit!!
To ClarinetDad16: I don’t think many of us on this site are “fixated on perceived prestige” of a college and likewise we certainly are not choosing our “college based on artificial selectivity from a ranking from a failed magazine.” I think you are making unfair assumptions about people on this site. I happen to loathe the US News & World Report rankings if that is the failed magazine you are referring to. They’re crude, full of shortcomings, and I don’t find such rankings helpful at all. And so I still find your comment and your latest comment attempting to explain it perplexing. Are you saying that a person who is admitted to Rice and has scores and grades that place them in the lower 25 percent of his or her admitted class is going to automatically end up in the bottom 25 percent of his or her Rice graduating class? How can you say such a thing? Do you have some clairvoyant ability that allows you to predict such outcomes? I doubt it. To say that a student who scored in the high 600s on his SAT and had a 3.5 high school GPA (or whatever) is going to end up in the bottom 25 percent of their graduating class at Rice is not only an outrageous assumption, it’s simply wrong. And for your information, Rice does not look at it’s admitted students as students which need to be weeded out. I don’t know where you get your information, but it’s not accurate. Frankly, I don’t understand why you as a father of a Rice applicant would be on this site making unfair assumptions about other applicants on this site as well as making snide remarks to them, such as “do you want to be at a school where you will be in the bottom 25 percent of your class?” Apparently, your son isn’t on this site, but if he were, I doubt he would find your comments helpful or appropriate. Do clarinetists not have to submit SATs and transcripts? Nonetheless, I do wish your son the best with his clarinet audition and I hope he gets into Rice, if he’s worthy. I love the clarinet. Good luck to him.
How are you guys answering Rice’s 500 word essay? I pretty much put my perspective and cultural heritage in my common app bio essay
@Maximilias - please elaborate on high school grades and test scores.
Do you find them relevant in measuring the academic quality of a college?
What is the best predictor for a high school student’s success in college?
To ClarinetDad16: elaborate on high school grades and test scores? Isn’t everyone on this site referring to their grades in high school, their high school GPA, and their college admission scores (SATs, ACTs and perhaps PSATs). For someone who has at this point 1,033 posts on college confidential, would you not agree that is what we are referring to on this site when we speak of grades and test scores? And, yes, I believe a students’ grades and test scores are relevant in measuring the academic quality of a college, but those things alone do not make for the most interesting and vibrant college student body. And so I strongly believe that including students in the mix with genuine talents or abilities, unique backgrounds or even something extraordinary in their spirit or heart that motivates them contributes to enhancing the college experience and thus the academic quality of a college. For me personally, the things that measure most accurately the academic quality of a college are the quality of the students, the expertise and talent of the faculty and their love of and ability for teaching, the resources available to students and faculty, a residential college system and a university free of fraternities, sororities, exclusive final clubs or eating clubs. Rice has all of these things. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have been unable to extricate themselves of their exclusive clubs and fraternities. They can have them. Concerning what is the best predictor for a high school student’s success in college, I don’t pretend to know. Can anyone really be certain what the “best predictor” is? Grades and test scores are clearly not the only predictors but they may be the safest. I’ll leave that to admission committees, as squirrelly as they may be. Are you setting me up for some snide comment or insult, ClarinetDad16? I hope not.
@helpmefriends I’m withdrawing my app, but I did exactly that. I talked about my multicultural heritage, and then talked about how it shaped me and how I could project it onto the students at Rice (sounds weird in this format, but it’s very well written, apparently).
And to add my own perspective to this whole “indicator of success” argument: yes, grades (unless impacted by outside circumstances beyond one’s control) are a good indicator of success in college. Your UW GPA represents your work ethic, because there’s obviously a threshold to be crossed between B and A, C and B, etc. Your W GPA is a clear indicator of how ready you are to take college courses, hence you get extra “points” for them. Your class rank shows how you stand among your peers, based on the previous factors stated above. Standardized testing is relatively iffy, but is a good indicator of grade inflation or deflation, hence the term “standardized”. A person who got D’s in an AP course shouldn’t be scoring a 5 and a 750+ on an AP test and SAT subject test respectively, and a person who earned A’s in an AP course should be getting 4+ and at least 720 on the respective examinations. SAT and ACT are again, iffy, but at least it’s a good indicator of basic skills. How will you succeed in college Calculus if you can’t figure out the inverse relationship between Intensity and Lumens when it’s written out in words?
And yes, I fully believe that students should go to a college where they will succeed (or at least not drown) and be happy and enjoy their first four years away from home. Let’s face it: I would be dying at Caltech or MIT, but I could be very happy at UC Davis or UCSD. The prestige doesn’t matter (believe it or not, CCer’s LOVE to name hunt), but it’s more of a matter of “fit” if that makes sense.
That’s my two cents.
I don’t disagree with anything basedchem states here. In fact, basedchem sounds like admission officers I’ve spoken to. I would just add that if the admissions committee accepts a student, they are essentially saying they believe that student will succeed at their college. And so if that student should end up in the bottom 25 percent of his or her newly admitted college class (as measured by his GPA, class rank and test scores) that seems irrelevant in determining the success or happiness of the student in light of the fact that the admission committee believes every accepted student will succeed and is a good fit. Every student thus begins college with new circumstances and a new slate. And I’ll repeat what I said before: if a student wants to attend Rice (which implies he or she believes Rice is a good fit) and he or she obviously has acceptable grades and scores (though they may fall in the bottom 25 percent of the newly admitted class) and he or she thinks they have something to offer the Rice community, then by all means that student should apply. And I’ll also repeat this: Thankfully there is far more to the typical Rice student than grades and SAT scores. That’s my two cents.
All the best to you basedchem at the school you attend. They obviously think you’re a great fit for them, accepting you through their early admissions. Congratulations. I’m sure you would have been a great fit at Rice as well. Rice’s loss, I guess. Good luck.
@basedchem I think @helpmefriends was saying that they already talked about that in their Common App essay and don’t want to be repetitive. I have the same problem, actually…not sure what to do.
@itsmyusername Hmmm. Yeah that is a problem. I faced the same thing with some of my other apps, and what I did was I put a spin on it. To be more specific: my CA essay was about childhood bullying, and my USC essay was about running and how it eased me of my pain from that. I think if you wrote about your cultural heritage (i.e I’m Taiwanese but I was born and raised in California), then you can talk about something else. “Culture” applies to many things, so start looking broader. It could be the lively/laidback culture of your school, your workplace, your sports team, etc. My friend was born in Canada, so he wrote about Canada. It’s a stretchy topic, and you can make it work without talking about heritage.
@Maximilias Thanks. All my best to you and every other RD applicant. As a final note I’d like to remind everyone of something important: grades and test scores make a person on a piece of paper stand out, everything else (essays, talent, EC’s, etc.) make them come alive, something so much more than lines of ink on a piece of parchment.
Hey Guys . I was accepted to Rice under ED… And that’s my intended college … But to those who don’t think they have the test scores , or the gpa… It’s not the end of the world… I’ve spoken with numerous admissions representatives, since I reside in Houston, and there is no special formula to getting accepted .
I had a 28 ACT and a 4.6 UW GPA, 4/1108… And I got in . I’m also African American , so I believe affirmative action played a role , but I wish you all good luck , and don’t be discouraged , you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.