SOAR 2016

I got my acceptance today! The essay I wrote was like 450 words.

I got my acceptance today! The essay I wrote was like 450 words.

congrats! i haven’t received any email, but i applied last week

I applied last Monday, and I haven’t received an email yet. Hoping for the best though!

My son received his acceptance email today- he’s super excited.

Congrats to all those accepted!! No acceptance email for us – does SOAR typically invite kids with certain accomplishments or backgrounds etc - just curious.

@CA1543 SOAR invites are typically, but not exclusively, underrepresented minorities. Last year there was a parallel program to which my daughter was invited called Discover Rice. I believe she got her invite around mid to late August. It was held the same weekend and some of the presentations were held together. Saturday was focused on an info session, tour and interview time slots, while Sunday was the presentations. The drawback was that you need to pay your own way to Houston for Discover, while Rice pays for attendance by SOAR invitees. Discover was a return visit for my daughter and sealed the deal – she confirmed it was her first choice, fit in an interview, and demonstrated lots of interest. She was subsequently admitted Early Decision.

Thanks @wandlmink – appreciate it. Huge congrats to you daughter - she is now a student there it seems and hopefully is enjoying it veryy much. We spent a full (great) day at Rice in Feb which featured a lot of what is in the Discover Rice program - but no interview. My DS will likely apply and we were very impressed with many aspects of Rice!

@CA1543 - Good luck to your son! My daughter is in love with the school. Demonstrated interest appears to be very important to Rice with regard to RD applicants, so spending a day on campus was a good thing. I also recommend he connect with the admissions officer when/if he/she appears at your son’s school. An interview is unnecessary, but it helps show interest. A lot of the top scoring applicants who get rejected seem to be the ones who know little about the school and throw in an application at the same time as they apply to all 8 Ivies.

@CA1543 - Did your daughter get to meet her local representative during the Discover Rice program?

We did not go to Discover Rice but had a GREAT full day visit in Feb - info sessions involving engineering, tour, he sat in on2 classes, toured ODEK and met with a fabulous professor who also showed him the lab he has.

Thanks @CA1543 and sorry for mixing up your child’s gender! I think I meant to direct my question to @wandlmink who has a daughter and recommended connecting with your local admissions rep. @wandlmink - did your daughter get to meet her local rep at Discover Rice?

no worries @pittsburghscribe – I understood!!

@pittsburghscribe No problem! Rice admissions reps have responsibility for particular regions and get to know the high schools in those regions. It is also my understanding that when admissions files are reviewed, they are involved in the initial screening. So it makes sense to impress them with your child’s interest. My daughter first got turned on to Rice when the admissions rep for her region appeared at her school in Virginia and that led her to make her first visit. We went to Discover about 10 mos later in Sept 2015, but he was not on campus. When he returned to her school in October she made a point of contacting him by email in advance and going up to him at the session and introducing herself. Thus, she had established a personal connection with him by the time he read her file in the admissions office. Even though she was applying ED and her interest was evident, she made sure to do everything possible to demonstrate sincere interest in Rice. Hope this helps.

This is strange. I applied on July 27th and still haven’t heard anything back. I also contacted Rice SOAR admissions and haven’t gotten a reply yet.

It is strange. Seems very unlike Rice to leave students hanging. Hopefully, they will let everyone know soon as the weekend is approaching quickly! I would think (hope) that if they knew certain students were not going to be accepted that they would just tell them that and that they are truly still making their way through the applications.