Hi guys,
I’m planning on applying to Rice in the fall (I just visited and absolutely fell in love with it), but I’m a little concerned about the requirement that applicants choose their area of interest (in the form of selecting a specific college) when they apply. I’ve always been very humanities-oriented, and I think I have a decent shot at getting in with those credentials. However, over the last year I more or less accidentally became involved in several natural science-related activities, and since then I have become fairly certain that that is the area I want to pursue. My question is this: Because I just discovered this interest in the hard sciences, I’ve done little of consequence to demonstrate my interest and aptitude as I have with the humanities, so would I have been a better shot simply applying the the humanities college and then switching if I’m admitted, or is this a bad idea? Any input would be more than welcome!
You actually aren’t judged based on which college you apply for, unless you’re going for architecture or music. Rice looks at your application as a whole and when you’re admitted, you actually enter in without a major. So whether or not you apply to the school of humanities or the school of natural sciences, you can (and have to) declare any major that suits your fancy, obviously other than architecture or music. So your credentials shouldn’t matter into admission to a particular college, though it will matter for Rice as a whole.
That being said, there is a section in the application asking for why you’re applying for the particular college and you want to be able to answer that truthfully and convincingly. So if you’re applying to humanities but your heart is going for natural science, you’re going to have to somehow show them that you’re really interested in humanities. But if you’re applying to natural science to start with, it’ll probably be easier to reveal your passion for that field, even if you don’t quite have as much of a background in that area.
Best of luck on your application!