<p>Hi all!</p>
<p>I'm a rising senior who loves Rice (dream school!) and, after going through the stats of accepted students, am concerned that my GPA/SAT scores are not up to par (3.71 UW, 4.40 W, 2220). However I do have copious amounts of research experience (500+ hours) from the National Institutes of Health in D.C. from 2 summers as well as a paid internship. I do things like immunohistochemistry, data analysis, cell culture, etc. May be an author in a published paper soon! How much can I rely on that to help bring myself back up in the eyes of admissions officers? I know there is a holistic admissions process, but I just wanted to ask around.</p>
<p>Additionally, this may be a long shot, is there a chance I could get into the Century Scholars Program with this kind of experience?</p>
<p>I have another chance me thread, if you all could check it out that'd be awesome. </p>
<p>Thanks for any and all help!</p>
<p><a href=“http://ofur.rice.edu/content.aspx?id=4294967433”>http://ofur.rice.edu/content.aspx?id=4294967433</a>
I don’t know about the statistics or anything for century scholars, but that post might be suggesting that they like research experience. </p>
<p>The research is cool, but make sure you don’t just brag. It should be a reflection of you and your interests and your growth as an individual. You’re safely within the middle 50% of test scores so that’s not gonna kill you. Read some other "chance me"s on the rice forum for good advice on what you can do 
</p>
<p>Thanks @jfking01!
Now that I’m rereading my post, I feel like I was doing a little humblebragging, my bad! I just have this mindset of really relying on the research experience to stand out, so I don’t know how to go about that without being obnoxious, if that’s even possible. :)</p>
<p>If you are accepted to Rice, your chances of being placed into the Century Scholars scholarship and lab program are very good. It appears that they take many students for the program who have hands-on lab experience.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help @ScienceGirlMom! </p>
<p>@the27thletter Not at all! You didn’t seem obnoxious, I just meant that it’s important to know why admissions officers are impressed by cool stuff like research – it’s not just because it was probably hard and shows that you took initiative to do it, but also because it is (hopefully) a reflection of your goals and passions. So you would do well to make sure you illustrate that in you application!</p>
<p>I would definitely write about it - maybe in your essay even. These unique experiences set you aside from the crowd and show you have a passion and have acted on it. If you are published, definitely let them know - that is a big deal for a HS student.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>