<p>It’s also likely that Rice is being more conservative in its admissions due to the higher-than-expected yield rate last year. Trust me when I say that the university almost ran into huge trouble because of it.</p>
<p>^ Yes, very true. </p>
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<p>This. I wish more people would realize this. Also, no offense, but actually expecting to get into a school like Rice or considering it a safety school is a pretty good indication that you’re not the kind of person Rice wants here.</p>
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<p>Regardless of what anecdotal evidence you may have, Rice doesn’t yield protect. (At least not in the conventional sense–in this regard, collegehappy summed it up best). In fact, I have personally heard President Leebron say openly, on several occasions, that he aims to improve the intrinsic quality of a Rice education, rather than gaming USNews to get a higher ranking (which really only yields short term benefits). </p>
<p>You could be cynical, of course, and assume he was lying, but if you meet him/hear him speak in person, you’ll know that couldn’t be farther from the truth.</p>
<p>I was waitlisted and did receive a National Merit Scholarship, but only after I called the financial aid office and complained.</p>
<p>How can anyone believe that a top 20 school is a safety school? Rice received over 12,000 applications for about 850 slots. It has never been “easier to get into” than other top 20 schools. Top 20 schools have the luxury, and the extreme difficulty, of choosing a select group of students out of thousands of highly qualified students. My D got into Rice, Brown, Yale, Duke, WashU, but not Princeton, and waitlisted at Northwestern. Each school is looking to put together the most diverse group of students possible, across all dimensions: geographic, socio-economic, ethnic, international, artists, engineers, athletes… You cannot compare admissions decisions. They each have different needs in the end. You may be exactly what WashU is looking for, but Vandy may already have 3 of you. All you can do is put together the strongest application possible and take full advantage of whatever college you attend.</p>
<p>The original post is completely annoying. Heaven forbid you get denied by one top school but not other top schools. My S was waitlisted at Rice, and so he has to go to Oberlin or UVA or someplace else. He shrugged and moved on because he has other wonderful choices…maybe you should just do the same.</p>
<p>“The original post is completely annoying.”</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to come off as obnoxious, but I’m simply remarking on the fact that Rice unusually waitlisted droves of highly qualified applicants who were accepted to more competitive schools, and apparently, its true</p>
<p>If admissions were based solely on GPA and test scores it wouldn’t take three months to get a decision back. But GPA and test scores are typically all we find when we look up a particular school’s class profile. Therefore, it is to be expected that some applicants will compare their stats to those published by the schools and get the premature idea that they’re a shoo-in. But as many have said, and as your high school counselor should have explained, highly selective schools are looking into more than scores when putting together a well-balanced class. Sometimes that means that applicants with higher scores get rejected or waitlisted, while applicants who have scores that are lower but still within the school’s range are accepted. And this is not because of any kind of syndrome, but because these schools have the luxury to choose from a sufficiently large and superbly qualified pool of applicants in their quest for the “perfect” mix. Fortunately, highly qualified applicants who, in turn, have applied to a sufficiently large and carefully planned list of schools will, too, end up having the luxury to choose from a number of great offers.</p>
<p>The problem with this kind of thread–and I have seen it pop up in connection with other schools, especially WashU, and to a smaller extent Swarthmore and Pomona–is that it appears to belittle the achievements of those of us who either have been admitted, or have children who have been admitted to these schools. And this is why it comes across as arrogant…</p>
<p>“I’m simply remarking on the fact that Rice unusually waitlisted droves of highly qualified applicants who were accepted to more competitive schools, and apparently, its true”</p>
<p>All selective schools do this…that is what it means to be selective. Rice is very selective, and the result of your application (and my son’s to be honest) reflects that. I find nothing humorous or surprising in this.</p>
<p>Last year, or perhaps it was the year before, Harvard had to go deep into their waitlist (which is highly unusual for Harvard). The fact that it can go deeply into its waitlist without sacrificing quality speaks to its ability to attract the best students. Top schools have this luxury. Just think about how many high schools, public and private, are in the U.S. and across the globe. Now look at the students in the top 1% to top 10%. You have literally thousands of students in this group. Now add in top athletes, oboe players, artists, scientists or other specialist who excel and have demonstrated a passion in particular areas while also keeping other areas academically strong. You have now added thousands more. Last year, Stanford received about 35,000 applications for 1600 or so slots. Of course you are going to have more qualified applicants than you can admit.</p>
<p>I just saw this from ib612: “I think Tufts also rejects / waitlists overqualified people as well.” EVERY top school has to waitlist highly qualified people regrettably, and no students are OVERqualified for any top school.</p>
<p>the reason tufts rejects “overqualified applicants” is because they know that their school is a safety school for prospective HYPSM admits…i am saying the same thing is true for Rice this year, they don’t want to admit students who will not attend their university</p>
<p>I know several people who got into MIT and one guy who got into Stanford but got waitlisted at rice. Rice saw the quality of these applicants and simply knew that they were using rice as a safety</p>
<p>That’s quite the leap of logic. A few anecdotes are not nearly sufficient to substantiate this assertion that Rice is intentionally rejecting applicants whom it suspects may attend a different top school instead of Rice.</p>
<p>Further, did you read your friends’ essays? Essays are significant, and I doubt that your friends used the same essays for both schools. Have you considered the possibility that they wrote poor essays for Rice? Rice has a notoriously difficult essay prompt–it seems completely plausible to me that their essays for Rice may not have been as good as their essays for other schools.</p>
<p>Your posts here very strongly suggest that you don’t even really want to attend Rice and foolishly considered it a safety. If this attitude came off in your application, it is absolutely not surprising you were waitlisted. Perhaps your friends also didn’t show much interest and suffered from this delusion that Rice could somehow be a safety school for them. There should be no shock at all that Rice would reject or waitlist applicants who demonstrate little interest in Rice and who seem grossly misinformed about what selectivity in admissions means. Rice is seeking to build a passionate community, and that won’t work if it’s filled with people who have such attitudes.</p>
<p>Besides what I’ve written here, there are numerous other factors that you seem to be just ignoring that others have mentioned. Rice and other top schools have the luxury of more or less hand-picking their freshmen classes. This means they very often look beyond the plain-old factors of GPA, test scores, etc., and they try to build an overall cohesive community. This should make it obvious that an applicant may be accepted at one top school but not another.</p>
<p>I don’t think the fact that Rice is waitlisting a lot of qualified applicants has anything to do with “Tufts Syndrome.” I think it has to do with the fact that they screwed up last year and had too large a class, and they don’t want to make the same mistake this year. All of those waitlisted applicants with high stats just had bad luck (me included).</p>
<p>I’m sick of people frowning upon waitlists. I mean, it’s not an acceptance, but you were waitlisted for a reason - and that reason is good. They could have outright rejected you. Schools waitlist a select group of applicants - qualified applicants. The fact that you got waitlisted to such a selective school like Rice should be considered something of an accomplishment, in my opinion.</p>
<p>The way I see it, Rice is looking to reject or waitlist people who consider the school to be another notch on the belt. And why should they not? If a student is not committed to attending the school or seriously considering it among their top choices if accepted, then Rice is one of those schools that would rather have the student who is more interested and committed to a Rice education. Such students tend to work harder and contribute more to the university. When you have such a small class, that counts for a lot. And with only 940 this year in the Class of 2014, Rice has to ensure that they can bring in students who will be attending.</p>
<p>When you have such a small class, a generic “smart” individual does not necessarily make the grade and the school is looking for someone beyond that who can shine and give them something more–and it is all the more important in a class of 900ish because each person can bring something that very few others have. </p>
<p>Said by someone who WAS waitlisted at Rice, by the way. And it was my second choice of school. And I did not have Stanford, Washington University, and MIT to bank on (though I do have a few other decent schools).</p>
<p>Rice waitlisted D, I think one reason was because that she is very good (SAT 2300, NMS) and Rice was her 5th choice. So for Rice, I can understand why bother to hold a spot for her?
She have got full ride President’s Scholarship from SMU and waiting for other Ivy choices this afternoon.</p>
<p>Goods to all.</p>
<p>If you showed little interest in Rice, you would not even be waitlisted. You would be rejected. If you are waitlisted, it means you are qualified to go to Rice, they believed you were interested, but someone else stood out a little more than you did, and therefore was offered admission, while you were waitlisted. If that person doesn’t come, then you will get a chance to come. Those who were offered admission stood out a little more, whether it was because of the essays they wrote, or perhaps the recommendations that were written about them. Their teacher may have said, “One of the top 1% that I have taught in my career,” whereas your recommendations may have said, “One of the top 5% that I have seen in my career.” Or perhaps, they had national and international recognition for some area they were passionate about, e.g., science, ballet, writing, track, debate, whereas you only had local or regional recognition. There are hundreds of variables that go into these decisions to make up a wonderfully interesting and diverse class. If you wrote lackluster essays because you weren’t that interested, then the reviewers saw that, and they weren’t that interested in you. With 12,000 applicants, they can be “choosey” about the 900+ slots and don’t need to offer admission or a spot on the waitlist to those who have demonstrated that they are not that interested. Or, they may have 3 applicants that look remarkably like you, so one is given admission, and 2 are waitlisted. Your logic does not follow ib612. Rice wins a lot of cross-admits with Stanford and MIT. The students who come to Rice who were admitted to all three come because they realize that Rice has an unparalleled undergraduate education, whereas Stanford is known more for its graduate education, and Rice offers a broad curriculum, whereas MIT focuses on few select areas. Rice would never not admit someone because he or she was applying to those schools, too.</p>
<p>i was waitlisted. idk why they chose to waitlist me? my stats are incredibly low, lol, but i guess i’ll wait and see. </p>
<p>gpa- 3.579 uw
act- 30
white
never visited campus. showed little interest initially.</p>
<p>You must stand out somehow. Perhaps they liked your essays. Perhaps your recommendations were strong. Perhaps they see something in you that you don’t yet see in yourself. ;p</p>
<p>Princeton 2014</p>
<p>Good for you.</p>