<ol>
<li>Grades in AP/IB classes</li>
<li>SAT</li>
<li>Experiences as expressed through essays</li>
</ol>
<p>Save the uniqueness/diversity/intellectual curiosity talk for Stanford.
Rice admittants from my high school all show a pattern. Everyone who got all As and a nice SAT got in, including some uninteresting people. I'm not saying Rice lacks diversity or intellectual curiosity. They just don't look for it. They end up with it anyway.</p>
<p>That's not always true. No one from my school got in this year, not the valedictorian and none of us in the top 2%. There's no formula.</p>
<p>Your school must not be AP/IB intensive then. Or everyone got low SATs. Of all the schools my peers and I have applied and been accepted to, Rice has demonstrated the most consistent and predictable admissions process.</p>
<p>sexiness....is that a joke?
im slow. lol</p>
<p>"Your school must not be AP/IB intensive then. Or everyone got low SATs."</p>
<p>Assumptions?</p>
<p>
[quote]
sexiness....is that a joke?
im slow. lol
[/quote]
Serious business.</p>
<p>Haha um, there are only five AP classes that our school does not offer: Chinese, French Lit, Italian, Spanish Lit and Japanese. Our school is public, but very very well known and one of the largest in the state. We don't yet have IB because of the sheer massive size of the school; I'm the editor in chief of various journalism publications and my junior year I wrote a story about why we don't yet have IB- the size is why. For whatever reason it will take longer to implement with us. But our AP program is fantastic; the teachers are all wonderful. I haven't heard of anyone ever failing an AP test. Those who are in the AP program at my school tend to take many AP classes. I myself have taken roughly a dozen. And I got a 2360 on the SAT. I don't know what everyone else got but they surely have similar scores because our GPAs and such are all extremely close. Normally just about everyone from my school who applies is accepted at Rice, however; this was the first year that such was not the case. 'Course, the out of state benefit is huge, and we are in Texas.</p>
<p>^^I'm just speculating here... but maybe someone from your school recently backed out of an early decision contract from Rice.</p>
<p>My two cents (and I'm rephrasing it for NYSkins1's sake) on three very important factors in an application:
1) Qualities/personality (revealed through the essays and the recommendations)
2) Extracurricular activities: passion, commitment, honors/awards (indicators of talent), and leadership positions (if applicable)
3) Academic stats: test scores, GPA, class rank, etc.</p>
<p>I'm speculating as well: literaturegirl - you seem to have item #3 covered in my previous post (congrats on the SAT score), but maybe you and the other applicants from your school were lacking in items 1 and/or 2 of my previous post? With the apparent academic caliber of your school, it seems extraordinary that no one was accepted.</p>
<p>Also, you can't fail an AP exam. Low scores will only result in being denied college credit, depending on which college you go to.</p>
<p>Academic stats is 1. on the list by far.</p>
<p>In-state vs. out-of-state definitely matters. I think many Texas kids have it slightly harder when applying to Rice. I guess it has to do with Rice trying to become a nationally and internationally recognized university and expanding its alumni base. From what I've heard, though I could be wrong, Rice is 60% in-state?</p>
<p>Would backing out of an early decision contract from Rice affect later applicants? Whoa.</p>
<p>I dunno. Some of the applicants (quite a few) are the sort of student machines, know what I mean? The ones that don't have a whole lot of personality, ones who just look really good on paper. Not to flatter myself, but I was sort of the odd one out of the pack. My stats weren't all as high as theirs I don't think, but I have lots of extracurriculars, honors, and positions that I'm really devoted too, plus a couple jobs, volunteering, and having gotten through a really rough childhood plagued with fun stuff like drugs and alcohol abuse by my family, deaths including that of my MS stricken father, etc. I know I showed personality and passion, definitely. I don't get why no one was accepted this year also. I really had considered graduating early; now I wish I had. I could have gotten in last year. But! That didn't work out this year so I'll try transferring next year perhaps.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know you can't technically fail an AP exam. 3 is considered 'passing', though, although most colleges only accept 4s or 5s.</p>
<p>Actually this year they didn't let in nearrrrr as many Texas students as usual. They're capitalizing on the whole "Harvard of the South" thing and trying to balance out the student population by getting more out of state and out of the country students. That's probably what got me and my fellow students at my school denied.</p>
<p>I believe Rice is currently 50% or just under that Texan students, although as the student population grows Rice plan to reduce that percentage (as in, leave the absolute number of Texans the same, and just increase the number of international and out-of-state students.) If you thing about how HUGE and populous Texas is, though, you'll realize that the 50% Texan is the same as about 10 normal size states worth of kids. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, they started limiting Texas students this year. Alas!</p>
<p>literaturegirl -- I'm not sure your statement is correct; Rice has tried to limit the percentage of Texas students for a while as it's tried to build geographic diversity. The increase in the size of the student body starting in 2009 is intended to increase non-Texans even further.</p>
<p>Yeah I know that, this year they've just started doing that more. I talked to an AdCom person after all the applicants got denied from my school. She said that's most likely what was the nail in our coffins (in particular mine, because I was a mere humanities major).</p>
<p>things look grim for me then. lol</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but that really makes no sense to me.</p>