I was wondering what high school classes rice likes to see? I heard that things like physics are important for most colleges, so I was wondering if any of you know what specific classes rice likes to see you take in high school?
The required classes can be found in the school’s common data set. Beyond that, the best advice many will give you is to take the most rigorous course load you can, but take what you want, not what looks good on your application. If you plan to apply to engineering, have the strongest preparation you can. If you plan to major in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations, you probably don’t need AP Physics C.
Here is some info from Rice about what they are looking for. https://ga.rice.edu/undergraduate-students/academic-policies-procedures/admission/admission.pdf
Also find out what your high school considers to get the “most demanding” rigor rating. At my kids’ school, it is at least 1 AP in each core area (math, science, English, world language, social sciences). But it could be different from high school to high school.
Rice also asks for the school(s) you are most interested and the major(s). The Schools are: School of Engineering, School of Natural Sciences, School of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, School of Architecture (portfolio based), School of Music (audition based). So I would say that your course selection should also reflect your area of interest. For example, if you want to be a Biology major in the School of Natural Sciences, it would be questionable if you did not take the most rigorous biology class at your high school. If you are applying to the School of Engineering, there might be an expectation that you have taken the most rigorous lab sciences (in particular Physics C) and math classes in your high school.
Replace “could be” in the above sentence with “is.”