I have accepted the ultimate rejection at both Duke and Rice. I don’t even wanna look at my Harvard letter on April 1st.
You know… I have passion which they obviously overlooked. You know people just put down clubs they joined for like a month and put it on their resume??? Yeah… they get into Rice and Duke. They just put down Mu Alpha Theta without even participating in the AMC and AIME… lol it’s sad but they get accepted all the time. Well I’m not that… I actually live chemistry and organic chemistry by doing problem sets all the way to 4 AM in the morning. I don’t just do ICE charts for equilibrium problems but know “material balance/ charge balance (also in engineer)” for iCho preparatory problems. I actually help on the chemistry Olympiad facebook forums and actually love doing what I do.
That’s ambition and a huge loss Rice and Duke just received. I’m glad and PROUD to be UT Austin Biochemist class of 2019. Those rejection just add to my resilience.
Did you have an interview? That passion is definitely something that you could have conveyed in one, even though it’s not a huge part of the admission decision. Either way, your attitude about this is great, and you sound like you will definitely have a lot of success at UT.
I’m glad to see your last paragraph in post #20. That’s the spirit! And when you receive your Nobel prize, you can thank UT for having seen that ambition in you and given you the opportunity to develop your talents.
of course, UT Austin is the dream school of students intend major in engineering. If you are in, there is no need to think twice, save the money go on your Master program.
Please don’t be frustrated, you are not stopping right here. Remember, it is just your beginning. UT Austin is the top choice for students intend major in Engineering. You should proud to be a new member at UT Austin while other students are still on appeal!
I am very sure you will enjoy the days you spend at UT Austin. Best luck!
thank you everyone for your help (it has made me feel a lot better )
@kitty1 Im planning on going premed that’s why Rice was one of my top choices since world’s largest medical center is right next door and more attention to professors; I would have thought I would at least get into Rice but obviously not.
My S was accepted to Rice but rejected by UT Austin. It is hard to count on anything unfortunately. He is a NMF and had ACT 36, rigorous curriculum. He has also had other rejections which are hard and I feel for all of you kids who have had to go through that.
I feel for all of you who worked hard through HS just to be rejected for reasons you do not understand. I am watching my S who got a 34 ACT and 4.0 UW, 5.0 W (14 APs) and ranked 14/840 get rejected by private schools one by one. He also has many EC’s, some national awards, leadership positions as well as tons of volunteer hours. So far, rejected by Stanford, Duke, Rice and MIT. Waiting on Harvard, Yale and Cornell but not optomistic at this time. Thankful he was accepted to all safety schools including UMICH, Purdue and Georgia Tech. I wish I could see throught the insanity that is the application process to help my other 2 children in a couple of years but it is what it is. My advice to those reading this thread in the future is to make sure you apply to many schools including many saftey schools because those are not even guaranteed anymore and it could just be a numbers game.
Good luck to all of you, you will do great no matter where you end up because you already proved you are worthy of any school whether they see it or not.
It is not possible to come up with any definitive answers to those outstanding students who did not get accepted to the schools they wanted. It comes down to too many qualified candidates for the slots available, and some very difficult culling had to be done. What to do when you have a thousand applicants are most suitable but only 150 offers to give? That is about what the picture is with many schools, Meers5’s advice is spot on.
For those of you from Texas, and were not accepted to Rice, though Rice accepts many Texans, they do want to be a national school, and strive to get students from outside of the state to remain a contender in the national universities. That it is as Texan as it is makes it a deterrent already among a number of East Coast parents. This happens with a lot of schools that are considered up there in the rankings. Harder to get into Columbia from the NYC area, CMU if you live in PA, etc, etc.
I agree with @meers5 . It is so important to apply to some less selective schools! My 99th percentile son was rejected from Stanford and waitlisted at Rice, but was accepted at a number of great schools like U of Miami, U of Richmond and U of Denver (honors), where he is at the top of the applicant pool. These are still wonderful schools, and he will be much happier attending one of them then our big public state school (Arizona State University). And, interestingly, he has actually received some great offers from these schools that beat the ASU offer anyways. So my advice to people just starting this process is go ahead and apply to your super-reaches, but also spend a lot of time researching lower tier schools that might appreciate you and offer you great merit aid as a result. And don’t forget your real safeties like your public state schools…you will still need those too, just in case.
My child is top of class, top SATS, extracurriculars, community service, sports, job, summer at Ivy, etc.
Waitlisted at Rice. Accepted Emory, Vandy, awaiting ivies.
Homestate of NH never been to TX but child’s first choice is Rice. Suggestions regarding getting off waitlist?
That being said, some advice that other schools (who waitlisted my daughter gave) to help get off the wait list included:
send in positive updates (new grades, new awards)
show genuine interest (e.g. a heartfelt letter from your child)
perhaps send in additional letters of recommendation.
I suggest having your child (not you) speak to a Rice University admissions counselor to express continued interest as well as to find out what types of things might move your child to the top of the pile of wait listed students.
I definitely understand your frustration! I got rejected as well (for engineering), and I think my stats are decent (34 ACT, 3.9+ UW, 8/122… though I think my essays were extremely cheesy and I showed absolutely no interest, lol). I would say that you got rejected because Rice is selective, and awards are usually secondary to grades and test scores unless the award is something insanely prestigious like an Intel Award, but who knows? Sometimes life sucks, and you just have to roll with the punches
I personally think UT is a great school that mixes academic prestige with a fun environment! I’m actually set on going to UT over Berkeley, and I’m from California. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side :^)
Rice had 15,415 applicants for less than a thousand slots in 2013. There were undoubtedly more applicants this year. This is a self-selected pool, so many applicants were near the top of their class. It’s just a very, very difficult school to get into.
