anhtimmy

lol, thanks for the advice.
i just get paranoid easily.

my friend was accepted into RICE with scholarships that lowered her tuition to 8k per year.

pretty cool i think

NYSkins1

Are you guys serious? You need to remember that the decisions are made by actual people (many of whom I know), not some machine called "Rice." Asking "What are the top 3 things Rice looks for?" is pointless, because a) none of the people on this forum are qualified to answer that and b) I'm not even sure the people in the admissions office could give a clear-cut ranking.

There are so many intangibles that come into play, that this question is virtually impossible to answer. Don't worry about the application too much; if it's after your sophomore year, it's too late to drastically alter what you're doing to fit these THREE BIG, GRAND characteristics that Rice apparently values above everything else. And if it's before your sophomore year, it's too early for you to say with absolute certainty that you want to go to Rice, so you shouldn't be worrying about this.

wemel

Settle down NY - He/she is just trying to get an idea of what Rice looked for in other students that they accepted. There is no harm done.

Dorian_Mode

I was very serious about the sexiness issue, NYSkins.

NYSkins1

And Rice is serious about it, as well.

I'm not going for any sort of personal attacks; I'm just pointing out the inherent pointlessness of this question. Except for the sexiness thing.

Johnny Bear

1. Grades in AP/IB classes
2. SAT
3. Experiences as expressed through essays

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.

literaturegirl

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.

Johnny Bear

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.

anhtimmy

sexiness....is that a joke?
im slow. lol

Goatandcompany

"Your school must not be AP/IB intensive then. Or everyone got low SATs."

Assumptions?

Dorian_Mode

Serious business.

literaturegirl

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.

lehcar

^^I'm just speculating here... but maybe someone from your school recently backed out of an early decision contract from Rice.

freespirit22

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.

freespirit22

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.

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.