I don’t disagree with anything basedchem states here. In fact, basedchem sounds like admission officers I’ve spoken to. I would just add that if the admissions committee accepts a student, they are essentially saying they believe that student will succeed at their college. And so if that student should end up in the bottom 25 percent of his or her newly admitted college class (as measured by his GPA, class rank and test scores) that seems irrelevant in determining the success or happiness of the student in light of the fact that the admission committee believes every accepted student will succeed and is a good fit. Every student thus begins college with new circumstances and a new slate. And I’ll repeat what I said before: if a student wants to attend Rice (which implies he or she believes Rice is a good fit) and he or she obviously has acceptable grades and scores (though they may fall in the bottom 25 percent of the newly admitted class) and he or she thinks they have something to offer the Rice community, then by all means that student should apply. And I’ll also repeat this: Thankfully there is far more to the typical Rice student than grades and SAT scores. That's my two cents.
All the best to you basedchem at the school you attend. They obviously think you’re a great fit for them, accepting you through their early admissions. Congratulations. I’m sure you would have been a great fit at Rice as well. Rice’s loss, I guess. Good luck.
@basedchem I think @helpmefriends was saying that they already talked about that in their Common App essay and don't want to be repetitive. I have the same problem, actually...not sure what to do.
@itsmyusername Hmmm. Yeah that is a problem. I faced the same thing with some of my other apps, and what I did was I put a spin on it. To be more specific: my CA essay was about childhood bullying, and my USC essay was about running and how it eased me of my pain from that. I think if you wrote about your cultural heritage (i.e I'm Taiwanese but I was born and raised in California), then you can talk about something else. "Culture" applies to many things, so start looking broader. It could be the lively/laidback culture of your school, your workplace, your sports team, etc. My friend was born in Canada, so he wrote about Canada. It's a stretchy topic, and you can make it work without talking about heritage.
@Maximilias Thanks. All my best to you and every other RD applicant. As a final note I'd like to remind everyone of something important: grades and test scores make a person on a piece of paper stand out, everything else (essays, talent, EC's, etc.) make them come alive, something so much more than lines of ink on a piece of parchment.
Hey Guys . I was accepted to Rice under ED... And that's my intended college ... But to those who don't think they have the test scores , or the gpa... It's not the end of the world... I've spoken with numerous admissions representatives, since I reside in Houston, and there is no special formula to getting accepted .
I had a 28 ACT and a 4.6 UW GPA, 4/1108.. And I got in . I'm also African American , so I believe affirmative action played a role , but I wish you all good luck , and don't be discouraged , you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
@ColePresident This is a big tangent and I don't want to make assumptions about your intended meaning, but I think it's important to point out for others on this site. There's a subtle but important difference between affirmative action and the actual role that race plays in modern college admissions. Schools like Rice may take race into decisions as a consideration, but they do so because they recognize the real value that having a diverse set of experiences and views in a student body can have. In fact, "affirmative action" is illegal in Texas.
Some people will unfortunately ignore the difference and claim that it's the same thing since a student's race may affect their chances. The fact is that the university is working to built a better student body and isn't following a quota or mandate. They want to recognize all of the social factors that influenced a kid up to this point and think about what that means for what the student can offer their classmates. Furthermore, when a university offers things like benefits to legacies, they let in implicit racial biases because of who was able to attend in past generations.
My intention isn't to single you out or imply you meant anything by your statements! I just think that on a site where people can get so crazy about acceptance and their own achievements, it's something that should be said every once in a while.
I think you are confusing 'quotas' and affirmative action. There is a very distinct difference between the two. Quotas are illegal in pretty much every case, affirmative action, not so much depending on the situation and state.
@sarangooL Ah yes I apologize! I was thinking of quotas and further confusing it with the '97 ruling banning it in Texas public university admissions that I just learned was overturned in the early 2000s. Thanks for fact checking :) I stand by my other statements and rescind the legality one!
I would like to say that when I congratulated ColePresident in my earlier post for his ED admission, I was sincerely congratulating him for his accomplishment and for his statement “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Whether or not race or affirmative action had anything to do with his admission was unimportant to me because I’m confident the admissions committee believes ColePresident has a hell of a lot to offer the Rice community and that he would benefit greatly from a Rice education. I just want to make that clear.
I agree that jfking01 makes some great points, especially the “benefits to legacies” because of the “implicit racial biases” involved. I was, however, under the impression that as a result of the 1996 Supreme Court ruling in the Hopwood vs. University of Texas Law School, the Texas public universities discontinued their affirmative action admission guidelines at that time. But in the two years that followed, racial diversity at Texas universities dropped radically. And so in response to this, wasn’t it the Texas State legislature that then adopted the Ten Percent Rule, requiring public universities to automatically accept students who graduated within the top ten percent of their public school classes with the idea that students from predominantly minority high schools would provide a more racially diverse student body? But then in 2003 the Supreme Court overturned the Hopwood vs. University of Texas Law School ruling, and Texas universities went back to including race as a consideration for admission. Which then was the reason in 2012 (is that the right year?) Amanda Fisher’s case came to the Supreme Court in Fisher vs. University of Texas, claiming her fourteenth amendment rights to equal protection were violated when she was denied admission to UT Austin because of the university’s use of race in their admission decisions. Long story short (if that’s possible), the Supreme Court ruled to send the case back to the lower court for further review with the idea that race can be considered as a factor in admissions if other race-neutral means of admission fail to lead to a diverse student body. Then the lower court involved, the Fifth Circuit Court, in 2014 came to the same ruling it had earlier, so Fisher appealed the decision and the Supreme Court heard the appeal argument earlier this past December and will make a decision in 2016. In light of all of this, is Affirmative Action actually illegal in Texas? And didn’t these rulings only apply to University of Texas and other state universities? Do they apply to private universities like Rice?
Date Applied: 22nd Dec
Applied to: School of Engineering
Objective:
SAT I (superscore): 2090 (610R 800M, 680W 9 essay) (yes I know)
SAT I (single sitting): 2030 (600R 750M, 680W 9 essay)
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: 800 Math II, 750 Physics
TOEFL: 107 (28 Reading, 24 Speaking, 28 Listening, 27 Writing)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): -/69, probably 85-90 percentile
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): Predicted 38/42 (school doesn’t reveal it to us, coin toss between 37 and 38)
Senior Year Course Load: All IB courses of Mathematics HL(Predicted 6), Physics HL(Predicted 6 or 7), Economics HL(Predicted 7), Chemistry SL(Predicted 5), Spanish B SL(Predicted 7), English A Literature SL(Predicted 6)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None of great note
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): MUN (chair at school conference) , Battlelaureate 2015 (Treasurer and Logistics Head of organizing an interschool competition), Organizer of maths and science quiz, bit of admin volunteering in various school events, bit of cricket and squash
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: Done lots of volunteer projects on behalf of school from Grade 9 till date, every year a minimum of 50 hours. In Grade 11, I first volunteered with a school for autistic children, and later with an NGO to teach underprivileged kids maths and science which I carried on for the full year until Grade 12.
Summer Activities: Summer between junior and senior year spent in EC commitments
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Essay1- 9/10, wrote about MUN experience
Essay2- 10/10, talked about Rice's great Engineering facilities and how I will utilize them to learn and make stuff
Essay3- Talked about learning about Rice from family friends and their high school visit, and what makes it unique.
Essay4, the 500 word biggie- 9/10, wrote about taking forward work-oriented Indian culture, IB learner values and hollistic learning, doing robotics projects and bringing cricket culture to Rice
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): (Was not allowed to read any)
Teacher Rec #1: 10/10 Spanish Teacher, I am her favorite student, get mostly 7s and she supervised many of my ECs too
Teacher Rec #2: 9/10 Economics Teacher, likes my active participation in class and interest in economics, but he has only known me for a short while
Counselor Rec: 8/10 She had little time to write it due to technical reasons, I hope it was good
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Sadly I missed the deadline
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering (might change at college)
State (if domestic applicant): N/A
Country (if international applicant): India
School Type: International Private School (Considered 2nd or 3rd best in India)
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $200,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none that I can think of
Reflection
Strengths: SAT IIs, Recommendations, Deep involvement in school’s ECs and volunteer projects (though might not have fully conveyed it)
Weaknesses: SAT I will come back to haunt me, as well as bad grades in junior year, imperfect essays
Where else did you apply: Rice, CMU, UMich, USC, UIUC, UT Austin, Purdue, UCLA, UC SanD, RPI, WisconMad
Replies to: Rice University RD Class of 2020 Discussion **OFFICIAL THREAD**
All the best to you basedchem at the school you attend. They obviously think you’re a great fit for them, accepting you through their early admissions. Congratulations. I’m sure you would have been a great fit at Rice as well. Rice’s loss, I guess. Good luck.
@Maximilias Thanks. All my best to you and every other RD applicant. As a final note I'd like to remind everyone of something important: grades and test scores make a person on a piece of paper stand out, everything else (essays, talent, EC's, etc.) make them come alive, something so much more than lines of ink on a piece of parchment.
I had a 28 ACT and a 4.6 UW GPA, 4/1108.. And I got in . I'm also African American , so I believe affirmative action played a role , but I wish you all good luck , and don't be discouraged , you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Some people will unfortunately ignore the difference and claim that it's the same thing since a student's race may affect their chances. The fact is that the university is working to built a better student body and isn't following a quota or mandate. They want to recognize all of the social factors that influenced a kid up to this point and think about what that means for what the student can offer their classmates. Furthermore, when a university offers things like benefits to legacies, they let in implicit racial biases because of who was able to attend in past generations.
My intention isn't to single you out or imply you meant anything by your statements! I just think that on a site where people can get so crazy about acceptance and their own achievements, it's something that should be said every once in a while.
Good statement, but I'm pretty sure affirmative action is NOT illegal in Texas, and is in fact legally permissible.
Rice even has a page dedicated to this matter:
https://professor.rice.edu/professor/Affirmative_Action2.asp
I think you are confusing 'quotas' and affirmative action. There is a very distinct difference between the two. Quotas are illegal in pretty much every case, affirmative action, not so much depending on the situation and state.
I agree that jfking01 makes some great points, especially the “benefits to legacies” because of the “implicit racial biases” involved. I was, however, under the impression that as a result of the 1996 Supreme Court ruling in the Hopwood vs. University of Texas Law School, the Texas public universities discontinued their affirmative action admission guidelines at that time. But in the two years that followed, racial diversity at Texas universities dropped radically. And so in response to this, wasn’t it the Texas State legislature that then adopted the Ten Percent Rule, requiring public universities to automatically accept students who graduated within the top ten percent of their public school classes with the idea that students from predominantly minority high schools would provide a more racially diverse student body? But then in 2003 the Supreme Court overturned the Hopwood vs. University of Texas Law School ruling, and Texas universities went back to including race as a consideration for admission. Which then was the reason in 2012 (is that the right year?) Amanda Fisher’s case came to the Supreme Court in Fisher vs. University of Texas, claiming her fourteenth amendment rights to equal protection were violated when she was denied admission to UT Austin because of the university’s use of race in their admission decisions. Long story short (if that’s possible), the Supreme Court ruled to send the case back to the lower court for further review with the idea that race can be considered as a factor in admissions if other race-neutral means of admission fail to lead to a diverse student body. Then the lower court involved, the Fifth Circuit Court, in 2014 came to the same ruling it had earlier, so Fisher appealed the decision and the Supreme Court heard the appeal argument earlier this past December and will make a decision in 2016. In light of all of this, is Affirmative Action actually illegal in Texas? And didn’t these rulings only apply to University of Texas and other state universities? Do they apply to private universities like Rice?
@Maximilias
It prohibits guns on campus.
Date Applied: 22nd Dec
Applied to: School of Engineering
Objective:
SAT I (superscore): 2090 (610R 800M, 680W 9 essay) (yes I know)
SAT I (single sitting): 2030 (600R 750M, 680W 9 essay)
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: 800 Math II, 750 Physics
TOEFL: 107 (28 Reading, 24 Speaking, 28 Listening, 27 Writing)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): -/69, probably 85-90 percentile
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): Predicted 38/42 (school doesn’t reveal it to us, coin toss between 37 and 38)
Senior Year Course Load: All IB courses of Mathematics HL(Predicted 6), Physics HL(Predicted 6 or 7), Economics HL(Predicted 7), Chemistry SL(Predicted 5), Spanish B SL(Predicted 7), English A Literature SL(Predicted 6)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None of great note
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): MUN (chair at school conference) , Battlelaureate 2015 (Treasurer and Logistics Head of organizing an interschool competition), Organizer of maths and science quiz, bit of admin volunteering in various school events, bit of cricket and squash
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: Done lots of volunteer projects on behalf of school from Grade 9 till date, every year a minimum of 50 hours. In Grade 11, I first volunteered with a school for autistic children, and later with an NGO to teach underprivileged kids maths and science which I carried on for the full year until Grade 12.
Summer Activities: Summer between junior and senior year spent in EC commitments
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Essay1- 9/10, wrote about MUN experience
Essay2- 10/10, talked about Rice's great Engineering facilities and how I will utilize them to learn and make stuff
Essay3- Talked about learning about Rice from family friends and their high school visit, and what makes it unique.
Essay4, the 500 word biggie- 9/10, wrote about taking forward work-oriented Indian culture, IB learner values and hollistic learning, doing robotics projects and bringing cricket culture to Rice
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): (Was not allowed to read any)
Teacher Rec #1: 10/10 Spanish Teacher, I am her favorite student, get mostly 7s and she supervised many of my ECs too
Teacher Rec #2: 9/10 Economics Teacher, likes my active participation in class and interest in economics, but he has only known me for a short while
Counselor Rec: 8/10 She had little time to write it due to technical reasons, I hope it was good
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Sadly I missed the deadline
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering (might change at college)
State (if domestic applicant): N/A
Country (if international applicant): India
School Type: International Private School (Considered 2nd or 3rd best in India)
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $200,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none that I can think of
Reflection
Strengths: SAT IIs, Recommendations, Deep involvement in school’s ECs and volunteer projects (though might not have fully conveyed it)
Weaknesses: SAT I will come back to haunt me, as well as bad grades in junior year, imperfect essays
Where else did you apply: Rice, CMU, UMich, USC, UIUC, UT Austin, Purdue, UCLA, UC SanD, RPI, WisconMad
General Comments: Can’t say ;p