Am I Already Rejected.....?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
#1

<p>Well I'm going to be a junior in a few days, school starts soon >.>, </p>

<p>I'm wondering if my 9th grade year [the most abysmal of all] will crush my chances of admittance to Rice. </p>

<p>9th Grade </p>

<p>Geometry-regular A, B
Biology I - Honors A, A
World Geo. - Honors B, A
Technical Drafting - A, B
P.E. - A, A
English I-regular A, A
French II-advanced A, A </p>

<p>10th Grade [all As] </p>

<p>Alg II-Honors
Trig / Adv math - Honors
English II - honors
French III - honors
Chemistry I - honors
Civics / Free Ent. - honors
Soccer P.E. </p>

<p>11th Grade [will be All As] </p>

<p>Calc AB- AP
STATS- AP
Chem II - AP
Chem II lab - AP
English III - AP
American History - honors [will take AP test]
French IV - AP
[self studying macro / micro / psych AP] </p>

<p>SAT: Not taken, but last practice says 2210</p>

<p>I'm in beta, went to Mu Alpha Theta state and placed in individual, all the other generic extra currics. </p>

<p>I played soccer for past two years for school team, ultimate frisbee as well. </p>

<p>Rank: 10/300 </p>

<p>However, I'm most worried about that terrible 9th grade schedule because I realalize that it does not show "rigor", as some other kids were taking Calc AP and Trig while I was in Geometry REGULAR. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for the help.</p>

#2

<p>Refer to the following threads
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/966005-how-another-top-school-adcom-looks-admissions.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/966005-how-another-top-school-adcom-looks-admissions.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/892084-official-rice-rd-decisions-class-2014-a.html?highlight=official+class%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/892084-official-rice-rd-decisions-class-2014-a.html?highlight=official+class&lt;/a>
They will be probably be more useful than anyone here's evaluation of the limited information you provided.</p>

#3

<p>Most top schools tend to look at grade trends. They realize that freshman year of high school is a transition year. Plus, Rice, like most other top schools, takes a holistic approach to admissions (grades are just one component). I wouldn't worry too much about your freshman year grades. As long as you continue doing well (getting mostly As), you should be fine. However, your schedule looks very vigorous, so you will have to work very hard. Be careful not to burn yourself out before you get to college... don't just take extra AP tests (i.e. American History or Econ) just to impress admissions officers (now if you are interested in learning these subjects, go for it).</p>

<p>By the way, most high school freshmen start off in geometry or algebra II during their freshman year of high school. It is EXTREMELY rare for someone at any high school to take AP Calculus during his/her freshman year of high school... you pretty much have to be a genius to do that. There was a math genius in my graduating class (who is currently attending Yale), and even he didn't take AP Calculus until his sophomore year. Most people take AP Calc their junior or senior year of high school. </p>

<p>I don't know what your chances are (no one on this thread does, which is why chance threads are meaningless), but I do feel you are a competitive applicant for Rice. All you can do is apply and see... you have a better chance getting in when you apply than when you do not apply.</p>

#4

<p>To both posters, thanks much. I took a look at the two topics you posted and they were very helpful and eye-opening to me regarding the admissions process. </p>

<p>The point was not a "chance" thread, i realize those are meaningless, just to see whether I could still be competitive even though I did not have a very successful 9th grade and a mediorce course load. </p>

<p>Thanks for the help, and as a side note to the previous poster: There's about 6 or 7 freshmen at my school every year that take Calc AP. Some qualify for USAMO / Take the AIME. And I live in Louisiana 0_o. I always thought the ohter state high schools were waaaaay ahead of us haha.</p>

#5

<p>Youre joking right? Those grades look oh so terrible. You cannot be serious</p>

#6

<p>No, they don't give a damn about freshman year. Unless, of course, you received all D's and F's.</p>

#7

<p>Spend a lot of time on your essays. I had excellent grades, 4.0 unweighted GPA, ranked 2/364, and I wasn't accepted. I think most of the reason was because my essays were weak and I didn't have any extracurricular activities that were out of the norm. Make your essays point out unique traits you have or experiences, good or bad, you've had. Rice wants unique and well rounded individuals, who aren't always serious and show their personalities through their writing. I'm applying again as a transfer, and though the deadline for transfers is in March, I'm already trying to think of ways I'm unique. Jot down any ideas you have, wherever you are, and keep the topics in the back of your mind so you'll always be getting ideas.</p>

#8

<p>Are you already rejected? Very interesting way to put it.
No.</p>

#9

<p>I can respond "No" without even having to read the post! Threat title was easy as pie.</p>

#10

<p>
[quote]
No, they don't give a damn about freshman year. Unless, of course, you received all D's and F's.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That is not true.</p>

#11

<p>You're not rejected if you haven't even applied yet.</p>

#12

<p>
[quote]
Youre joking right? Those grades look oh so terrible. You cannot be serious

[/quote]
Just in case there is any misunderstanding due to the nature of message boards... LVBaby - you know that Antarius is pulling your leg here, right? He means: You can't be serious about calling those grades terrible. </p>

<p>You don't have to be PERFECT to get into Rice... you just have to have a good, strong application, and they have to have space for you. Good luck with your application. :)</p>

#13

<p>^^ yeah. thats pretty close.</p>

<p>
[quote]
However, I'm most worried about that terrible 9th grade schedule because I realalize that it does not show "rigor", as some other kids were taking Calc AP and Trig while I was in Geometry REGULAR.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>adcoms know you are a person. Not a machine taking SAT's from 4th grade. I think your grades are perfectly fine. They wont hurt your app at all. The rest of it is key, essays, recs and SAT's</p>

#14

<p>Thanks guys for the feedback. I see that it's multiple parts of the application that make it powerful. The essay seems very important to this application in particular.. </p>

<p>The essay that I will write will go to all colleges? This "common app" that i have heard about is used to apply to a lot of colleges, so my Essay to Rice will be the same as the ones i send to the other schools as well?</p>

#15

<p>It's too early to worry about essays in my opinion, but you will almost certainly have to write different essays for different colleges. If a college uses the common app (it probably will), then you will have a main essay that you submit to it along with all other colleges that use that application system (you can submit different main essays to different colleges if you wish, though). As I said, many colleges require you to write one or more auxiliary essays in addition to that.</p>

#16

<p>supplemental essays though are shorter usually. 250-350 words in my experience</p>

#17

<p>^ No. The Rice Supplement essay is like 2-3 pages double spaced.</p>

#18

<p>interesting. well, listen to Fromen then!! been a while for me</p>

#19

<p>I'm pretty sure my son only wrote a page. I think the 2-3 pages is max.</p>

#20

<p>Yah, Rice gives the prompt and then states that most applicants answer it sufficiently in 2-3 double spaced pages. You're free to write more/less, but you just have to be careful.</p>

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