Chance me for next fall's Rice ED

dutchowl
Sat, 26 Apr 2014 04:52:31 +0000

Hey, analogcadaver! My advice would be to definitely work the English major angle. I think Rice wants more competitive English majors, since they have floods of engineering and biochem students coming in every year. If you present yourself as a strong English candidate, I think you’ll definitely have an advantage!

I was recently admitted, and I had some English-related EC “hooks,” as it looks like you do. I wasn’t in honors math or science, but I loaded up on honors English courses to show how I was strong in that way. I made sure to write my “Why Rice?” essay about how I felt I could succeed as an English major at Rice. I talked about specific Rice English professors with whom I was looking forward to working, and I made sure my passion for English came out in all aspects of my application.

My only advice if you want to spice up your application a little bit would be to get your writing published in some way, shape or form. Rice prides itself on being a research university, and if you want to show them you can really thrive there, you should engage in some sort of outside English project (such as doing an independent study with a teacher, publishing an article in your local paper, or even just starting a blog). You still have some really amazing ECs, though, so you may not even need that–it’s just a suggestion! Best of luck to you!