I knew it couldn’t just be me! And yea, the SAT thing is good to know. I might just play it by ear for now and see what my math scores are; I’m in Swarthmore’s range, but not quite Rice’s yet. Thanks for the input!
Thanks! If you don’t mind me asking - how are you going about Vandy’s essay…“reflect on how one or more aspects of your identity, culture, or background has played a role in your personal growth, and how it will contribute to our campus community as you dare to grow at Vanderbilt”. Someone earlier placed you as a middle of the road person. Would you go with that or something else? Asking because my daughter is also a middle of the road person and has no idea how to make herself look unique
I don’t know how much my story is going to help, I’m sorry. I’m probably going to talk about how I went from a solidly middle-class family in an urban area to homeless for 6 months after moving down the rural South due to COVID preventing my dad from getting his job or selling our old house. I’ll talk a lot about how it changed my perspective on what really is valuable; I’m not entirely sure yet. It is tricky; you both want to be completely and totally honest, while also marketing yourself to the college. It’s a weird game we play
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O-Week was constant and draining but he left it with 2 large circles of friends - which was a great start to social life at Rice. He finds the people friendly, interesting, open-minded and very smart. He likes that it has very intense STEM classes (lots of choices for CS and business) but classmates are still cooperative and looking to have a social life too. His teachers have all been great so far. He loves the Residential College system because it creates a smaller community (kind of like an inclusive, co-ed fraternity/sorority culture). The weather has been hot but with air conditioning everywhere he hasn’t found the heat to be as big a deal as he thought it would be (we live in southern CA and it’s been 100 degrees here in CA every day this week). Rice is in a very nice area of Houston so he likes to venture into Rice Village (although he likes the servery food too).
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FWIW I think it would make a great essay, sorry to hear about the trouble you family has had to go through
Great to hear! I admit, I am slightly worried about the weather lol. I could have a lot worse problems on my plate though. The residential college system sounds like it’s living up to its name; it’s been one of the biggest selling points to me for Rice and Vandy. It’s good to know that the area around Rice is nice; I’ve heard so many contradictory things about Houston. Again, congrats to your son! I hope I’m in his shoes or someplace similar next year!
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I appreciate it; we’re thankfully in a much better place now. Good luck to your daughter! I hope she gets in!
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What is the average SAT for your high school? I have the feeling you may be given a little leeway on your score based on your high school.
I don’t know where I’d find official numbers, but probably at around 1100. We do have a perfect scorer in my class though, so that might screw with my data.
Definitely give the NPC a shot. They have been shifting to more generous financial aid to try to compete more effectively for not-upper-income students.
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If your choice comes down to Vanderbilt or Rice…I would favor Vanderbilt.
It’s got new, spectacular looking residential colleges, is surrounded by unique, very cool neighborhoods and is located in a thriving city known for creativity, an expanding healthcare industry and outstanding, diversified cuisine.
And, one more thing: perhaps a winning football team (based on the school’s first two games)
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I will run it! That’s super good to know; I had crossed it off my list because of income.
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I love Vandy too; it’s definitely my first choice. The big competition is for 2nd right now. It just can’t hurt to have a backup lol
So this is the big question: if you are deferred from Vandy ED, are you planning to still ED2 to Rice or Swarthmore? You’d obviously be giving up Vandy if you were accepted to the ED2 school. Or just apply to those RD?
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Good point. I was thinking about this yesterday. I’m not entirely sure yet; I currently think I’d still go ahead and ED2 at Rice. All of these schools seem like such a crazy opportunity to me, that even if it’s not my first choice it’d be extremely foolish to throw away a higher likelihood of getting into a school like Rice.
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No need to decide now, but I note my S24 got deferred from his first choice, decided not to ED2 his then second choice (WashU), then got into WashU RD and is now there anyway.
Of course it can feel risky, but I do tend to think people can overstate how likely it is to actually change things, particularly at colleges not necessarily likely to yield protect you. As in if you demonstrate interest, write good why us essays, and so on, I think it really just comes down to whether they want you or not.
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That is good to think about. It probably is overstated, especially with recruited athletes and such; we’ll see. Thanks for the advice!
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My D20 was deferred from a NESCAC ED1, decided not to apply ED2, and was accepted to ED1, plus several more SLACs including a more rejective reach. She decided to attend the reach school and is thriving.
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Rice parent here - I second the point about ED not providing a major boost. In 2023, ED was ~17% and RD ~7%, but just factoring in the likely number of recruited athletes in the small ED cohort gets you down in the 12-13% range, not even accounting for other strongly hooked applicants (donor kids, faculty kids, etc.). I don’t think there’s a meaningful difference in the outcome for a particular applicant ED vs. RD, though I understand why students would feel the need to apply ED to schools like Rice that track demonstrated interest.
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I agree with you fully.
ED may make more of a difference at schools that are sensitive about their yield, i.e., a yield that is way lower than their supposed peer schools.
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