<p>I love Rice’s admissions department. I don’t think that at any other school I would have had an admission office say to me during the second semester of my freshman year, “Oh, you’re NYSkins1? Last year we were shouting your name down the hall whenever one of us got your app.” (I have a unique last name, so this makes sense if you’re using my real name).</p>
<p>The admissions office at Rice is extremely personal. I may not be 100 percent correct about this, but I have heard that after they accept the clearly strong applicants and reject the clearly weak ones, each admissions officer picks out a handful of people that they claim as “theirs.” Then they have meetings in which they argue why one of their people should be admitted over one of someone else’s people. That’s why you haven’t received anything; they’re too busy getting to know each applicant personally to send you a form letter that says, “Dear <strong><em>, thanks for your application to Rice. We’re busy reviewing it. Here’s another brochure filled with information that you already know, but we want to make sure you don’t forget about us. Good luck, </em></strong>_!”</p>