I’m a senior in high school who is planning to ED to Rice University, and I wanted to mention in the “Why this college” essay that Rice values collaboration over cutthroat competition (what I heard in several Rice forums). However, I want to be more specific in this essay. Are there any specific programs/features of Rice that fosters a collaborative environment?
I don’t really know the answer but I suspect it comes from the professors. Maybe it has something to do with the “house” system of residential colleges? People get forced to live with a random group of people for four years and I’ve heard they become very tightly knit, competing against other houses and so forth. Can you ask some Rice students or alumni? Maybe on Reddit? I live in Houston so I know a few alums but they are all old like me and I’m not sure their answers would still apply.
Paging @jym626
My D had good luck reading through a school’s mission and vision statement, reading the student newspaper and following social media accounts for clues for the why us essays.
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Have you attended any webinars or info sessions? Have you visited campus? Do you follow Rice on social media? Have you looked at their You Tube channels?
I would focus on what you learned from visiting campus or from materials that Rice put out rather than what you read on forums. I would also focus on why Rice and avoid comparing Rice to other universities.
The Rice You Tube channel has series of videos on both undergraduate student life as well as unconventional education. You might watch some of those and see if you can glean some inspiration.
In addition to the general Rice You Tube channel above, Rice Admissions has their own channel.
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Rice is collaborative and supportive in many ways. If you look up “rice thresher” and read through the articles, it won’t be hard to find something that “clicks” with you. Two students in my class are applying to Rice this year. They asked me what to write about, and I told them to go explore Rice Thresher, find a story they can relate to, dig for more information about that story, and they’ll know what to write about.
Last year one student in my class applied to Rice. It was easy for him because his older sibling was a Rice student. If you can find several current Rice students to talk to, you’ll get a better feeling whether or not it’s the right place for you.
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