<p>@MilwDad: great post. Absoultely agreed.</p>
<p>I’ll add my personal example. Although I prefer Rice to colleges such as Emory or UVa (they are great universities, by the way), as I got my Emory and UVa acceptances earlier, I begin to get much more interested in those two college. I already started to communicate with current students there, and I am becoming much more involved. For Rice, on the other hand, I’m not doing anything since I don’t even know if I’ll get accepted.</p>
<p>Could decisions be released on a Saturday or is that plainly impossible?</p>
<p>Emory Scholars’ early notification in January has actually worked in convincing me to go there. More and more, especially with the scholarship I got, my parents have been pushing it. And being waitlisted at Northwestern & WashU St. Louis makes me feel like I stand no chance at schools like Rice, JHU, Duke, Brown. </p>
<p>Rice was always a top choice along with Duke and JHU, but this waiting is just making me nervous.</p>
<p>MilwDad,
Outstanding post! My S applied to Rice and just got an acceptance to a great school today, one which he would be delighted to attend. He rolls his eyes now at how late Rice is with their decision. He was also admitted to U. Chicago over a week ago and points out that they had a 42% increase in apps. He blames this on the “laid back” Houston vibe. ;)</p>
<p>So true. I’ve been so excited planning my visits to northwestern/wustl that I honestly forgoti applied here. You would think with all these schols already combg out that, if not releasing decisions, that they would give some kind of update about when it will be</p>
<p>they dont even have a blog… like vandy or stanford or mit … some way to let us know whats happening… what the stats are… something anything… its almost…like a school that doesnt care…(which isnt true) but thats what it feels like in comparison to the other schools… if rice wants to move up the rankings… it really needs to increase its yield by tapping into psychology of applicants. it needs to be more visible… needs to be more active… not dead…</p>
<p>hey this was a great idea. I’m freaking out about decision letters and this has really helped. So I was curious where everyone was from? I am from New Mexico.</p>
<p>You raise another telling point, Pandora – the lack of communication from Rice about its process. I believe every other University our son has applied to has tried to provide at least some communication about the process along the way while applicants are waiting. Some of these schools have blogs on their websites by admissions directors or officers. Some of them have sent out e-mails to applicants. Some even have admissions officers who post on this site, passing along information and correcting misinformation. Rice, on the other hand, has maintained complete radio silence. College admissions is enough of a “black box” already. This approach only increases the anxiety. Even the occasional simple message like “we’re working on it, here’s what we’re doing” counts for a lot.</p>
<p>Like others here, we are contemplating and trying to plan visits to schools – now. Since students are under the nearly immediate deadline of selecting their college by May 1, there are literally only a few weekends available to do this, and of course most if not all students have other obligations to contend with, too. Our son has a state competition in one of his important extra-curricular activities one weekend, for example. So Rice has necessarily fallen to the bottom of the stack as we do our planning. I can’t imagine that we will be able to seriously consider a Rice admitted student visit if it’s yet another week before decisions are communicated, given the scheduling difficulties and the travel planning that would be involved. (And it bears noting that the shorter the time frame to plan a visit, the more difficult and expensive air travel becomes for those of us at great distance.) </p>
<p>We obviously aren’t alone, given the responses to my post just from the relatively few people on this forum. Now multiply that by thousands of applicants. It’s mystifying why Rice, already challenged because of its location for many students, has decided to wait so long.</p>
<p>perhaps Rice doesn’t want to move up in rankings at all. <em>sigh</em> I don’t think Rice can be compared to Ivies(even “lower ivies”) or Duke/NU/UChicago. So that’s why I think Rice is getting arrogant-thinking itself peer of Ivies and other top 10 schools.</p>
<p>I completely agree. Rice is not at the level of the ivies and if it wanted to draw in those caliber people, it should have followed washu’s example of daly notification plus continued mailing of information</p>
<p>ha ha… it would be hilarious if rice had its lowest yield since inception… that would be funny…</p>
<p>Lol Milwdad…your posts are some of the most articulate that I have seen on this forum ever. I’ll give you yet another personal example of how rice fails to tap into the psychology of the applicant. A couple years back, my cousin applied to the Rice/Baylor Program, which doesnt even tell you whether you have the opportunity for an interview until after april first!!! Well my cousin got accepted to northwestern HPME, arguably the most highly regarded med program of its type, and also a program that interviewed as early as February. Predictably, my cousin got his acceptance to HPME a day earlier than he even got his interview notification for rice baylor! Though he was seriously considering both, he refused the interview because he had already committed to HPME. Just goes to show you how a little sloth and complacency can cause a university to lose a wonderful applicant…</p>
<p>after reading all the previous threads, i’m starting to feel bad for rice…</p>
<p>even though i also feel anxious about the decision, i don’t believe rice is purposely being arrogant. the admissions office is made up of people too. maybe some accident (system crashing, files getting mixed up, etc) happened this year that’s causing the delay. whatever the reason might be, it doesn’t help much for us to get angry.</p>
<p>I have to agree with MilwDad here. I also have a weekend in April already blacked out, and probably another for a UChicago visit. That leaves two weekends that Rice could take for a visit (assuming they don’t schedule their admitted students days for a weekend I’ve already scheduled for something else). This is really getting problematic.</p>
<p>@vitaminc22: An error like that would be forgivable if they would just tell us about it. The total lack of communications, as MilwDad said, is something that is both unusual and easily rectifiable by Rice. A simple e-mail or blog posting (if they had an Admissions Blog, which afaik they don’t) would be enough.</p>
<p>yes exactly^…if chicago can do it…so can rice</p>
<p>I feel so bad for Rice after reading this thread. It’s seriously my dream school and I’ve been visiting the campus since I was twelve. However, I’m a extremely frustrated that not a single email has come our way regarding admissions, especially since I’ve been getting such good signals from my maybe-future professor (I’m a music major) for months. Hurry up Rice!</p>
<p>IMO rice provides an IVY quality education, im not bashing rice for their academics at all, i just wish they would gimme my damn decision!!! GARR</p>
<p>^^^Owl Days 4/15-16, plus two single-day events: 4/23 and 4/26.</p>
<p>I feel bad for Rice too. I started with Rice being THE most desirable and personal-favorite of all the reaches I had applied to (even contemplated applying ED!). However, since applying I have heard from my other reaches which have been in contact with me and therefore have been on my mind more. For instance, I found out about Bowdoin kind of early despite applying RD and was invited to an all expense paid trip provided by them! By having them contact me/show interest in me/be in my mind, I am leaning more towards them and almost forgetting about Rice :(</p>
<p>I’ve found my people!</p>
<p>Rice has been no. 1 for ds (and his parents) for more than two years, but I have to agree with MilwDad and the rest of you. As I look at the yes in hand and wonderful $$$ from Carleton, I have to say that a no from Rice now wouldn’t feel devastating – disappointing, yes, but not nearly as crushing as it would have felt even a week ago. I don’t think Rice has played this correctly at all. Their true peers, such as WUSTL, already have announced, and kids are seeing themselves on those campuses, not Rice’s. Ds has answers from the other 10 colleges he applied to, nine of them acceptances; Rice is the only one left out there.</p>
<p>I’ve given some thought to the psychology of this all. I think the ones first out of the gate get the biggest bump. When you get a yes and then a scholarship and/or FA early on, you feel happy and flattered and there is residual glow on that school. If you’re wating to reel in a big fish (HYP) and that comes at the end, then that’s exciting, too. But Rice isn’t the big fish for many of their applicants. If you’re waiting on HYP and you finally get a yes from Rice, where you applied because it’s not as selective, it just doesn’t measure up, especially if you get a yes that day from HYP. In fact a yes from Rice the same day you get a no from the Ivies, really makes Rice suffer in comparison, too.</p>
<p>If ds gets accepted to Rice he still would probably elect to go there, but the school’s lack of information has made it drop in our eyes. I hadn’t even thought about the blog/web stuff, but, yeah, they’re not too user-friendly, huh?</p>