<p>Sorry you feel belittled, milwdad. That was not the intent. Just responding to the tone, which does sound angry or annoyed, and unduly critical of a school that is following protocol. Not discounting your frustration, but Rice isn’t doing anything “wrong”. To me, that is a mischaracterization. The responses sound like cognitive dissonance. Sorta like: “Rice is a great school, but Rice isn’t doing the things that other good/great schools are doing to keep us informed, and it is causing discomfort-- ergo one has to adjust the opinion of/attitude towards Rice.” ([Cognitive</a> dissonance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance]Cognitive”>Cognitive dissonance - Wikipedia)).</p>
<p>In past years The acceptances came out on April 1, and students who still wanted/needed to visit schools had to scurry around to do it. Its stressful. Agreed. But there is still a month to get it done, as in past years. This is nothing new. Reading JJparent’s post 258, the Rice visitations are still perfectly doable, as they have always been. Is Rice doing anything any differently than they said they would, Milwdad? I just have trouble understanding how one can blame a school and say they are somehow preventing you from doing what you need to do when you have known these guidelines (except maybe for the dates of the visitation weekends) all along. If you have a lot of schools to see-- thats wonderful! Congrats! But you have had all year to visit. I just don’t understand how you feel that they are “making it harder” on you by doing what they said they were going to do. They haven’t changed their procedure. Why be mad/upset/frustrated with them? I just dont understand.</p>
<p>I still wonder if this year has to do with the spring break/Passover/Easter holidays hitting when they do. Anyone look into the spring break schedules of the schools in comparison to when the acceptances were released? It would be tough to release them (and FA packages) on a Fri after hours and then be closed for the next week. Talk about frustration Can you imagine the voicelmails and emails waiting the following week?</p>
<p>Well if I didn’t have legitimate reason to feel that way before, the didactic tone of your first paragraph certainly got me there, but in fairness to Rice I am reminding myself that you do not speak for the institution.</p>
<p>I get it. Rice will take its good natured time. Too bad for us whiners. There’s plenty of fish in the sea. That works both ways, of course. But really, is it that difficult for you simply to recognize that Rice is unhelpfully slower than its peers in issuing its decisions, and that this has real consequences for people? Please at least grant us that Rice’s communications regarding its admissions could be greatly improved in comparison to its peers – considering there has been NO communication.</p>
<p>By the way, I did a quick spot check and found that every private elite university I checked – including Rice – had its spring break in early to mid March. And that aside, do professional Admissions staffs really leave over spring break? Are these major Universities or popsicle stands? Isn’t spring the busiest time of year for admissions officers?</p>
<p>I don’t understand why a week’s difference in admission decisions between Rice and other universities makes any real difference when admitted students will have at least two weeks to decide where they want to attend? Sure, Rice could communicate more about what’s happening in their admissions office - except this would slow down the process even more and the only good it would achieve would be to slightly ameliorate anxiety. It’s not as if the Rice admissions staff is working any less hard just because you don’t know about it. That is a delusional way of thinking.</p>
<p>Speaking of delusional people, anyone who would seriously argue that Rice is not a peer institution to Duke, Northwestern, Wash U, etc. needs to do their research before presenting ignorant statements as facts. I would contend that Rice is even as good as some Ivies such as Cornell and Brown and could outline in which ways Rice matches and exceeds them, but that’s not really the purpose of this thread.</p>
<p>Milwdad- ok I am so tired of reading your posts they are redundant and irritating. It’s your kids decision about college, and honestly I don’t know how you have enough time to do a quick spot check of all private universities spring breaks. If you don’t like rice don’t go to rice. There will be plently of people like me dying to take your kids place even if I have to wait a few more days for decisions.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking why Rice might take longer than its peer institutions despite the problems Milwdad explained that their waiting creates, and I wonder if it has something to do with merit aid.
From what I’ve heard, Rice gives more merit aid than any of its peer institutions and, as a result, my guess is that it sees this fact as a recruiting tool. Its current move to increase the size of the student body coupled with a smaller endowment due to the economy could possibly be putting the admissions office under stress to figure out which students they REALLY want to come AND expect to come because they may not be able to afford it if they offer scholarships and more people than expect accept. It’s possible that they’re done with the “admissions” process and are now trying to compare the admitted students in order to be able to make offers of financial aid. Although this problem didn’t show up last year, that is not entirely surprising, because a lot of universities made fewer cuts for the current school year than they may in the next few years because they were economy would rebound fast enough that larger cuts to things like financial aid would not be necessary.
I have not idea if this theory is valid, it just might explain the need for an extra week of review.</p>
<p>Guys, this is not the “rant about how slow and pathetic the Rice admissions office is” thread. If you really consider Rice as a serious possibility, then you’ll respect it enough to wait another five days for a decision.</p>
<p>Rice is increasing cost of attendance by approximately 5% next year, but it’s also increasing its financial aid budget by 16%, i.e, the students who deserve merit money and those who need aid money will get it. But yes, Rice does give more aid than almost any other school (I think there may be some Ivies that have the financial capability to give more and do so, but the difference is nonetheless small).</p>
<p>Also, totally agree with soadquake981. This is not the last time in your lives you’ll have to anxiously wait for something, so in the meanwhile, find something else to do, yeah?</p>
<p>I’m still very interested in going to Rice, but I have to say; complaining about something/asking why something is the way it is isn’t necessarily synonymous with hating something. Just like someone who dislikes something that the U.S. does can still like the U.S.</p>
<p>We have to wait til April 1 any way for the Ivies, y’all, and I’m sure no one is complaining on the Cornell thread about them taking so long, even though Rice is arguably on the same level if not a little better than Cornell.</p>
<p>^ Rice says by April 1st, as well. Pretty clear. Not fair to hold them to an earlier deadline that you have made up based on their peers release dates.</p>
<p>@Torcher: That’s because Cornell clearly said they would announce it on 31st (or was it 1st of April? can’t really remember right now). Rice, for the past two years, announced their decisions on the 23rd.</p>
<p>I think the ambiguous attitudes of colleges with their decision dates are exacerbating the waiting period.</p>
<p>I know I said this already, but I have this really strong feeling that they are coming out Monday. They are probably already done with decisions and are even probably ready to release so I don’t see why they would wait until the first of April. Relax guys, it’s coming real soon.</p>
<p>Rice was able to release earlier last year, so they did. This year, it looks like they won’t be able to, but they will be able to meet their agreement with you students. They said by April 1st, and I bet you anything, you’ll know on or by April 1st.</p>
<p>Rice is legally okay to not announce before 1st April. Nobody, inluding Milwdad is questioning that.
Issue is can it not do better ?</p>
<p>Haven’t your children striven to be better than their peer group ? Or have they just gone by the minimum / published state or college standards ?
Please think of the logistics problems in attending Student days when decisions come out late ( compared to Peer group )…then multiply that by 5 times for International students( whose money all including Rice are eagerly waiting for ). Or shall we say ‘let them suffer if they want to come to America ?’</p>
<p>How do you react when your car is returned from service earlier than promised ? Do you say ‘oh well, i can wait for another 2 days’ ?. Don’t you feel happy with that service company ?</p>
<p>Nobody is doubting Rice’s quality. Interest in Rice does not mean one cannot expect better performance ( specially when others are doing it ). Stanford, yes Stanford ( and not a wannabee Ivy ) released 6 days ahead of schedule, saying they want to alleviate student-parental uncertainties. And they like scores of others maintain Admission blogs with updates …if i want to be another Ivy, i should better take their best & not hide behind legal interpretation of whats the minimum i ought to be doing.</p>
<p>Rice remains in our target list …right at the bottom now.</p>