<p>keylimepie and FlMathmom: I’ve heard terrific stuff about Rice. My son’s GC wanted him to apply because she thought he’d really like it. we attended a symposium that Rice had w/ other colleges (Columbia, Brown, Cornell and UChicago). The school looked really beautiful in the slides. Unfortunately, my S didn’t want to go that far away (we live on the east coast).</p>
<p>I also tried to convince my son to apply to Rice, seems like a great school. But Texas? No way as far as he is concerned.</p>
<p>thanks fog. glad it’s carly, she’s an alum of my S’s high school. maybe that’s a good omen for all of us!</p>
<p>Congrats mosb. My S’s private school is good about lors and college stuff. Grading is another story, at least one teacher spells his name wrong each semester and another uses the wrong pronoun. Seems like a lot of cutting and pasting there. They tried rubricks in middle school and that was even worse.</p>
<p>RM - distance from home is the only Rice’s drawback as far as I am concerned. And their supplemental application is not a fun one. But it’s still high on S’s list.</p>
<p>Just a tip for all the parents who will soon be taking college letters out of the mailbox. No matter how many different ways you twist and turn the envelope, you CANNOT read through the darn envelope when held to a light (or a sun filled window)</p>
<p>Got an email from the GC’s office today that Dec 8 is the last date to request a transcript/secondary school report for January deadlines. Yikes!</p>
<p>We had a fabulous time seeing S1 for the first time since Sept 4th. His hair is too long, but other than that he looks great. He was a 2.8 GPA student in high school, did the bare minimum and was the worst time manager. His freshman midterm grades are between A- & B- Yippee!!! Going to a tough private high school must have helped, plus he is on a study intensive dorm floor with mixed ages and I think this has really helped him. (confession time…on his dorm survey he had written that he didn’t care what time his roommate went to bed. Because S1 has always been an early bird I changed it to “prefer 11pm for lights out” and I have ZERO guilt for doing this.)</p>
<p>I know a couple families whose kids have gone to Ripon and they said their kids flourished in the smaller environment. Momofsongbird if you are doing music, did you look at Lawrence in Wisconsin?</p>
<p>My ds has been getting some odd “sham-wow” type offers from schools he has never ever expressed interest in for waiving app fees, extending deadlines…“We were disappointed that we didn’t receive your application by the early admission deadline but for a limited time, until midnight tonight, we will extend to you the chance” I know how easy it must be to get a list and work it since emails don’t actually cost the college much in marketing expense but really? It’s getting like credit card offers or “buy a ginsu knife today and we will throw in a mug!” It’s all a bit too slick, and these are not all no-name places. I am sure they know very little if anything about my ds, this is all just blanket marketing and cheesy. Is anyone getting these things too? We had 10 or so just in the last day.</p>
<p>Congrats momofsongbird and songbird!!! Such great news!</p>
<p>Amandakayak- have been getting tons of them! Very slick marketing. The cynic in me says they want to increase the number of applicants to appear more competitive.</p>
<p>I just went back and looked at the ones from today which were a reaction to the 11/1 deadline and they look very similar, like the same ad agency maybe. If so, they need to realize that it makes them appear cheap like an infommercial. We got RPI, CWU, Quinnipiac and a slew more. I would expect this more from a online, UofPhoenix type place, not an actual bricks and mortar university.</p>
<p>“Amandakayak- have been getting tons of them! Very slick marketing. The cynic in me says they want to increase the number of applicants to appear more competitive”</p>
<p>Ding Ding Ding. </p>
<p>Makes them look more selective as it increases the number of rejections.</p>
<p>I dumped a huge box full the other day from just last month - at least 5 mailers from each, some even more than that - Dickinson, Colby, Colo College, Brandeis, Drew, Pace, U of Richmond just off the top of my head.</p>
<p>Beyond the usual mailings, I am just surprised that even deadlines are not deadlines “if you act now, we will extend your deadline because you are special” blabla and if he was interested last month, we would have paid an app fee but since we didn’t - now fees are being waived right and left. Reminds me of Kohl’s - one day it’s MVP special savings for our best customers and right after that sale - the prices go even lower to the genl public. I didn’t think about yield but yeah, so these free offers just makes them look more competitive. Fordham, UVermont just came in.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys for all of the well wishes. I was offline today and came back to find that I’m four pages behind!!! S is feeling relieved at his acceptance (Tulane) but is still holding his breath as we wait to hear from his ED school (should hear by mid-December). I have given him a week off to just relax now that his Fall sport is concluded, and then we are starting one or two supplements to schools that are on the back burner until we hear from ED school. As I said to him when he balked, better safe than sorry.</p>
<p>I am going to read through the pages I missed, but it seems like there’s a lot of good news around…</p>
<p>S got a letter from the U of Maryland indicating he could apply for free b/c of NMSF status. S is not adding any schools to his list.</p>
<p>Reaction to Rice from kids applying to northern schools espec Ivys has been consistent. Most say Texas - no way, incl a lot of FL kids. Rice calls itself the Harvard of the South. Catchy, but really?? My son has no interest in Ivys even tho he has as good a chance as the next kid, but he really liked Rice. The feeling at the school is much more laid back than a typical, intense northern elite school. As they say, it is all about fit.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m caught up…and hearty congrats to mosb, tessaR and holliesue. Hurray for all of these great kids!</p>
<p>Flmathmom: from what I was told by my S’s college counselor at school, the rigor/education at Rice is comparable to an ivy. and as i mentioned above, it does its dog & pony show w/ Columbia, Brown, Cornell and UChicago, its peer institutions. i was sorry my S wouldn’t consider it b/c it has so many attributes he’s looking for: urban environment, great science, mid-university size, etc.</p>
<p>as far as my S was concerned, the only reason he didn’t consider it more was because of distance from home. he also nixed schools in CA. doesn’t want to go farther than the midwest.</p>
<p>Re Rice</p>
<p>I had recently put Rice on the list for our student to consider as a nice match since the list was reachy heavy…the stats are not as high as some schools and they have some nice programs…
Rice has a residential college system. I spent some time reading their common datat set, freshman proifle etc…they get alot of accomplished students.
I haven’t been in Houston in about 20 yrs, though loved it and was impressed by the school while I was there so lojg ago–so thought it worth a look…Many years ago it was known for a good endowment…</p>
<p>As far as the mailings–just today my DH said he wished we had kept all of the mail for DS to have a large bon fire…</p>
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<p>I agree - even a strong LED flashlight doesn’t work! I’m not saying how I know this.</p>
<p>My daughter’s ED acceptance several years ago came in a plain, thin envelope. What helped was being able to feel the outlines of a smaller card inside - I thought it might be a reply envelope, and it was. My daughter tells her college friends about my efforts to figure it out and they all shake their heads, but it was satisfying at the time :-).</p>
<p>Congrats to all for the steady stream of early acceptances - should help to keep us awake till March!
College 4 three - we are in the same boat, waiting on that Mid Dec ED with 3 others E/A, but 2 supplements for RD if needed (Lord I hope we don’t!).
For those interested in Rice , we live about a mile from campus. A great school in a great location if I say so myself! Houston is a very diverse city with lots going on. We are not natives but have loved here for 10+ years so if anyone has any questions I’d be happy to help.</p>