@mx510tx mine was also rejected at Rice. 99% sure he’ll land at SMU
I am not fully sure about others, but we applied for FA if that helps.
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Well if you have a top 2 - it’s not too hard. Go to both, see what fits best.
Tulane is not on the same level as Rice but nonetheless, ranking is not everything.
I get the sense that Tulane is more party, Rice is more chill…that’s my sense.
Rice is in a nice area…Tulane is a ways away from New Orleans. Rice looks really nice. Personally I thought Tulane was dumpy. The dorms looked like a motel 6 - they literally had doors to the outside. That said, both schools seem to have high student satisfaction.
Hope that helps.
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S21 got accepted. Rice now moves to the head of the pack. This is one of the schools we really liked for a variety of reasons.
Accepted: Rice, CMU, Berkley, UCLA, Michigan
Rejected: Cal Tech, MIT
WL: Chicago
Pending: Duke, Penn, Harvard
Would take Rice over anything but Duke and Harvard (or Chicago). Seeing some light at the end of this tunnel.
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I hear you - the list you have is impressive. My daughter got into Washington & Lee - but at $81K it’s a no go.
The next ranked schools are Florida (no merit, OOS not worth it - $44K or so), UGA (campus too big), and Miami Florida ($25K merit- so it’s about $50K). I suppose American is in a similar vein - but more Expensive (about $57K).
As a dad who wants to retire on day and for a poli sci major, I’m more interested in Florida State ($22K), Arizona Honors ($24K), South Carolina Honors ($28K), or my daughter’s favorite - although ranked less which is College of Charleston (about $38K - Honors and an Intl Scholar designation). She’s in other solid schools such as UMD and Pitt but no aid.
It’s odd - on this list everyone has other elite alternatives. I guess our list wasn’t as top heavy. W&L is great but $81K - how do you justify it for poli sci? D was waitlisted at Emory and William & Mary and rejected at Rice and UNC.
Good luck to everyone.
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I love the pending status!
My S will likely choose Northeastern for CS. He hasn’t completely ruled out UMass Amherst. My D will be finishing her last year at Yale this Fall. They could visit each other more often as we are in Texas. My other S will likely Choose CU Boulder for Political Science, although hasn’t ruled out TCU completely. It’s all about the fit in the end. They have choices, which is good.
Well…pending decision. 
Feel pretty good about Duke. Our school has a great track record with Penn (my son does not have them as high on the list). Harvard is a long shot…he was deferred EA along with 8k other kids. Guidance counselor feels better about it than we do, but the odds are brutal everywhere this year. My son said the admit rate was 8.7% at Rice.
@tsbna44 You’re not from the south, are you? It’s not uncommon to have doors opening directly to the outside in mild climates. I was in Hawaii 13 months ago and our resort was like that too. It was not at all “dumpy.” My favorite dorm room at Texas A&M was set up like that as well. One other data point - my elementary schools (2 of them) and church (with K-8 school) in Tampa, FL had classroom doors that opened up directly to the outdoors - all in a very nice part of town.
I concur with the advice to visit both and see what fits best! My sense is that Tulane and Rice are very different in campus culture.
Switch Harvard for Columbia and we have the same ‘pending status’…haha. Oh, and Stanford 
Incredibly low acceptance rates this year, no? Chicago was 2% RD.
What a crazy year.
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We are in at CU too - daughter loved it. In Honors. But it’s COA is high. I guess for poli sci, I have a hard time spending more. If engineering or CS, I get it. Poli Sci as a major is great but it’s a crap shoot in translating to the job market. And I think, short of an elite school, whether it’s CU or UF, it doesn’t matter much…right or wrong. So if I can save $80K or more, I’d like to. W&L is a great school - but $81K a year - that’s nuts!!!
8.7% - if true, it’s lower for RD - ED always goes much higher so as I mentioned in previous posts, Rice is a stretch for even the best of students. It’s so impressive to those who got in. Those who have to pay nothing - I’m envious!!! And if paying nothing is due to need, well I hope your kids do great things and lift the families out of that hole.
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Live in TN - but forgetting that, I’ve been to a million colleges…two kids…probably 50 campuses. My favorites - Duke and Va Tech…my least favorite - UIUC.
Tulane was ehhhhhh…I try not to share with my daughter. She came up with the Motel 6 analogy 
My HS was like that too - but today all “mid level motels” - Fairfields, Hamptons, HI Express - are all indoors. The motel 6, super 8s are outdoors
CU is expensive and one of the only ones we didn’t receive merit aid from. My S wants to go to law school. Daughter will also apply to law school after Yale. My H and I are lawyers. Neither S’s will choose Texas A & M, which is one of the least expensive schools.
Those are all some great choices too! In the end I wish we had urged him to apply to some more mid-tier schools like Oberlin where he was likely to get merit money. That one is a real contender for us since – kind of like your daughter and College of Charleston (great place! who wouldn’t want to live in Charleston?!) – it would come out to be just about $10 or $12K more per year than our in-state tuition at a UC. So it’s an option, but it might have been nice to have a couple more of those to compare to the great UC choices he has. So with my daughters who will come behind him, now we know more. But I’m 100% with you. He’s also likely to end up a poli sci major, and $81K per year for an undergrad degree in poli sci? I just can’t see it. Good luck choosing! Good news is that these kids made it through the craziest admissions season ever. They should all be proud, and they’ll remember it forever. 2021 is a special group.
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That’s the whole - family conversation. My daughter wants to go to American ($57K) - with rats in the dorms and bad food (their student ratings not good). But again, it’s not elite - so how can I justify spending more. I guess every family is the same. I imagine she’ll end up at Charleston. She did apply for a few special programs at Boulder. If she gets in, not sure how good the scholarship is.
Ideally, she’ll earn a full tuition at Washington & Lee. She’s an alternate for one but I know that’s like being on the WL - highly unlikely.
All these kids will end up well. I have a solid MBA and work for someone who went to a no name school. Plenty of Harvard people are working for Southern Illinois.
Everyone will be fine if they work hard.
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Congratulations! Good luck to you!!
We are Jewish too. I was unsure of Rice. Charleston is strong Jewish wise which is nice. We are not sure on U of SC.
If you can pull it off- Houston and New Orleans are driveable (a bit over 5 hours) - so hopefully you can see both on your trip.
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Accepted: UCSD, UCI, UCSC, Macalester, Fordham, RIT, University of Houston, University of Minnesota (honors), UT Dallas, University of Nebraska, and NDSU.
Waitlisted: Carleton, Colby, Reed, and TAMU.
Rejected: UCLA, UCB, WashU, and Rice, my dream schools. Probably too overconfident.
Waiting: Baylor, Tulane, Harvard, and Princeton, which I have zero chance of getting into, but still hoping for a miracle 
Probably end up UCSD or TAMU, pending on waitlist.
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question for everyone. My daughter recently just got into rice (she did not think she was going to get in as she got rejected from georgetown and waitlisted from washu) She was almost set on Villanova and wants to major in international business. VSB is a great business program and rice does not have an undergrad business program. She also eventually wants to go to to law school. Which school do you think makes more sense for her to attend. (We received no financial aid from either so villanova would be 78K and rice would be 71k