Yes another "chances" post...

Colleges & Universities Rice University
1

<p>My names Nick and I am going to be a senior in High School. I am a caucasian male from a Dallas suburb. I recently got back from a year long foreign exchange in an agricultural community in CHILE. Like a lot of Rice Students, I would like to study something to with Social Sciences.</p>

<p>My GPA is a 3.7 and I am about 30 in a class of 550 students.
AP Courses Sophomore Year: AP World History
AP Courses Senior Year: AP US History, AP English 4, AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish Lit., (with my year abroad this is all that I will have time for)
Varsity Swim Team: Freshman, Sophomore, Senior Year
Regional Qualifier 500 Yard Freestyle Sophomore Year
Elected Class Reporter (Student Council) Freshman, Senior Year
Student Council ACTIVE Member Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior Year
Rotary Youth Exchange Student Ambassador Scholarship to Chile 2005-2006 <em>My WHOLE junior year…August 2005 to June of 2006</em> Just got back a few days ago.</p>

<p>I am going to be taking the SAT II Exams in Spanish and Spanish with Listening. I assume that I am going to do well on them considering that I learned near fluent Spanish in one year. </p>

<p>I also plan on taking the ACT with writing test. I don’t think my math scores are going to be very high, with my loss of a year, therefore I assume I will score around a 25-28 range…considerably low compared to other applicants.</p>

<p>I am beginning to think twice about the reasons for going on exchange. Going on exchange sparked in interest in Social Sciences, but when I look at all the other people posting their qualifications…I feel like I could of had similar “stats” if I had not gone on exchange. </p>

<p>Does anyone think this is going to hurt me? I was thinking about doing another year of High School. Or maybe just applying to UT Austin and then transferring.</p>

<p>I think Rice is a far reach for me, but maybe they could see something different in me?</p>

<p>I don’t really have exact stats about GPA since I am unaware of it. Last time I looked soph. year it was a little over a 3.7. Expect it to go up next year.</p>

2

<p>Actually, you do have a hook. You made the decision to do something you enjoy (going to Chile) rather than stay at home and pumping up your GPA like thousands of other people.</p>

<p>And there’s nothing wrong with your stats… I got in with 3.78 GPA and was barely in the top 10%, about 33/455. There’s more to your application than stats.</p>

3

<p>You have a decent chance. But you say like a lot of Rice students, you want to study something in the social sciences. Just for your general info, that’s not “like most”, there are about as many social science majors as there are majors in other fields.</p>

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<p>I only wrote that because they say that 20% of students study something in that field. That’s why I really like the school. I want to study in a college where a lot of other students are studying the same thing.</p>