Rice University is a private research university located in a lovely part of Houston, Texas’ Museum District. The undergraduate enrollment is about 4,000. With a student-teacher ratio of 6 to 1 and a 10 percent acceptance rate, Rice is academically competitive. The university offers 50 majors within its 11 schools. President Kennedy famously announced that the United States would be sending a man to the moon from Rice’s campus, an announcement fitting for a school with such prestigious science and business programs.
The Essay Prompts
The Admission Committee is interested in getting to know each student as well as possible through the application process. Please respond to each of the following prompts.
1. Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected above. (150 words)
(*****you answer this after you select academic areas of interest*******)
2. Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you? (150 words)
How to Begin
Most university supplements can be summed up as a request to write a “why x university essay.” Rice is fun because it has not one, but two opportunities for you to tell the admissions committee what they need to hear. The first thing you need to do here is to identify your specific corner of the academic world. What is the particular academic niche you are most known for and most qualified to pursue in college? At this point, some of our students tell us they’ve been preparing to study poli sci their whole high school careers and are really sick of presidential history and just want to go in undecided. We’re here to tell you, you can do whatever you want once you get into your dream school, but until then, you need to stay the course of your particular area of expertise. Each university seeks to build a class of hyper-specialists. They do this because they want to develop young minds into the top professionals in their respective fields who will have great success in what they do after graduation and donate to the university. What they don’t want are several hundred generalists who are ambivalent about their direction in life. So, the first thing you need to do is get really specific in your own mind about who you are—your academic brand, if you will.
Getting Back to Your Roots
Answer question one with a story that has a beginning, middle, and end about how you got into this particular niche. This story shouldn’t be a big, earth-shattering moment and it definitely should not involve a teen tour or a time you stepped off an airplane into a developing country (that would sound cliché, not to mention privileged). Simple stories tend to be more interesting, so see if you can get to the truth here. Maybe you found an old magazine of your grandmother’s and started creating old ads of your own that got you interested in a path towards brand management. Perhaps you worked on a coding project in middle school that got you really interested in computer science. Tell the admissions committee that origin story.
The Right Fit
For question two, you need to conduct some serious research. Consider your academic niche. Now, find out everything there is to know about the related field at Rice. Again, get very specific. Talk a look at the classes (300-level and above) and identify the ones that most relate. Check out the professors and read up on their research. Learn about clubs and internship opportunities that make sense. Now, connect the dots. Talk about the classes, the professors and the activities you intend to pursue and also why you are qualified. Remember, your pursuit at Rice should be framed as a natural extension of what you’ve been doing for the past four years. One pitfall to be mindful of: don’t just regurgitate your resume or list of courses you took in high school. Each component of the application is an opportunity to show a different side of your personality. Instead of just mentioning that you were the president of the robotics team (something they should see on your resume anyway), talk about a relevant project you did in class that was particularly challenging.
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