Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

I am an Indian living in Jacksonville, FL. I go to a small private school (700 kids for 12 grades) which is pretty good academically but doesn't have much of a reputation, although we've had a kid go to Emory, Harvard, Dartmouth once in the past two years, and a kid get into JHU and Duke this year.

SAT: 1480 (740 V, 740 M, taking again and going for the 800M, I should end with a 1550 or so)

SAT IIs: 760 Math IC, 680 Chem, took US Hist, Writing and Math IIC today and expect 750+ on all

ACT: 33

Weighted GPA
9th Grade: All honors classes- 4.38
10th Grade- All honors classes- 4.37
11th grade- 2 APs, 3 Honors, 1 Regular- 4.70 or 4.76 (year hasn't ended but I have a good idea of what I'll get)

Senior Year- Will take AP Calc, AP Eng Lit, AP Bio, AP Physics, possibly AP Spanish, and a couple classes to fill graduation requirements.

As a whole, my unweighted gpa after this year will be 3.92, and weighted around 4.48, which places me second in the class (although the school does not rank when applying to colleges)

EC's (are pretty bad, as fair warning)
4 years Varsity Tennis
1 or 2 Years Jazz Ensemble (may do next year, it was disbanded after 9th grade)

Junior Class VP, School Student Council Secretary

Gainesville Chemathon, Nat'l Honor Society, a couple minor ones like National Spanish something

Volunteering: 75 hrs Hindu Temple in Jacksonville, 30 hours peer tutoring, 40 hours American Cancer Society

Nat'l Youth Medicine Leadership Conference, Florida Yacht Club summer tennis camp around 50 hrs the past three summers (don't know if that counts)

I am a junior and I'm trying to figure out my chances at some of the top schools, not quite HYPSM but just below it (although Rice is at least as good as these schools in some areas). I'm testing out my credentials to see how good as shot I have at Rice, after visiting it and really liking it.

So, can I get in, how good are my chances?

Thanks a lot.

By Tenaciouselle (Tenaciouselle) on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 11:20 pm: Edit

I'd say pretty good. Even better if you apply ED or ID.

By Ulaia (Ulaia) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 12:03 am: Edit

You have a nice shot. A lot of it comes
down to the essay, "box", and possibly the interview.I had about the same SAT scores
as you and got in. But then again, I live
about 45 min. north of Rice and my high
school is well-known in the area, esp. by
Rice.

By Abz1986 (Abz1986) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 07:08 pm: Edit

Yeah I had bad ECs too (worse than yours buddy)

I think you'll be good

By Farmgirl (Farmgirl) on Wednesday, May 05, 2004 - 03:20 pm: Edit

Dude, don't worry about the "box" it really isn't a big deal. I Spent 5 minutes drawing a rainbow colored owl and I was not only accepted RD but they also offered me one of their big merit scholarships and paid for me to come visit for a three day weekend. Turned them down for Stanford but Rice is an excellent school nonetheless.

My only concern is the number of APs you've taken but since you're at a private school it may not be much of an issue.

You should definitely choose to be interviewed-it helped me a lot-and if you can apply ID.

And if those two EC's take up a lot of your time be sure to write about it in your essays. Your volunteering is huge compared to a lot of the people I know and those could count as major EC's too, not to mention your hindu temple activities.

Good luck