Rice University is a medium-sized private research institution located in the heart of Houston, Texas – home to Beyonce, NASA, and the Texans. Rice is famous for their science and engineering programs, mostly because of their close connection and proximity to NASA, but also has world-class programs in the humanities, social sciences, and business.
Rice is a competitive school, and it’s only getting more competitive each year. Last cycle, Rice introduced ED2 for the very first time, and thankfully for us, they’ve been fairly transparent about the numbers. Their latest admissions stats showed a 13% ED acceptance rate, a 7.5% RD acceptance rate, and a 6% ED2 acceptance rate. While ED2 has a lower acceptance rate than most, it’s also important to note that Rice has been working on expanding their student body by ~20% in the last few years – which means binding admissions decisions like ED and ED2 are valuable to them.
If you’re interested in applying ED2 to Rice, you need to think strategically. That’s where we come in – we’ve helped countless students gain ED2 admission after a deferral or rejection, and we can help you too. Let’s get into it.
Why You Should Apply ED2
Before we tell you how to apply ED2 to Rice, let’s talk about why applying ED2 is worth it. Some of you are here because you’re trying to figure out if this is the right fit for you – and we totally get that. ED2 can feel like a scary gamble, especially when you’re dealing with a rejection or a deferral. However, speaking purely from a strategic standpoint, you should apply ED2.
Colleges care a lot about their yield rate, or the number of admitted students who end up enrolling, and with binding admissions decisions like ED and ED2, that means you’re an asset to that yield rate. Rice has been trying to expand their student body for a few years, and their yield rate is a little under 50% – less than quite a few of their peer institutions. That means applying ED2 can tip the scales in your favor!
If your current list is a little too reach-heavy, then ED2 is the strongest card you can play – especially if you’re coming back from a deferral or rejection. Even if you don’t apply ED2 to Rice, we recommend applying ED2 somewhere.
If you’re dealing with a deferral or rejection from your Early Decision school, we can help. Whether you need a deferral letter, a college list for Regular Decision, polishing your Common App essay, an Early Decision 2 application, or even a complete rehaul for this next round, we have you covered. Reach out to us ASAP. Everything will be okay.
The Supplement
Rice asks three questions, and while they’re not super long, they want to understand your motivations and values. Knowing what you want to do, why you want to do it, and why you want to do it at Rice in particular is going to help you a lot here.
The Rice supplement offers you the opportunity to share more about yourself. This is your chance to tell us why you are interested in Rice and what you would like to pursue as a student here. We also want you to elaborate on your experiences and achievements to share what you would bring to our community.
PROMPT 1: Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected. 150 word limit.
PROMPT 2: Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you? 150 word limit.
Prompt 1 and Prompt 2 are two sides of the Why Essay coin – Prompt 1 asks about your academic interests, while Prompt 2 wants to hear more about what you like about Rice specifically. These are short prompts, so be mindful that you’re not just squeezing stuff in; be deliberate about what you include.
For Prompt 1, tell them your origin story. Why are you interested in the thing you say you want to study? Take it outside the classroom, and show them how you’ve engaged with this topic for the sake of engaging with it. We like it when students write this as an actual short story, full of details and clues about how they felt while exploring this topic. You should, about 2/3rds of the way through, explain that this origin story is why you want to major in XYZ at Rice, and find something at that program at Rice to connect to. In your conclusion, circle back to the story and imagine yourself at Rice exploring this thing.
In Prompt 2, you’re going to get specific, but it needs to focus on the school part of college. While there might be super fun culture/social things at Rice you are really excited to participate in, like the residential colleges, you’ll have an opportunity to do that in Prompt 3. For this one, we recommend choosing one academic aspect and one extracurricular/community aspect. Maybe there’s a particular lab you’re excited to join and a robotics/debate/Quizbowl/etc. type team you’d join too. Make sure the things you choose make sense with the origin story you told in Prompt 1, and that they are in line with activities you’ve already pursued throughout high school.
PROMPT 3: Please respond to one of the following prompts to explore how you will contribute to the Rice community:
Both of the following prompt options are about community, and we recommend approaching them similarly: by telling a story.
Option 1: The Residential College System is at the heart of Rice student life and is heavily influenced by the particular cultural traditions and unique life experiences each student brings. What life experiences and/or unique perspectives are you looking forward to sharing with fellow Owls in the residential college system? 500 word limit.
If you’re super jazzed about the Residential College, we recommend writing this one. This is something Rice is really proud of, so we sort of lean towards this one in general.
You want to tell a story about a community you’re a part of, and then connect that to how you’d engage in a similar way at Rice in the Residential Colleges. For this prompt, you want to think about what we call the “little c communities” you’re a part of – so not formal clubs, organizations, community service, etc. Think about your friends, your family, your neighbors, and the people you engage with on a human level. Maybe you’re someone who isn’t afraid to talk to strangers, or maybe you learned sign language to help out a neighbor. Pro tip for this one: writing about food is basically a cheat code. You can talk about learning a recipe from a family member, the process of making the dish, and just filling your story with tons of sensory details. You have a lot of space here, so make sure your story goes into a lot of detail.
Then, you need to connect it back to the Residential College System. How will you share this experience with your peers? Get specific.
Option 2: Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or cultural identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice? 500 word limit.
Just like above, you should tell a story about your community here – but keep in mind the “change agents” (cringe buzzword tbh!) aspect of this prompt. You can use your “little c community” here or go a little more official with it, but focus on telling a story that highlights a time you made a difference or were actively involved in improving something. Again, this is a long prompt, so you need to get really into the details here. Use dialog, set the scene, and lean on all your senses to really bring us into the story.
You will then connect it back to Rice by finding a group or organization that embodies the change or values you presented in your story. If you wrote about teaching little kids how to play a sport, it won’t make a lot of sense to then say you’ll volunteer with the elderly.
Rice Box
One of Rice's long-standing traditions is “The Box,” a question on our application where we ask all of our applicants to share an image of something that appeals to them. The Box gives you the opportunity to present us with an image that shares something about yourself, your interests or what is meaningful to you. This image is not used for evaluative purposes in the application, but allows you to put your stamp on the application about who you are aside from what you have achieved. Be sure to choose an image that speaks for itself and does not need an explanation. The Box must be a two-dimensional image that is uploaded in the Common Application or uploaded in the Rice Admission Student Portal.
The Box trips people up, but don’t overthink it. Don’t try to be too meta with it, or overly smart. Use this to provide a visual for something you wrote about in your supplements, or showcase something that you care about that’s not too esoteric. If you talked about falling in love with biology after a trip to a zoo as a kid, you could include a photo from that zoo trip! If you wrote about cooking a family dish, include a pic of you proudly holding your meal.
Don’t upload a video, don’t photoshop something, don’t use an AI picture. Just a regular picture you’ve taken or someone’s taken of you.
Submit and Wait
Rice’s ED2 is due at the same time as RD, January 4th. We recommend submitting this as early as possible, since the Common App has had technical difficulties during the RD app deadline rush.
You may hear back a little sooner than RD notifications, or in March at the absolute latest. You’ve done everything you can – now it’s just time to wait. Best of luck!
Deferred or rejected and need help with an ED2 app? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us ASAP.