Located in Beyonce’s hometown of Houston, Rice University is a private research university known for their very strong and very competitive STEM programs, as well as a solid business school. Rice is a very hard school to get into; last cycle, they had a 16% acceptance rate for ED and EDII and a 7% RD acceptance rate. Rice is also continuing their test-optional policy this year, but we don’t recommend applying without scores – it’s an 8% acceptance rate overall, and their middle 50% for the ACT and SAT were 34-36 and 1500-1560, respectively.

Side note, Rice’s origin story is kind of wild. The school was to be founded after its benefactor, William Marsh Rice, died. Then, HE WAS MURDERED??? His butler CHLOROFORMED him so one of his lawyers could kill him because he was mad he left money to establish Rice University in his will. The lawyer even did fraud to try and change the will so he’d get the money, but a different lawyer found him out. Just some fun facts to take with you if you choose to become an Owl (their mascot) and will certainly not weird anyone out when you drop this knowledge during orientation. Anyways, drama aside, Rice has three supplements: two short answer, and one longer question which has two options to choose from. Let’s dive in.

Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected above (150)

This is a pretty standard Why Us essay, which you are probably pretty familiar with by this point in your application process. If you’re not following our formula for this, you probably should! Also, Rice does utilize the extra Writing Supplement tab, so even though it says “above,” the actual place you select majors is here:

The Formula

Your origin story:

Think of this as your inciting incident or lightbulb moment for your passion. If you want to go into engineering, a) get more specific bc “engineering” is like, a zillion things, and b) tell us the story of how they rebuilt the bridge next to your house and you’d stop and ask questions to the construction workers every day. If you’re interested in say, biomedical engineering, maybe you or a family member were saved by a medical device and you want to make a similar difference for others. Or, maybe it’s just a book you read or class lecture you loved – it just needs to reflect how your passion started. You also want to briefly talk about how you’ve pursued this passion.

Declare your major

Yes, you must. This is not some kind of legally binding essay, and if you want to change your major, you absolutely can and they’re not going to print this out. If you are truly between two or three majors, choose the topic for which you have the most evidence for on your application.

Provide evidence

Choose some upper-level classes: We say upper-level because almost all schools will offer introductory classes, although any class that is fairly unique to Rice and niche will do (some freshman seminars fit this bill). You want to choose at least two of these classes, provided they fit into your stated passion, and talk about why they’re interesting. Don’t just say they are, give us some pizazz behind it. And remember, the classes should fit into your interests, so if you say you want to study electrical engineering, structural engineering classes aren’t what you want to talk about. But, if you’re interested in, say, history because you are interested in social change movements, you could talk about an Econ class, an African American studies class, a gender studies class, or an American studies class – as long as you can connect it to your passion!!

Choose a professor to work with: Similarly to above, you want to look at the faculty in your chosen field and find someone doing research in your niche-r interest area. Write about why you want to work with them and how working with them will help you accomplish your goals.

Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you?* (150)

This question is similar to the Why Rice one above, but this one won’t talk about academics in the same way. They want to hear you talk about culturally what you’re excited to be a part of at Rice. Think of this prompt as a bit of a personality test, trying to sus out who you are in relation to the existing culture and population at the school. Columbia asks a similar question, and both their prompt and this one want to know what parts of the school that aren’t your major are appealing to you.

Because this is a very all-encompassing prompt, there’s no one way to answer it. Some ideas of what you can talk about include:

• Study abroad

• Campus traditions

• (the Offical ones or intramural)

• (don’t do this if you choose to write the first of the two 500-word prompts)

Remember, we don’t just want to say something looks cool or interesting to you, obviously it’s cool or interesting since you’ve chosen to write about it. Talk about the why behind what you choose. And another note, if you talk about clubs, try to make sure it fits in with what you’ve already done in high school, or else it will be disjointed and a lil confusing.

Please respond to one of the following prompts to explore how you will contribute to the Rice community:*

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)

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 racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice? (500)

The good ol’ “choose one of these” gambit. Here’s the deal with these two: they’re the same question. They’re both classic community essays. Not exactly the same, obviously, because one focuses on the Residential College System, and the other is Rice writ large, but the story you’d tell for either is probably the exact same. You may have noticed that 2/3rds of their prompts are community/school culture-based, so you can probably assume this is important to them.

These community essay prompts are designed to get you to tell a story and connect it to what you will choose to engage in once you get to Rice. First, you want to identify the community you will write about – and don’t be afraid to think a little outside the box on this one. Community does not need to mean community service, and in fact, we encourage you to think outside of the bounds of service opportunities, because most students will be writing about that. We’d also advise you to not write about things that are present in your application elsewhere, like sports. Your community can be almost anything – your family, your neighbors, your Discord server, your D&D group (yeah, we know the vibes of Rice applicants, ya nerds!!) (said with love), fellow tall or short people, etc.

After coming up with your community, you want to think about the personality trait or value you want this essay to embody. If you’re writing the first question, you might want to think about what would be especially important in the Residential College System, like maybe you have a family dinner on Sunday night tradition you want to maintain, or you really love hosting game nights, or you are excellent at mediation between friends, or are very into recycling, or maybe you have a cultural tradition or dish you’d want to bring to your fellow students. If you’re writing the second prompt, you could talk about a lot of the same things above, or you could talk about the mental health iniative you started at school, or your love of playing pick up soccer with friends, or about how you’ve taken steps to feel closer to your ethnic or cultural background over the last few years.

Whatever you choose, your story should be about a small moment in time. Maybe there was a particularly riveting board game night that you remember because it was so fun, or how you invited all your friends to a Holi celebration, or a snapshot of family dinner night and everyone’s different roles to make it happen. By zeroing in, you’re able to have a more vivid and impactful essay, which will be more memorable. The story should have a distinct beginning that sets the scene, a middle which might introduce a conflict or describe the action of the scene, and an ending that provides a positive resolution.

Then, and this is important, you need to connect that story with something at Rice. In the first question, it will connect to how you’ll engage in the Residential College System, so something about how you’ll host Shabbat dinner each week to continue the tradition or have a night dedicated to doing something fun. It should make sense with your story, so don’t talk about your passion for recycling and then go “and that’s why we’ll have dinner each week together!,” because… what? In the second prompt, you will connect with a club or organization on campus, so if you talked about that mental health initiative, find an org doing similar work on Rice’s campus and talk about how you want to join to continue the good work.

And, of course, the rest of your Common App needs to be in good shape, too. We have guides on the Common App essay, the activities section, additional information (if needed), and so much more. And, if you need help with those, we’re here too.

Need help with your Rice app? We got you, reach out today.