If you’ve recently received a rejection from Rice in the Early Decision round, we know that this wasn’t the plan. You picked Rice ED because you are in love with what they offer, and it felt possible. Not easy, probably, but possible. But now you have a rejection in your inbox, and you have to figure out what comes next.
What shouldn’t come next is charging forward as if this rejection didn’t happen. A rejection from Rice ED is an important date point that you can use to inform your plans for the Regular Decision, or even Early Decision II, round.
Before we help you craft a new plan, though, let’s talk about Early Decision at Rice.
In January 2025, Rice announced an ED acceptance rate of for the Class of 2029 after a record-setting number of applicants. It was also a record-setting year as far as competition to get in ED, with a 2% drop in the ED acceptance rate. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029, for comparison, was
Of those admitted ED I for the Class of 2029, were interested in engineering, and the second most popular area of study was the natural sciences (27%). Whether you were in-state or out-of-state did not impact your chances of admission this year, though. Rice accepts even more students from out-of-state ED than from Texas.
Getting into Rice ED is hard, and you aren’t a failure nor an outlier for not pulling it off. What you do next, though, can make the difference between a dream acceptance and your application experience falling flat. So, let’s plan.
Bouncing back from an ED rejection requires a plan. Get yours.
Step One: Take a Break
First, you need to slow down. Rushing to submit your next round of applications will not get you the results you want. Instead, you need to reset. Eat something you adore. Watch a show that makes you giggle. Have a luxuriously long conversation with a close friend without guilt-tripping yourself over the pile of work that just keeps on coming in. But only for a day or two — then it’s time to get back to work.
Step Two: Strategize
Next, you need to create a new plan. You had a plan, we know. But that plan didn’t work out and now you need a new one. As we’ve said, charging ahead without adjusting in response to this ED rejection will not serve you. Instead, let’s do an application autopsy.
Of course, we haven’t seen your application. We can’t give you advice in this post that is specific to you, but we can help break down why Rice may have decided to reject your application, and what you need to do to avoid a repeat in the RD/EDII round.
Students are recommended, but not required, to submit an ACT or SAT score to Rice — or both. In recent years, of accepted and enrolled students submitted scores. If you submitted scores, the bar was high. A score on the SAT for accepted and enrolled students is a 1540, and a comparable ACT is a 35. This means that 25% of accepted and enrolled students scored higher than that benchmark, and those who scored below typically have really strong other sells for their application, like athletic recruiting.
If you didn’t submit scores, that could be a reason for why your application was rejected. This is especially true if your GPA was towards the lower end of what Rice expects to see from strong applicants. Rice does not publish the GPAs of recently accepted students as part of their Common Data Set reports, but of recently accepted students fell into the top tenth of their graduating class. This suggests that Rice expects a very high GPA.
Having a GPA or scores that didn’t meet the university’s expectations, those are easy data points to blame an ED rejection on. That probably doesn’t tell the whole story, though. There are always students who get in with a few lower grades on their transcript, or without submitting an ACT or SAT score. Typically, the difference maker for their application falls into one of two categories. It’s either systemic or story.
Systemic reasons include athletic recruiting, family connections, and the like. If you aren’t a potential athletic recruit there is nothing to be done about that, but as you approach the rest of your college list you should seriously consider whether there are connections that you can tap into. Most applicants don’t have such a connection, but at least give it a brainstorm.
If the issue was story, that’s where there are massive solutions to be hand. They’ll require work, but it’s worth it.
Key to this, of course, is picking the right schools to apply to. You need to make sure that you have 3-4 Targets, 3-4 Safety Schools, and 2-3 Reaches that are appropriately chosen based on your academic profile and areas of interest.
Step Three: Essays
A strong college application must tell compelling stories that connect deeply with the readers. Application readers have to say no so many more times than they get to say yes that they really try not to feel too deeply about the applications they are rejecting. We want to flip the script on them, though, and force them to feel something. While they are reading your application, the admissions official should be feeling joy, curiosity, excitement, and intrigue. They should be excited to say yes!
Making this happen isn’t easy, but it also isn’t based on what you’ve done. There is no activity or leadership role you must have pursued to write a compelling narrative. Instead, it’s simple storytelling. This is the core of what we do with our students, and also what we find most missing from applications that are rejected ED from highly-competitive schools despite having the grades and the scores to be a compelling applicant.
Step Four: Ask For Help
Rewriting applications with only a few weeks before deadlines probably sounds overwhelming. If it does, that’s understandable. But it’s also necessary. The best next step, then, is to ask for help. Teachers you trust, a college counselor you have a strong relationship with, or a pro (like us!) can be the difference-maker between another heartbreaking rejection or a dream acceptance.
Getting into a fantastic school is still possible after an ED rejection from Rice. What you do next will make all the difference.
We help strong students get into outstanding schools. Learn more.