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.

Essay Prompts (2024-2025)

1. Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected. 150 word limit.

When you apply to Rice, you select one ‘Division of Study’ of the seven they offer: architecture, business, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences. This decision is NOT binding… you have until your sophomore Spring to declare a major. While transferring into one of the more specialized Divisions of Study like architecture or music might be more challenging, changing your Division is otherwise generally not a problem. So, pick the academic area(s) that make the most sense to you based on what you know now, and write the essay accordingly. 

The Rice Admissions FAQ page says, “As a part of your application, you will select a Division of Study and up to three majors/areas of interest including minors. You will have the opportunity to elaborate on your academic areas of interest in your Rice Writing Supplement. Students will be assessed on their preparedness and alignment to the majors they selected.”

So sit down with a list of the areas you indicated on your application, and do the following:

• First, give your ‘why’... what makes you passionate about this area of study? How did you get to this current interest… did you originally think you’d study medicine but then you were blown away by your junior year Government class, and now you know that’s your calling? Were you sure you wanted to be an actor, but then when you volunteered as a hospital clown at the local children’s hospital, you knew you needed to be a pediatrician to help those kids in a different way? Include any unexpected twists or tensions, as these can make your story stand out from the crowd. 
• Next, list any experiences that pertain to this area of study. Some of these experiences will likely be academic coursework, others may be extracurricular (within or outside your school). Keep in mind that you can (and should!) make connections between a diverse set of experiences that have led you to this interest. Maybe it was volunteering for a different kind of nonprofit that sparked your passion for giving back, ADDED TO your academic interests in XYZ, which ultimately—collectively—led you to know you want to study/do ABC. You’re young—don’t feel you need to already be an expert in the thing you want to study! Just make a clear and compelling case as to why it totally makes sense that you want to study this thing, and why they have every reason to believe you’ll excel in these studies. 

150 words go by fast, so the more you can align your experiences with your ‘why’, the better!

2. Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you? 150 word limit.

Rice is an elite university, yes, but the admissions committee is digging to determine if your connection to—and fit for—Rice is more specific than just its ranking or its reputation as one of the ‘Southern Ivies’. Take a close look at the language: ‘based on your exploration of Rice university’... a key element here is showing the admissions committee that you have, in fact, explored Rice University. Obviously a thorough Googling is always recommended, but ideally you’ll be able to point to specific ways you’ve engaged with the Rice community. What really stood out to you during a campus visit? If flying from Maine to Houston was financially prohibitive, no worries! Have you spoken to alums 1:1? Attended virtual panels of alums talking about their experience? Ideally you can point to at least one way you went the extra mile to research Rice, and connect it to why Rice—specifically—is the perfect school for you. 

Something important to keep in mind: Rice is an elite college with top research faculty, but it’s not for everybody. It’s a smallish college (~4500 undergrads) in a big Southern metropolis (Houston, TX). A key element of the Rice experience is their residential colleges: they randomly sort incoming students into residential colleges, which create an even ‘smaller-town’ feel in a already smallish college. You’ll know everyone in your residential college by name. You’ll have engagement and leadership opportunities within the college. For some, this is amazing; for others, it’s just not their thing. 

So, when you’re identifying what about the Rice experience appeals to you, there are two ways to skin that cat:

1. Find aspects of the Rice experience that other candidates might NOT like, and explain why – in contrast to these other folks – you’re actually THRILLED about these aspects. So, while other applicants might choose another elite school because of these quirks, you’re excited about Rice BECAUSE of them.
2. Find things that only exist at Rice, or things whose VERSIONS at Rice are somehow unique, and therefore (because of ABC reasons), are more aligned to what YOU need and want. 

The trick here is not just identifying any “elements of the Rice experience that appeal to you”. If  you end up identifying elements that can equally be said of most other peer institutions, your unique connection to Rice won’t be as clear. 

150 words is 1-2 paragraphs, so take a crack at one of those two options and you’ll be on your way to a solid first draft.

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

• 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.

• 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 word limit.

Both of these essay prompt options are getting at a similar theme, with different framings. 

Here are the common threads:

• How is your lived experience unique? 
• How will that unique lived experience add to the diversity of perspectives within the Rice community?
• How will these experiences and perspectives inform how you navigate life at Rice?

Make a list of ways in which your lived experience is unique (not as in ‘you’re the only person who could say this’... think of ways you believe your perspective will add to the diversity of Rice’s student body). 

For each list item, think of a story that exemplifies this lived experience. Then, jot down how this lived experience ALREADY informs how you navigate community and interpersonal relationships. 

Hopefully by now you’ve got your top-pick topic (pun intended!)... let’s call that ‘Experience X’ (it doesn’t have to be a one-time experience! It can be a lifelong identity, etc.) Now, run it through this test, by inserting the topic into these two sentences: 

• ‘I’m specifically excited to share my unique perspective I have thanks to Experience X with my residential college peers at Rice, which will be meaningful for them and for me because [insert reason(s) here].’
• I’m a change agent thanks to the ways that Experience X has shaped me. Here are the ways I’m already a change agent [XYZ], and here’s why I’m specifically excited to join the community of change agents at Rice [ABC]. 

Pick the prompt that fits your strongest story better. Keep in mind that most of the essay should be about your experience, perspective and/or identity and how this has shaped YOU and how you navigate the world, but don’t forget to add the specific ‘at Rice’ element of either prompt. Identify a way in which you’re specifically excited to bring this lived experience TO RICE. The essay is ultimately about YOU, and secondarily how you + Rice = match made in heaven… you’re not writing an essay about Rice. 

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.

Do be thoughtful, but don’t overthink this one. Are there any particular areas of your life where a picture is worth a thousand words? Family? A community? An artistic passion? Especially if you haven’t gotten to do a deep-dive into this area elsewhere in your application?

This sentence from the prompt bears repeating: “Be sure to choose an image that speaks for itself and does not need an explanation.”

And this phrase, too: “put your stamp on the application about who you are aside from what you have achieved.” The photograph CAN be related to an achievement, but needs to add something to your application! If you wrote an essay about how you won a national contest, don’t waste this unique branding opportunity with a photo of you on that same contest podium. We already got that part. Show us a new side of yourself… or show us something that can’t be fully communicated in words. 

While you do want your photo to be SALIENT and MEMORABLE, it should tie into what makes you YOU. If it’s a photo of you next to a celebrity—just ’cuz—that’s cool, but it doesn’t further your personal brand on your Rice application. Make it memorably you.