rice essay workshop

• Life at Rice
• Cost & Aid

Virtual Essay Writing Workshop

There are no upcoming events to display.

713-348-7423

[email protected]

M-F 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT

In-Person & Online Camps For K-12 Students Creative Writing Camp

REGISTER TODAY

We live in a creative world where ideas, collaboration, and adaptability are a must–and writing is essential. So how do we prepare our children for their future? How do we ensure that they become thoughtful leaders for change, passionate learners, and curious thinkers we need to improve our world? Through Creative Writing Camp, young people discover the power within themselves – to create, innovate, and connect with others.  

The Only Place Where Children Learn from Talented Educators & Writers

In addition to being accomplished educators working in classrooms year-round, many have Masters and Ph.D.s in writing and education and are published authors. Our instructors are experts at this, and they’re ready to help your child shine.

How We Measure Up

For 20 years, Dr. Carl Scott of the University of St. Thomas has evaluated the success of the program and found students improved in writing skills, creativity and self-confidence.

How Creativity Leads to Success

According to Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us about Raising Successful Children (Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff), what children most need for 21st-century learning are the 6Cs: collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence.

Creative Writing Camp works because it’s where writing is an exploration. It’s where one day your child will create their own map to a planet they’ve just discovered, and the next day they’re writing the ending to a 3-act play with a group of friends. It’s where they’ll publish their first poem. It’s where they’ll begin to see what they can become. Whether they’re not sure how to get started or they already write a million pages a day, they’ll feel at home writing here. This is where the spark of invention begins.

GET STARTED

Register Today

Please read through the information below and view the embedded tutorial videos to make the process as smooth as possible.

The 3-step process for registering includes: Step 1 - Family Account setup Step 2 - Pre-registration application for your student(s) Step 3 - Registration.

If you completed Steps 1 and 2 during the Pre-registration period between Jan. 16-29, please proceed to Step 3. All others should start at Step 1.

Note: Completion of Steps 1 and 2 during the Pre-registration period does not guarantee your student(s) a place in camp.

A Family Account is required to register a student for our 2024 Creative Writing Camp. To register a student for camp, a parent/guardian must create a Family Account using their own name in order to successfully begin the pre-registration application process. Once you have set up your account, you will be able to add your student(s)/member(s) to the Family Account. You will be able to manage all members in your Family Account.

Note: If you created a Family Account when registering for a previous summer's CWC, please use your existing account.

Should you need step-by-step instructions, we have created a brief video tutorial to help guide you through the Family Account Set up. 

Video Tutorial - Create a Family Account

Video Tutorial - Manage Your Members

After setting up or logging into your Family Account, including adding student(s)/member(s) you plan to register for camp, you are now ready to complete the parent permissions application for each student. Cick “New Application” in the menu options of your Family Account, then “More Information” and “Apply Now.” You will now be able to “Start” CWC pre-registration for your student(s)/member(s). During the application process, there are six “To Do” pages to complete for each student. As you complete each page, you will see a green check mark next to each page to reflect your progress. To move to Step 3, Registration, you must complete all “To Do” items in order to submit the parent permissions application. Completing these “To Dos” will take approximately 10 minutes per student/member.

Before you begin Step 2: “Pre-registration”, you will need the following:

• Medical Insurance Information
• Emergency Contact Information
• Contact Information for an alternate authorized person to pick up your student(s), if applicable.

Note: If registering for virtual camps, a unique email address is required for each student you plan to register.

Video Tutorial - Submitting Student Applications

Once you have successfully completed all six “To-Dos” in the Pre-Registration Application (Step 2) and they reflect “Complete,” you will be able to register and complete the payment process for your student(s).

Please use the following instructions to complete the registration process. Should it be helpful, you can download the Registration Instructions .

Registration Instructions

1.   Scroll down on this webpage to the listing of the Camps available.

2.   Select a camp, and this will take you to the cart. If you want to select an additional camp, click the Back button on your browser, or click “Keep Shopping” in the Cart.

3.   When you are finished selecting camp/s, click “Checkout.”

4.   If you have already completed pre-registration, log in under “I have a Family Account already.” If you haven’t already completed pre-registration, please go back up to “How to Set Up a Family Account – Step 1” above.

5.   At the cart screen, click on “Add/Remove Members” for a camp selection, and in the pop-up window select the student for that camp. Then click on “Enroll Members.” Repeat this step for additional camps selected, if any.

6.   If you are registering 2 or more students, the siblings discount will be automatically applied at the end of the checkout process. If it’s not automatically applied, please check "Apply a Discount" in the Cart, then select "SLC CWC Siblings" from the dropdown menu to apply the discount.

7.   Click on “Checkout.”

8.   Now, you will select the t-shirt size for your child/ren. Click on the plus sign on the far right of their name and then click on the pull-down menu to see the sizes. Select the size. Repeat this step for each student and click on “Continue Checkout.”

9.   Next, click on “View Members” for each camp to confirm you selected the correct student for the camp. Click on “Continue checkout.”

10.  Enter your credit card information and click “Continue.”

11.  Next, check your email for confirmation of your registration. Note: reception of email may take a few minutes.

Note: Completion of Pre-registration between Jan. 16-26 does not guarantee your student(s) place in camp.

Virtual Camp Single Student - $495

On-Campus Single Student - $525

Sibling Discount (Two or more) – 5% discount per student

The sibling discount will be applied automatically to your cart during Step 3: Registration. You must register two or more at the same time to be eligible for this discount.

Just Write It! Our signature camp experience for incoming K – 12th grade students, in-person and online

Jump into the magic of creative writing! This course offers an array of fun, interactive writing activities and customized exercises designed to help students develop their unique voices, broaden their imaginations, and boost their confidence as writers. With the help of professional writers and teachers, students will explore a range of poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction as they use their writing to investigate their worlds and examine issues that are important to them. During the week, students will peer review each other’s work, and receive feedback from their instructors. Students will share their creations at a celebration on the last day of camp and take home a portfolio of their collected work.

Magical Worlds (6th/7th) Do you enjoy folklore, stories with magical settings, characters with superhuman abilities? As far back as ancient times, people have lived by the phrase, “Life is what you make it so make the best of it.” In this playful course you will do just that—build your own world! Guided by your writing coaches you will learn the basics of worldbuilding and create, explore and develop your own original world. You will delve into narrative genres such as science fiction, fantasy, and superhero fiction as you explore writings with a fantastical edge. You will leave with the tools needed to help you create new worlds in a variety of genres.

Nature: A Writing Inspiration (6th/7th) “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts…. Rachel Carson

A wooded pass covered in freshly fallen leaves, or perhaps a thunderstorm rolling in through the evening sky. Nature has a way of capturing the eye, and inspiring those who gaze upon its natural beauty. Through this course students will have a chance to experience writing that centers nature as its inspiration. By using outside writing time as well as prompts and mentor text that show how other artists around the world have crafted writing for and inspired by the great outdoors, your young writer will be able to capture the beauty from their eyes while enjoying nature.

Focus on Fiction: Characters and Conflict (8th/9th) Dive deep into the heart of storytelling! This course is an exploration of the elements that breathe life into compelling narratives. Uncover the secrets of creating multi-dimensional characters with depth and authenticity, while also delving into the art of crafting engaging conflicts that drive your plot forward. Through a combination of insightful discussions, writing exercises, and constructive feedback, you will hone your skills in character development and conflict resolution—the tools you need to captivate readers and weave unforgettable tales!

Uncanny and Unreal: Adventures in Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing (8th/9th) Embark on a captivating journey into the extraordinary realms of science fiction and fantasy. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned fantasy writer, discover the secrets of crafting immersive worlds, creating compelling characters, and mastering intricate plots in speculative fiction with other fantasy fanatics. From the art of genre blending to developing your unique voice, this course offers a dynamic blend of writing exercises, workshops, and collaborative discussions, providing the tools and inspiration to bring your wildest imaginings to life on the page. Join us and unleash your creativity in the fantastical landscapes of the uncanny and unreal.

The Art of the Essay (10th/12th) The history of the essay finds its origins in the core Renaissance ideal of “rebirth.” This course will allow you to give “new life” to the art of essay writing by asking you to examine your personal story and connect it to a broader world of concepts and ideas. We’ll analyze this important and passionate literary form that will take your writing beyond familiar boundaries. We’ll experiment with fun, contemporary non-fiction forms like flash non-fiction, recipe writing, humor, and even lampoon to expand and sharpen your essay writing skills. Through the writing workshop model of peer review, you will work with your fellow writers to hone techniques and approaches, and you will leave with a portfolio of several completed essays.

Begin the registration process by finding your grade level and campus below. Please note camps often fill up quickly. You must complete checkout to secure your spot. If your desired camp is not visible, then it is currently at capacity.

Filter by grade:

Registration for Creative Writing Camp 2024 opens Monday, Jan 29! Sign up below to be the first to know when registration opens.

Camps loading...

Dates, Locations and Grade-levels for Creative Writing Camp 2024

Choose among five in-person camp locations, or an online option for campers anywhere!

Frequently Asked Questions

For questions about Creative Writing Camp programming – Please leave a voice messagefor School Literacy and Culture at 713-348-5333 or Writer’s in the Schools at 713-523-3877. Your message will be answered as soon as possible. For technical help with registration, please contact 713-348-4803.

Seats may become available due to cancellations or the opening of new classes. Please check the website often to see if any seats have opened at a particular campus. Creative Writing Camp does not have a waitlist.

If you are enrolling your child in the 2024 Rice + WITS Creative Writing Camp, you have read and understand the following cancellation and refund policy:

A 10 percent processing fee will be subtracted from all refunds. Due to the high demand for courses, registrations are considered final 30 days before classes start. No refunds will be issued after these dates and credits will not be given for future classes. No refunds will be granted for participants who miss a portion of a program. Refund requests before the deadline must be made in writing to  [email protected] . Refunds for credit card payments will be processed as credits to the accounts from which they were paid and may not appear as a credit on your statement for up to four to six weeks. Refunds for enrollments paid by check take up to four to six weeks to be processed and mailed by the Rice University accounting office. There is a $30 charge for any check returned for insufficient funds.

If multiple children are registered and have received the sibling discount, and later one or more registrations are canceled so that only one child remains registered, the remaining child's registration will be adjusted to the full price, and a refund for the appropriate amount will be issued.

A limited number of scholarships are available based on financial need. Please make your request by emailing [email protected] and an application form will be sent to you. Submitting a scholarship application does not guarantee receiving a scholarship. Please note if your child was awarded a scholarship last summer, you are not eligible to apply for the upcoming summer.

After you create your Family Account, please save your credentials. To revisit your Family Account, you can save the link to login or click on the link directly from the Creative Writing Camp webpage. To access your account, use the login username and password credentials and follow the login instructions. If you no longer know or have access to your credentials, please follow the Forget Password instructions directly on the login page. GO TO FAMILY ACCOUNT

All classes will be team-taught with class sizes capped at approximately 20 students.

• Health and safety protocols for each camp session will be dependent upon campus-based policies in effect at the time camp is offered.
• Participating campers will be invited to bring basic supplies (paper, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, markers, small watercolor kits) for individual use throughout the week of camp.
• Classes will be divided into age-level groupings that may include students from more than one grade level.  Based on enrollment, classes may include students from more than one grade level.
• Creative writing and fine arts activities will be planned by highly qualified teacher/writer pairs and feature low staff-to-camper ratios.

Friend requests may be made in the student's Pre-registration application. Requests are not guaranteed but we will do our best to grant them.

Focus groups of professional writers and highly effective teachers have come together to craft this exciting online approach to Creative Writing Camp, which has received positive reviews from parents and students since its inception in 2020. Wherever possible, student experiences will draw upon our traditional camp model, but we will also embrace this opportunity to explore new approaches and think creatively. Join us as we explore just what is possible in a virtual environment!

All classes will be team-taught with class sizes capped at approximately 20 students. Classes will be divided into age-level groups:

• Morning: 3rd–5th grade
• Afternoon: 6th–8th and 9th–12th grade

Classes for younger students will include a combination of:

• Live community-building activities
• Live large and small group times that might include anything from the reading of a great children’s book as inspiration for creative writing to a virtual field trip
• Live story dictation activities with a teacher and
• “Center time” featuring pre-recorded activities and a wealth of independent art and extension projects to enjoy at your family’s convenience.

Classes for older students will include:

• Live large and small group times
• Live personalized consultation with experienced writers/teachers and
• Independent pre-recorded activities and extension projects to enjoy at your family’s convenience.
• All camp courses will utilize the Canvas learning platform. Each student will need a unique e-mail address to access the system. Emails are to be provided by the parents.
• Students will also need a laptop, tablet or phone to access the course, but we recommend a laptop or tablet. The best user experience is achieved through the Google Chrome web browser. If using a tablet or phone, download the Canvas Student app to access the course.
• Each student will need a notebook, journal, or folder with blank paper and writing implements such as pencils, pens, and markers.
• Extension activities will utilize basic arts and crafts materials such as scissors, colored paper, glue, watercolors, etc. that students typically use at school. Parents will not be asked to buy specific art materials.
•  All families will be asked to complete a “tech check” the week before their virtual camp session. Support staff will be available for assistance that day should families have any challenges logging into the system.
• During “tech check” students will be able to “meet” their teachers as they view pre-recorded videos uploaded by the teachers and writers leading the course. Students will also be asked to record their own introductory video to share with their classmates.
• “Tech check” will also provide an opportunity for parents to receive more detailed information regarding each class’s daily schedule, should they have a need for specifics.

Finally, should families have challenges with technology at any point during the camp experience, they will be able to connect directly with IT support staff via phone or e-mail. 713-348-4803 or [email protected]

Creative Writing Camp is a collaboration between Writers in the Schools and Rice University’s School Literacy and Culture and has inspired young writers for over 30 years. Our online and in-person camps deep dive into writing topics that hone creativity and prepare students for future success. With low student-teacher ratios and mentorship from professional writers, Creative Writing Camp offers a writer’s workshop experience!

SIGN UP TO STAY IN THE KNOW

Get information.

*/ First-Year Writing Intensive Seminars

Courses to give students a solid communication foundation.

How To Register

About FWIS Courses

These courses fulfill Rice’s Writing and Communication Requirement, which all students must complete in order to earn a bachelor’s degree from the university. They are capped at 16 students to support group discussion and foster relationships between students and faculty. The small class size, and also ensures that students receive substantive feedback from instructors on their writing, speaking, and visual communication skills.

Writing and communication play a significant role in assignments and grading in FWIS courses, though assignments may not be a traditional essay or presentation. Some assignments might ask students to reflect on field trips to local museums, conduct interviews with members of the Rice and Houston community, or even critically examine the experience of strolling through campus.

Based on the summer composition evaluations, some students are required to take an additional writing course in the fall, FWIS 100: Introduction to Academic Writing , before enrolling in a FWIS in the spring. For more information, see FWIS 100 Overview .

FWIS Spotlight

I totally loved my FWIS experience in Time Travel Narratives with Prof. Laura Richardson! We not only had so many insightful discussions/writings about how time traveling reflects on the human's imagination and contemporary world, but also had a lot of fun. Prof. Richardson took us to watch movies, hang out for meals, and even played piano for us outside of class. All classmates from my FWIS became good friends and we all liked the experience very much!

Hongyu Mao FWIS 121, Time Travel Narratives

RiceCAPC Facebook

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 5 tips for writing the perfect rice essay supplement.

College Essays

Rice University is one of the top 20 universities in the nation , and to get in, you need more than just awesome grades and test scores—you need a compelling Rice essay. The Rice application requires several essays depending on the school you're applying to at the university. So what should you write about for each Rice essay to make your application as strong as it can be?

We'll explain what the Rice supplement is and go over the Rice University essay prompts you'll see on your application. Then, we'll give you expert tips on how to answer each essay prompt so you'll have an even better shot at getting accepted to this prestigious university!

Feature Image: faungg's photos /Flickr

What Is the Rice Supplement?

Like many colleges, Rice has a supplement that requires applicants to submit additional info to the school—that is, info not included in the Common Application or Apply Coalition with Scoir .

The Rice writing supplement consists of several essay and short answer prompts, which most undergraduate applicants (though not all—we'll explain this in more detail shortly) must answer for their applications. These supplementary questions ask about applicants' choice of academic field, reasons for applying to Rice, and so on.

In addition, as part of the Rice supplement, all applicants must upload an image that depicts something that appeals to them or is important to them . This requirement, called "The Box," isn't an essay, but it plays just as important a role in the application process. So choose a picture wisely!

Once you've answered all these questions and uploaded an image, you can submit your Rice supplement along with the rest of your application.

What exactly are the Rice University essay prompts you need to answer? Let's take a look.

What Are the Rice University Essay Prompts?

There are six Rice University essay prompts in total ; however, feel free to relax a little since you won't need to respond to all these prompts on your application. This is because the Rice University essay prompts you must answer will vary depending on the school you're applying to at Rice .

Below are all the current Rice University essay prompts, organized by what types of applicants are required to answer which ones.

All Applicants

There are four essays that all applicants must submit to Rice.

The first of these is a personal essay that responds to one of the essay prompts provided by either the Common App or Apply Coalition with Scoir (depending on which system you're using). This essay should be about 500–550 words long and must be no longer than 650 words.

Both the Common App and Apply Coalition include several essay prompts from which you can choose. We won't be listing those prompts here, but you can find them in our guides to the Common App and Coalition App essay prompts .

In addition to the Common App or Apply Coalition personal essay, all applicants must submit three short answers as part of the Rice supplement . Your answers to the first two of these questions will be much shorter than your personal essay, at just 150 words max per response.

Here are the first two short-answer prompts:

Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected above.

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

The third supplemental essay is longer, at 500 words max , and you'll need to choose between two prompts to answer:

Please respond to one of the following prompts to explore how you will contribute to the Rice community: 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? 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 racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice?

If you're into architecture, you'll need to answer these next two Rice University essay prompts.

School of Architecture Applicants ONLY

Applicants to the Rice School of Architecture must submit all of the above PLUS two more short answers (again, these are part of the Rice supplement). Your answer to each question must be no longer than 250 words , giving you a little more space to work with compared with the two short-answer questions above.

Here are the current Rice University essay prompts for School of Architecture applicants:

All Rice University Essay Prompts, Analyzed

Now that we've seen all the Rice University essay prompts, let's analyze them one at a time to see how you can answer them effectively.

Rice Supplement 1: Short Answer (All Applicants)

This first short answer wants you to summarize your (main) intended field of study as well as any other fields you're interested in studying at Rice. It's a deceptively simple prompt that's about a lot more than just what you plan to study at Rice.

The crux of this essay isn't just summarizing your major—it's explaining why you've chosen this field and why Rice specifically will be a good fit for your goals and interests .

Here are the questions this prompt is really asking you to answer:

• Why do you want to study this particular field?
• Why do you think Rice is a good fit for you and your academic interests?

As you write your response, try to focus on specifics . Don't just say you've always had an interest in writing stories. What specifically drove you to declare a major in English? For instance, you could discuss your deep fascination with Shakespeare, specifically with Macbeth , and how you're excited about Rice's array of Shakespeare-centered classes .

If you have enough space (remember that your answer can only be 150 words max), you could also (or instead) elaborate on what you plan to do with your intended major after college and how Rice will help you achieve this goal . If you're hoping to study music, for example, you could write about how you believe Rice's Navigating Music Careers portal and accomplished music faculty will help prepare you for establishing a successful career in music.

If you're still undecided about what you want to major in, this is a great time to explain what kinds of fields you're considering studying and why they intrigue you. Maybe you recently developed an interest in architecture after seeing the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis and are now thinking of taking some architecture classes at Rice.

Whatever the case, be clear about what you (might) want to study and why .

What do you want to study at Rice—and why?

Rice Supplement 2: Short Answer (All Applicants)

Unlike the prompt above, this prompt is not limited to academics (though you are welcome to talk about those here as well, as long as you don't repeat anything you wrote for your other short answer). Basically, Rice just wants to know this: why Rice?

This prompt is actually a variation of the "why this college?" essay , which many colleges ask for in their applications. Specifically, this prompt is asking you to focus on why Rice is an ideal fit for you .

Here are some examples of topics you could write about:

• A particular academic program or major you're interested in doing, possibly one that's not offered elsewhere or is somewhat rare
• The small community atmosphere at Rice and the fun activities and traditions it offers students , such as O-Week and Beer Bike
• The diversity of the Rice student body and why this positive, blended environment would be ideal for you as a student
• Its urban location in Houston and how you intend to use the resources of the big city to further your academic or professional interests
• A certain professor or faculty member whom you wish to work with

Remember to be specific —don't just say you're interested in Rice because it's known for quality research or because it's ranked highly on many "best colleges" lists. What specific features does Rice have that made you apply?

If you're not sure what to write about for this Rice essay, I recommend doing some research on Rice. Start by visiting the official Rice website to see what the school offers in terms of academics, extracurricular activities, professional opportunities, internships, study abroad programs, etc. You can read more about anything that sticks out to you or resonates with your interests.

You can also refer to community-based websites, such as College Confidential and Reddit , to see what current students have to say about life at Rice.

Rice Supplement 3: Essay (All Applicants)

The third essay in the Rice supplement offers a choice of two prompts. Aside from the Common App or Apply Coalition with Scoir personal essay, this is the longest Rice essay you'll write for your application .   You have a limit of 500 words , which should give you plenty of space to delve into the details of yourself and what you'll contribute to the community at Rice.

So what are these prompts asking you to do exactly? Both options are essentially a diversity essay prompt . But let's discuss one prompt at a time.

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?

Option 1 basically has two parts: the first asks what makes you different from other applicants and what qualities you bring to Rice. The second part focuses on Rice's residential college system , which is founded on the principles of diversity and communty; that part of the prompt asks you to describe how your cultural background or past experience will shape your contribution to your assigned residential college.

Note the significance of the word "unique" in the prompt here—this is the crux of what you should write about in your essay. What specific distinctive qualities do you have that you think will make a positive contribution to the Rice community?

Here are some sample topics you could write about for this Rice essay:

• A particular skill you have —for example, maybe you often play classical guitar music to calm down your younger sibling at home, and you think this skill could help students (and yourself) feel better during finals week at Rice
• A positive personality trait you have , such as optimism or dedication, and how this trait has helped you in life and could help you and others at Rice as well
• A cultural, religious, or ethnic background you have that is important to you in your daily life and that you feel will help increase the diversity at Rice
• Any unique experiences that are significant to you or have had a major impact on how you define yourself —perhaps you've lived in many countries and believe these experiences of constantly having to adapt to new cultures and lifestyles might help you (and others!) with transitioning to life at Rice

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

Option 2, meanwhile, asks you to share how at least one aspect of your background or identity—whether you define that by your race, ethnicity, spirituality, sex or gender, sexual orientation, how you were raised, or a particular experience—has shaped your worldview. It then asks you to explain and why that perspective makes you want to attend Rice specifically.

With this essay, keep in mind the particular use of the phrase "change agents."  The university is representing itself as a community of students who want to make a difference in the world, so given your upbringing, experiences, values, or identity, in what  specific  are would you like to have a positive impact? For example, does being a first-generation college student inspire you to become a peer mentor with Rice's Student Success Initiatives ? Did volunteering at a food bank every Thanksgiving with your family make you passionate about the service learning component of the university's Program in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities?

Whether you choose option 1 or 2 for this third supplemental essay, keep in mind the following:

Make sure to show, not tell. You've got plenty of room to be able to tell a compelling story, so try not to rely on dull descriptions, clichés, and general, all-encompassing statements. Rather, fill your story with personality, voice, images, and realism. Using a variety of literary devices can add lots of color to your writing and will help your essay stand out.

In addition, don't repeat anything you've already written in your Common App or Apply Coalition with Scoir essay. The essays required for both application systems are similar to the Rice essay above in that they're all longer and more personal. Write about something different for each so you don't sound as though only a single thing defines you.

Rice Supplement 4: Short Answer (Architecture Applicants ONLY)

Why are you determined to study architecture? Could you please elaborate on your past experiences and how they have motivated you to apply to Rice University and the School of Architecture in particular?

This prompt is similar to the first short-answer supplemental prompt in that it's asking you to elaborate on your chosen major (in this case, architecture) and why you're interested in it. For this essay, however, you don't need to focus on architecture as a major as much as you do on architecture as a passion .

In other words, this is your chance to tell the story of how you developed a deep interest in architecture and what architecture means to you .

For this Rice essay, and as the prompt says, you can focus on aspirations (i.e., what goals do you have and how does architecture fulfill these?), experiences (i.e., did a particular incident make you develop an interest in architecture?), and relationships (i.e., who, if anyone, inspired you to study the field?).

Here are some potential topics you could write about:

• A particular person, such as a parent or teacher , who introduced you to architecture, and how this person influences you today (if applicable)
• A design or architecture class you took , either at school or as an extracurricular, and how this class made you become interested in architecture
• A research project you did , whether specifically about architecture or not, and how it drew you into wanting to learn more about architecture and its various applications
• A certain piece of architecture , such as the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building, you either saw in person or learned about and that made you want to study the field further

In your essay, use specific details and avoid clichéd openings , such as "I knew I wanted to study architecture when…" The admissions committee at Rice has more than likely heard these types of overly broad statements hundreds, if not thousands, of times, so avoid them!

This is one cliché you'll definitely want to avoid in your Rice essay.

Rice Supplement 5: Short Answer (Architecture Applicants ONLY)

Please expand on relevant experiences and motivations outside of your academic trajectory that have inspired you to study architecture, focusing on aspects that are not accommodated by other prompts in the application.

This is an interesting essay prompt since it's so much broader than the other one you have to respond to as an architecture applicant to Rice. The purpose of this prompt is to reveal to Rice what types of activities you're interested or engaged in (outside of architecture) and what role they play in your fascination with architecture .

Think about what you do in your spare time, what you're passionate about, and possibly what you are obligated to do (e.g., chores or duties at work). Are there any activities you do that you find fun but also intellectually or physically challenging? Are you particularly invested in an activity?

Don't be afraid to get really creative and honest here —you're allowed to write about an activity that's unconventional, eccentric, "boring," or even plain goofy. Just make sure you're also giving the admissions committee deeper insight into something about you , such as how you flourish when competing against your own times in cross-country races or how you calm yourself down by watching urban planning YouTube videos every evening. Ultimately, you want to highlight a personal hobby or motivation that has contributed to your interest in architecture .

• Your love of design  and how toys you used to play with as a child, such as LEGO bricks, led to your gradually developing a desire to learn more about architecture as a field
• Any personal experience that relates to how you became interested in architecture —maybe you grew up in a shoddy apartment complex, an experience which showed you how better and safer architecture could improve people's day-to-day lives
• A relevant video or board game you love to play , such as SimCity, Minecraft, or 7 Wonders Architects, and how this game connects with your love of planning and building
• Volunteering with an organization or at a specific place , such as at Habitat for Humanity, and what this activity means to you ( NOTE: I recommend only picking this topic if you're continually involved with a specific volunteer effort and if it's something you're very invested in—if you helped build a house for a low-income family only once, for instance, don't write about that here!)
• An architecture-based TV show or movie , such as  Big Dreams, Small Spaces, Grand Designs , or Amazing Spaces ,   that you love and indulge in on a regular basis and why you believe this program or film has shaped your passion

As a final tip for this Rice essay, don't feel obligated to choose an "impressive" topic . Instead, use this open-ended essay prompt as a chance to demonstrate your personal strengths and passions in a highly personal, creative way.

Real Rice Essay Example + Analysis

Though knowing what kinds of topics you can write about for each Rice essay is definitely helpful, it's even better to be able to see what an actual successful Rice essay looks like. Below, we show you a real Rice essay example that was written by an admitted student .

The following essay was written in response to a prompt similar to the current Rice essay prompt for the second short-answer essay above. (In other words, it's essentially a "Why Rice?" prompt.)

Note: Since this essay is a little older and the Rice essay topics change every few years, the prompt and word length for this essay differ slightly from the current guidelines. For this essay, the word limit was 250 words, whereas the current limit is 150 words.

Here is the essay:

"We are going to visit Rice today," my mom leaned back in her front row seat and said to me.

Wait, is that a restaurant specializing in all kinds of rice dishes? Like fried rice, rice soup, and rice balls? My brain went into a frenzy.

All other questions flooding my thoughts dissipated, however, when my eyes lay on Rice's beautiful Byzantine-style buildings with its magnificent archways and its soft sand-pink brick walls. While just outside its surroundings the thriving city life of Houston continues, Rice kept its sacred ground intimate with its relatively small campus and peaceful with its large spreads of greenery and shades. It's perfect! said my right brain, falling in love at first sight with the campus. My left brain, however, chastised the emotional side of me with Don't judge a book by its cover. You can't just choose your true love like that!

Exasperated by my left brain, I attended an information seminar. Phrases like "Passport to Houston," "Best Quality of Student Life," "Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen," and "more than 40 interdisciplinary centers" flashed by my eyes. Almost unlimited access to Houston's transportation and hangout spots? A research facility where I can group with students of all fields and work on solving real-world problems? Friendly research faculty who might allow me to continue my interdisciplinary research in psychology and computer science? My left brain finally gave in. Alright, alright. Let's go make Rice into not just a staple for food, but also education, then.

What Makes This Rice Essay Work?

It's got a lot of personality. The italicized parts, which symbolize the applicant's thoughts, give us a highly personal and intriguing look into their reactions to their first visit to Rice. In addition, the humorous bits (such as when the university's name is compared to the actual rice food) add a fun and creative touch.

It oozes passion. While this applicant might occasionally go a little overboard in how they describe how amazing Rice is, one thing is clear: they're extremely interested in attending Rice and making the most of their interdisciplinary interests here.

How Could This Rice Essay Be Even Better?

It could cut out the clichés. The saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" has been done to death and doesn't add any memorable insight into the applicant. This essay would be better if the applicant had changed this phrase or simply cut it out completely. Moreover, although the concept of Rice as a food is funny, this applicant likely isn't the first person to have made a joke about this.

It could be more specific. Although there's clearly a lot of passion in this Rice essay, it lacks detail in areas where we could've learned a lot more about the applicant. For example, what kinds of research does this person want to conduct at Rice? And what "real-world problems" do they want to solve?

How to Write a Great Rice Essay: Five Key Tips

Before you go off writing your Rice essay, here are some final tips to keep in mind.

#1: Use Specific Details

I've said this before and I'll say it again: be specific in your essays . Rice doesn't just want to know that you're good at softball—it wants to know why this sport is important to you, what kind of role it plays in your life, and how it makes you feel.

If you're describing a specific person in one of your essays, use concrete details to show the admissions committee who this person really is. Does she have an endearing gap in her teeth when she smiles? What does his voice sound like?

Details like these will allow your readers to more readily feel the personality and passion in your writing, making it easier to relate to you on a deeper level. They'll also help you and your essays stand out from the sea of applicants, which is always a plus!

#2: Channel Your Inner Voice

Personal essays are all about showcasing your personality and a side of yourself that's not made clear in the more quantitative (i.e., grades and test scores) parts of your application.

Therefore, with each Rice essay, make sure you're channeling your inner voice. Does the essay sound as though you wrote it and not someone else did? Are you writing about what you really want to and not what you think the Rice admissions committee wants to read?

For example, if you're naturally a humorous person, feel free to throw in a joke or two. If you're the poetic type, you could add in some lines of poetry you've written (if relevant to your essay topic) or sprinkle in some flowery metaphors.

The basic tip here is to write in whatever way comes most natural to you .

That being said, there are a few things you should always avoid in your college essays:

• Typos, poor grammar, incorrect spelling, and other technical errors (the only exception to this would be if you're quoting someone who used incorrect grammar or colloquial words such as "ain't" or "gonna")
• Inappropriate stories —don't write about the time you got arrested or made an obviously wrong or immoral choice, for example
• Rude or impolite words and phrases

#3: Give Yourself Plenty of Time

Even though most of the essays on the Rice supplement aren't that long, you still have a lot to write for just one school, so these essays will likely take up a lot of your free time. Be sure to start your essays (for all the colleges you're applying to—not just Rice) ahead of time, ideally at least a few months before your college application deadlines .

#4: Avoid Repeating Yourself

Many of the Rice University essay prompts touch on similar topics, such as why you want to attend Rice, why you want to study a certain field, and what makes you unique.

As you answer the prompts, try to ensure there isn't too much overlap between the content of your essays .

It's OK if there's a little bit of repetition. For example, it'd be hard not to talk about your interest in architecture as you answer supplement 1 (What do you want to major in?) and supplement 3 (Why architecture?).

That said, your primary goal should be to focus on different main points for each of your essays . This way, Rice will get a more well-rounded (versus one-sided) picture of who you are.

Avoid repeating the same ideas in your essays; remember that you're trying to stand out as an applicant, so each response should give the admissions committee new information about who you are, your intellectual passions, and your motivations.

#5: Don't Forget to Proofread!

For each Rice essay, take a lot of time to edit and proofread it.

After you write a rough draft, put the essay away for a few days. Once some time has passed, take your essay out again and reread it. Fix any obvious errors, such as typos and misspellings, and mark any areas that are awkward, unclear, or irrelevant.

Do this process a few times until you have a fairly clean draft. Then, give your essay to someone else to read ; this could be a parent, teacher, older sibling, tutor, etc. Ask this person for feedback, and use their advice to further tweak your essay until you eventually have a quality final draft.

As with any essay, be sure to do one final proofread (and get someone else to look it over, too!) right before you submit it to a college.

What's Next?

Interested in applying to other highly prestigious schools besides Rice? Then take a look at our guides to how to write essays for Northwestern , Harvard , and Stanford .

Writing college admissions essays can be tricky. Check out our expert guides to learn how you can write a great Common Application essay and Coalition Application essay .

For more tips on how to get into Rice, including what SAT/ACT score you'll need, check out our Rice University admissions page .

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

First-Yr Writing Intensive Sem (FWIS)

FWIS 100 - INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING

Short Title: INTRO TO ACADEMIC WRITING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This topic-based course prepares students who need more time and practice in reading and writing to meet the more advanced communication demands of a FWIS. Through the study of one of several academic topics, this course will provide an introduction to the expectations of academic readers as well as practice with the rhetorical and linguistic structures common to academic writing. Students will also review grammatical points relevant to coursework and learn to self-edit their own work. This course does not fulfill the Composition Requirement.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/programs/first-year-writing-intensive-seminars/fwis-100-overview

FWIS 101 - THE BIBLE IN POPULAR CULTURE

Short Title: THE BIBLE IN POPULAR CULTURE

Description: We will introduce various ways in which the Bible plays a significant role in contemporary popular culture. By analyzing biblical references found in music, film, art, and the medial, students will discover that even in today's seemingly secular culture, the Bible continues to influence our artistic, social, and political landscapes.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 102 - BLIND SPOTS: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO VISUAL CULTURE

Short Title: BLIND SPOTS

Description: The blind spot of "the act of seeing" is its social construction, its ideological nature. This seminar unveils the various historical, political, economic, and social “filters” that condition our decoding of visual information. This writing seminar aims at developing skills to de-naturalize the "act of seeing."

FWIS 103 - WHODUNIT? INVESTIGATING TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

Short Title: TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

Description: It was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick! Crime fiction and true crime presents forensic evidence as a clue to find out: whodunit? This course examines the construction and adaptation of stories of crime, and investigates how the presentation of evidence influences our understanding of the crime.

FWIS 104 - WHAT WE OWE TO EACH OTHER: THE ETHICS OF WRITING AND RESEARCH

Short Title: WHAT WE OWE TO EACH OTHER

Description: In this course, students will watch episodes of The Good Place paired with readings on the theories featured to explore “what we owe to each other” across a range of contexts, from every day communication to equity and access in writing and research in the students’ chosen field of study.

FWIS 105 - GREEK MYTH IN WORDS: HESIOD AND THE HOMERIC HYMNS

Short Title: GREEK MYTH IN WORDS

Description: Presents texts fundamental to understanding Greek myth through the regular practice of reading, writing, and oral communication. Emphasizing textual interpretation and writing as process and practice, this course clarifies the purpose and conventions of the academic argumentative essay. Frequent brief writing assignments. Peer review plays an integral role. No exams.

FWIS 106 - WRITING THE SENSES

Short Title: WRITING THE SENSES

Description: This course investigates the ways different disciplines develop theories of and tools for touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing. We experiment with the distinctions we draw between our senses as well as other ways we process information including our sense of balance, sense of pain, sense of time, and synaesthesia.

FWIS 107 - IN THE MATRIX: ON HUMAN BONDAGE AND LIBERATION

Short Title: IN THE MATRIX

Description: Using the film "The Matrix" as the point of reference, this course presents celebrated explorations of servitude and emancipation - from religious mysticism to Marxism and artistic modernism. Texts by Lao Tzu, Farid ud-Din Attar, Plato, Freud, Marx, Baudelaire, J.S. Mill, Proust, de Beauvior, Malcolm X, Marcuse, Baudrillard.

FWIS 108 - WANDERLUST: WHERE AND WHY WE TRAVEL

Short Title: WANDERLUST:WHERE/WHY WE TRAVEL

Description: This inquiry-based course will focus on travel from multiple perspectives: your own, including places you have visited or want to visit; that of other people; sustainability; accessibility; and the impact on communities, economies, and environments. Some topics include your bucket list, why travel, travel and its effects, and travel literature.

FWIS 109 - CONTEMPORARY ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Short Title: ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Description: This course delves into questions of environment, ecology and sustainability through the lens of contemporary art. From earthworks, to performance, to land art, activist art, and community-based practices, participants engage critically and creatively with contemporary practices. This course is eligible for credit toward the Environmental Studies minor.

FWIS 110 - JEWS ON FILM: CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF JEWISH LIFE

Short Title: JEWS ON FILM

Description: This course will explore the modern Jewish life around the world through the medium of film. Students will be exposed to diverse Jewish communities and their cinematic representations. The course will consider modern Jewish identity through the lens of various themes including race, gender, religion, nationalism, assimilation and secularization.

FWIS 112 - FICTION, HISTORY, TEJAS: TEXIANS AND TEJANOS IN LITERATURE AND FILM

Short Title: FICTION, HISTORY, TEJAS

Description: Examines the battle for authority over foundational stories about Texas independence, as it plays out in fiction on the page and on the screen. Introduces key concepts related to Chicano studies, the genre of historical fiction, and the relationship of marginalized groups to national and regional histories.

FWIS 113 - RACE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND RACIAL CHANGE IN AMERICA

Short Title: RACE, POLICY, & RACIAL CHANGE

Description: This course examines conceptual and historical features of race and representation in the U.S., how race has shaped public policy development in the 20th century, and how American political institutions have affected outcomes for different racial groups. It also examines the causes and consequences of political mobilization for racial minorities.

FWIS 114 - THE HOLY GRAIL: RELIGION, QUEST, AND TRANSFORMATION

Short Title: THE HOLY GRAIL

Description: This course explores the grail as object, moving from its roots in medieval romance through the literary-historical developments by which it emerges as a reality. Starting with the Arthurian legends, we explore developing associations of the grail within Christianity, and move to grail motifs in modern occultism, fiction and film.

FWIS 115 - EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CHALLENGES

Short Title: EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Description: This writing-intensive course introduces students to biological research and scientific communication. Student teams work on investigative projects with opportunities to ask questions, perform experiments, collect and analyze data, and share their findings. Recommended for students interested in the Biosciences major who have limited laboratory experience. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 115 if student has credit for BIOS 150 .

FWIS 116 - AMERICAN JOURNEYS

Short Title: AMERICAN JOURNEYS

Description: The narratives of travelers in the US are a window into history. Drawing on authors like Crevecoeur, Tocqueville, Trollope, and Kerouac, the class will discuss and write about themes such as Indian life and territorial expansion, democracy, slavery, civil war, western settlement, and 20th-cent. social movements. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in History.

FWIS 117 - CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN THE AMERICAN CENTURY: "THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE WORLD" IN THE TWENTIETH CENT

Short Title: CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN THE AMER

Description: This FWIS course seeks to introduce Rice freshmen to the hidden layers of the story of the Americanization of the world in the twentieth century. The topics to be explored include the role played by private philanthropy in shaping and transmitting American cultural forms, the impact of the Cold War on the diffusion of American culture in such diverse arenas as literature, visual and performing arts, movies, TV programming and science and technology.

FWIS 119 - THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST: TELLING AND RE-TELLING THE TALE AS OLD AS TIME

Short Title: THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST

Description: This course examines filmic and literary adaptations of “Beauty and the Beast” from the “original” 1740 French version to the present day. It asks how the tale reflects cultural anxieties and fears and reinforces problematic representations of gender roles, toxic masculinity, and the tenuous fairy-tale conflation of goodness and beauty.

FWIS 120 - FICTION AND EMPATHY

Short Title: FICTION AND EMPATHY

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the possible link between reading literary fiction and empathizing with others. We'll read short stories, novel excerpts, and literary criticism in an effort to scrutinize and more deeply understand the specific elements of fiction that might provoke empathy.

FWIS 121 - TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES: FICTION, FILM, SCIENCE

Short Title: TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES

Description: From an aesthetic perspective, time travel has existed as long as there have been stories. Narrative introduces alien temporalities, transporting listeners and readers into different temporal landscapes. This writing-intensive course investigates the historical, aesthetic, and scientific connections between the authorial and scientific co-creation of time travel.

FWIS 122 - CONVERSATIONS WITH SOCRATES

Short Title: CONVERSATIONS WITH SOCRATES

Description: We will read four Platonic dialogues about the last days of Socrates. We will explore the human concerns that Socrates and his friends discuss, and analyze their arguments. We will also consider literary features, and how the dialogues can inform our understanding of reading, writing, and speaking and their value.

FWIS 123 - STAR WARS AND THE WRITING OF POPULAR CULTURE

Short Title: STAR WARS & WRITING CULTURE

Description: This course will unpack the cultural legacy of the Star Wars films through traditional literary analysis and close reading, by situating the films historically, and by considering the ways that the films reflect attitudes towards a variety of social issues, such as spirituality/religion, philosophy, race, gender, class, nationality, and imperialism.

FWIS 124 - WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST

Short Title: WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST

Description: This course will examine selected testimony given by Holocaust survivors. Their testimony varies according to time and the circumstance in which it was given and also according to the genre (film, memoir, drama) in which it is presented.

FWIS 125 - YOUR ARABIAN NIGHTS

Short Title: YOUR ARABIAN NIGHTS

Description: The Arabian Nights is one of the best known yet poorly understood literary masterpieces. It has been passed down orally in wiring, in performance and film; in multiple languages, and with different collections of stories. What is your Arabian Nights? We will consider stories of the Nights through both a literary and historical lens, and we will consider stories, films, and works of art that were inspired by the Nights in different cultures.

FWIS 126 - ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL: INVESTIGATING FORMS OF LIFE

Short Title: ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL

Description: This seminar investigates the distinctions humans make between forms of life: for example, animal vs. plant vs. mineral. Students will engage critical and scholarly readings and produce a range of writing as the class interrogates these categories, the relations between them, and the porous boundaries that don’t always hold up.

FWIS 127 - KING ARTHUR IN POPULAR CULTURE: TIME TRAVEL, SPACE ALIENS, AND HOLY HAND GRENADES

Short Title: KING ARTHUR IN POPULAR CULTURE

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines how medieval Arthurian literature has been re-imagined within 19th, 20th, and 21st century contexts. Beginning with foundational readings from Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, we will examine and discuss how the Arthurian tradition has been translated into various mediums, including the novel, comic books, art, and film.

FWIS 128 - SPACE, SPEED, CINEMA: THE AUTOMOBILE IN AMERICAN FILM

Short Title: THE AUTOMOBILE IN U.S. FILM

Description: Covering movies ranging from the early 20th Century to the present day, this class asks students to think critically about what it means to depict the automobile through film and to consider how these depictions, and their meanings, might change in accordance with different historical, artistic, and political contexts.

FWIS 129 - CHINGIS KHAN AND THE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS

Short Title: THE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS

Description: In the thirteenth century, the Mongols conquered China, Eastern Europe and Middle East. This class explores empire building, warfare, government and steppe culture, through reading the letters and memoirs of Mongols, merchants, travelers and adventurers. The students will work closely with primary sources to develop analytical writing skills.

FWIS 130 - WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Short Title: WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Description: This course is dedicated to the poetics of everyday life. It draws from the forms and colors of what surrounds us day-to-day, from landscapes, to bodies and objects. Students develop research and writing skills through creative fieldwork assignments and workshops. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in Anthropology.

FWIS 131 - THE WAR ON DRUGS

Short Title: THE WAR ON DRUGS

Description: This course examines the rhetoric and implications of the “War on Drugs” in the U.S. and Latin America. Students analyze from different perspectives key texts that are related to policies enacted in the last fifty years to suppress illicit drug use and that have affected civil liberties and national security.

FWIS 132 - SLAVERY ON FILM

Short Title: SLAVERY ON FILM

Description: This course will look at the ways major Hollywood (or equivalent) films have dealt with chattel slavery in the United States. We will explore the general question of how feature films deal with controversial historical issues by analyzing more specifically how Hollywood has dealt with American slavery.

FWIS 133 - WOMEN AND THE HOLOCAUST: VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS

Short Title: WOMEN AND THE HOLOCAUST

Description: This course will examine the Third Reich and the Holocaust from the perspective of women as perpetrators and as victims.

FWIS 134 - DEEP CUTS: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

Short Title: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

Description: With a focus on mainstream and experimental cinematic treatments of medicine produced in the United States, France, and Spain, this writing-intensive seminar explores how films depict medicine’s and culture’s intersections through representations of the body, clinical practices, and healthcare institutions.

FWIS 135 - WHAT IS A BOOK? THE MATERIAL FOUNDATIONS OF READING AND WRITING

Short Title: WHAT IS A BOOK?

Description: This course will explore the history of books and the material (both intellectual and physical) from which they are created. We will consider how the physical form of books has shaped their content and meaning and think critically about how contemporary media shape our reading, writing, and thought.

FWIS 136 - TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Short Title: TECH AND CULTURE IN US HISTORY

Description: This course examines the relationship between technology and society throughout the history of the United States. We will analyze the roles and impacts of major technological innovations within their cultural and historical contexts, while seeking to understand how these contexts shaped and were shaped by the technologies.

FWIS 137 - POP MUSIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Short Title: POP MUSIC & AMERICAN CULTURE

Description: Recent cultural movements encourage a more serious exploration of popular music. This course will participate by taking a critical look at what songs mean, what songs/albums/genres express, what our interest in music expresses, and how writing about music can lead us to great insights.

FWIS 138 - WHAT IS WRITING? AN EXPLORATION OF WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, AND WHY WE WRITE

Short Title: WHAT IS WRITING?

Description: What is writing? Using both fictional and non-fictional texts, this course will examine the ways in which humans convey stories to elucidate questions such as What makes writing effective? How do we convey our stories? How do we interact with the stories of others? and more.

FWIS 139 - PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM IN MEDICINE

Short Title: PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM IN MEDICINE

Description: Medical photographs and films are not only visual pieces of scientific documentation but also pieces of historical, social, and aesthetic significance and interpretation. The crucial tension between science and aesthetics is the focus of this writing-intensive course that explores medical images used in clinical settings and popular culture.

FWIS 140 - IMAGINING THE PAST: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

Short Title: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

Description: In the twentieth century and beyond, movies and television serve as an important source of mythologized national narratives (or somewhat “faked news”) from war movies, to westerns, to “biopics” of figures such as Kenneth Turing. Are their patterns of distortion at work, we can identify? How do we correct them?

FWIS 141 - TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

Short Title: TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

Description: Does pineapple belong on pizza? Does red Gatorade taste better than blue? Many of our favorite flavors are produced and marketed by food science and the food industry. This writing-intensive seminar investigates how technologies of taste shape our palates and the ways we think and write about what we eat.

FWIS 142 - WATER AND CITIES

Short Title: WATER AND CITIES

Description: Investigates ancient, historical, and modern cities and how their residents received water. Questions include: how cities developed water resources, how water shaped city life, and how the environment was engineered to produce water. Students will be able to choose a city and a water topic for their final seminar project.

FWIS 143 - LEARNING TO OBSERVE THROUGH A TOUR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

Short Title: NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

Description: In this course, students will hone their skills of observation through careful study of nature, from the geology to the birds and plants of Texas. Students will learn how to interpret and communicate these observations through writing and illustration. This course will involve several local field trips to explore the natural history of the upper Texas coast.

FWIS 144 - WRITING ABOUT GREEK DRAMA

Short Title: WRITING ABOUT GREEK DRAMA

Description: This course introduces texts that are integral to ancient Greek culture, and core texts in the Western literary tradition. Students receive frequent regular practice at close reading, writing, and oral communication. The assigned primary texts are Aristotle's Poetics and tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (all read in English translation).

FWIS 145 - MUSEUMS IN WORLD HISTORY

Short Title: MUSEUMS IN WORLD HISTORY

Description: What is a museum? What role do they play in the modern world? This course fosters critical thinking about how and why museums were important institutions. They emerged as sites of identity within and between local, regional, national, imperial and global networks. Globally, a diverse number of museums are at once beloved and controversial, commanding and irrelevant. These contradictions aren’t new. To address the future of museums we must understand the evolution of these institutions in their global pasts.

FWIS 146 - YOUTH ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Short Title: YOUTH ACTIVISM & SOCIAL CHANGE

Description: Young people are leading their communities, influencing policy, and shaping discourse on some of the most pressing social issues of our time. This course explores how youth become mobilized to take political action and what kind of personal and public narratives inform their efforts to bring about social change.

FWIS 147 - AMERICA THROUGH FOREIGN EYES

Short Title: AMERICA THROUGH FOREIGN EYES

Description: The United States has always been a source of fascination – both attraction and repulsion – for many people around the world. The course covers the perceptions and interactions of five regions – Africa, China, France, Mexico, and Russia – with America. It offers ways to approach cross-cultural study and concludes with a segment that “reverses the gaze” by analyzing American opinions of other cultures. "America through Foreign Eyes" addresses four overarching themes: 1) democracy and modernity; 2) globalization and capitalism; 3) racism and immigration; and 4) intellectual and cultural life.

FWIS 148 - THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

Short Title: THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

Description: This class is designed to introduce students to sports writing as a vehicle for conveying complex ideas and stories, and investigating difficult issues. It is not a sports journalism course, but rather one focused on story-telling through and about sports. We will read a variety of fictional and non-fictional writing about sports as a means to learning about how to look deeply into the world and the people around us.

FWIS 149 - GRAPHIC MEDICINE

Short Title: GRAPHIC MEDICINE

Description: Do graphic novels reflect perceptions of medicine? Can comics orient our notion of care? Formally dependent on interruption, graphic novels demonstrate the complexity of reading—reading texts, reading bodies, reading trauma. Thus, our class will grapple with disruption and healing in comics and will consider these implications for medical practice. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 149 if student has credit for CLAS 303 .

FWIS 150 - THE WORLD OF MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

Short Title: THE WORLD OF MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

Description: How did medieval Christians understand and treat mental and bodily illness? How did their experiences of pain, sex, childbirth, and death interact with larger concepts of God, nature, and the heavens? What role did angels and demons play? This seminar will explore these issues through close reading of medieval texts. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 150 if student has credit for FSEM 171/MDEM 171/RELI 171.

FWIS 151 - MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES: THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY

Short Title: MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES

Description: This course explores and examines the personal essay as a vehicle for discovery, critical thinking, and self-scrutiny. Students will read great essays from the past and present, write a variety of essays themselves, and analyze the form to draw larger conclusions about thoughtful and engaging writing in any genre.

FWIS 152 - NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS: REAL REMEDIES OR SHADY SCIENCE?

Short Title: THE SCIENCE OF SUPPLEMENTS

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines evidence for the use of nutritional supplements in promoting health. Topics include the role of vitamins, herbs and food-based supplements in medicine; the biology of illnesses such as cancer and depression; and the molecular mechanisms of supplements in disease prevention and management.

FWIS 153 - SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SOCIETY

Short Title: SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SO

Description: Government surveillance is widely regarded as a system of control and classification. Yet, surveillance seems to indicate a weakness in the security state. Against this backdrop, we will analyze how examples of surveillance shape and reshape cultures across the world through oral and written assignments.

FWIS 154 - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BORDER

Short Title: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE BORDER

Description: This course will explore portrayals of morality in film, literature and music produced in the US-Mexico borderlands. As we examine conflicting and converging moral codes in these cultural texts, students will use writing as a tool for exploring ideas and refining understanding.

FWIS 155 - WRITING ASIAN FOOD IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

Short Title: WRITING ASIAN FOOD

Description: This course exposes students to the exercise of writing about Asian food. Students engage in the activity of "converting" multi-sensory experience, i.e. eating food, into writing on the one hand and think about transnational Asian food in the context of globalizing world. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 155 if student has credit for ASIA 205 .

FWIS 156 - SPEECH AND COMMUNICATION IN HOMER

Short Title: SPEECH AND COMM IN HOMER

Description: Introduces students to oral tradition, oral performance, oral poetics, and the Homeric poems. We will read the Iliad and Odyssey closely, focusing on the speeches, songs, and stories performed by characters, and considering what those performances suggest about the constructive and destructive use of speech in human relationships and societies.

FWIS 157 - TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA: LIVED EXPERIENCES ACROSS TIME AND SPACE

Short Title: TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA

Description: In this class, we will read and write about people who traveled across and beyond Asia from the fourteenth century to the twentieth century, focusing on core topics such as intercultural interactions, globalization, and modernity. In doing so, we will also challenge the common misconception that Asian societies were isolated from one another and from the rest of the world before the arrival of the Westerners in Asia in the nineteenth century.

FWIS 158 - THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Short Title: THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORY

Description: This course will examine the history of the Holocaust from early accounts to recent reconstructions of the origins, implementation, and aftermath of the “Final Solution.” We will also analyze documents, testimonies, memoirs, trial records, and various forms of representations and commemoration of the Shoah.

FWIS 159 - ROBOPSYCHOLOGY AND THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE INTERNET

Short Title: SPIRITUALITY OF THE INTERNET

Description: From TikTok to Instagram, Google and ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is an inescapable aspect of everyone’s daily life. This course explores how the internet platforms they engage with in their daily lives, and the dreams of the technologists who create them, are also embedded in the history of philosophy and religion.

FWIS 160 - GLOBAL ENGLISH: DIVERSITY, DEMAND, AND DOMINANCE

Short Title: GLOBAL ENGLISH

Description: In this course, students will consider how sociocultural, political, and economic factors have historically influenced decisions about language use in the context of English. In doing so, they will practice different forms of academic communication and refine skills fundamental to their success as critical thinkers, readers, and writers.

FWIS 161 - DETECTIVES & DETECTIONS

Short Title: DETECTIVES & DETECTIONS

Description: This course reads representations of struggle between detectives and those evading detection. Throughout, we will continually ask: What can “detection” teach us about the boundaries of national belonging? And how can we appropriate the lens of detection to improve our skills as academic readers and writers?

FWIS 162 - CRITICAL THINKING IN DEMOCRACY

Short Title: CRITICAL THINKING IN DEMOCRACY

Description: Critical thinking runs counter to inherent tendencies toward confirmation bias in decision making. In the political realm, this conflict is often exploited by governmental leaders and media to control specific outcomes. Students in this class will learn to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills in the context of a democratic society.

FWIS 163 - LOVE SICK

Short Title: LOVE SICK

Description: We will explore depictions of love and sexuality as a pathology in literature, medical discourses, and popular culture. As we read about lovesick medieval knights, vampiric love affairs, pandemic love, and more, we will evaluate our contemporary assumptions about love and how concepts around love and sexuality shift over time.

FWIS 164 - WAYS OF WALKING IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Short Title: WAYS OF WALKING

Description: This course explores the act of walking, in theory and in practice. Through readings, discussions, writing assignments, and group and individual walks, it examines questions about the body and its movements; the construction and navigation of space; the tradition of travel writing; and the relationship between walking and thinking.

FWIS 165 - MEDIATION, "FAKE NEWS," AND DEMOCRACY

Short Title: FAKE NEWS AND DEMOCRACY

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines how and why the spread of disinformation has become increasingly more prevalent in our 21st century society and what impact it has on our democratic processes. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to discussing fake news, drawing from history, philosophy, journalism, media studies, and political science.

FWIS 166 - WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT?: WRITING ON IMAGES OF DIFFERENCE FROM THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN W

Short Title: WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Description: We will consider whether Black lives did matter in the medieval and early modern eras and how the imagery of difference was both similar to and different from that in the modern day. We will closely study medieval and early modern images of Black and African figures, among several other groups.

FWIS 167 - BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN: AN EXPLORATION OF THE READING EXPERIENCE

Short Title: BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN

Description: What is it about certain books that draws us in and keeps us turning the page? To answer this question, this class examines selected works of fiction and creative nonfiction with a focus on literary form, the psycho-social functions of narrative, and the physical and emotional experience of reading.

FWIS 168 - CASE STUDIES OF BUILDING DESIGN PROBLEMS

Short Title: BUILDING DESIGN PROBLEMS

Description: We will analyze buildings that ended up in legal battles. Problems include structural failures, design blunders and near disasters. You will write about what went wrong and why, who saved that day and who should have acted differently. You will learn to write critically and present a convincing argument.

FWIS 169 - WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Short Title: WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Description: We hear and talk about "human rights" frequently, but few of us have an easy time defining ideas so inherently contested and pitted against one another. This class will read, discuss, and write about the history and future of human rights in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

FWIS 170 - "WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP?"

Short Title: "WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP?"

Description: Paying special attention to the experiences of immigrant, indigenous, and (formerly) enslaved peoples of the United States, this seminar takes a broad approach to the examination of “citizenship,” its global contexts, and its material domains, including education, identity, labor, language, sovereignty, and suffrage.

FWIS 171 - THE DEVIL AND THE WORLD: THE IMAGE OF THE DEVIL IN WESTERN CULTURE

Short Title: THE DEVIL AND THE WORLD

Description: What are the reasons for the Devil's sustained popularity in Western culture? And what are the consequences of this "popularity"? How and why did the Devil, the embodiment of pure evil, become a romantic and tragic hero? This class will tackle these and other questions regarding the image of the Devil.

FWIS 172 - SITES, SOUNDS, & STORIES: THE RHETORIC OF PUBLIC MEMORY

Short Title: RHETORIC OF PUBLIC MEMORY

Description: This course invites students to consider whose stories we remember, and how/when/where. How does the framing of historical events bolster or disrupt dominant narratives of public memory? Students will examine scholarship on public memory and conduct analyses of the sites, sounds, and stories of national and local histories.

FWIS 173 - CONTEMPORARY LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Short Title: LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the new and ever-growing category of LGBTQ+ classics by reading a diverse array of novels from the 1950s to the present day that represent gay, lesbian, queer, and trans experiences, while exemplifying and challenging the idea of the literary classic. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 173 if student has credit for FSEM 159/HIST 159.

FWIS 174 - SOUNDING THE CITY

Short Title: SOUNDING THE CITY

Description: Sound surrounds us. And yet we often put little thought into what role it plays in our lives and the lives of our public spaces. This course aims to correct this oversight by offering an introduction to the field of sound studies focused on Houston’s audio environment, past and present.

FWIS 175 - POLITICS AND RELIGION: THE JEWISH QUESTION

Short Title: POLITICS AND RELIGION

Description: Though the separation of church and state is a tenet of modern democracies, the relationship between religion and politics is more complicated than it appears. In this course, we will focus our attention on the Jewish Question as a case study for thinking about the relationship between religion and politics.

FWIS 176 - DRAMATIC PAUSES: INTRODUCTION TO EAST ASIAN PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Short Title: EAST ASIAN PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Description: Introduces performing arts of China, Japan, and Korea, like Noh, P'ansori, and Beijing opera, focusing on psychological and multimedia aspects. Introduces performance studies--how to think, write, and present ideas about singing, dancing, storytelling, and drama from perspectives like ritual, gender, music, choreography, costume, stage design, and literary criticism.

FWIS 177 - STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Short Title: STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Description: This course explores the forms and contexts of storytelling in Buddhism, with a broad eye toward literature, visual arts, and performance. Students engage in both creative and academic writing to understand the importance of narrative in Buddhist cultures and different approaches to writing in the modern day. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 177 if student has credit for FSEM 109.

FWIS 178 - JESUS CHRIST MOVIE STAR

Short Title: JESUS CHRIST MOVIE STAR

Description: This class presents a film-by-film look at several "Jesus" films as recreations and revisions of sacred texts, as reflections of religious and social history, and as responses to biblical scholarship on the subject of the historical Jesus. Writing workshops are interspersed with essential readings and film discussions. Films viewed outside class period. Student film festival outside class period. Evaluation: film journal, 4 papers, creative film short.

FWIS 179 - TRACKING DRAGONS THROUGH THE PAGES OF SHORT FICTION: THE ART OF READING CLOSELY

Short Title: SHORT FICTION

Description: This will be a course on expressive writing and the art of reading; on great short fiction from Kafka to O’Conner; and on those obstacles—dragons that breathe fire across our paths—that stand in the way of our content in just those ways they derail the characters we read.

FWIS 180 - INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Short Title: INNOVATIONS IN ED TECH

Description: The course will examine the role of innovative technology in students’ own education and prepare them to make informed decisions as consumers of these technologies. Topics include mobile learning, virtual and augmented reality, gamification, and artificial intelligence. By the end of this course, in addition to improved writing skills, students will have a better understanding of the latest trends in educational technology and how they are transforming education.

FWIS 181 - GRAPHIC BLACKNESS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMIC BOOK TRADITION

Short Title: AFRICAN AMERICAN GRAPHIC NOVEL

Description: This course examines the struggle for black representation in comics and graphic novels. We will discuss the unique opportunities that sequential narratives present to creators as they represent race on the page and we will examine the history of black artists working in the comic book industry.

FWIS 182 - BORDER POLITICS: MIGRATIONS AND THE MEANING OF THE NATION

Short Title: BORDER POLITICS

Description: In the midst of a global climate and migration crisis, the safeguarding of borders has become an increasingly contentious issue worldwide. In this course we will explore the perilousness of the human condition, as experienced in the crossing of real and imaginary borders, and in the traumatic loss of homeland and self.

FWIS 183 - VIRTUAL VICTORIANS AND STEAMPUNK CULTURE

Short Title: VIRTUAL VICTORIANS & STEAMPUNK

Description: Replete with gears and gadgets, Steampunk comments as much on the past as on our contemporary technological moment and asks us to critically consider the human-machine relationship. This FWIS will grapple with the rise of the techno-human as we engage with 19th century and Steampunk texts and various digital projects.

FWIS 184 - THE CULTURAL IMAGINATION OF TEXAS

Short Title: CULTURAL IMAGINATION OF TEXAS

Description: What do we mean by Texas? How has Texas been figured in the American imagination? How are ideas of place both meaningful and limiting? In this course will look at how Texas has been portrayed in the American imagination while uncovering lesser told histories of the state.

FWIS 185 - CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY

Short Title: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY

Description: This class will delve into contemporary American poetry by exploring outstanding poetry books of the previous year. Students will study American poetry in literary and historical contexts, develop ability to analyze how poems "work," develop ability to create clear, effective prose, and build framework for exploring other types of poetry.

FWIS 187 - INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN LITERATURE AND MEDIA IN ENGLISH

Short Title: INTRO TO AFRICAN LIT & MEDIA

Description: Intro to African Literature and Media in English explores a variety of cultural and artistic work emerging out of Africa after 1945. In this course, students will learn verbal and written communication skills, especially how to revise and edit their own academic writing. No prior knowledge of African literature is required.

FWIS 188 - INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

Short Title: ENG DESIGN & COMMUNICATION

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Enrollment limited to students in the School of Architecture or School of Engineering colleges.

Description: Students learn the engineering design process to solve real-world problems by evaluating design requirements and constructing innovative solutions in the OEDK. Several communication assignments will be completed by individuals rather than teams. Fall limited to ENGI and NSCI students; spring open for engineering and architecture students. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 188 if student has credit for ENGI 120 .

FWIS 189 - POST-APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE AND FILM

Short Title: POST-APOCALYPTIC LIT AND FILM

Description: Our culture is fascinated with its own destruction. From zombies to nuclear war, ecological disasters, aliens, disease and killer machines, Armageddon takes many forms. Structured around ways in which we have imagined the world ending, this course charts the cultural consciousness of apocalypse.

FWIS 191 - THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

Short Title: THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

Description: How exactly does the length of a piece of writing connect to its expression as a work of art and our interpretation of it? In this course, we’ll consider “shortness” as a challenge authors undertake, investigating the ways they weave complex tales into brief, often pithy, masterpieces.

FWIS 192 - THE ROARING TWENTIES

Short Title: THE ROARING TWENTIES

Description: The 1920s were about new possibilities, aesthetic experimentation, and frenzied expression. We'll examine iconic '20s literature by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and others, as well as the linchpins of '20s culture: jazz, Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, and modern art. Highlights include lessons on the Charleston and a Roaring Twenties soiree.

FWIS 193 - THE RULE OF LAW AND THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE

Short Title: LAW AND JUSTICE

Description: Democratic societies claim to be based on the rule of law. This course examines what is required of a society that treats every individual equally regardless of a person´s status or influence. We will analyze the relationship of politics and the law in the distinct historical and national contexts of the contemporary US and post-war Germany, as well as exploring the topics of crimes, guilt, punishment and vigilante justice in selected literary texts and films.

FWIS 194 - EMPIRES

Short Title: EMPIRES

Description: Is the United States of America an empire? This course will examine civilizations from Ancient Rome and Han Dynasty China to the superpowers of the twentieth century in order to identify the nature and mechanisms of imperial power. It will investigate imperial literature, architecture art, dress, rituals and technology.

FWIS 195 - BEYOND THE EQUATIONS: EXPLORING PHYSICS THROUGH THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE & AFFECTED

Short Title: BEYOND THE EQUATIONS

Description: This course will dive into basic physics concepts through the biographical and historical context that resulted in their discoveries, with further exploration through current examples. The goal is to gain an understanding of where these concepts emerged, their use, and the resulting effects beyond the numbers and equations.

FWIS 196 - BUSINESS IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

Short Title: BUSINESS IN LITERATURE & FILM

Description: The world of business has long been a culturally rich site for national and self-reflection. As we read representations of business in literature and film, we will consider an array of allegories, motifs, and plots about the profits and pitfalls of American commerce culture.

FWIS 197 - SCIENCE, PSEUDOSCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM: HOW TO TELL GOOD SCIENCE FROM JUNK SCIENCE

Short Title: SCIENCE OR PSEUDOSCIENCE?

Description: This class focuses on scientific skepticism and critical thinking, and how they can be utilized to distinguish science from pseudoscience. Core topics include the fallibility of perception; mechanisms of self-deception; as well as metacognition, cognitive biases and logical fallacies. These topics will be illustrated through examples of good and bad science.

FWIS 198 - FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO CLIMATE JUSTICE

Short Title: CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE JUSTICE

Description: Climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a social, economic, and political one. In this seminar, students will learn about these elements of climate change, ask how environmental issues intersect with ideas of justice, and investigate various appearances, contexts, and critical uses of the term “climate justice.”

FWIS 199 - THE SOCIAL LIFE OF DATA

Short Title: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF DATA

Description: The Social Life of Data is an introduction to the discipline of social-cultural anthropology and its engagements with data as both a topic of study and key figure animating contemporary human life. More specifically, the course interrogates how recent investments in data inform long-standing structures of social inequality.

FWIS 200 - TRANSFER CREDIT – FIRST-YEAR WRITING (FWIS)

Short Title: TRANSFER CREDIT-FWIS WRITING

Grade Mode: Transfer Courses

Course Type: Transfer

Description: For transfer of an approved first-year writing intensive seminar. This course may not have been taken pass-fail at the transferring institution and must meet Rice University’s transfer credit requirements. Credit for this placeholder course will count towards the total credit hours required for graduation, and will be eligible to satisfy the university’s Writing and Communication Requirement. Transfer students must contact the FWIS transfer credit advisor to determine if their course will transfer. Instructor Permission Required.

FWIS 203 - WHODUNIT? INVESTIGATING TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

FWIS 209 - CONTEMPORARY ART AND ENVIRONMENT

FWIS 210 - JEWS ON FILM: CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF JEWISH LIFE

FWIS 211 - THE MEANING AND IMPACT OF QUANTUM MECHANICS

Short Title: MEANING AND IMPACT OF QUANTUM

Description: We will discuss many ongoing debates over the content and meaning of quantum theory. This will reveal how theories are formed, how science is done, how these impact our day-to-day culture, and the surprisingly significant role that humans play in objective science.

FWIS 215 - EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CHALLENGES

Description: This writing-intensive course introduces students to biological research and scientific communication. Student teams work on investigative projects with opportunities to ask questions, perform experiments, collect and analyze data, and share their findings. Recommended for students interested in the Biosciences major who have limited laboratory experience.

FWIS 218 - BAD MOMS: THE RHETORIC AND REALITY OF AMERICAN MOTHERHOOD

Short Title: BAD MOMS

Description: This course examines the experiences of mothering parents who do not fit cultural and social ideals of “good motherhood” – working mothers, immigrant mothers, mothers who are single, young, absent, sick. Students will analyze cultural texts and read essays from different scholarly fields, including sociology, history, philosophy, and others.

FWIS 219 - THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST: TELLING AND RE-TELLING THE TALE AS OLD AS TIME

FWIS 220 - FICTION AND EMPATHY

FWIS 221 - TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES: FICTION, FILM, SCIENCE

FWIS 226 - ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL: INVESTIGATING FORMS OF LIFE

FWIS 230 - WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

FWIS 234 - DEEP CUTS: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

FWIS 237 - POP MUSIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE

FWIS 240 - IMAGINING THE PAST: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

FWIS 241 - TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

FWIS 243 - LEARNING TO OBSERVE THROUGH A TOUR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

FWIS 248 - THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

FWIS 251 - MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES: THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY

FWIS 252 - NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS: REAL REMEDIES OR SHADY SCIENCE?

FWIS 253 - SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SOCIETY

FWIS 254 - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BORDER

FWIS 255 - WRITING ASIAN FOOD IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

Description: This course exposes students to the exercise of writing about Asian food. Students engage in the activity of "converting" multi-sensory experience, i.e. eating food, into writing on the one hand and think about transnational Asian food in the context of globalizing world. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 255 if student has credit for ASIA 205 .

FWIS 257 - TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA: LIVED EXPERIENCES ACROSS TIME AND SPACE

FWIS 260 - GLOBAL ENGLISH: DIVERSITY, DEMAND, AND DOMINANCE

FWIS 263 - SEX, DEATH, AND SPIRITUAL WRITING

Short Title: SEX, DEATH, & SPIRITUAL WRITIN

Description: In this course we will look at the ways in which a variety of historical and contemporary “spiritual but not religious” texts grapple with sexuality, mortality, race, gender, class, and politics. This course will foreground discussion and reflection, and students will write weekly discussion posts on canvas, in addition to the three major papers and a group presentation.

FWIS 267 - BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN: AN EXPLORATION OF THE READING EXPERIENCE

FWIS 273 - CONTEMPORARY LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the new and ever-growing category of LGBTQ+ classics by reading a diverse array of novels from the 1950s to the present day that represent gay, lesbian, queer, and trans experiences, while exemplifying and challenging the idea of the literary classic.

FWIS 274 - SOUNDING THE CITY

FWIS 277 - STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Description: This course explores the forms and contexts of storytelling in Buddhism, with a broad eye toward literature, visual arts, and performance. Students engage in both creative and academic writing to understand the importance of narrative in Buddhist cultures and different approaches to writing in the modern day.

FWIS 280 - INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

FWIS 281 - GRAPHIC BLACKNESS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMIC BOOK TRADITION

FWIS 282 - BORDER POLITICS: MIGRATIONS AND THE MEANING OF THE NATION

FWIS 286 - MINORITIES AND SUBCULTURES IN EAST ASIA

Short Title: MINORITIES AND SUBCULTURES

Description: This course challenges the myth of homogeneity in the understanding of East Asian societies by examining the experience of a variety of minority groups in terms of ethnicity, gender, religion, class, occupation, as well as physical and mental conditions.

FWIS 288 - INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

Description: Students learn the engineering design process to solve real-world problems by evaluating design requirements and constructing innovative solutions in the OEDK. Several communication assignments will be completed by individuals rather than teams. Fall limited to ENGI and NSCI students; spring open for engineering and architecture students.

FWIS 290 - BLACK CONTEMPORARY ART

Short Title: BLACK CONTEMPORARY ART

Description: This course introduces students to the field black contemporary art. How is a new generation of black art making shaping the way we think about race, gender, sexuality, and disability? How have expressions of self-representation changed over the decades and how do we begin to understand the political stakes of who is seen, who is overseen, and who is made invisible?

FWIS 291 - THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

FWIS 292 - THE ROARING TWENTIES

FWIS 293 - THE RULE OF LAW AND THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE

FWIS 296 - BUSINESS IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

FWIS 297 - SCIENCE, PSEUDOSCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM: HOW TO TELL GOOD SCIENCE FROM JUNK SCIENCE

FWIS 298 - FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO CLIMATE JUSTICE

Print Options

Print this page.

The PDF will include all information unique to this page.

A PDF of the entire Rice University 2023-2024 catalog edition.

Rice University Supplemental Essays 2023-24 – Prompts and Advice

September 8, 2023

Rice University, the STEM powerhouse in Houston, Texas, accepted just under 8% of applicants into their Class of 2027. Given that the applicant pool—including the 92% who are ultimately rejected—are all immensely talented and qualified, any aspiring Rice student needs to find ways to stand out on their application. One such way is through the Rice supplemental essays.

 (Want to learn more about How to Get Into Rice? Visit our blog entitled:  How to Get into Rice University: Admissions Data and Strategies  for all of the most recent admissions data as well as tips for gaining acceptance.)

When evaluating applicants, Rice University places a strong emphasis on the quality of one’s essays. Below are Rice’s four supplemental prompts for the 2023-24 admissions cycle along with our advice for creating a committee-swaying admissions essay.

Rice Supplemental Essays – Prompt #1

1) please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected above. (150 word limit)..

Share an authentic story here of why you are interested in your selected discipline (or disciplines). What books have you read on the subject? Which documentaries have you watched? What podcasts have you listened to? What subtopics most intrigue you? Did a teacher excite you about a topic or was it a parent or outside mentor? Do you know where you want to take this knowledge post-bachelor’s degree? Do you aim to one day go on to pursue a graduate/professional degree or is there an occupation you are shooting for right out of undergrad? Which classes are you excited to take? What do you hope to research as an undergrad? Include as much detail as possible in this very limited 150-word space.

You can structure the narrative of this essay as a succinct but comprehensive soup to nuts chronicling of your entire journey toward your discipline of interest (even in limited space) or you could share one or two vignettes that illustrate your burgeoning passion for engineering, history, French, computer science, business, psychology, etc.

Rice Supplemental Essays – Prompt #2

2) based upon your exploration of rice university, what elements of the rice experience appeal to you (150 word limit.).

The admissions committee wants to know why you desire to pursue your studies at Rice. However, with only 150 words to play with, you’ll have to make every sentence count.

In general, make sure to:

• Cite specific academic programs , professors , research opportunities , internship/externship programs , study abroad program s, student-run organizations , etc.
• Explain how you will take advantage of the university’s endless resources both inside and outside of the classroom.

Examples of items that quality “Why Rice?” essays touch upon include:

• Rice’s high marks for both race/class interaction and overall quality of life.
• Additionally, the small class size—69% of classes have fewer than 20 students.
• Ample opportunities for mentored research with faculty as an undergraduate.
• A 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio.
• Desire to participate in some of the  300 student-led organizations on campus.
• Lastly, one of Rice’s study abroad opportunities that appeals to you.

Rice Supplemental Essays – Prompt #3

3) 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.

Your answer here could be about an ethnic, religious, or neighborhood community/identity or a group of individuals who gather for a club, sport, or service project. Perhaps you are the captain of a team, the editor-in-chief of your school paper, or the president of a club—on the other hand, you may simply be a valuable contributing member. Regardless of whether you are a leading man/woman or a still-essential bit player, make sure that you use your writing ability to show the admissions officer what type of community member you are rather than merely telling them. Of course, they are also interested in your “life perspectives” which are also typically more engaging when shown through examples versus delivered through “I” statements.

Rice Supplemental Essays (Continued)

You can also discuss how you have engaged with your high school local/community and what you have learned from interacting with people of a different ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual identity, etc. Draw on past evidence of your commitment to being a positive force in your community and speculate how that is likely to manifest on Rice’s campus. Research and cite Rice student-run organizations, local nonprofit groups, or anything else you are drawn to. The admissions committee wants to understand precisely how you will contribute to their campus community of 8,000+ undergrads. In summary, drawing the link between your past efforts and future aims is critical here.

For example, if you’ve done work with Meals on Wheels throughout your teens, it will be most impactful if you express your commitment to joining the local Meals on Wheels chapter which is located at a Jewish Community Center in Houston.

Rice University Supplement – “The Box”

The rice box: in keeping with rice’s long-standing tradition, please share an image of something that appeals to you..

Take them at their word here that “The Box” “not used for evaluative purposes”. As such, you shouldn’t spend hours assembling the perfect collage or designing your own symbol from scratch. Think of this as your signature on your Rice application. You can be straightforward, silly, serious, or sincere. Also heed their advice that the image can be something “aside from what you have achieved”. Therefore, you shouldn’t feel pressure to insert a picture of a robot you built or a trophy you won.

How important are the Rice supplemental essays?

The essays are “very important” to the Rice admissions committee. The following factors are equally important: the rigor of one’s secondary school record. GPA, class rank, recommendations, standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, talent/ability, and character/personal qualities. Clearly, Rice University weighs your essays heavily in their evaluation of your candidacy.

Want personalized assistance?

Lastly, if you are interested in working with one of College Transitions’ experienced and knowledgeable essay coaches as you craft your Rice supplemental essays, we encourage you to get a quote  today.

• College Essay

Dave Bergman

Dave has over a decade of professional experience that includes work as a teacher, high school administrator, college professor, and independent educational consultant. He is a co-author of the books The Enlightened College Applicant (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Colleges Worth Your Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

• 2-Year Colleges
• Application Strategies
• Best Colleges by Major
• Best Colleges by State
• Big Picture
• Career & Personality Assessment
• College Search/Knowledge
• College Success
• Costs & Financial Aid
• Dental School Admissions
• Extracurricular Activities
• Graduate School Admissions
• High School Success
• High Schools
• Law School Admissions
• Medical School Admissions
• Navigating the Admissions Process
• Online Learning
• Private High School Spotlight
• Summer Program Spotlight
• Summer Programs
• Test Prep Provider Spotlight

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

I am a... Student Student Parent Counselor Educator Other First Name Last Name Email Address Zip Code Area(s) s of Interest Business Computer Science Engineering Fine/Performing Arts Humanities Mathematics STEM Pre-Med Psychology Social Studies/Sciences Submit

Rice English integrates creative and critical practice through training in close reading, analytical writing, cultural history, and craft/form. Our faculty research and pedagogy cover the breadth of the study of British and American literatures and cultures ranging from the medieval era to the present.

The Major Concentration in Creative Writing (ECRW)

The Major Concentration in Creative Writing is an 11-course (33-credit) program of study within the English major that combines training in literary-critical analysis with the opportunity to develop one’s own literary pursuits. Guided by discussions of craft and literary conventions and innovations, students will hone their skills in writing stories, essays, poems, plays, screenplays and graphic novels. The emphasis of this concentration is on literature from the inside-out, with the goal of students generating their own imaginative works. Students will have the chance to work closely with faculty in small workshop-style classes to improve their own writing and that of their peers.

Requirements for the Major Concentration in Creative Writing

Students must complete a minimum of 4 courses from departmental (ENGL) course offerings with the creative writing designation below.

Of these 4 courses, students must complete at least 2 courses (6 credit hours) at the 300-level or above, and at least 1 course (3 credit hours) at the 400-level or above.

ENGL 113 - Introduction to Literary Editing & Publishing ENGL 114 - Literary Editing & Publishing / The Rice Review ENGL 201 - Introduction to Creative Writing ENGL 203 - Topics in Creative Writing ENGL 204 - Forms of Poetry ENGL 301 - Introduction to Fiction Writing ENGL 302 - Introduction to Screenwriting ENGL 303 - Introduction to Playwriting ENGL 304 - Introduction to Poetry Writing ENGL 305 - Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Writing ENGL 306 - Topics in Fiction Writing ENGL 307 - Topics in Poetry Writing ENGL 308 - Introduction to Podcasting ENGL 309 - Topics in Creative Nonfiction Writing ENGL 310 - Nonfiction Nature Writing ENGL 315 - Literary Translation ENGL 318 - Fairytales and Fear Tales ENGL 319 - Fantasy and Science Fiction ENGL 327 - Graphic Novel ENGL 401 - Advanced Fiction Writing ENGL 402 - Writing Longer Fiction: Narrative Design ENGL 403 - Craft of the Novella ENGL 404 - Advanced Poetry Writing ENGL 405 - Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing ENGL 410 or 411 - The Senior Seminar & Research Workshop

*Concentrators may count either ENGL 410 or ENGL 411 toward the concentration’s 400-level requirement, but not both.

**Special Topics courses (ENGL 306, ENGL 307, ENGL 309) may be repeated and applied toward the major concentration if completed under a different course title and description.

Outside Coursework

Students may petition for credit to include a creative writing course offered by another department. Potential courses outside of the department include but are not limited to:

AAAS 300 Writing Black Lives ARTS 230 Comics & Sequential Art ARTS 444 Handmade Film ARTS 327 Documentary Production ARTS 328 Film Making I EURO 320 Tell-All: Saying “I” in Contemporary Literature FILM 327 Documentary Production FREN 302 Writing Workshop FREN 401 Translation GERM 402 German Translation MDHM 260 Creative Writing for Medical Humanities SPAN 383 Spanish Creative Writing

Examples of Completed Study

Don Quixote will satisfy the major concentration in creative writing by completing the following program:

ENGL 113, ENGL 301, ENGL 306, and ENGL 401

Jane Eyre will also have satisfied the major concentration in creative writing by completing the following:

ENGL 307, ENGL 404, ENGL 405, and ENGL 410

Declaring the Major Concentration in Creative Writing

The concentration can be declared by students who have declared their primary major as English. Declaring the concentration is a three-step process: 1. Meet with the department’s director of undergraduate studies (DUS) and fill out a major declaration form. The DUS’s signature will be required to successfully submit or alter your major declaration form with the Registrar.

2. Submit your form to the Registrar and then log in to Esther and your “Declaration of Major” form to update the following: Major Concentration (if applicable): Major Concentration in Creative Writing

3. Email the Creative Writing Concentration Advisor ( [email protected] ). This is how you will receive announcements about readings and upcoming events for writers, and specialized advising.

Please note: concentrators have until the last day of classes in their penultimate semester to declare the concentration.

Reserved Seating for Concentrators

All declared Creative Writing Concentrators are able to register for specially reserved seats in all creative writing classes. Please look for the even-numbered sections in your course planner. Upon successful declaration, concentrators will be able to access these reserved sections.

If you have additional questions about the concentration, please email the chair of Creative Writing, [email protected] .

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

2 Rice University Essay Examples

Rice University is a highly-selective college, so it’s important to write strong essays to help your application stand out. In this post, we’ll share essays real students have submitted to Rice University. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our Rice University essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Prompt: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

It’s family movie night, and we’ve chosen to watch Bird Brain , a nature documentary about birds and their unique abilities. I’m starting to lose interest, but the narrator says something wild that perplexes me: “Some birds have the ability to hold their breath for over 15 minutes underwater.” Well, now I have to know more. 

My mom groans as I pause the movie to spend the rest of my night understanding that one statement. I rush to my room and open my laptop, while my fingers type furiously as videos, images, and articles flood the screen. I click on the first site I see: “Emperor penguins dive to catch fish in the ocean, and their bodies begin to metabolize anaerobically after a certain point of being submerged.” But that wasn’t enough. I continue to scroll as my mind hunts for answers. How big are emperor penguins? How cold is the ocean in Antarctica? And what even is anaerobic metabolization? Ahhhhh! I feel like I am going to explode! I have to know more. 

This example of the emperor penguin is one of the many instances where I am motivated by the need to question what I hear. I encounter a similar situation on any given day. Whether it’s a quick Google search or an all nighter, I find myself lost in time as the world around me blurs while I unearth its secrets. This love of research stems from my childhood, as I was determined to find my own answers. From conducting at-home plant dissections to confirm what was taught in class, or reading an actual newspaper for the latest reports, nothing was true unless I had found evidence. Soon, this habit became deeply ingrained in my character. 

I call moments like these an “internet search spiral.” Part of the reason why these spirals are so captivating is because they can never be boring; it would take me 23.8 million years to go through the 295 exabytes of information on the web. Call me crazy, but I would do it. The never-ending knowledge found within the internet never fails to hold my attention, as my inquiries are like an emperor penguin plunging into the cold Antarctic waters for a swim. Knowing that there’s something I haven’t learned, a skill I haven’t mastered, or an equation I haven’t solved creates a warp in time that transports me to a region where seconds and minutes don’t restrain my knowledge.

 Internet search spirals capture every part of me but often leave me seeking additional material. The search for more information not available online connects me with like-minded thinkers, and this connection is what I aim to foster as a student at Rice. This quest for knowledge is more meaningful when I encounter someone whose passion for teaching matches my appreciation of learning. I turn to those who feel compelled to share. 

These internet search spirals ultimately transform me into a more mindful person. Every time I understand something new, I feel like a little penguin egg that’s ready to hatch and experience the world in a new way. The feeling of analyzing fresh material is one I will never give up. I don’t feel bound by the restriction of time because somehow my eyes never get tired of scanning endless papers and textbooks. After all, the knowledge I gain is worth it, because every bit of information gives me the chance to be a better individual. The purpose of knowledge is action, and knowledge that is acted on becomes greatness. I aspire to embody that greatness. Whether it’s from a website, a medical textbook, a documentary, or a good-old-fashioned human being, learning frees me from the constraints of time. 

So, thank you, emperor penguins, for sparking internet search spirals that push me to be a better individual.

What the Essay Did Well

This essay does a good job of using an anecdote at the beginning to hook the reader in and then continuing to weave callbacks to the anecdote throughout the essay. Including these callbacks where the student refers to themselves as “an emperor penguin plunging into the cold Antarctic waters” and “a little penguin egg that’s ready to hatch” help make the essay feel more cohesive. The use of the anecdote also allows the student to describe the thoughts that run through their brain while researching penguins, which not only shows how the student thinks, but creates the same feeling of excitement and anticipation the student felt in the moment for the reader. 

Another great thing this essay does is reflect on why this activity is so important to who the student is as a person. Although the prompt doesn’t specifically ask for anything more than why the topic is captivating and what do you turn to for more information, providing a reflection on how researching has positively impacted the student to become a better person proves to the admissions committee that this student knows who they are. The student took a passion they have and used it to show their growth as a person through engaging in this activity and how this activity will allow them to achieve their future goals. The last paragraph ties together the essay and takes it a step beyond what was required to elevate the essay.

What Could Be Improved

One thing this essay could work would be to tell less and show more. It’s cliche essay advice, but for a good reason. A lot of this essay tells the reader about the student’s researching habits without putting the reader in the chair next to the student while they sift through Internet tabs or flip through textbook pages. The anecdote at the beginning shows the excitement and thought process of the student when they are researching penguins which draws the reader in.

After the first paragraph the essay relies mostly on telling the reader what the student does and why they enjoy it, rather than using specific experiences and details to describe what was happening and how they felt. An easy way the student could improve their writing to show more would be to include more of their internal monologue while researching. 

It should also be noted that this was a Common App essay submitted to Rice that specifically mentioned Rice: “This connection is what I am to foster as a student at Rice.” Common App essays don’t need to be school specific, so including school names can actually be highly risky and costly if you make a mistake. This student could have easily submitted their Common App essay to Rice with another school’s name or with a blank they meant to fill in. The best way to avoid this mistake is simply to not included schools in your Common App, or if you really want to, make sure someone else proofreads your essay before you submit! 

Prompt: Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community. The Residential College System and undergraduate life are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community?

One of the many Boarding School rules that I despised at the time but now look back at nostalgically was a 45-minute phone time. So with nothing else to do, our suitemates would gather together after “lights-out” and just talk. Sometimes it would be consoling a friend coming out of a bad break-up, and other times it’d be a serious debate on the merits of Latin honors. Whatever the topic, these conversations were always compassionate, spirited, and a source of familial support. 

This camaraderie also made studying with friends profoundly different. My Indian family was always relentless in reminding me to “Forget joy for four years” because delaying gratification was the only way to find “permanent security.” Apparently, in our divine meritocracy, College is just one step on the continual stairway of advancement. I couldn’t disagree more with this notion that an education is simply a means to an end.

But, as I studied with my best friends in our hostel, learning and fun were never antithetical ideas. Nights reserved for calculus were always accompanied by ping-pong sessions, but we never intended to sabotage each other in a futile race to the top. Ours was a collaborative family, where instead of selfish opportunity costs, we were driven by brotherly love. No accolade could beat this feeling of security and finding a home — away from home.

At Rice, to build that sense of family, I want to create a discussion group—Night Owls—to gather at night and ponder both the grandiose and whimsical philosophical questions over hot chocolate . Think of these events as a modern version of the infamous Greek Symposia, just without the booze. This combination of conversation, whimsy, and intellectual inquiry is what I want from college. It doesn’t sound very prudential, but it’s surely poetic.

The student who wrote this essay did a good job of tying their previous experience to an experience they want to bring to the Rice community. This student pinpointed exactly what they loved so much about living in a community with their peers and how they planned to recreate that experience in college. The descriptions about the types of debates or ping-pong tournaments the student engaged in create an image of an intellectual and supportive environment admissions officers want to see at their college.

Additionally, by coming up with a name and a plan for the discussion group, the student’s interest is evident and it shows that they took time to consider genuinely starting this group at college. In general, the student’s writing created a warm sense of family and bonding that displayed some of the student’s key values. This leaves the reader with a positive impression of the type of person this student is outside of the classroom, which was exactly what the prompt was looking to achieve.

This essay could benefit from a more focused and cohesive story. The way the essay begins describing late night discussions at boarding school, then transitions to a discussion on the student’s family, and then returns back to his school study group is a bit disjointed. The second paragraph adds very little to the essay as a whole and distracts from the sense of community the student was trying to establish in his study group. This student probably felt the need to discuss his family and his Indian heritage to address the “cultural traditions” the prompt mentions, however the experiences studying with his friend are unique and special enough to satisfy the prompt so this was an unnecessary addition. The essay could just describe the late night conversations he had at boarding school and how they created a sense of camaraderie and family among strangers that he wants to bring to college, without needing to bring up his family.

The words this student saves by removing the paragraph on their family could be used to create more concrete examples of the types of discussions the student had at boarding school or what they want to have at Rice. Although the essay mentions discussing bad break-ups or Latin honors, adding more detail like a quote said by one of the student’s friends or an introduced idea that made them reflect on the world would help put the reader in the room with the student or gain a better appreciation for the impact of the discussions. 

Where to Get Your Rice University  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Rice University essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Calculate for all schools

Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, need some insight on 'why rice' essay.

Hey guys, I'm applying to Rice University and struggling a bit with my 'Why Rice' essay. Can anyone share examples or tips on what makes for an effective essay for Rice? Thanks!

Sure! Crafting a strong "Why Rice" essay requires a combination of researching specific aspects about Rice University that align with your interests and goals, and connecting those features to your own experiences and aspirations. Here are a few tips to help you create an effective essay:

1. Be specific: Focus on unique aspects of Rice that particularly interest you. This could include specific academic programs, research opportunities, clubs, or campus culture. Avoid general statements that could apply to any university.

Example: If you're interested in engineering, you could discuss Rice's highly-rated George R. Brown School of Engineering and how you'd take advantage of their specialized labs and mentorship programs to develop your skills further.

2. Connect to your personal experiences and goals: Show that Rice is the ideal place for you to continue growing and succeeding. Connect your past experiences and future aspirations to specific resources at Rice.

Example: If you've been involved in community service, you could talk about joining Rice's Service Club to continue making a positive impact on the Houston community while interacting with like-minded peers.

3. Demonstrate passion and enthusiasm: Admissions officers want to see that you're genuinely excited about attending Rice. Discuss how Rice's environment and opportunities can help you achieve your biggest academic and personal dreams.

Example: If you're passionate about the arts, mention how the Moody Center for the Arts or Rice's Art Grant could provide a platform for you to explore your creative side while learning from other talented students.

4. Incorporate campus visits or interactions: If you've visited the campus or attended any Rice University events, mention what you liked about the atmosphere or how those experiences further convinced you that Rice is the right fit for you.

Example: You could talk about how you attended a lecture event at Rice and how engaging the professors were, emphasizing that the nurturing intellectual environment is something you'd like to be part of.

5. Align with Rice's values: Illustrate that you share the same values as Rice, such as a commitment to diversity and community. Incorporate these values into your essay and explain how you would contribute to that environment.

Example: Mention how you'd embrace Rice's residential college system, and enthusiastically participate in campus events and social activities that promote collaboration and community building.

For more information on Rice essays click here: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-the-rice-university-essays/

Remember to write with an authentic voice and provide specific examples to make your essay stand out! Best of luck with your application!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

Add Project Key Words

How to Write the Rice Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

October 6, 2023

There are countless reasons why Rice University might capture your attention. Perhaps it's the tight-knit community fostered by the residential college system, where students in the same program come together. Or maybe it's the allure of Houston's weather, the abundance of merit scholarships, or the opportunity to learn from renowned musicians at The Shepherd School of Music. Regardless of your motivations, if you have a driving force behind your Rice application and believe that you're a perfect fit for the school, the Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024 provide the ideal platform to express it.

Rice offers six exceptional colleges, each catering to a different area of interest: engineering, social sciences, natural sciences, music, architecture, and humanities. When reviewing your responses to the supplemental essays, admission officers seek to understand if your strengths, experiences, and aspirations align with the distinctive and competitive programs offered by Rice's colleges. To assist you in crafting compelling answers for the Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024, I have outlined strategies for addressing each prompt, including those specific to admission into particular colleges. Additionally, I provide valuable tips to help your responses shine amidst the competition.

Rice Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

The essay prompts for Rice are divided into 3 parts: questions for all applicants, questions for applicants to the School of Architecture, and questions for applicants to the School of Engineering, School of Humanities, School of Music, School of Natural Sciences, or School of Social Sciences. When you apply to Rice University, you’re required to submit an intended major at one of its colleges. Let’s take a look at each of the prompts and ways you could go about answering them. 

Essays for All Applicants

The Committee of Admission is interested in getting to know each student as well as possible through the application process. Please respond to each of the following prompts. 

Question 1 (Required)

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

The key to answering this question among the Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024 lies in conducting appropriate research surrounding the major and college you’ve chosen. You can write about specific courses that appeal to you within your major, such as the “From Decolonization to Globalization” course in the Classical and European studies program. Or you can write about unique opportunities at Rice that you can’t find anywhere else, such as the Museums and Cultural Heritage program in the School of Humanities, or the Opera program at the Shepherd School of Music.

While 150 words is very little, make sure to assert your interest in the subject in your essay as well. Mention any anecdote or example that conveys your passion for the field. Elaborate on how your experiences and exploration of the topics within the discipline so far make you a strong candidate for the program. If there have been any ways you’ve actively pursued your interest—such as working at a lab in preparation for a Chemical and Biomedical Engineering major, mention them in a sentence or two. 

Since there’s not much space, you won’t be able to get too much into the details about other areas of academic focus, and that’s okay. Drive home your enthusiasm both for your field, and how Rice can specifically hone your skills and assist your growth as a student.

Question 2 (Required)

Based upon your exploration of rice university, what elements of the rice experience appeal to you 150 word limit..

This is a typical “why this school” essay, but within the strict limit of 150 words. For questions like these, specific examples are key. Since you’ve already expanded on your academic interests and goals in the previous prompt, in this second essay you should focus on finding a balance between academics and more social aspects of your college experience. If you’ve visited Rice, this is a great opportunity to talk about what you experienced—were you excited by the academic atmosphere when attending a class? Did you have a memorable conversation with a current student? 

Mention clubs and student organizations that align with the theme of the rest of your application. You could write about how you want to continue your involvement in event management by partaking in the Rice Program Council. Emphasize the kinds of events you’ve organized so far and what you value about the work to explain how you’d bring your perspective to Rice’s events organization board. Doing so will not only provide context on your interests but also demonstrate to admissions officers that you’ve thought about how you might contribute to the Rice community. 

Rice wants a “diverse, exciting student body, consisting of the best and brightest from across the country and around the globe”—how do you fit this description? It’s important to portray your excitement at the possibility of attending the school for specific reasons. Admissions officers want to accept students who will bring positive energy and a love for Rice, and answering this question with active enthusiasm can go a long way. 

Question 3 (Required)

Please respond to one of the following prompts to explore how you will contribute to the rice community (500 words):.

Option 1: Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community. The Residential College System and undergraduate life is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural tradition each student brings. What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community? 500 word limit.

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

Pay attention to the words “life perspectives.” A good way to start your brainstorming process would be to think about your background and experiences. Is there a part of your identity that you feel adds a unique element to your story? 

Rice prides itself on its diverse student body , how do you feel you can add to it? The word “diverse,” while a buzzword, can help you try and figure out the focus of your essay. While it may definitely evoke your cultural identity, sexual orientation, or religious views, you can also think out of the box when it comes to diversity. Both cultural differences and life experiences are mentioned in the question. So you could talk about nearly anything, from what the preparation of food from your family’s culture has taught you about community to how your passion for hiking has changed your worldview.

Then we come to the final part of the question: how would the perspective from your experiences contribute to Rice? Similar to the other essays, don’t talk about what you think admissions officers want to hear. What are you genuinely excited about participating in at Rice? What kinds of activities have you led in high school that you believe have prepared you to continue to make an impact while at Rice? 

This essay is almost as long as your personal statement, so you have a lot of room to address all of the parts within the question. Don’t forget to research what Rice values in its students and which parts of campus you might be able to contribute to. If you can specify how you’d be an asset to the school within Rice you’re applying to, that’s even better.

The Rice Box (Required)

In keeping with rice's long-standing tradition (known as "the box"), please share an image of something that appeals to you. see the help section for more information..

“The Box” is a unique Rice supplemental component that asks you for a photo response with no accompanying text explanation. This is Rice’s signature question, notorious for throwing students off. So if you’re confused and flustered over what picture to choose, you’re not the only one. 

You’ve heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”—here’s your chance to test this theory. Upload a photo that holds meaning to you. It can be easy to stress over this—after all, you can only use one picture and you have no way to tell admissions officers what it means. But remember, there is no right or wrong answer and what you choose won’t make or break your entire application. 

Ideas you can draw from to decide on your picture include:

• A photo of a place that is important to you, for example, the house where you grew up or the treehouse where you first discovered your love for art
• A family photo, for example, from a reunion or your grandpa’s 90th birthday
• Portrait of a family member or close friend
• An action shot, maybe your favorite baseball player pitching at the first game you watched live or your a teacher who has had an impact on you in their natural habitat—the classroom
• A picture of an object that holds meaning to you, such as a first edition book or an old family quilt

Since your Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024 are meant to add a layer to the rest of your application, this is another chance to let the school know more about your personality and character. Don’t just post a generic picture such as a stock photo of Niagara Falls downloaded from the Internet. But if it’s a photo of you and your grandmother capturing the joy on her face the first time she saw one of the Seven Natural Wonders, it’s an entirely different story.

Essays for the School of Architecture

Why are you determined to study architecture could you please elaborate on your past experiences and how they have motivated you to apply to rice university and the school of architecture in particular 250 words..

As the question states, you can highlight any aspiration, experience, or relationships that have fueled your passion for the profession. Do you have a particular goal when it comes to architecture, such as designing a space shuttle for NASA or the tallest building in your city? Can you describe experiences, such as time spent designing sets for every school play since sixth grade, which helped you realize your love for architecture? Or were you motivated by watching your parents map out blueprints for your home?

Don’t just state what that origin story was in one or two sentences. 250 words is a solid  amount of space to transport admissions officers into the time of your discovery—to the museum where you first became fascinated by the interior of a space shuttle. You could write about anything here as long as you address where your wish to pursue architecture arose. 

Save a few words at the end to connect your answer specifically to the School of Architecture at Rice. You could mention how your particular aspirations in architecture would benefit from working with one of the firms that partner with Rice’s Preceptorship program. Or, you could write about how the Rice Architecture in Paris program perfectly ties in with your passion for French architecture. 

Admissions officers should be able to take away your motivations behind studying architecture, and ways you would grow from attending the School of Architecture.

Please expand on relevant experiences and motivations outside of your academic trajectory that have inspired you to study architecture, focusing on aspects that are not accommodated by other prompts in the application. 250 words.

Your answer to this prompt might jump out immediately upon reading it, or you might have to sit down and think about activities that call out to you. The Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024 don’t want you to repeat your entire activities list; you need to make a choice. Will you pick an extracurricular because you enjoy it the most, or will you pick an activity that you find especially challenging? You could also write about an activity that brings you both joy and a challenge. As long as it has contributed to your aspirations, you can choose anything. 

It might be hard to find a non-academic activity that has motivated your interest in architecture, but you shouldn’t limit yourself. If it’s something you do for fun that might tangentially have a relation to architecture—such as participating in sandcastle competitions—that’s still outside academics and definitely counts. 

The activity doesn’t have to be over the top or on a grand scale. It could be something relatively quiet, such as reading 18th-century literature, drawing model airplanes, or making animated short films on your computer. As long as it’s authentically you, you can write about any activity that has impacted your goals. Again 250 words is a good amount to break up your essay into talking about the activity itself, then delving into detail on what you enjoy the most or find challenging.

Additional Tips for Writing the Rice Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

Now that you’ve taken a look at the prompts for the Rice supplemental essays , here are a few tips to help your brainstorming process: 

• Don’t repeat the rest of your application: Admissions officers will already have read the rest of your application by the time they get to your supplemental essays. So if they see that you’ve talked about the same topic as your personal statement or have repeated details about extracurricular that are outlined in your activities list, they might think you’re one-dimensional and don’t have much to offer. They should come out of the Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024 having learned something new about you.
• Focus on yourself: All of the Rice supplemental essays specifically ask about you and your experiences. For any of the essays, you might be tempted to write about someone else—a family member who’s a Rice alum or a famous architect who’s inspired you to study architecture. If you mention them, make sure to keep it minimal. At the end of the day, the school wants to know about you. Don’t get carried away and use all your words talking about someone else.
• Show, don’t tell: This is cliché advice when it comes to writing, but it’s crucial to keep in mind, especially with the prompts that Rice has offered. Don’t just tell your reader the name of an activity that you enjoy or simply state what motivated you to study architecture. Upon reading your essay,   the admissions officer should immediately be able to picture you in your room happily drawing away, unable to hear the knock on the door. 

The Rice supplemental essays 2023-2024 present an incredible opportunity to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of who you are, your passions and aspirations, and how a Rice education can pave the way for your success. Craft your responses in a way that showcases the unique aspects of your character and paints you as a truly memorable candidate. Your application will undoubtedly benefit from supplemental essays that leave the admissions officers in awe. So pour your heart into these responses and demonstrate to the school why you are a student they simply cannot afford to overlook.

If you are looking for a college admissions counselor to help maximize your chances of getting into your dream school, we can help! InGenius Prep has helped more than 6,000 students around the world gain admission into the most competitive schools including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, NYU, and more. Sign up for a free strategy call today and join the 6,000+ students we've helped get accepted into their dream schools. 

Tags : rice supplemental essays , rice university , how to get into rice , rice essays

Schedule a free consultation

to find out how we can help you get accepted.

Rice University 2023-24 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Regular Decision Deadline: Jan 4

You Have: 

Rice University 2023-24 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 2 essays of 150 words; 1 essay of 500 words; 1 image

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Community , Why, Diversity

The Admission Committee is interested in getting to know each student as well as possible through the application process. Please respond to each of the following prompts.

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

Consider this the prologue to your Why essay (coming up next). To nail this question, set aside an hour or so to get cozy with the Rice website and read up on your academic school and other aspects of student life. Doing all of your research at once will allow you to tell a cohesive story about yourself, while also ensuring that your essays aren’t redundant. Pour all of your academic focus into your answer to this question. What do you love about your chosen major? If you’re interested in the Visual and Dramatic Arts program, can you describe the unique opportunities you’ll find at Rice University? What resources are available to undergrads and how will they guide your craft? If you’re undecided, think about what makes Rice the ideal environment for academic exploration. How do you plan to hone in on the perfect major? The more detail you include, the more admissions will learn about you.

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

Keep the rich details flowing in this classic Why essay. Demonstrating a deep level of knowledge will show admissions that you’re a serious applicant. Even if you hadn’t heard of Rice before your guidance counselor suggested it, take the time to reflect on what makes you excited about the prospect of being a student there. Since you just wrote about why Rice’s majors and/or academics appeal to you for the first prompt, don’t hesitate to address residence life or campus activities in your response to this question. Admissions wants to know that you will not only thrive as a student, but also as a transplant living in their city. Does Rice have a club or volunteer organization that you really want to join? Did you fall in love with Houston when you came to visit last spring and now feel like a Texan at heart? What excites you about the prospect of sporting blue and grey next year?

Please respond to one of the following prompts to explore how you will contribute to the Rice community (in 500 words or fewer):

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.

This prompt is a spin on the classic Community Essay : what do you bring with you to contribute within the residential college system, specifically? Consider your hobbies, culture, and any other extracurricular activities you do just because you love them. One great way to choose a topic is to ask yourself: if I had a podcast, what would it be about? More than likely, you’ll come up with a topic that not only interests you, but you also want to share with the world. Along with pinpointing what you’re passionate about, try to think of how you can enrich the lives of your peers. Do you teach a craft? Do you strongly believe in paying it forward? What would your friends say is your “superpower”? These are all ways to break into a discussion of what you bring to the table and what you would do to enrich your new community.

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?

Odds are that this isn’t the first Diversity Essay prompt you’ve come across this year. If it is, however, please read on. Rice wants to accept students from a range of backgrounds who will contribute to their community, so tell admissions about what makes you you and how you will strive for positive change within the student body. Think about times when people have been intrigued by or curious about your identity, skillset, or background. Maybe you began practicing meditation and Buddhism during your sophomore year and you hope to spread some wisdom and mindfulness on campus next fall. Perhaps your parents emigrated from Ukraine, and you intend to raise awareness or funds for refugees. What do you hope to share with others about your lived experience? How will you incorporate this element of your identity to enrich the world around you? Show admissions that you’re eager to make your mark in their community. Bonus points if you can reference a specific component of the Rice experience (think clubs, classes, residential colleges, volunteer opportunities, etc.) as a natural stepping stone on your personal journey of leadership and progress.

In keeping with Rice’s long-standing tradition (known as “The Box”), please share an image of something that appeals to you. See the Help Section for more information.

The final piece to Rice’s supplement isn’t an essay at all. Rice understands that a picture is worth a thousand words (or so we’ve been told). So instead of having you write a thousand words (which sounds exhausting), Rice University is asking you to upload a picture of something that appeals to you. When brainstorming which image to choose, think about your goals and passions. If you’re hoping to declare an English major, maybe your photo of choice is the Pulitzer Prize. If you are hoping to develop your business management skills at Rice, maybe you want to share the photo your mom took of you devouring pizza at student-run The Hoot this spring. Regardless of which direction you choose to take, what matters most is that your image communicates something hyper-personal, and/or reveals new information about you, your interests or your goals that is not covered anywhere else on your application.

About Kat Stubing

View all posts by Kat Stubing »

Our Common App Guide can help you choose a prompt!

Contact us for information on rates and more!

• I am a * Student Parent Potential Partner School Counselor Private College Counselor
• Name * First Last
• Phone Type Mobile Landline
• Street Address
• Address City State / Province / Region Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d'Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Holy See Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Macedonia Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine, State of Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Sweden Switzerland Syria Arab Republic Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania, the United Republic of Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Türkiye US Minor Outlying Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands Country
• Which best describes you (or your child)? High school senior High school junior College student College grad Other
• How did you find CEA? Internet Search New York Times Guidance counselor/school Social Media YouTube Friend Special Event Delehey College Consulting Other
• Common App and Coalition Essays
• Supplemental Essays
• University of California Essays
• University of Texas Essays
• Resume Review
• Post-Grad Essays
• Specialized Services
• Waitlist Letters
• Private School Essays
• General College Counseling
• School list with priorities noted:
• Anything else we should know?
• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
• Agnes Scott College
• Alvernia University
• American University
• Amherst College
• Babson College
• Bard College
• Barnard College
• Baylor University
• Bennington College
• Bentley University
• Berry College
• Bethany College
• Bishop’s University
• Boston College
• Boston University (BU)
• Bowdoin College
• Brandeis University
• Brown University
• Bryn Mawr College
• Bucknell University
• Butler University
• California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
• California Lutheran University
• Capitol Technology University
• Carleton College
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Catawba College
• Centre College
• Chapman University
• Claremont McKenna College
• Clark University
• College of Mount Saint Vincent
• College of William and Mary
• College of Wooster
• Colorado College
• Colorado School of Mines
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Culver-Stockton College
• D'Youville University
• Dartmouth College
• Davidson College
• Drexel University
• Duke University
• Earlham College
• Elon University
• Emerson College
• Emory University
• Flagler College
• Fordham University
• George Mason University
• Georgetown University
• Georgia State University
• Georgia Tech
• Gonzaga University
• Harvard University
• Harvey Mudd College
• Haverford College
• Hillsdale College
• Hofstra University
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Illinois Wesleyan University
• Indiana University Bloomington
• Ithaca College
• Johns Hopkins University
• Kalamazoo College
• Lafayette College
• Lehigh University
• Lewis and Clark College
• Linfield University
• Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
• Lynn University
• Macalester College
• Malone University
• Manchester University
• Marist College
• Mary Baldwin University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Meredith College
• Monmouth College
• Moravian University
• Morehouse College
• Mount Holyoke College
• New York University (NYU)
• North Park University
• Northwestern University
• Occidental College
• Oklahoma City University
• Olin College of Engineering
• Pepperdine University
• Pitzer College
• Pomona College
• Princeton University
• Providence College
• Purdue University
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Rice University
• Saint Elizabeth University
• Santa Clara University
• Sarah Lawrence College
• Scripps College
• Seattle Pacific University
• Smith College
• Soka University of America
• Southern Methodist University
• St. John’s College
• Stanford University
• Stonehill College
• Swarthmore College
• Syracuse University
• Texas A&M University
• Texas Christian University
• The College of Idaho
• The George Washington University
• The New School
• Trinity College
• Tufts University
• Tulane University
• University of California
• University of Central Florida (UCF)
• University of Chicago
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Colorado Boulder
• University of Florida
• University of Georgia
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• University of Maryland
• University of Massachusetts Amherst
• University of Miami
• University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Oklahoma
• University of Oregon
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Richmond
• University of San Diego
• University of San Francisco
• University of Southern California (USC)
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Tulsa
• University of Vermont
• University of Virginia (UVA)
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Vanderbilt University
• Vassar College
• Villanova University
• Virginia Tech
• Wake Forest University
• Washington and Lee University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Wellesley College
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
• Yale University

Want free stuff?

We thought so. Sign up for free instructional videos, guides, worksheets and more!

One-On-One Advising

Common App Essay Prompt Guide

Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

• YouTube Tutorials
• Our Approach & Team
• Undergraduate Testimonials
• Postgraduate Testimonials
• Where Our Students Get In
• CEA Gives Back
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Graduate Admissions
• Private School Admissions
• International Student Admissions
• Common App Essay Guide
• Supplemental Essay Guides
• Coalition App Guide
• The CEA Podcast
• Admissions Stats
• Notification Trackers
• Deadline Databases
• College Essay Examples
• Academy and Worksheets
• Waitlist Guides
• Get Started

• Mobile Close
• Close Mobile Menu Open Mobile Menu
• Where Learning Begins

Sandboxing—the idea of explorative free-play in learning—is critical to development

Izzy ​ ’ 24 , Workshop student

Izzy ​ ’ 24

Workshop student

Recent Articles

The Workshop began as we each presented an artifact related to ourselves as a learner. I brought a seashell. It reminded me of my simple goal to return to sandboxing — the playful, unstructured, curious learning that I once did as a child in playground sandboxes, but also as a student in the Montessori school system (that uses a similarly unstructured form of learning). Thinking about the Workshop in the fall, I concluded that I wanted to bring more toddler tendencies to my learning, by asking more how?’s and why?’s than the traditional educational system tolerated. Mr. Housiaux emphasized a similar idea with Sesame Street , as we began with Oscar the Grouch’s ​ “ Clean-Up Time” song and the idea of ​ “ mess-up time” contrasting ​ “ clean-up time” in learning. Along with ample opportunity to embark on a journey of ​ “ mess-up time” without the need to streamline what we learned into an essay or a test, we would still need to be able to ​ “ clean-up” what we learned into something that we could present and share. This dynamic was evident as we visited Chùa Tường Vân, a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Lowell, Mass. After a meditative breathing exercise with Dr. Tham Tran, we were given space and time to explore and ask questions. Walking through the bright yellow and red decorations, I was intrigued at even the smallest details. What is the religious context of burning incense? What is the symbolism of the reds, golds, and yellows that adorn the hall? Why is nature significant to Buddhism? My curiosity mounted, almost like an unreachable itch. I craved knowing more, and yet I almost felt guilty for my lack of knowledge. Buddhism, a predominantly Asian religion, was no more represented in my childhood than a gold ​ “ Laughing Buddha” statue in my parents’ Chinese restaurant. We were never religious, and Buddhism was never a focal point of my previous Eurocentric history classes.

Subsequently, when I turned my attention to the plentiful fruit offering displays, internal turmoil ensued. A core value my parents instilled in my sister and I was to never waste food. My parents grew up in communism, and while it seems unfathomable today, each person was restricted to a pound of meat a month. As such, my childhood dinner time always concluded with the orchestra of utensils scraping the grains of rice off of our plates. I struggled with what I envisioned as my parents’ voices of rationality interrupting an otherwise spiritual and symbolic ritual. To me, religious practices are integral techniques and ways of thought that often connect to a higher power and attempt to guide towards bettering. However, my instinct is that other powers or sources of hope may not be what I automatically rely on, as my parents strongly encouraged a bootstrap ideology based on the controllables. I am still torn on a solid conclusion on religion. However, with encouragement to probe and attempt to make sense of something new, I’ve received plenty of sand to allow to slip through small, sticky fingers in a sandbox, creating new foundations to build my further learning upon, or digging small holes in my previous preconceived notions or ideas. I think this is what learning should be, an endless exploration as extensive as counting each grain of sand individually, or as curiosity-engaging as questions like if sand can be found in as advanced technology as semiconductors, how else can we harness abundant resources ?

In considering traditional education, even a sandbox can limit. As learners, educators, and observers, endless possibilities and internal reflections can be created from what is in front of us, regardless of subject, student, or environment. The pursuit of curiosities that stem from observations are the questions that we really should be asking. The ones that are molded by little, red plastic buckets, and the ones that become a stream-of-consciousness, uninterrupted by the end of recess.

Along with ample opportunity to embark on a journey of “mess-up time” without the need to streamline what we learned into an essay or a test, we would still need to be able to “clean-up” what we learned into something that we could present and share.

____________________________________________________________________________________ THE WORKSHOP

Each spring term, The Workshop welcomes approximately 20 seniors to this interdisciplinary, project-based course. With an eye toward reimagining what school can be, the Workshop is the senior’s only academic commitment for the entire term. Instead of splitting their time and attention into units of distinct courses and fields of study, they work closely with peers, faculty, and community and global partners on a series of linked, interdisciplinary projects that revolve around a single theme. Within the theme Experiments in Education, students explore areas of personal interest.

The Uncharted Syllabus

Embracing Ambiguity in Learning

Field Trips

The Beginning of Research

Habit Energy in Buddhism vs Catholicism

Learning about habit energies

Join Our Mailing List

Sign up for news and events from Tang Institute

Tang Institute 180 Main St Andover, MA  01810

978 . 749 . 4246 tanginstitute@​andover.​edu

©2024 Tang Institute at Andover

• Andover​.edu
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Be a part of our community!

Subscribe to our newsletter, Notes on Learning, for monthly updates.