rice university essay questions

The Admissions Strategist

“ the box ” and writing the supplemental essays for rice: a superb guide.

Rice University, located in Houston, Texas has an acceptance rate of 14% and is a private research university that regularly contributes to advancements in technology and science.

These contributions include work with artificial hearts and nanotechnology.

Rice faculty and alumni have been awarded Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes, Academy Awards, National Medals of Science, and more.

The university’s website describes itself as “a community of curious thinkers, passionate dreamers and energetic doers who believe that improving the world demands more than bold thought and brave action. It takes unconventional wisdom.” Oh, and it’s also ranked number one for the happiest students!

It might sound like the odds aren’t in your favor, but there’s plenty you can do to increase your chances of acceptance, including writing some standout essays.

Not sure how to write essays that can set you apart from the crowd ?

We’re here to help! In this article, we’ll provide information and tips to help you write your way to an acceptance letter from Rice University.

What Are the Rice University Essays?

Rice accepts both the Common Application and the Coalition Application, with no preference between the two. No matter which application you choose, you’ll also need to complete the Rice Writing Supplement.

The supplement consists of two short responses and one longer essay (or two shorter essays for applicants to the School of Architecture).

The short response questions are:

Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected above. (150 word limit) Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you? (150 word limit)

The longer essay question asks:

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 is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What personal perspectives would you contribute to life at Rice? (500 word limit)

If you’re applying to the School of Architecture, you won’t answer the question above. Instead, you’ll answer the following two short answer questions, along with the first two short-answer questions:

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 word limit) 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 word limit)

Rice also asks you to “submit an image of something that appeals to you,” a long-standing tradition known as “the Box.”

General Tips for the Rice Supplemental  Essays

Rice University website explains, “We want a diverse, exciting student body, consisting of the best and brightest from across the country and around the globe. If you are excited by the opportunities and experiences we offer, we encourage you to apply to Rice.”

In reviewing applications, the university considers “the entirety of an applicant’s academic prowess , creativity, motivation, artistic talent, leadership potential and life experiences.”

Your GPA, SAT scores, and extracurricular experiences won’t necessarily convey the qualities mentioned here.

Your essays are your opportunity to demonstrate that you’re the type of student Rice is looking for: someone bright, curious, eager, creative, and motivated. Someone who has leadership qualities and wants to take advantage of the many opportunities available at Rice.

In order to effectively captivate your audience (Rice admissions officers), we recommend that each essay is:

• Specific   – One way to set yourself apart from other students is to avoid generic, clichéd responses. Give specific details and examples to illustrate your points. This approach will bring your personality and views to life.
• Enthusiastic   – Use an enthusiastic tone to show that you’re excited about the possibility of becoming a Rice student. Whether you’re discussing your choice of major or your interest in Rice, admissions officers should almost “hear” your enthusiasm.
• Polished   – Although this isn’t exactly a writing test, your essays should still be polished. Essays that are free of grammar and spelling errors will make a better impression and indicate that you’re serious about the admission process. Have trusted friends, family members, or teachers review your essays, and spend time revising and editing .
• “ You ” – Perhaps most importantly, your essays should be “you.” The point of the essays is to help admissions officers get to know who you are. Write in your own unique voice, and reveal information and experiences that you find meaningful and important.

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of the questions in the Rice Writing Supplement.

Brainstorming Activity for the Rice Essays

To write a strong response to this fairly standard question, try to focus on the extracurricular activity or work experience that you find most significant and meaningful.

Don’t select an experience solely because you think it sounds most impressive. Instead, try to come up with one particular anecdote that explains how and why this activity or experience has impacted your life or personal growth.

Use specific details to engage admissions officers in your experience, and reflect on how the experience changed you or influenced your life.

• Perhaps you were a volunteer for a local campaign and now want to volunteer for similar campaigns at Rice.
• Did you raise money for students in need overseas? If you learned something about their experiences and struggles, how has that influenced you?
• When you took on a leadership position for an activity or club, how did your personality change thereafter? How has this personality change manifested itself in your interactions with the outside world?

Think about how you’ll continue exploring this interest at Rice University, or how you’ll implement the lessons learned through this experience as a student at Rice.

Always focus on action. What did you  do during this activity?

The point of this exercise is to exercise your brainstorming muscles and get you thinking about specific stories from your life. You need clarity of thought for the Rice essays because you don’t have much of a word count to work with.

Clarity equals better writing. This exercise should help you write the essays below.

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“why this major” at rice.

Short Answer Question #1: Please explain why you wish to study in the academic areas you selected above. (150 word limit)

In your application to Rice, you’re required to indicate an interest in one of the university’s six academic schools: architecture, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences, or social sciences.

Although this decision isn’t binding—you can change schools after being accepted to Rice—the university does specify that they’re expecting a thoughtful answer to this question.

Each academic school is looking for different “strengths and qualities” in applicants, so Rice recommends choosing the school “in which you feel the most confident of your abilities and interests.”

• Keeping this in mind, focus on how your abilities and interests make you a good fit for the school you’ve selected.
• You may wish to describe a brief anecdote that illustrates your passion or talent for the area of study you’ve chosen.
• The anecdote should comprise action items that address how you took the initiative to explore this intended major.

You should also do some research on your school of choice.

• Find classes, research opportunities, or even professors that spark your interest.
• How will an education from this particular school help you reach your future goals?
• Mention these details in your application, being as specific as possible .

For example:

• If you’ve visited the campus before, did you sit in on a lecture that excited you?
• Did you hear intriguing information from students enrolled in your school of interest?

Including details like these in your essay can show that you’re genuinely interested in Rice and would be a good fit for the school.

Just remember, you don’t have much room to work with, so if you’re going to discuss another interest alongside your intended major, keep it short and related to the rest of the essay.

Don’t swerve into something random because you think it’ll catch the attention of the admissions officer – not only will it fail to do that, but you’ll ruin the narrative of this essay.

• Last, if you don’t know what you want to do after college, pick a major that relates closely to your passions and initiatives.

Pick something that can be buttressed with supporting details from your life – projects, volunteer opportunities, research assignments.

“Why Rice University” Essay

Short Answer Question #2: Based upon your exploration of Rice University, what elements of the Rice experience appeal to you? (150 word limit)

This is the classic “ Why This College ” essay, only much shorter. This college application essay question aims to determine whether you truly have a profound interest in attending Rice University.

Again, research is key.

• Try to strike a balance between discussing academic opportunities and more “sociocultural” elements of the university.
• Mention clubs or student organizations that you’d like to participate in, or something that captivated you on a campus visit.

Additional helpful tips for this essay include:

• If you can, reach out to current Rice students and ask them about the atmosphere and culture of the university.
• Avoid generic answers about the “student-faculty ratio,” the “renowned faculty,” or the school’s “prestige,” along with information you’ve clearly lifted from the front page of the university’s website. Dig deeper.
• Never mention:  Campus location, sports, and social life

You’ll also want to avoid repeating the information mentioned in your response to Short Answer Question #1.

To help you brainstorm, think about the following:

• How did your first impression of Rice motivate you to apply?
• And after this initial motivation, what more did you learn about Rice that helped your interest grow?
• Convey enthusiasm and a deeper knowledge of Rice than the average applicant might possess.

All in all, your essay should be structured something like this:

• Quickly mention or explain what you love about the Rice undergraduate experience.
• Demonstrate your connection to it.

Keep in mind that the more specific you are, the better. Mention proper nouns. Discuss items not found on other college campuses.

Here’s a good test to determine whether your essay is quality: Copy and paste this essay into another school’s “Why This College” essay. If the essay fits, then it’s too generic. You want an essay that is custom-tailored to Rice.

Contributing to Rice Essay

Unless you’re applying to the School of Architecture, you’ll have 500 words to answer the following question:

You may want to start by brainstorming a list of life experiences and/or cultural traditions that have shaped your personality and identity.

• This can be challenging, so feel free to ask friends and family members for their strongest memory of you .
• You can also ask how they would describe you, then try to come up with experiences you’ve had that demonstrate these key qualities.

Whatever experience you choose to discuss, follow two major guidelines:

• Don’t talk about something you’ve already described in your Common App essay. These essays should complement one another, each revealing a different piece of the puzzle that makes you “you.”
• Show, don’t tell. As we’ve recommended for other essay questions, choose an anecdote that “shows” your answer to the question instead of simply “telling” it. Use vivid details to make your experience memorable and engaging for the admissions team.

Overall, this is a broad question that can inspire many different approaches. Don’t panic because you think you aren’t “unique” enough.

No other student can offer the same combination of qualities that you have.

Here are some great questions you can ask yourself to find a powerful topic:

• What is the most significant contribution I’ve made to my high school community, extracurricular activity group, or community outside of school?
• Name an important lesson or two I’ve learned through my struggles both in and outside of school. How can I teach those lessons to others?
• What is my greatest talent, and how has it manifested in the real world?
• Have I collaborated to create something meaningful? What was it, and what can I do to further improve my efforts?

Here’s an example outline of this essay:

• I worked as a STEM tutor for underclassmen at my high school at ethnic community center.
• During my tenure as a tutor, I relived how challenging it is for younger students to ask the older ones for assistance. It can be intimidating and downright scary.
• I learned the values of mentorship and asking vulnerable people if they need help. On Rice’s campus, I’ll volunteer with underclassmen (and even upperclassmen) who are falling behind their class curriculum.
• After tutoring, I utilized my coding skills and developed my collaboration skills by creating an Andriod app that connects students to on-campus tutors.
• On Rice campus, I want to fully implement this app. I also want to take busines classes and learn how to transform this app into a commercial venture.

Try to come up with a meaningful experience that’s central to who you are as an individual, and you’ll write a powerful essay that stands out!

School of Architecture Essays

Instead of writing the longer essay mentioned above, School of Architecture students must respond to two 250-word essay questions.

Architecture Question #1: 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 word limit)

This question is similar to Short Answer Question #1, so be careful not to repeat information you’ve already shared.

Note that while the short answer question asked why you chose architecture over the other schools, this essay is more about your direct relationship with the field of architecture.

• Do you have specific goals related to your pursuit of architecture?
• Is someone in your family an architect who has inspired you?
• Can you think of a building or landmark, other than extremely famous ones, that ignited your passion for architecture?

Another idea is to think of qualities that are important for architects, such as creativity or attention to detail, and writing about experiences that have helped you develop these characteristics.

• Did you build a treehouse for your younger siblings?
• Were you a baseball umpire who used right angles and tools to create foul lines and meticulously enforce the strike zone?
• Perhaps you built a collection of birdhouses for seasonal birds that frequented your backyard.

Whatever your choice, connect it directly to architecture.

Architecture Question #2: 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 word limit)

As always, don’t strive simply to impress here. Be honest. This is a chance to reveal something unexpected and interesting about yourself.

• One rule of thumb, however, is to try to choose a topic about you actively doing something, instead of simply discussing your favorite TV show.
• If, however, you can take a unique approach, like relating a character’s journey to your own, then you may be able to write a great essay.

Brainstorm a list of activities and interests that challenge you or ignite your passion. It’s okay to choose an unconventional topic, but explain why you enjoy it so much and how it has shaped or influenced you.

Remember, for most students, what you enjoy or find challenging should be action-related.  You  should be perorming the action to practice this activity or pursue this interest. Examples include:

• Building lego spaceships
• Cleaning the litter at a local river every Sunday
• Teaching your little sister geograpy, which she seems to hate
• Taking apart and re-assembling computers

Don’t forget to explain why you love the activity or interest. Does it…

• …free your mind from daily stresses?
• …give you a sense of safety?
• …remind you of your parents?

Since this essay is all about what you enjoy in your free time, make sure your tone conveys real enthusiasm. Talk about something that genuinely excites you.

Then, connect it to architecture. Make a simple outline to visualize the link between the activity that you chose and architecture. It should look like this:

• Activity that you enjoy actively doing
• How it’s connected to architecture
• How it has encouraged you to pursue architecture

This structure will help you focus on your story.

“The Box” is a photoresponse with the following instructions:

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

You aren’t allowed to write an accompanying explanation, so try to choose an image that can speak for itself or in some way relates to the information in your application or essays.

Due to its unique nature, this prompt often baffles applicants.

• Keep in mind that there’s no “right” answer to this question, and the image you select is extremely unlikely to make or break your application.

Options include:

• Places that have been important to you (even something as simple as a favorite park bench)
• A favored keepsake or meaningful object
• One of your role models in action
• Artistic portrayals of your values or important qualities
• Uncommon or hidden locations
• Portraits of a family member
• Old pictures you own
• Memories that inspire growth

The key to answering “The Box” is to steer clear of overused responses like a sunset or the Eiffel Tower.

Because there are so many options to choose from (after all, there are millions of interesting images out there), you want to choose something specifically appealing to you. To emphasize, don’t pick a cliche.

Here are some helpful tips:

• Once you choose your image, ask yourself how “unique” the image is. You don’t need something from a deep corner of the Internet, but is it a cliché?
• Can the image be easily explained and, thus, forgotten? You don’t want an image that a large plurality of students will use.
• What is the essence of the image? Don’t make it too complex or simple – you should be able to explain why you chose it.
• Use the Google test: If the image, or a similar one, can be found on the first page of Google Images, it might be a cliché.

Don’t overthink it—just be honest! Rice knows that this is an unconventional and challenging prompt.

Conclusion: How to Write the Rice University Essays

In order to apply to Rice, you’ll need to complete three short answer questions, a photo response, and either a 500-word essay or, if you’re applying to the School of Architecture, two 250-word essays.

As you answer these questions, remember to be authentic, enthusiastic, and specific. Do your research when needed, and connect your answers back to your identity, values, and/or interest in Rice.

Following these tips just might help you join the Rice Owls in the fall. Good luck!

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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.

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August 25, 2023

2023-2024 Rice University Supplemental Essay Prompts

Rice University has released its 2023-2024 supplemental essay prompts for applicants to the Class of 2028. In all, Rice asks applicants to respond to three supplemental essay prompts — two essays of 150 words and one essay of 500 words. For the 500-word essay, there are two options from applicants are asked to choose one. In addition, as is tradition, Rice applicants are asked to include an image that represents them with their Rice supplement. So, what exactly are this year’s essays for the Rice Class of 2028?

2023-2024 Rice Essay Topics & The Box

Essay topics.

Rice applicants are asked to answer the first two essay prompts in a maximum of 150 words. These two prompts are as follows:

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

This prompt is a straight-up-the-middle Why Major essay. As such, students should write an origin story of their interest in their chosen field. The origin story should take place in high school rather than in childhood. Applicants should make the story interesting rather than tout their strengths in the given area since bragging is an implausible way to inspire admissions officers to root for applicants. 

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

This prompt is a straight-up-the-middle Why College essay . It should thus be filled with specifics on why a student wishes to attend Rice — programs, institutes, the culture, traditions, activities, and more. Notice we didn’t mention classes or professors. Classes change. Professors leave. It’s about capturing the enduring specifics of Rice.

If an applicant writes a sentence that can apply to schools other than Rice, we recommend deleting it. Every sentence in this essay should be specifically tailored to Rice. That’s the game!

For the third Rice essay, applicants are asked to answer one of the following two essay prompts in up to 500 words:

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

• The Residential College System is at the heart of Rice student life and is heavily influenced by the particular cultural traditions and unique life experiences each student brings. What life experiences and/or unique perspectives are you looking forward to sharing with fellow Owls in the residential college system?

Rice’s admissions committee seeks to admit a diverse incoming class and while the United States Supreme Court outlawed the practice of Affirmative Action , Chief Justice John Roberts left an opening in college essays.

As he wrote in his majority opinion, “At the same time, as all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

Herein lies that opening. But, of course, students do not need to be underrepresented minorities to answer this question powerfully. The question is purposely broad. As such, students can write about the communities in which they were raised, their cultural traditions, their faith, or any other such topic that ideally showcases how they think and what makes them tick.

• 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?

This question is similar to the first option for the third Rice essay prompt, but it leans more heavily on being a change agent. Rice’s admissions committee wants to see how a student’s background or experiences shape who they are and how they hope to create the world they wish to see. Applicants should be specific instead of broad — think saving the bees rather than saving the world from climate change.

The Rice Box

One of Rice’s longstanding traditions is “The Box,“ a question on our application where we ask all of our applicants to share an image of something that appeals to them. The Box gives you the opportunity to present us with an image that shares something about yourself, your interests or what is meaningful to you. This image is not used for evaluative purposes in the application, but allows you to put your stamp on the application about who you are aside from what you have achieved. Be sure to choose an image that speaks for itself and does not need an explanation. The Box must be a two-dimensional image that is uploaded in the Common Application or Apply Coalition with Scoir, or uploaded in the Rice Admission Student Portal.

The image that a student uploads should be consistent with their hook. If they’re astrophysicists, the image should ideally relate to the stars. If they’re Classists, it should relate to the Classics. Too many applicants merely upload a silly image, a wasted opportunity. Beyond the essays, The Box is another opportunity to showcase intellectual curiosity.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Rice Essays

If you’re interested in optimizing your case for admission to Rice by submitting essays that inspire admissions officers to root for you, fill out Ivy Coach ‘s free consultation form , and we’ll be in touch to outline our college admissions counseling services for seniors.

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Rice University Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

Rice Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

The Rice University supplemental essays play an integral role in any student’s “how to get into Rice” plan . As one of the top universities in the nation, strong Rice University supplemental essays can help set your application apart. 

This means you should plan to ace the why school essay, the why major essay, and the long essay that Rice requires. So, if you’re looking for helpful tips on the Rice supplemental essays, then you’re in the right place. 

Rice Essay: Quick Facts

• Rice acceptance rate: 9%— U.S. News ranks Rice as a most selective school.
• 2 (~150 word) essays
• 1 full-page (500 word) essay
• Rice application: Students must submit their Rice application through the Common App, Coalition App, or QuestBridge application systems. 
• Rice essay #1 tip: We recommend using the short and long Rice University essay prompts to highlight different aspects of your experiences that you haven’t highlighted elsewhere—Rice Box image included—to help your application stand out.

Please note that essay requirements are subject to change each admissions cycle, and portions of this article may have been written before the final publication of the most recent guidelines. For the most up-to-date information on essay requirements, check the university’s admissions website.

Does Rice University have supplemental essays?

Yes. In addition to the personal statement that you’ll write in the Common App or Coalition App , you’ll also have to answer both short and extended Rice supplemental essays. In total, applicants will write three Rice University supplemental essays. This includes two that are 150 words and a third that is 500 words. The prompts may look familiar—namely, a why school essay and a why major essay. 

Three additional Rice University supplemental essays may sound intimidating. However, we urge you to view them as a chance to share valuable information about yourself with admissions. Beyond any single Rice University essay prompt, you will have multiple chances to shine. 

The Rice supplemental essays are available on the Common App site . You can also visit the Rice University site for a full list of application requirements, including the essay details. You might also complete an optional alumni interview to supplement your Rice supplemental essays and application.

What are the Rice University supplemental essays?

There are three school-specific Rice supplemental essays and an image contribution in the Rice application. The first two Rice supplemental essays each have a 150 word limit. One Rice essay is essentially a why major essay and the other Rice essay is a why school essay. 

The third of the Rice University supplemental essays allows students to choose from two different prompts. However, the prompts are relatively similar with slight nuances in their wording. Essentially, the last of the Rice University supplemental essays asks students to show how they will enrich the Rice community. This essay has a 500 word limit. 

You should use every opportunity in your Rice University supplemental essays to express yourself in a personal, engaging manner. And because each of the Rice University supplemental essays covers a different topic with a different word limit, you’ll use different strategies for each one.

Before starting your Rice University supplemental essays, do your research on Rice University. Check out our how to get into Rice guide in order to write your best Rice University supplemental essays. You may also want to read some successful college essay examples. Check out these why college essay examples for inspiration. 

Now, keep reading to learn how to tackle each of the Rice University essay prompts!

Rice University Supplemental Essay #1: Why Major Essay

The first Rice University essay prompt asks applicants to explore their academic study interests with a why major essay. If you still haven’t chosen a major , don’t worry. You are not bound to the academic area that you reference in this Rice essay. However, successful Rice University supplemental essays will need to specifically address a given field. When considering how to get into Rice, remember that you will select an academic area of interest in the application. So, start thinking about intellectual interests and browsing majors to see what matches up. 

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

This Rice essay is short but sweet. At this point, your reader may have already glanced at your previous coursework and activities, as well as your personal statement . So, to add to that, what stories do you have about what you hope to study in college? The strongest Rice University supplemental essays will give readers an authentic window into an applicant’s intellectual life.

Specifically, this Rice University essay prompt lets you offer some background on an activity or experience that showcases your intellectual interests. You may choose to start your first Rice essay with an anecdote that illustrates these interests in action.

Highlight your passions

For this Rice essay, don’t be afraid to geek out about a topic and share how you have explored it in the classroom and beyond. This could be in a school club, a summer program , or a personal passion project . In fact, your description of your interests should take up most of this Rice essay—perhaps 90-120 words.

Additionally, if you don’t quite know what you’d like to study, that’s okay! Remember, the potential field or major discussed in applicants’ Rice University supplemental essays is not binding. So, use your Rice essay to talk about the thing that interests you most. 

Connect your interests to Rice

Most importantly, to wrap up your first Rice essay, connect your interests to something that Rice can do to help you excel. For example, if you have a penchant for the sciences , you might use this Rice University essay prompt to note unique research projects that previous Rice students have done with faculty. Or, if you’re interested in the humanities , you might emphasize Rice’s various unique minors like Museums and Cultural Heritage when responding to this Rice University essay prompt. This part of your Rice essay can just be a few sentences—perhaps 30-60 words. Remember to be specific about why Rice is the school for you.

Rice Essay Reflection Questions:

• Does your draft share a narrative rather than just restating your activities list?
• Do you limit your focus to a single field when responding to the Rice University essay prompt?
• Does your Rice essay connect your interest to opportunities available at Rice?
• Do you use clear and evocative language in the first of the Rice University supplemental essays?

Rice University Supplemental Essay #2: Why School Essay

While the first Rice University essay prompt asked students to write a why major essay, the second asks students “why Rice?” 

The Rice University acceptance rate is competitive at just 9% . Successful applicants will write Rice University supplemental essays that show just why they have to study at Rice. Rice University supplemental essays are your chance to show admissions that you’ve done your research and are set on Rice. 

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

This Rice University essay prompt is the classic “why school” essay . You may have encountered similar prompts on other applications. While it might be tempting to adapt a “why school” essay from another application, students will want to start from scratch to make sure their Rice University supplemental essays are as specific as possible.

No shortcuts on this Rice University essay prompt; you’ll have to do your homework. Begin by asking, “What about Rice suits you?” If you haven’t already, this Rice essay is a great chance to share if you have reached out to a current student, watched an official YouTube video , or attended an information session. And if you have not yet, it’s not too late! It all starts with a virtual tour . Do the Rice research before writing your Rice University supplemental essays so that you can speak about Rice like a pro. 

Keep it about you

However, remember that this Rice essay is still a chance for the reader to get to know you. Are there other interests that you have not been able to discuss in other parts of your application? As you approach this Rice essay prompt, as well as the other Rice supplemental essays, think about what might be missing from your application. For instance, maybe you already have written some responses to a few of your activities in the other Rice University supplemental essays. Perhaps there is another that you could highlight in this Rice essay.

Take this Rice University essay prompt as a way to share something new about yourself. When all is said and done, the admissions office at any school hopes to admit a class full of talented people with various pursuits and interests. The best Rice supplemental essays will reveal what a given student will bring to their class and community.

Before answering this Rice essay prompt, read some successful why school essays. Here are some examples of well-written essays from applicants to Northwestern and Yale .

• Does your Rice essay draft include specific references to the academic community at Rice University?
• Do you share how Rice’s resources connect to your personal education goals?
• Does your Rice essay focus on just one or two aspects of Rice as they relate to your interests?

Rice Supplemental Essays – Long Answer

The last of the Rice University supplemental essays offers students the choice of two prompts to respond to. However, each prompt asks students to explore the way in which they will contribute to the Rice community. 

The final Rice supplemental essay prompt offers much more room to write than the other Rice University essay prompts, with a 500 word limit. It may feel overwhelming, but there are many ways to meaningfully answer this Rice essay. 

Successful Rice University supplemental essays will use the word count wisely in order to impress admissions and overcome the low Rice University acceptance rate. In fact, the best Rice University supplemental essays will thoughtfully use the word count to show applicants’ unique experiences and qualities. The room this Rice essay allows you is by design. This is your time to shine.

The Residential College System is at the heart of Rice student life and is heavily influenced by the particular cultural traditions and unique life experiences each student brings. What life experiences and/or unique perspectives are you looking forward to sharing with fellow Owls in the residential college system? (500 words)

You might feel that you don’t have any traditions or experiences that you can discuss with the depth that the last of the Rice University essay prompts demands. “Life experiences” and “cultural traditions” are central to this Rice essay. For some, Rice University supplemental essays may reference meaningful touchstones like holidays, food, music, and dance. 

When responding to the last of the Rice University essay prompts, try to engage your reader’s senses. What do the surroundings look, sound, smell, and feel like? Just as you might envision an opening scene of a movie, you should use this Rice essay to make the reader feel like they are right there with you. Successful Rice supplemental essays will use vivid and evocative language to tell an engaging story.

Define “community” and “culture”

That being said, you don’t need to fixate on a single anecdote to make your Rice essay shine. Successful Rice University supplemental essays may also refer to cultural traditions more broadly than any key moment. In considering your cultural background, you might initially think about your family or the fact that you will be a first-generation college student . 

However, you can also use the last of the Rice University essay prompts as an opportunity to draw connections to a wider set of themes. Community and culture manifest in a variety of forms. From school clubs to youth groups, or even online Discord channels, we all engage in communities that inform our identities. All of these communities can give you useful material for your Rice supplemental essays.

Finding your story

If you’re still struggling with how to respond to the last of the Rice University essay prompts, don’t be discouraged. Everyone has a story to share, and the Rice supplemental essays are designed to help you do so. You could start by imagining how your friends would describe you. Or, it could be helpful to think of a simple timeline of your life so far. From birth to now, consider some milestones that have contributed to who you are today. You might also describe a hero or mentor who has changed your direction. There are a myriad of experiences that successful Rice University supplemental essays could touch on when responding to this Rice University essay prompt. 

Bring it back to Rice  

Remember that while the Rice University supplemental essays should center on you and your personal experiences, however, they also need to show what you will bring to campus. When answering the first long Rice University essay prompt, make sure that you clearly state how you will bring your personal experiences, culture, and traditions to the Rice community. Will you get involved in certain clubs? Will you share your family’s holidays with your hall in the dorms? And will you bring these experiences and perspectives to the classroom?

Rice University admissions wants to learn more about how you’ll fit into the Rice community. So, use the long Rice University supplemental essays to do just that.  

Now let’s check out the second of the long Rice University supplemental essays: 

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? 

Remember those helpful tips on how to respond to the first of the Rice University supplemental essays prompt? Well, they can actually apply here, too. 

If responding the this prompt, students should focus on how the aspects mentioned in the prompt will make them incite change. Note how they refer to Rice’s “community of change agents.” Successful Rice University supplemental essays will show how students will contribute to this community. 

How has your background informed your future academic and career goals? What has motivated your path forward to creating change in the world and essentially leaving it a better place than it was before? Students should write on their own experiences, upbringing and (if applicable) racial identity. 

Similar to the first prompt, there are many routes that students could take when writing this essay. So, how can you choose what to write about? These essays need to be passionate and genuine. If you aren’t excited about the topic you’re writing about, then your reader won’t be, either. Remember that these Rice University supplemental essays need to truly add a new dimension to your Rice application. Namely, you want to share more about you and how you will be a perfect fit for the Rice community. 

No matter the prompt, focus on you

This Rice essay gives you up to 500 words, which lets you discuss a lot. However, successful Rice University supplemental essays will not lose sight of the fact that this essay is about applicants as individuals. If you choose to describe how other people have made an impact on your life, remember to bring it back to yourself and your experiences. Above all, your Rice essay should center on how your experiences and traditions have made you the person you are.

As with the other Rice supplemental essays, make sure you remain centered on your own story and clearly communicate this story to your readers. Though it may be tempting to wax philosophical when writing your Rice University supplemental essays, you should focus on writing explicitly about yourself and your experiences. When in doubt, be more direct while trying to engage the reader in your Rice supplemental essays. Metaphors and quotes can help ground your Rice University supplemental essays at times, but be careful not to overuse them.

How do you wrap up the conclusion of such an open, personal essay? While there is no one “correct” way to end the Rice supplemental essays, take a moment to reflect on how these experiences have made an impact on you. How would you be different without them? Where have these milestones taken you to where you have been, where you are now, and perhaps where you hope to be in the future? Successful Rice University supplemental essays will answer these questions and more.

• Do you write between 400 and 500 words in this Rice essay?
• Does your Rice essay center on yourself and your development?
• Is your response to the third of the Rice University essay prompts concrete and specific?
• If applicable, do you use specific examples of how you have shared your perspectives or learned from those of other people?

How to write Rice Supplemental Essays

Writing impactful Rice University supplemental essays that catch the attention of Rice University admissions officers may seem like a daunting task. However, the Rice supplemental essays are extremely important, especially given the low Rice University acceptance rate. 

Luckily, there are certain tips you can follow to ease the writing process when approaching the Rice University supplemental essays. 

5 Tips for Writing Rice Supplemental Essays: 

#1- be specific.

When responding to both the why school essay and the why major essay, you should be specific. One of the worst mistakes students can make in their Rice supplemental essays is being generic in their responses. When writing the Rice supplemental essays, reference specific programs and offerings only available at Rice. Also, when talking about your life experiences, describe why they are meaningful to you. It may be helpful to make a college resume in order to organize all of your important activities and draw on the most important ones when writing your Rice supplemental essays. 

#2- Provide context to the reader

Above all, your reader wants to know what makes you the person you are. The Rice supplemental essays are your chance to show the admissions team that you’re more than a statistic. Tell them who you are, what you value, and why you belong at their school. Strong Rice supplemental essays will leave the admissions committee with a clear, authentic understanding of an applicant’s background and aspirations.

#3- Choose your topics carefully

You want to be authentic and unique in your responses to the Rice University essay prompts. The topic you choose to focus on makes a huge difference as your passion will be evident in the writing. Write on themes that are genuinely exciting and impactful to you. 

#4- Start early

Give yourself plenty of time to thoughtfully and carefully respond to the Rice University essay prompts. Remember that you will be writing essays for the majority of the schools you apply to. Factor that into your college application timeline. You’ll need time to brainstorm, draft, and revise each Rice essay. 

#5- Be creative and grammatically correct

Don’t shy away from getting creative with your writing style and responses to these Rice supplemental essays. That doesn’t mean you should write a poem, but, feel free to use vivid imagery and descriptive language in order to fully immerse your reader in your subject matter. However, your writing also needs to be grammatically impeccable. Have another set of eyes look over your final Rice University supplemental essays to make sure you’ve expressed your point and have no mechanical errors. 

Additionally, if any special circumstances have influenced your academic or personal development, you may want to discuss them in your Rice University supplemental essays. This can help the admissions team gain insight into your perspective.

Additional Rice Requirements – An Image for “The Box”

One of Rice’s long-standing traditions is “The Box,” a question on our application where we ask all of our applicants to share an image of something that appeals to them. The Box gives you the opportunity to present us with an image that shares something about yourself, your interests or what is meaningful to you. This image is not used for evaluative purposes in the application, but allows you to put your stamp on the application about who you are aside from what you have achieved. Be sure to choose an image that speaks for itself and does not need an explanation. The Box must be a two-dimensional image that is uploaded in the Common Application or the Coalition Application, or uploaded in the Rice Admission Student Portal.

This Rice university essay prompt is not an essay at all. However, the Rice Box does a lot of the things your Rice essays do—namely, it gives the admissions team a window into who you are and what you care about.

Understandably, this unique prompt throws many students off. Remember that while the Rice Box might let you stand out, it should not detract from the effort you put into the required Rice University supplemental essays.

Don’t sweat your image choice

Notice the part of the prompt that reads, “This image is not used for evaluative purposes…and does not need an explanation.” In short, this image will not make or break your application—instead, it should be a fun addition to your overall profile.

Your submission should be able to speak for itself without a supplemental description. Some ideas for your Rice Box image might include a section of your bookshelf, a place you enjoy, an important memento, a project you enjoyed, or a hobby you mention elsewhere.

Don’t get hung up on the Rice Box! Find an image that speaks to you, and leave it at that. Then, spend the bulk of your time crafting your Rice University supplemental essays.

Rice Box Reflection Questions:

• Is your image clear enough, while staying within the file size limit?
• Is your image tasteful and appropriate for an academic context?
• Does your image reveal something interesting about you?

Does Rice care about essays?

Forbes ranks Rice University as #22 on 2023 Top Colleges list and the U.S. News Best Colleges list ranks it #15. And, the Rice University acceptance rate is quite competitive at 9%. For these reasons, when considering how to get into Rice University, one of the best colleges in Texas , applicants will want to focus on making their application as competitive as possible. The Rice University supplemental essays play a vital role in the admissions process. 

Rice’s application philosophy is holistic and committee-based. That means that your Rice University supplemental essays are extremely important within the context of your Rice application narrative. Rice University admissions will evaluate applicants on more than just hitting certain academic marks. However, given the low Rice University acceptance rate, it’s important to have a good SAT score and above averag e GPA . 

Using the Rice essays to your benefit

The Rice University supplemental essays are applicants’ opportunities to share new information that they weren’t able to display in other parts of their application. In evaluating Rice essays, the admissions team also looks to see whether you’ve done your research on why Rice University is the right school for you. So, the why school essay and why major essay are extremely important in showing off the specifics of what you’ve learned about Rice. The longer Rice essay is also an excellent opportunity to point out parts of campus life and community in which you would thrive thanks to your unique background. 

Rice University admissions needs to see your understanding and enthusiasm for the university within your Rice supplemental essays. The entire Rice application is important in the admissions evaluation process, however, the Rice supplemental essays will allow Rice University admissions to get a truer picture of who you are and why you’d fit in at Rice. 

More admissions requirements for Rice University

Applicants working on their Rice supplemental essays will need to make sure that they meet the Rice requirements and deadlines. In addition to well-written and unique Rice University supplemental essays, applicants should aim to take rigorous academic courses throughout secondary school. GPA is an important factor as a part of the admissions process. 

Rice University is test-optional so students aren’t required to submit their standardized test scores. However, half of admitted students had scores within the range of 1490-1570. If you fall within that range, or above, submitting your scores will likely bolster your Rice application. 

Letters and interviews

Rice requires applicants to submit three letters of recommendation . These letters are extremely important within the Rice admissions evaluation process. You’ll want to ask your counselor and two teachers for their recommendations well in advance so that they have sufficient time to submit them. 

Students are able to complete optional interviews which are either with an alumnus or current Rice University senior. This is a great opportunity for applicants to learn more about the Rice experience. It also lets them share more of who they are both academically and personally. 

Addition materials for special programs

Students applying to the Shepherd School of Music , School of Architecture , or Visual and Dramatic Arts department will be required to submit additional Rice University supplemental materials. You can look at all the Rice requirements here . 

Remember that Rice partners with the QuestBridge application process. So, in addition to the Rice University supplemental essays, students should check out the match requirements when completing the application. 

Applicants should also consider the cost of college and financial aid packages when starting their college search . This should be an integral part of building a college list . So, check out Rice’s financial aid options in order to compare with other colleges as you go through the college application and eventually enrollment process. 

Rice University Supplemental Essays — Final Thoughts

As you craft your Rice essays, remember to be intentional and specific. Also, these tips are just a starting point. Every Rice University essay prompt is different, and you’ll want to examine each of them on their own terms. There are multiple ways to approach your Rice essays; as you draft, you’ll learn what works best for you.

Your Rice supplemental essays give you the creative latitude to make them your own, so use this to your advantage. There are many student success stories that come from writing strong essays that bolster a competitive application. Check out one student’s journey below and remember that you could be one too. Good luck!

Student Spotlight: Line T.

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Rice University’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Architecture short response 1.

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?

Architecture Short Response 2

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.

Select-A-Prompt Short Response

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

The Residential College System is at the heart of Rice student life and is heavily influenced by the particular cultural traditions and unique life experiences each student brings. What life experiences and/or unique perspectives are you looking forward to sharing with fellow Owls in the residential college system?

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?

Why This Major Short Response

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

Why This College Short Response

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

Image Upload

The Rice Box: In keeping with Rice’s long-standing tradition, please share an image of something that appeals to you.

Common App Personal Essay

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

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?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

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!

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Should college essays touch on race? Some feel the affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

CHICAGO — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action . The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

WONDERING IF SCHOOLS 'EXPECT A SOB STORY'

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor — it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. ... I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

A RULING PROMPTS PIVOTS ON ESSAY TOPICS

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process . They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

SPELLING OUT THE IMPACT OF RACE

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black .

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University, and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

WILL SCHOOLS LOSE RACIAL DIVERSITY?

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair . She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Ma reported from Portland, Oregon.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

Mar. 27, 2024

Rice invests in center for environmental studies to advance research goals, increase impact.

Rice University is refocusing its efforts on the Center for Environmental Studies (CES) to enhance and advance the center’s research goals and initiatives regarding environmental issues in our society.

Going into its fifth year of operation, CES researches the social and cultural dimensions of environmental problems and leverages the arts, humanities, architecture and design and the social sciences to imagine solutions for a thriving planet. The center’s researchers work with community partners focused on environmental problems in Houston and the Gulf Coast.

“The Center for Environmental Studies aims to create a place where understanding environmental problems critically, culturally and historically enables us to imagine equitable solutions and just futures in which we not only survive but thrive alongside the many other creatures and living systems with whom we share this planet,” said Joseph Campana, the William Shakespeare Professor of English and center director.

Support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation allowed the center to expand its reach and build local and regional networks with other institutions. New support from the Office of Research now makes Rice distinctive relative to its peers, Campana said.

“Environmental problems are very much human problems,” he said. “Without understanding the cultures that create the challenges we face today and that can prevent change for the future, we don’t stand a chance. We need the contributions of all disciplines and practices, including those that can seem less immediately relevant. So few universities who invest in sustainability, energy and the environment of late prioritize the arts, architecture, humanities and interpretive social sciences, which offer their own vital contributions to the wicked problems of our day and which create extraordinary opportunities for collaboration with the natural sciences and engineering.”

The center, based in the School of Humanities in partnership with the School of Architecture, also translates scholarship into resources for the public. It serves as a cross-campus connector hosting conversations and events for a broad, multidisciplinary audience.

“We are thrilled that the university has recognized the significance of the humanities in the study of climate crisis and sustainable futures,” said Kathleen Canning, dean of the School of Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History. “The interdisciplinary field of environmental studies has enormous potential to forge new links among and between our humanities disciplines and is relevant to nearly every one of them, from art to religion and philosophy. We salute Professor Campana’s success in elevating and expanding the program over the last four years: The Center will foster new arenas of interdisciplinary inquiry and build upon its thriving public outreach and engagement to become a national leader in the study of the human origins and human consequences of environmental transformation.”

“Through the re-imagined Center for Environmental Studies, we hope to spotlight the architectural, artistic and humanistic paths towards a more sustainable and optimistic planetary future,” said Igor Marjanović, the William Ward Watkin Dean of the School of Architecture. “I am grateful to Dean Canning and Director Campana for their partnership, and I look forward to our work together, both here at Rice and in the larger Houston community as well in the Gulf Coast region and further afield.”

To focus efforts, the center has designated several often-intersecting research areas of significance, including biodiversity, food systems, pedagogy, urban green spaces, environmental media and environmental health.

“We’re trying to stage invigorating conversations that lead to impactful research on vital questions,” Campana said. “How should we understand migration in an age of global warming? How do we grapple with heat socially and culturally as well as architecturally and technologically? How do different media forms impact conversations about the environment? What are the best ways to represent and communicate about changing environmental circumstances? Does the past offer lessons for adaptation as we imagine more equitable futures?”

CES grew from multiple previous initiatives. In 2002, Walter Isle, professor of English, and Paul Harcombe, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, founded the Center for the Study of the Environment and Society (CSES) and with it the Environmental Studies program, a curricular effort to sponsor courses about environment and ecology across disciplines. In 2011, a faculty-led initiative produced the Cultures of Energy Working Group to explore energy from a range of disciplines across the arts, humanities, architecture and social sciences.

Out of the Cultures of Energy Working Group in 2013 emerged the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) under the leadership of Dominic Boyer, professor of anthropology.

In 2019, the schools of humanities and architecture became home to the renamed Center for Environmental Studies, which continues the work of the CSES and CENHS by broadening its rubric to recognize the growing diversity of topics and approaches to energy and ecology in research and by sustaining and deepening its commitments to educating through the Environmental Studies program for future generations who face the urgent, accumulating impacts of our ecological moment.

To learn more about CES, visit  enst.rice.edu .

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How S.M.U., Once the Rogue of College Sports, Got Back to the Big Time

For those wanting to trace the evolution of money and college sports over the past half-century, Southern Methodist offers a perfect example.

Nearly four decades after the N.C.A.A. shut down Southern Methodist’s football program for two years, the university is joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. Credit... Allison V. Smith for The New York Times

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By Joe Drape

Joe Drape, a graduate of Southern Methodist University, reported from Dallas.

• March 30, 2024

It wasn’t just a gold Pontiac Trans Am with a painted bird on the hood. It was the car that Texas A&M gave to Eric Dickerson in 1979, when he was a top high school running back prospect, in the hope that he would become an Aggie. Instead, he drove from his hometown, Sealy, Texas, to Dallas and Southern Methodist University.

At the time, Mr. Dickerson’s cars (S.M.U. gave him one, too) were a symbol of the wretched excess of big-time college sports. It was a time when boosters in the Southwest Conference doled out “$100 handshakes” and the S.M.U. faithful winked as they talked about how they had the best football team money could buy.

The S.M.U. Mustangs went 34-11-1 over Mr. Dickerson’s four years — the team’s vaunted Pony Express era. It gave the oilmen and real estate developers and business titans across Texas who funneled cash to their alma mater bragging rights at the Petroleum Club of Houston and country clubs in Dallas.

And it drove the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which governs college sports, nuts. The organization had rules to stop those kinds of pay-for-play shenanigans and investigators to chase down overeager boosters, who mostly eluded their grasp. Mr. Dickerson remembers that one N.C.A.A. investigator visited his home so frequently, the guy would sit at his kitchen table and eat dinner with his family.

The N.C.A.A. eventually caught up to S.M.U. (Mr. Dickerson was long gone by then, well into a Hall of Fame career in the National Football League.) In 1987, the organization handed the football team the so-called death penalty, the severest punishment it has ever imposed on a Division I school for rules violations. The program was shut down for two seasons, and the university’s reputation was tarnished.

Ever since, S.M.U. has wandered the college sports landscape looking for a home, and a way to share in the ever-increasing riches associated with top-level amateur athletics.

It took nearly four decades, $354 million in major construction and facilities upgrades, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized S.M.U.’s original sin — allowing players to profit financially from their athletic skill — but the university has found its way back. Last summer, S.M.U. was invited to join the Atlantic Coast Conference this July.

It wasn’t cheap. S.M.U. was admitted to the A.C.C. only after agreeing to forgo nine years of conference broadcast revenues, or $270 million, to avoid diluting the pot for incumbent members.

For those wanting to trace the evolution of big-time college sports over the past half-century, there may be no better example of the shifting views on the role of money — and whether student-athletes should get any — than S.M.U.

The N.C.A.A. has lost much of its authority now that players can be compensated through name-image-likeness rules, or N.I.L., which effectively allow athletes to be paid by sponsors or donor groups known as collectives. It is staring down a number of lawsuits and challenges to its longstanding amateur model. In a bid to maintain some relevance, the organization has called for a series of changes that would pave the way for the top moneymaking schools to form a new division that would more closely resemble professional sports.

In the meantime, universities’ search for television money has changed the map of athletic conferences. The Big Ten, for instance, was once concentrated in the Midwest; now it has 18 teams and stretches from Oregon and California to New Jersey. By that measure, expanding the Atlantic Coast Conference into Texas isn’t much of a leap.

“What started more than 150 years ago with football being considered an extracurricular activity that benefited student-athletes and offered a glue for a school community to come back to campus — ‘Boola Boola’ and all that — has morphed into a tremendous industry,” said Oliver Luck, a longtime college sports administrator who was a star collegiate quarterback himself and is now a consultant. “And you got to call it an industry. There’s lots of money and lots of interest.”

Mr. Dickerson was back on campus recently, marveling at the sun sparkling off the new buildings and the six-figure income that some of the current Mustang football players are earning. And these days football is far from the only sport where athletes share in the spoils of economic success. One S.M.U. volleyball player, Alex Glover, makes well into six figures as a social media influencer.

Looked at a certain way, Mr. Dickerson thought, S.M.U. had been less a rogue program than one ahead of its time. He and his teammates had merely been on the ground floor of what has become a $17 billion ecosystem of big-time college sports. The money being reaped by current college athletes, he said, was long overdue.

“Those jerseys that schools sell don’t run around the field by themselves,” he said.

‘Amateur is out the door’

S.M.U.’s new era is personified by Ms. Glover, who merged her two passions — volleyball and social media — into a side hustle as a social influencer.

“I wanted to take people on a deep dive of how a Division I student-athlete operates from day to day,” Ms. Glover said. “There’s a lot more going on than showing up for practice and games.”

Ms. Glover scripts and shoots witty, fast-paced Instagram videos for a series called “Day in the Life of a D-1 Volleyballer.” She takes her followers to the gym, to the classroom and on walks with her dogs, as well as offering fashion and beauty tips. She also was a captain on a team that won an American Athletic Conference championship, and she completed undergraduate degrees in engineering and data science. She will complete a master’s in management science in May.

Ms. Glover is not paid by a collective, but Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Ulta Beauty are among her more than 40 sponsors.

“For me, beyond the money, N.I.L. has given me a sense of freedom and pushed me to learn these different skills as far as content creation and running a business” said Ms. Glover, who has written an e-book called “ An Athlete’s Strategy to Scoring NIL Deals. ”

For athletes in marquee sports like football and men’s basketball, however, the experience has been more unsettling. Jake Bailey, a receiver on the football team who graduated in December with a degree in sports management, wrote a paper on the effects of N.I.L. on student-athletes. Along with the money, he wrote, came more unfamiliar responsibilities like managing your finances.

“The lump sums of money being thrown around is life changing for many players and their families,” Mr. Bailey said, adding: “Amateur is out the door. We’re pros.”

Six years ago, when he was coming out of high school in San Clemente, Calif., there was no money for colleges to dangle beyond the value of a scholarship. Instead, recruiters pitched their facilities and academics and treated him as a superstar on campus visits.

“It was about the glitz and glamour,” Mr. Bailey said.

He chose Rice University in Houston and led the Owls in all-purpose yards — yards gained on runs, receptions and returns — as a sophomore and in receiving as a junior. Mr. Bailey believed he was ready for a bigger stage and entered the transfer portal. Now schools could woo him with the promise of cash.

“I never brought money up,” Mr. Bailey said, “but the coaches would tell you where you fit on the scale of who was making this and what they were paying.”

Mr. Bailey chose S.M.U. but said he was not one of those making six figures. He does make enough to have set up a limited liability company to manage his taxes. In the locker room, he said, his teammates never discuss money. Just as it did in the Pony Express era, however, the parking lot tells all. Mr. Bailey can see who are at the top of the pay scale by the Dodge Chargers and Ford Mustangs they drive.

Last fall, Mr. Bailey was a captain and a leading receiver on a Mustang team that won the American Athletic Conference championship. With a season of eligibility left, he will pursue a graduate degree and play for S.M.U. in the A.C.C. this year.

Mr. Bailey also got a raise.

‘Back where we belong’

Gerald Turner, 78, is a native Texan with a honeysuckle drawl who offers cleareyed opinions delivered in full paragraphs. (He asks reporters to tape him to keep up.) By the nature of his position as S.M.U.’s president, they usually end with an ask. He understands what is important to Texans. He skinned-and-grinned with political heavyweights, business titans and federal officials for a decade to land the George W. Bush Presidential Center on campus.

He came to S.M.U. in 1995 with a mandate to make the university a national destination for academics and rebuild a reputation badly scarred by the football scandal. He has raised nearly $3 billion for 44 development projects, among them engineering and education buildings, five residential halls and a $140 million renovation and expansion of the highly regarded Cox School of Business.

S.M.U.’s professional schools climbed in rankings, undergraduate acceptance rates shrank as incoming freshmen’s test scores rose, and the university attracted more students from out of state.

Last summer, Dr. Turner called members of the board of trustees and donors to his conference room in the Perkins Administration Building to tell them that S.M.U. finally had the pieces in place to land a seat at the adults’ table of college athletics.

Dr. Turner understood the hold that athletics, particularly football, could have on a university. He was previously the chancellor at the University of Mississippi and an administrator at the University of Oklahoma. Shortly after arriving on campus, Dr. Turner set about rehabbing S.M.U.’s athletic facilities. In 2000, the 32,000-seat Gerald J. Ford Stadium opened on campus with a subtle design and an emphasis on community.

The football stadium was sunk into the southern edge of the campus near the Boulevard, a grassy, tree-lined parkway that welcomes visitors to the heart of campus. The Boulevard would be S.M.U.’s answer to the Grove at Ole Miss, an upscale tailgate space where anyone who was anyone had to be seen and that everyone could enjoy.

“If you’re not having winning seasons, there’s got to be something bigger than football to get fans there,” Dr. Turner said.

The Boulevard was an immediate hit. The reinvigorated football program not so much. S.M.U. did not return to a bowl game until 2009, and, since returning to the field in 1989, the Mustangs have managed just 10 winning seasons as they moved through three midtier conferences.

Still, over the past decade, the university renovated its basketball arena and built a field house, an aquatics center and a soccer stadium. All were improvements necessary to attract the attention of a Power Five conference.

The A.C.C. made the most sense. Beyond athletics, the conference offered an opportunity to stand academically alongside powerhouse state universities like Virginia and North Carolina as well as smaller, elite private schools such as Duke and Wake Forest.

Still, it was going to be a heavy lift, and Dr. Turner made sure his board members knew S.M.U. would have to give the A.C.C. an offer it could not refuse.

“Here’s what we want to offer, but, you know, I can’t do it unless you guys tell me to,” Dr. Turner recalled telling the board. “We’ll tell them that we will give up roughly the $30 million it would get from ESPN for adding us for up to nine years. They could use it for an incentive pool or whatever they wanted.”

Then came the ask. Dr. Turner believed the people in the boardroom as well as other deep-pocketed alums would make up the difference to help the university’s athletic department add coaching and support staff and increase salaries that would help every Mustang program compete at the top level of Division I.

“It’s going to cost each of you probably a million a year for the first five years,” Dr. Turner said.

In September, seven days after the A.C.C. officially invited S.M.U. to become a member, the university raised more than $100 million from 30 key donors and trustees.

“This is a core group who lived through the resentment and hurt feelings of the death penalty and understood this was a healing moment,” Dr. Turner said. “It puts us back where we belong.”

Still, S.M.U. paid a steep price for an uncertain future. One mainstay of the A.C.C., Florida State, wants out of the conference badly enough that it recently sued the league and claimed that it mismanaged its members’ media rights and imposed “draconian” exit fees of $572 million for the Seminoles to leave.

On the Hilltop, as the S.M.U. campus is known, there are no regrets. The football stadium’s $100 million Garry Weber End Zone Complex is loud and dusty, but its locker rooms, weight room, meeting rooms, and full kitchen and training table will be ready for S.M.U.’s 484 student-athletes come August.

“We understand that the ground is still shifting, and no one really knows where this is going to end up,” David B. Miller, the chairman of S.M.U.’s board, said. “But it’s still better to be inside that process instead of on the outside looking in.”

A game of liar’s poker

While gaining entrance to the A.C.C. was a negotiation between well-endowed universities and big donors, the brave new world of name, image and likeness is murky at best. How else to explain the N.I.L. valuation of $3.2 million for Arch Manning, a backup quarterback at the University of Texas, three times last year’s salary for San Francisco’s Super Bowl quarterback, Brock Purdy?

No one in college athletics disputes that the current economy of unregulated name, image and likeness is essentially play-for-pay. Alongside the transfer portal, which allows student-athletes to shop their skills for a potential starting position and more money, the best-funded institutions land the best athletes at the highest prices.

Chris Schoemann, executive director of S.M.U.’s Boulevard Collective, which doles out the university’s athlete payments, likens the current marketplace to a game of liar’s poker.

“Everyone wants to seem bigger than they are,” he said.

To that end, Mr. Schoemann is vague on numbers, allowing that a healthy collective — which he says S.M.U.’s is — requires $5 million to $8 million annually for the football and men’s and women’s basketball teams. There are benchmarks that players and their representatives either already know or Mr. Schoemann will tell them if they inquire. A top quarterback in a Power Five conference, for example, averages about $550,000 a year.

How many Mustang football players earn more than six figures?

“More than a handful,” he said.

For now, what drive the marketplace are talent and the financial wherewithal to take big risks for even bigger rewards. Rick Hart, S.M.U.’s athletic director, said it was difficult to isolate what it really cost to operate a competitive athletic program because N.I.L., the transfer portal and conference affiliation were all intertwined.

“All those things play together to create this free-agency environment that we’re in, which is challenged even further by the fact that there aren’t really any rules,” Mr. Hart said. “How much money do we need? A lot.”

‘They made us outlaws’

Mr. Dickerson was back on campus with his former S.M.U. teammate Harvey Armstrong. Both remain hurt over the blame their team shouldered for decades after the program was shut down.

“We felt abandoned,” Mr. Armstrong said. “They not only didn’t invite us back for homecoming, they made us outlaws. I could not even get an interview for a coaching job that was open.”

Mr. Armstrong’s awkward gait is a reminder of the 15 surgical procedures he has had on his knees and back. He forgets things, gets aggravated easily and wonders if he is showing early signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.), the degenerative brain disease that has been found in more than 100 former N.F.L players after their deaths.

Mr. Dickerson has had regenerative stem cell therapy for nearly a decade for a bad back that often immobilizes him. Neither man regrets the toll that the game he loved took on his body. Both do regret the toll it took on their souls.

“We were indentured servants,” Mr. Dickerson said. “I call paying these kids out in the open doing the right thing. Finally.”

An earlier version of a picture with this article, using information from Reuters, misidentified the Texas player pictured. It was Michael Taafe, not Arch Manning.

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Joe Drape is a Times reporter writing about how the intersection of money, power and sports impacts our culture. More about Joe Drape

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