Yes! At least when I was at Rice, there was no hassle to switch between majors except for the ones that had their own application process (music and architecture from what I remember).

I used two songs which you can find in the description. Feel free to use them!

Love to hear it! Best of luck

I'm not too familiar with the transfer process at Rice. I would suggest looking at Rice's transfer page to see if it applies to you: admission.rice.edu/apply/transfer-applicants

Congrats, and best of luck to you as well!

Yea, feel free to ask me any questions regarding Rice. Though I may not be able to answer some as it's been over a year since I've graduated.

@@GeraldWangAh ok, no worries! So I understand you originally planned to go to a medical field but decided to go with CS instead. Did you originally apply to college with your intended major being that medical field and changed it to CS later or did you put your intended major as CS?

I ask because you must’ve done some summer activities to supplement the original intended major and not anything in CS since you said you had no prior programming experience.

@@ritvikrajesh170 Unlike a lot of universities, Rice actually lets you switch majors very easily. So I did apply with a medical focus. It was only after a semester that I found out I wanted to pursue CS instead.

​@@GeraldWang Oh that's great! Thanks for the reply and clarification! Is there a long process to switch your major or do you send in a request and they will evaluate your academic profile?

I actually took the summer class equivalent of pre-calculus at my local community college so I could skip it the next school year!

Thank you so much, and best of luck!

If I had to guess then I would say that Rice would probably be more likely to accept if you show specified interest in them. But I can't say for sure since I don't know of any friends who got accepted and did activities specifically related to Rice other than campus tours and interviews.

Here's to hoping you get both! 🙌

@@GeraldWang Thanks! I'm already in Caltech. Manifesting Rice 🙏

​@@GeraldWang What sounds harder to your ears? 1. Masters Degree in Mathematics or 2. Masters Degree in Statistics?

@@mathematicaleconomist4943 It's hard for me to say since I didn't take much math or statistics classes. It would also depend on how confident you are at either field. But from what I hear from friends, stats in general is slightly harder at Rice.

@@GeraldWang Interesting! Thanks for the information!

That's amazing, congrats!

That's great to hear!

The quickest way in my opinion would be to check Rice's financial aid program and see where you will land: financialaid.rice.edu/rice-investment Depending on your financial situation, it could help a lot!

@@GeraldWang thank you so much🙏🏻

Hey Thanay, first of all congrats! Unfortunately, I don't really know too much about graduate school life at Rice since I never experienced it, but from some friends' experience I would say that the graduate life is much more independent than undergrad. Undergrad has a much more rigid course structure while graduate is mainly focused on your own research and projects. Rice doesn't typically separate campus events between graduates and undergrads so you can still experience a lot of the things undergrads experience. There's also a lot less graduates so the community may feel smaller than for undergrad, but I also heard that's what makes it more close knit which a lot of people like.

Hi Thanay i am Nana from Ghana. Also just received admission to Rice grad school fall'23 and came across Gerald's video while doing research on Life at Rice. If Gerald is right about how small the community is i guess we will probably be friends soon (or at least one degree off lol). Looking forward to it.

​@@GeraldWang thank you for the info brother, it was very helpful. I've made my decision to join Rice this fall. I hope I can meet you sometime on campus too!

​@@akosuaserwaa6191 Haha, nice to finally come across a fellow graduate. I look forward to meeting you on campus too Nana. All the best for everything in between! for everything in between!

@@thanaymetta5340 Congrats! I've already graduated but I come down from time to time so definitely say hi if you see me!

Best of luck!

Thanks for your kind words and congrats to your daughter! I think you said it very well in that I do have all these interests and they shape what I do and pursue in life. To be honest, I don't know if I've "figured it out yet". I will say though that I like where I am today, working as a software engineer and having my music and storytelling passion as hobbies. But there may be a time in the future where I want to change my hobbies to careers or pursue something completely different. And if that time comes then I'll be ready to face it head on!

In my opinion, I would say that GPA and test scores help in getting past the initial screening. Of course, there are exceptions where people with really good extracurriculars can get in without top level grades, but for the most part once you reach a certain level then it shouldn't matter too much. I think you being near the top of your class will be enough to get you past that first screening and a 1400 SAT score isn't bad at all. It may raise the eye of some admissions officers but if you have good extracurriculars and essays to back yourself up then it should be fine. Personally, I would take the SAT one more time to see if I can get it higher but I would still be proud of a 1400.

Thank you so much Aaron, that means a lot!

Haha, some places use blackboard 😉

I took pre-cal over the summer at my community college!

Haha, yea I'm sure a lot of people have had similar experiences as me

@@GeraldWang hey gerald, just wanted to say ED decisions came out and I got into the best college ever, RICE!!!!!!!!!! OWLSS FTWWWWW

@@ahmedsaadsabit1749 Congrats! I'm sure you'll love it at Rice!

Hi, thank you for your kind words! Unfortunately, I don't review/critique essays because providing good quality feedback takes a lot of time and if I were to accept one then I'd have to accept all requests. I will say that when I was in your position the three things that most helped me was: 1. Start early and revise often. My last revision was completely different from my first. Seems like you're already on top of this. 2. Ask people you know to review it. The most helpful person turned out to be my high school english teacher. She gave a lot of helpful feedback. 3. Read a bunch of examples. I read a bunch of ones online and was able to find parts that I liked and tried to incorporate it in mine. Good luck, and I'm wishing you the best!

Hi Bukata, unfortunately I don't take personal meetings but if you have any questions feel free to email me: [email protected] But in any case, best of luck! You got this!

@@GeraldWang 😮‍💨thank you very much I thought you wouldn’t reply I’ll send you an email

Thanks Eri! Unfortunately, I don't edit/critique essays because if I did then I would want to give actual good and worthwhile feedback. However, doing so requires a lot of time and effort and agreeing to look at one essay means I would have to look at them all. As of right now, I don't have that kind of time but personally, I had my essay reviewed by my high school english teacher which proved to be very helpful! Best of luck!

thank you!

Best of luck!

That's great, congrats!

It's hard to tell without context in what extracurriculars you have but academically you seem to be doing well even with lower grades in science and math related courses. I'd say you definitely have a chance because I know friends who had similar academics as you but were able to get in since they were doing pretty cool stuff outside of school!

@@GeraldWang ok thank you!!!! Also do colleges look at your senior classes? For example im taking AP Research for my senior year and will be writing a 4500 word research paper for the exam to get my capstone diploma. Is that something they would look at? Thank you so much for responding, it's so nice of you to look at comments a good 3 years later :D

@@premingerownsmyuwus101 Thanks, I try to help when I can! As for senior classes, they could look if you put it in your application. For the most part I don't think you're really required to since the application can be submitted early senior fall but you could put down what senior classes you're taking. I would definitely mention your research paper and capstone diploma in your application though!

Yea, in retrospect time really flew in college. Have a wonderful senior year!

Thank you!

Nice, congrats!

That's great! Welcome to Rice!

Hi Mitch! I main reasons I switched were because: 1. I realized that the career path of being a doctor wasn't something that I wanted to invest years and years in. 2. A lot of the topics that I needed to learn wasn't very interesting to me and again I didn't want to invest so many years around stuff that I didn't find much interest in. 3. I found computer science and programming to be very interesting after taking the intro course so I took more and eventually decided that software engineering was a career that I would want to go to. So the competitive nature of the medical field was not a reason I decided to switch. Personally, I thought Rice had a competitive but friendly environment. People were smart and worked really hard but no one I know was trying to push others down while trying to climb. I think that makes Rice special compared to other universities that are also highly ranked in the medical field as a lot of other universities also have a more toxic culture.

@@GeraldWang Your response is so useful. I will forward your thought to my daughter as she was nervous and scare off by others who heard some student dream crush at Rice in their early undergraduate years. What made me ask you these questions is to gauge what are her chances compare to your great academic credential. She is closes, but not as match. For that reason, I was worry that if you can't make it, it would be a difficult challenge and perhaps an unwise path for her. However, since she express great interest in the medical field earlier on (without parent pressure:) and don't mine the invested years, maybe your assessment could give her some hope. Since you maybe nearing the end of your undergraduate study, where you able to maintain you good GPA at Rice? I know it not nearly as easy as when you where in high school, but just to get a sense of the difficulty she can expect, since her career path require a strong Gpa. I been though engineering program and I know a class of 20 students will only usually result several student getting "A". Hope this is not the same in the Bio fields department at Rice. There is no way I would want her to be at Rice if this is true. Thanks for any input Gerald.

@@mitchnn Hi again! While I was not able to maintain a perfect GPA, I was able to maintain a relatively high one. Of course, if I continued to pursue the medical field then I would have aimed for a higher GPA. How grading works is very class dependent and I know from friends that there are classes that a pre-med student or a student pursuing something in the medical field needs to take which only give A's to a certain percentage of the class. I will not say that maintaining a high GPA is easy by any means at Rice but I do know people who were able to do it and are now going to incredible places. I wish the best for you and your daughter!

@@GeraldWang Thank you so much for your extreme helpful info. Best of luck on your future endeavor.

Hi Shannon, glad that you're interested in Rice! I don't believe there are any formal activities for people in middle school but I would reach out to the Rice Admissions Office and ask. You can find their contact at the bottom of the site: admission.rice.edu/ With the way you described yourself, I think you are definitely in the right path to success and have already set yourself apart! Though since it seems like you want to pursue entrepreneurship when you're older, I think founding some kind of successful business or club would definitely make you stand out. The first thing that comes to my mind given that you also want to do something contributing to charity would be to start some kind of club that benefits a cause or issue you are passionate about. But in any case, these are just a couple examples so definitely take the time to explore what you're interested in! Good luck, you got this!

Thanks so much! And yea, there are certainly times where I felt like maybe I should've let loose a bit more and just enjoyed the moment. But at the same time I look at where I am today and the things I've done and am happy at the choices I've made overall.