Rice reaches out to high school students at home and at large

Rice University recently hosted approximately 900 high school students and guests along with 100 educators for the first of three yearly QuestBridge National College Admissions Conferences.

Rice partnered with QuestBridge to host students from the nonprofit’s College Prep Scholars program, which provides outstanding low-income high school juniors with college admissions support. Two additional invitation-only conferences will take place later this summer at Stanford and Yale.

The conference, designed specifically for College Prep Scholars, offered rising seniors from across the country the opportunity to discuss strategies for preparing strong college applications, learn how to write essays that effectively portray life experiences and discover the full benefit of financial aid policies and packages.

“Many of these students will go on to become National QuestBridge Finalists,” said Vice President for Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva, whose office partnered with QuestBridge to host the conference, one of many planned partnerships involving the office this year, including another first: the inaugural Coalition Day, taking place May 23.

“The Rice Enrollment division together with the Houston Independent School District will host a number of events to promote college-going as part of National Coalition Day through the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success,” Romero da Silva said. The coalition comprises more than 140 distinguished colleges and universities committed to making attending college a reality for all high school students using online planning tools.

Each coalition school plans to participate in Coalition Day in ways that are most effective in their own communities. Representatives from Rice will visit high schools across Houston, with the aim of recruiting historically underrepresented groups and bringing them one step closer to achieving their goals.