Stephanie Vazquez
Professor Weaver
English 1102-312
9 March 2022
Major Project 3: Summary, Analysis, and Response Essay
Summary
Rice University is a private research university in Houston, Texas. The type of student that Rice University wants to see in their school is someone who values diversity, small classes, and who’s interested in building relationships and an unconventional top university. A student who is looking for a top school with high rankings, a close community, and looking for someplace to belong would be happy to attend here. The website made by Rice University uses two strategies to reel in students… knowing whom their Audience is and Imagining Ideal Readers.
Analysis
The rhetorical strategy that Rice University’s website mainly uses is Audience. This strategy is simple, the author must know who their audience is, whom they are writing for, and whom their message should be read by. One of the first examples of this comes from the landing page. As the reader scrolls down there is a quick facts section. This section of the page is straightforward and lets us know facts about the university such as its rank in USA colleges and student to faculty ratio. “Top 20 in USA” “6:1 Student-to-Faculty Ratio” The university knows that most of the school website’s readers are soon-to-be students and students who are currently college searching (Rice, “Rice Facts”). The idea of having facts on the first page is not new and is used by many. A facts page means that the schools know that researching students will want to know about the college’s achievements.
It isn’t until the reader goes on to the office of admissions page that it becomes even more persuasive. Keeping in mind the focus on the audience, the admissions page is catered for the students who are looking at applying for the school. There is one more fact page here that details an explanation of their “loan-free institution”. This is important because if they know that their audience will be students that are seeking a school that will help with financial aid, they will be drawn in by this statement. Rice University says, “It’s no secret that many students from middle-class families are increasingly taking on loans in order to afford private colleges and universities.” (Rice, “Office of Admission”) They are now appealing to the part of the audience that may be of a lower social class. Meaning that the school is trying to include every one of any social class. They continue saying, “As a loan-free institution, we invest in our students so they can graduate without the burden of student debt.” (Rice, “Office of Admission”) They are trying to reel in the students who may fear student debt. These strategies will work in answering the biggest questions students have about attending college which is ‘how am I going to pay for this?’
A second rhetorical strategy that is being used throughout the whole website is Imagining Ideal Readers. This is similar to the previous strategy ‘audience’ as they both focus on the reader and how they would be reacting to reading the material. The biggest point is that the author often asks the reader questions. The first thing the reader sees on the admissions page is “What if your next four years exceeded all expectations?” (Rice, “Office of Admission”) The school is depicting all these questions throughout the site. This is because the author is catering to that student who will be thinking about the questions asked. For example, another example of this happening is when they ask, “What if one of the top research universities didn’t act like all the other selective schools?” (Rice, “Office of Admission”) The student looking will start thinking maybe I do want to go to a top school that is unique in its approach to helping students. The author is using this strategy of asking questions to reel in that ideal reader. Another question they ask is, “What if a prestigious school looked for ways to open doors instead of close them” With this statement, we can deduce that they want students who seek out prestigious schools and who are invested in trying to help the students (Rice, “Office of Admission”). If a student reads that and thinks to themselves that this school might be offering what they are looking for, then this website did a good job in imagining the ideal reader of their university page.
Response
Rice University is a seemingly prestigious research university in the heart of Houston, Texas. This school has a lot of things I am looking for, diversity, and small classes are a big win. I do enjoy the idea of being in a city where there are a lot of fun activities to do. Whether the university stayed in Houston or moved to Atlanta I think the school would be a good choice. It is a well-respected institution with a variety of majors to choose from. Personally, if I were to choose a path as a scientist, I think this school would be a wonderful choice because of its research focus. Science is one of my interests, but I am mainly looking for schools that offer a variety of music degrees such as music technology or music therapy. This school does not offer those degrees but does offer a more classical approach to a music degree.
Admission to the school is estimated to be around 17k after financial aid. (Rice “Cost of Attendance”) However if money was not a problem, I think Rice university would be a good stable option for someone to spend their time in. I can tell from the website that they are proud of the traditions of the school and all the majors they offer. One of my values in life would be creativity, I think this university would do a great job in fulfilling that value in my academic life. The school often has events going on, community bonding events, and as well as musical concerts that students may attend. This type of thing is important for me in school, I think it would be wonderful for a school to unite students together through more creative means.
Citations
“Cost of Attendance.” Office of Financial Aid | Rice University, Rice University, 2021, https://financialaid.rice.edu/cost-attendance.
“Rice.” Rice University, 2022, https://www.rice.edu/.