What would RISE add to my portfolio?

Answered

First off, congratulations on advancing to the next stage! As others have said, RISE is a prestigious program that will generally reflect well on your application. It attests to your talent and potential, which is a difficult thing to quantify in the admissions process. With that said, even if you don't ultimately end up being a finalist or an awardee, you might still list that you were a semifinalist (or honorable mention, or whatever you end up being) as an award/honor on your application.

Further, RISE provides need-based financial aid to its awardees, which may help your application at need-aware schools; if they don't have to worry about funding your education, you are more likely to be accepted. Of course, this does NOT apply at need-blind schools where financial need is not considered as part of the admissions process.

In all, this is a fantastic accomplishment that you should be proud of. If you focus on RISE for any essays you write, it will still be important to talk about your relationship with RISE passionately and authentically, rather than relying on its prestige to carry the narrative. To this end, one of the benefits of RISE is the community it makes you a part of, and learning from the other members of that community will give you plenty of interesting perspectives to explore in the personal parts of your application.

Best of luck in the rest of the process!