Nestled on 300 acres in the shadow of the
world's largest medical complex and just
moments from the thriving heart of
downtown Houston, Rice University is a
beacon of educational excellence. Our
faculty, curriculum, research, and
students have achieved world-wide renown,
yet Rice is recognized by U.S. News &
World Report, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Magazine, and Money Magazine as one of the
best values in higher education. Rice
offers students a premier undergraduate
education at an affordable cost, in one of
the nation's leading business, scientific,
medical, and cultural centers.
Highlights
With its dual commitment to excellent
teaching and leading edge research, Rice
attracts extraordinary professors
dedicated to working with undergraduates
in the classroom as well as to advancing
knowledge and understanding. This ensures
that each Rice student has direct contact
with professors who, through their writing
and research, have gained acclaim as some
of the most scholarly minds in their
fields.
William March Rice's founding vision of
superior education for the brightest
students, regardless of their ability to
pay for that privilege, continues today. A
generous endowment of approximately $3.2
billion, one of the largest in the
country, allows Rice to dramatically
discount tuition, keeping cost affordable.
Those same financial assets are used to
maintain the high-quality facilities and
award-winning laboratories necessary for a
world-class education, without passing the
burden of that cost on the students.
The Student
Experience
Rice undergraduates rank among the finest
in the country. Each year, approximately
700 new students are selected from an
applicant pool of about 7,000.
Almost three-froths of this year's
freshmen ranked in the top five percent of
their high school classes, 75 percent had
SAT I scores of 1330 or better, and over
19 percent were National Merit Scholars.
Stellar grades and promising test scores
are just the beginning for Rice students.
Our undergraduates reflect the diversity
from which the university draws its
strength. Current enrollment includes
students form all 50 U.S. states and 80
countries around the world and more than a
third of our student are members of ethnic
minority groups. The result is an academic
environment animated by diversity.
The common thread that unites such
diversity is the collective pursuit of
excellence in the classroom. Rice students
can be assured they are learning with the
finest. Only about five percent of our
classes are taught by graduate students,
and our student-to-faculty ration is
five-to-one. Eighty-one percent of
undergraduate classes have fewer than 30
students. The small size allows for plenty
of discussion and personal attention. Rice
faculty are likely to know your name,
remember the last paper you wrote, and
when the time comes, be able to write a
letter of recommendation based on
something more than a score on a grade
sheet.
But our students do more than attend
classes and study; they apply their
talents and creativity outside the
classroom to make an impact on their
communities. Rice has some 200 student
organizations devoted to academic and
pre-professional activities, cultural and
social awareness, political issues,
religious interest, and community service
projects. Among the most popular are the
Rice Student Volunteer Program, which
sends students throughout the city to
serve community and individual needs, and
the Rice chapter of Habitat for Humanity
which has built homes in Houston and in
Latin America.
After Graduation
Rice University is an ideal place for
talented students to maximize their
potential, and their success after
graduation offers proof. More that 70
percent of our students who apply to
graduate or professional school are
admitted to their first choice institution
and we are proud to count Rhodes and
Marshall Scholars among many of our
graduating classes. For students who
choose to go directly into the workforce
after graduation, the Career Services
Center hosts more than 100 employers
conducting more that 1,200 on-campus
interviews.
Rice is Ranked
1st, best value among the nation's 1,600
private universities, Kiplinger's Personal
Finance Magazine.
Since 1990, Rice has led the nation's
universities in percentage of National
Merit Scholars in its freshman classes,
averaging 32.5 percent.
1st (School of Architecture), in the
South, 4th in the U.S, Almanac of
Architecture & Design 2001.
2nd, best college value in the nation,
U.S. News and World Report (tied with
Harvard).
2nd, in nation in recruiting and retaining
Hispanic students, Hispanic magazine,
2002.
"Best Buy", Fiske Guide to Colleges 2002.
Top Ten (George R. Brown School of
Engineering), best overall undergraduate
engineering program of private
universities, U.S News and World Report,
2002.
The University
Ever since Edgar Odell Lovett, Rice's
first president, convened an international
festival of dignitaries and academic
ambassadors to celebrate the opening of
the Rice Institute in 1912, Rice has
commanded the attention of the nation and
the world.
Indeed, national and world leaders have
been coming to Rice for much of the
twentieth century, beginning with General
John Pershing's visit in 1920. In 1962
President Kennedy stood in Rice Stadium to
announce plans for the U.S. manned
missions to the moon before the end of the
1960?s. Other prominent leaders to grace
the campus include U.S. presidents Herbert
Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon
Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Regan and
George H.W. Bush, as well as Philip,
Prince of Wales and the Dalai Lama.
With the completion of the James A Baker
III Institute for Public Policy, Rice
continues to attract major world leaders
to campus, including secretary of state
Colin Powell, former attorney general
Janet Reno; former secretaries of state
Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, James
A. Baker III and Warren Christopher;
Russian president Vladimir Putin; and
secretary-general of the UN Kofi Annan.
Now, as the university enters the
twenty-first century, the spotlight of the
world is fixed on Rice professors Robert
Curl and Richard Smalley, recipients of
the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the
discovery of buckminsterfullerene, a
previously unknown class of carbon
molecule. Their discovery has led to the
development of an entirely new branch of
chemistry and launched Rice's initiative
into nano-scale science and technology
research--research that promises to affect
areas as diverse as astro-chemistry,
superconductivity, materials science and
biosciences.
Rice began with an international academic
festival and internationalization
continues to be a strong component of
Rice's mission. Recognizing that a global
perspective is increasingly important Rice
encourages students to enrich their
academic experience with a variety of
study abroad programs. Rice and
Rice-affiliated programs send students to
study in Australia, Chile, England,
France, Germany, Greece, Japan, New
Zealand, Russian and Spain, and Rice has
developed significant partnerships with
major universities in Europe, East Asia
and South America.
We're Number One
In the annual NCAA Academic Report
released in 2002, Rice was listed as the
No. 1 school in the nation for graduating
its student-athletes. A full 91 percent of
the Rice student-athletes who enrolled as
freshmen in the 1995-96 school year
graduated with within six years. A
perennial top 10 school in graduating
rates, 2002 marked Rice's move to the head
of the class among the 300 Division I
institutions.
Making the Grade
1. Rice Owls 91%
2. Stanford 90%
Notre Dame 90%
Duke 90%
5. Vanderbilt 88%
6. Northwestern 86%
7. SMU 83%
8. Virginia 82%
9. Penn State 82%
10. Tulsa 80%
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