7.5% acceptance rate marks lowest in Rice history
Rice admitted 2,439 students from 32,459 applicants March 26, according to Vice President for Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva. With a 7.5% admit rate, this is the third consecutive year of record-low acceptance rates. The Thresher previously reported 7.7% and 8.56% acceptance rates for the Class and 2027 and 2026 respectively.
This cycle saw 4.5% more applicants than last year’s 31,049.
Despite shrinking acceptance rates, Rice continues to expand its undergraduate enrollment to a projected 4,800 by Fall 2024 and begins construction of two new residential colleges, which would raise undergraduate on-campus capacity to over 3,500.
Rice has remained test-optional for the class of 2028. 22% of this year’s admitted students did not submit test scores, compared to last year’s 21%. While some universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University and Dartmouth College have reinstated test policies, Rice will maintain its test-optional policy for the 2025 application cycle.
“This was another spectacular class for Rice, and the newest admits represent the most selective class in Rice’s history once again,” Romero da Silva wrote in an email to the Thresher.
More from The Rice Thresher
Rice baseball veteran David Pierce hired as head coach
David Pierce, assistant baseball coach at Texas State University, will take over as Rice’s new head coach this week, just days after former coach José Cruz Jr. was fired. This is a homecoming for Pierce, who worked at Rice from 2003 to 2011 under the late Wayne Graham. In 2003, Pierce helped Graham lead the team to their first and only national title.
Rice fires baseball head coach José Cruz Jr.
Rice Athletics fired baseball head coach José Cruz Jr. on March 13, less than a month into the season. The baseball team is 2-14 and on a 10-game losing streak, losing three games to Yale over the weekend and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi on Monday.
WBB fall to USF in the AAC Championship Final
Despite making it to the AAC Championship final for the second year in a row, the Rice women’s basketball team was unable to capture their second-straight title, losing to the University of South Florida 69-62. This was also the second year in a row that the Owls started the tournament in the second round, being ranked tenth and ninth in the conference, respectively.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication by The Rice Thresher.