Rice sees 44% yield for class of 2028

By Sarah Knowlton     9/3/24 11:22pm

With a 44% yield rate, 1,149 students joined the class of 2028 along with 74 transfer students. Incoming classes continue to increase in size ahead of the construction of two new residential colleges.

This year’s admission cycle marked a third consecutive year of record-low acceptance rates. 7.5% of applicants were accepted for the class of 2028, 7.7% for the class of 2027 and 8.6% for the class of 2026.

Yvonne Romero da Silva, vice president for enrollment, previously told the Thresher that historically high yield rates had, in part, prompted the admissions office to be more conservative with their admissions offers.

---

---

This marks the first full admissions cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 29, 2023 watershed decision to overturn affirmative action at colleges and universities. Rice administration emphasized its commitment to diversity after the ruling. 

“Even though the Supreme Court ruling is not allowing us to track race in the [admissions] process, our team is already trained to look at those unique voices that students are bringing and to value it,” Romero da Silva told the Thresher last year.

6% of the new class of domestic admits identify as Black, compared to last year’s 8%, according to data from Romero da Silva. The proportion of Hispanic students slightly decreased, from last year’s 18% to this year’s 17%. Caucasian students make up 26% of the new admits and Asian American students make up 29% — last year, the Thresher previously reported 24% and 30% for Caucasian and Asian American students, respectively.

Texans make up 38% of the new class, while 49% come from other states and 14% come from countries outside the U.S.

Due to ongoing construction in the academic quad, the matriculation ceremony differed from previous years. In the past, students from each college proceeded through the Sallyport to the center of the quad to watch a fireworks display in their college’s colors. To avoid construction zones, this year’s matriculating class walked through the Sallyport and immediately exited the quad through the Herzstein arcades, watching a continuous fireworks show as a group.

Vanessa De Leon, a Hanszen College freshman, said that she enjoyed the fireworks but that combining the colleges into one show had its problems.

“The fireworks were fun. We were on the concrete, and … they took so long to set them up,” De Leon said. “We were all tired, we were all sweaty.”

However, De Leon said that the college bonding aspect of matriculation was still present.

“I felt so much pride for Hanszen. [Matriculation] really made me fall in love with it,” De Leon said. “When I walked through the Sallyport, it was like ‘Yeah, HFH!’”

Duncan College freshman Areeb Qazi said that he was struck by the importance of the event in the life of any Rice student.

“The significance was pretty cool,” Qazi said. “I didn’t feel the weight that much, but it was awesome. It’s a once in a lifetime type thing. It’s a blessing to be able to do it.”

---