Rice accepts 13% of record-setting ED applications

By Belinda Zhu     1/14/25 10:59pm

Rice accepted 13.2% of Early Decision applicants in its first round of admissions for the class of 2029, said Yvonne Romero da Silva, vice president for enrollment. With 2,970 total applicants, this year saw yet another record-high; a 3% increase from last year’s previous high of 2,886. 

An additional 100 students gained admission through the QuestBridge National College Match program, an uptick from last year’s 77. While applications are on the rise, acceptance rates continue to decrease: The past two ED cycles saw 15.3% and 15.2% admission rates. Romero da Silva cited “many factors at play” for this drop, including higher applications, more QuestBridge admits and the upcoming ED II cycle.

This is the first year that Rice has included two rounds of early decision applications. ED II applicants will receive their results in Feb. 2025 

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Scott Chen, an admitted student from Walnut, Calif., said that he was especially drawn to Rice’s “diverse community” that is both “diverse” and “tight-knit.” 

“I am looking forward to the residential college I get into, because it is such a unique social aspect of Rice that really not many colleges have,” Chen said. Chen is part of the 49% of domestic non-Texan admitted students. The remaining 35% of the class is from Texas while 16% are international students. 

Laylee Taghizadeh, an admitted student from Houston, also expressed excitement about the community. 

“I took a campus tour of Rice over summer and I absolutely loved the community and culture I felt on campus and I knew that this was the school I wanted to go to,” Taghizadeh said. “I am most looking forward to the relationships I will build with my peers in the residential college.”

“I was on Facetime with my friend screensharing and had the portal up and running, refreshing it up until 8:59 a.m. and then it hit 9:00 a.m.,” Taghizadeh said. “I refreshed it and it popped up, and I started shaking when I saw the update. I had a very emotional reaction then burst into my parents’ room screaming ‘I got into Rice!’” 

Amiya Aggarwal, an admitted student from Scottsdale, Ariz., said that she looks forward to the collaborative community at Rice after attending a small and competitive high school.

“Beyond the academics at Rice and the programs being amazing for what I want to do, the biggest thing that appealed to me and drew me to Rice was the fact that everyone is collaborative and waiting for you to succeed,” Aggarwal said. “Coming from a very cutthroat high school environment into such a welcoming and collaborative environment like Rice where I can completely be myself is so appealing to me.”

“I honestly keep replaying the moment the whole entire day because it was such a surreal moment for me,” Aggarwal said. “Everyone who knows me knows that I wanted to go to Rice. This is all I talked about for the past four years. Actually getting this moment felt like my whole entire dream, my whole entire life coming true.”

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