What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$563 to $48,466 a year, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $79,788 a year. Average need-based aid package: $73,489.Aid and debt
44.1%
receive need-based grants
$26,491
average debt at graduation
225
students got merit aid
about 5% of undergraduates
$27,293
average merit award
Getting In
Admit rates
8%
admitted overall
11.3%
admitted Early Decision
7.4%
admitted Regular Decision
Early Decision
Early Decision applicants were admitted at nearly 2x the Regular Decision rate, and Early Decision is binding: you commit to attend if admitted.
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Some of that gap reflects who applies early (recruited athletes, legacy applicants and highly committed students concentrate in that pool), so it isn't proof that applying early would raise any one student's own odds.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1510–1560 · 59% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 34–36 · 24% of the class submitted
90% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- Considered
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Rice rates four things you can work on as Very Important: course rigor, your essay, your recommendations, and your activities.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. Choose recommenders who can be specific about you, not just confirm your transcript. And depth in a few activities beats a long list.
Rice rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Rice just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Rice essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
61.6% of Rice classes have fewer than 20 students.
61.6%
under 20 students
28.3%
20 to 49
10.1%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Rice CDS 2025–26, I-3.
6:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
51.6%
first-years from out of state
59%
live on campus
0%
of men in fraternities
0%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- Asian30.1%
- White24.2%
- Hispanic16.1%
- Black7.5%
- Multiracial5.5%
- Unknown / other2.8%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Rice CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
88.4% of Rice students graduate in 4 years.
88.4%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
95.3%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
96.77%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
94.8% finish in 6 years, against 95.3% of all students.
Pell Grant students finish at about the same rate as everyone else.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Houston.
Rice's campus sits directly across the street from the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, and about four miles from downtown Houston — close enough that the Museum District, Hermann Park and Rice Village are all a walk or a short ride away rather than a planned trip.
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Houston is a genuine global city built around the energy industry, with NASA's Johnson Space Center in the metro area too; President Kennedy delivered his 'We choose to go to the Moon' speech at Rice Stadium in 1962. The trade-off is the climate — hot, humid summers with no real winter — and a sprawling, car-oriented metro surrounding a campus that is walkable but not itself a college town.
The City
Major city
Houston, TX
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Robert F. Curl Jr.
Co-discovered buckminsterfullerene, a spherical form of carbon, and shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it.
Class of 1954
Robert Woodrow Wilson
Co-discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the Big Bang, sharing the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Class of 1957
Peggy Whitson
NASA astronaut and the first woman to command the International Space Station, who holds the U.S. record for cumulative time in space.
Class of 1986
Larry McMurtry
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (Lonesome Dove) and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Brokeback Mountain).
Class of 1960
Alberto Gonzales
Served as the 80th United States Attorney General, from 2005 to 2007.
Class of 1979
Brian Armstrong
Co-founded and serves as CEO of Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Class of 2005
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Beer Bike
An annual relay race and chugging competition among Rice's 11 residential colleges, dating to 1957. Men's, women's and alumni teams each field ten riders and ten chuggers per team; a chugger must finish their cup before their team's rider can start the next leg.
Willy Week
The week of inter-college pranks and preparation leading up to Beer Bike each spring.
O-Week
Rice's orientation week, run almost entirely by upperclass students within each residential college rather than by the university administration — most new students' first strong attachment at Rice is to their college, not the university as a whole.
Residential college system
Every student is randomly assigned to one of Rice's 11 residential colleges at admission and remains a member for all four years, whether or not they live in the college's building after their first year. The colleges are Rice's primary social structure — there is no Greek system to compete with them.
Weekend escapes from Houston
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Houston
Galveston Island
1 hourGulf Coast beaches and the historic Strand district — the closest coastline to campus.
Austin
2.5-3 hoursTexas's other major college city, live music and a very different vibe from Houston's sprawl.
San Antonio
3 hoursThe River Walk and the Alamo, and a common road trip with Austin along the way.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)
About 30 minutes in favorable traffic from campus
For international flights: George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) — just under an hour by road, longer in peak traffic.
Pro sports nearby
- Houston Astros MLB
- Houston Rockets NBA
- Houston Texans NFL
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Houston's economy runs on energy and medicine, and Rice sits inside both clusters: the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, is directly across Main Street from campus, and the headquarters of most major U.S. energy companies are a short drive downtown.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Texas Medical Center institutions
- ExxonMobil
- Chevron
- NASA Johnson Space Center
- Shell
Downtown Houston — about 4 miles, a short drive or bus ride from campus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Rice admits 8.0% overall and 11.3% under early decision against 7.4% for regular decision, so applying early moves the rate but not dramatically. Test scores are recommended rather than required, and the middle half of those who submit scored 1510 to 1560 on the SAT. It is a genuinely small school — 4,807 undergraduates taught at a 6:1 student-faculty ratio, with 61.6% of class sections under 20 students. Outcomes track the selectivity: 88.4% graduate in four years, 95.3% within six, and 96.77% of first-years return for a second year. Financially, Rice meets 100% of demonstrated need for the 44.1% of undergraduates who qualify, with an average first-year aid package of $73,489 and debt for the minority who borrow averaging $26,491. The clearest cultural signal is what's missing: 0% of men and 0% of women are in a fraternity or sorority: Rice replaces Greek life entirely with 11 residential colleges every student is assigned to on arrival and lives among for all four years, with 59% of undergraduates living on campus. Beer Bike, an annual bike-and-chug relay between the colleges dating to 1957, is the closest thing Rice has to a homecoming.