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August 19, 2005 > News > Freshman enrollment similar to previous years

Freshman enrollment similar to previous years

By Risa Gordon | Thresher Editorial Staff

For the third consecutive year, the number of new students is the largest in Rice’s history. Rice admitted 728 freshmen — one more than last year — and 66 transfer students — four more than last year — for the fall semester. This year’s freshman class includes more males than females, a departure from a recent national and university trend.

After a 52-percent female class matriculated last year, and a 51-percent class did so in 2003, the Class of 2009 is only 47 percent female. Vice President for Enrollment Ann Wright said the reduction in female matriculates is a return to Rice’s typical class gender breakdown.

“There’s the stereotype that Rice is still very strongly known as math, science, engineering, and there are more males in those majors,” Wright said.

The overall percentage of students offered admission who chose to attend Rice — the yield — was 37 percent, a decrease from last year’s yield of 40 percent.

The number of Hispanic students in the class of 2009 is the largest in Rice’s history, Wright said. More than 40 percent of admitted Hispanics — 100 students — accepted Rice’s admission offer. Last year, 88 Hispanic students matriculated. The number of black matriculates was identical to last year — 50 students.

A higher percentage of out-of-state students matriculated at Rice than did last year. This year, 47 percent of freshmen are from Texas — the lowest percentage since at least 1999, Wright said — while 53 percent of freshmen were from Texas last year. All but five states are represented in the freshman class, with California, Florida, and the mid-Atlantic states home to the most incoming freshman after Texas. Students with foreign addresses make up about three percent of the class.

Wright said Rice tries to recruit students from across the country while maintaining a strong presence in Texas.

“I always want to emphasize that Texas is our home state and always will be the most important,” Wright said. “But we are a national university and we don’t want to be just a regional place in terms of students.”

Wright said the number of new students is on target with enrollment goals. Rice aims to maintain an enrolled population of about 2,900 undergraduates throughout the year, she said. Rice received about 7,900 freshman applications in the spring, and admitted 1,971 freshmen and 93 transfer students. To reach the enrollment goal, an additional 47 freshmen were offered admission from the waitlist, 36 of whom accepted the offer. Wright said she expects about 10 new students to leave Rice by Oct. 1, the day the Registrar’s Office uses to record enrollment counts.

Of the class of 2009, 51 students are varsity athletes, although 380 matriculates have high school varsity letters. Nine transfer students are athletes. Seventy percent of freshmen come from public schools, and four percent were homeschooled. The middle 50 percent of SAT scores, 1340-1510, were similar to that of last year’s class, Wright said.

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