Rice University

Overview

Offering a rigorous and rewarding academic experience for students from more than 80 countries, Rice University aspires to groundbreaking research and unsurpassed education for the betterment of our world. We fulfill this mission by cultivating curiosity to advance discovery, fostering connections to enhance collaboration, and empowering diverse leaders in an inclusive learning community that promotes excellence and student success through a culture of care.   Rice combines the advantages of a liberal arts college with the resources and facilities of a premier research university. With its relatively small size, urban location, diversity and environment of interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration, Rice offers opportunities to work alongside some of the country’s top faculty and researchers. Some of the important engineering and science developments include Rice becoming the first university in the nation with a department wholly dedicated to space science; Rice researchers joining Dr. Michael DeBakey and his Baylor College of Medicine team to produce the first artificial heart; and Rice professors Robert Curl, Richard Smalley and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto receiving the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their discovery of buckyballs, which introduced the new field of nanotechnology.   Undergraduate and graduate students enroll in the schools of architecture, business, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences, which rank among the highest in their disciplines. Rice is also home to the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan think tank committed to national policy dialogue, and the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, a multidisciplinary center focusing on urban issues locally and around the world.   Rice cultivates leadership and entrepreneurship skills in its students through the Doerr Institute for New Leaders and the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Students from all disciplines create solutions to worldwide problems in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. The Center for Civic Leadership links students with opportunities for research and service in the country’s fourth-largest city. Rice welcomes students from all walks of life, many of them first generation, and supports their success with the Rice Emerging Scholars Program.   Set in the heart of Houston, Rice’s 300-acre campus is close to many cultural and entertainment amenities and is located across the street from the Texas Medical Center (TMC). This proximity, along with Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, ensures Rice students and faculty have abundant opportunities for collaborative projects and research. The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice takes advantage of the nearby Museum District to foster interdisciplinary collaboration through the arts.   The distinctive residential college system enhances the Rice experience by allowing students to flourish in a community of their peers. Minority students represent more than half of the undergraduate student body, and Rice ranks highly in national student surveys for quality of life and student happiness. Rice practices need-blind admission of domestic students and meets 100 percent of all admitted students’ demonstrated need with financial aid policies that extend tuition support to lower- and middle-income families up to $200,000. Rice benefits from a 6:1 undergraduate student-faculty ratio, a median class size of 14 and a nearly $8 billion endowment.  

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