College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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Rice University Data & Information Overview

101 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
9% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Rice University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is Rice University Ranked?

#48 Best Colleges in Nation
#3 Best Colleges in TX
Social Sciences Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2025 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Rice University was awarded 101 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is social sciences.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

Rice landed the #48 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

Out of the 115 colleges in Texas, Rice is ranked at #3.

See all of the rankings for Rice University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Rice?

9% Acceptance Rate
50% Of Accepted Are Women
53% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Rice University has a very low acceptance rate of 9%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to Rice just in case you don't make the cut.

Average Test Scores

About 53% of students accepted to Rice submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 730 and 770. Math scores were between 760 and 800.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Rice University  ( 730 to 770 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Rice University  ( 760 to 800 )
200
800
Rice received ACT scores from 23% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 34 and 36.

ACT Composite Scores for Rice University  ( 34 to 36 )
1
36

Learn more about Rice University admissions.

Rice University Faculty

6 to 1 Student to Faculty
82% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at Rice it is much better at 6 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Rice University is 82%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  82 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Rice University

98% Freshmen Retention
85% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 98% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Rice University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  98 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Rice for first-time, full-time students is 85%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  85 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Rice University.

Rice University Undergraduate Student Diversity

3,960 Full-Time Undergraduates
56.5% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
47.8% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 4,076 undergraduates at Rice with 3,960 being full-time and 116 being part-time.

How Much Does Rice University Cost?

$15,091 Net Price
8% Take Out Loans
$43,272 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Rice is $15,091. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Rice

$0-30 K$30K-48K$48-75$75-110K$110K +
$5,292$4,126$6,905$13,245$43,636

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Rice, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Rice, approximately 8% of students took out student loans averaging $10,818 a year. That adds up to $43,272 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for Rice University.

How Much Money Do Rice Graduates Make?

$89,718 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Rice make around $89,718 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future Rice graduates since it is 82% more than the average college graduate's salary of $49,219 per year.

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See which majors at Rice University make the most money.

Location of Rice University

Texas State
3,960 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Rice University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Houston, Texas. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of Rice University.

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Contact details for Rice are given below.

Contact Details
Address:6100 S Main St, Houston, TX 77005-1827
Phone:713-348-0000
Website:www.rice.edu/

Rice University Majors

68 Majors With Completions
5,190 Undergraduate Degrees
5,190 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 68 majors graduated from Rice University. Of these students, 5,190 received undergraduate degrees and 5,190 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular MajorsBachelor’s DegreesAverage Salary of Graduates
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods604NA
Computer Information Systems197$131,154
Economics113$78,814
Music105NA
Health & Physical Education104$51,110
General Psychology95$41,299
Mechanical Engineering88$82,899
Biomedical Engineering84$88,307
Statistics71NA
Chemistry71NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Rice University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Rice

10% Take At Least One Class Online
6% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2022-2023, 910 students took at least one online class at Rice University. This is a decrease from the 2,696 students who took online classes the previous year.

YearTook at Least One Online ClassTook All Classes Online
2022-2023910498
2021-20222,696511
2020-20217,101418
2018-201912844

Learn more about online learning at Rice University.

If you’re considering Rice University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Rice? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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