Rice University

Houston, Texas · Founded 1912

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Testing policy

Test-optional

Rice recommends sending an SAT or ACT score but does not require one, and says in its own words that students who cannot or prefer not to submit 'will still be given full consideration'. The recommendation is not empty, though: in the same document Rice rates standardized test scores as 'very important' in its admission decisions - one of the few schools in this catalog to put them in the top band. If you have a score in Rice's range, sending it helps; if you do not, the file is read without it. U.S. high school students may self-report, with official scores required only on enrolling, and transfer applicants get the same recommendation. Source: admission.rice.edu Testing Policy and Common Data Set 2025-2026 C7/C8 (verified September 2026).

About

Rice is a research university the size of a liberal arts college. Just under six undergraduates per faculty member, no fraternities or sororities, and a residential college system that does the social work Greek life does elsewhere: you are randomly assigned to one of twelve colleges when you arrive and stay in it for four years, with a faculty magister living next door. Strength is concentrated in the sciences and engineering, but the same campus holds the Shepherd School of Music and one of the country's best-known architecture schools.

History

William Marsh Rice, a Houston merchant, chartered an institute in 1891 and left it a $4.6 million bequest - a fortune built in part on trade with plantations and on the labor of people he enslaved, a history the university now publishes plainly. He was murdered in 1900 by his butler and lawyer in an attempt to steal the estate; after the litigation ended, the Rice Institute opened in October 1912 with 77 students and about a dozen faculty. The original charter admitted only white students, and Rice did not desegregate until the 1960s - the first Black undergraduates arrived in 1965. It took its present name in 1960.

What stands out

Twelve residential colleges - you are assigned one and keep it for four years
No fraternities or sororities, and no honors college
About six undergraduates per faculty member
A 300-acre forested campus behind hedges in the middle of Houston
Beer Bike, a campus-wide relay race that has run since 1957

Popular majors

Computer ScienceBiosciencesMechanical EngineeringBusinessBioengineeringPsychologyKinesiologyCognitive SciencesNeuroscienceEconomics

Campus life

Everything runs through the residential colleges. Each has its own traditions, student government, intramural teams, plays and even college-designed courses, and the rivalry between them is the backbone of campus life. Beer Bike, a campus-wide relay that has run since 1957, is the year's biggest event and the colleges race it against each other. There are no fraternities, sororities, honors dorms or athlete dorms - the colleges do all of that work instead.