Rice’s Largest Class of Freshmen Arrives for O-Week

By B.J. Almond

The entering class of freshmen that arrived for 2007 O-Week is one for the record books.

In addition to being Rice’s largest group of first-year students, the 742 freshmen were selected from the largest applicant pool in Rice’s history — 8,972 students.

The incoming class represents a 4 percent increase over the 715 freshmen enrolled last year and demonstrates Rice’s commitment to gradually expanding undergraduate enrollment by 30 percent as part of the Vision for the Second Century.

There are other distinguishing features of the newcomers to Rice, as well:

•  Underrepresented minorities account for 20 percent of the new class — a figure that has been on the rise over the past few years. For example, the 57 African-American freshmen represent a 50 percent increase over the 38 in last year’s class.

•  Forty-eight percent are Texans, and 45 percent are from other parts of the U.S. or are U.S. citizens living abroad. Seven percent are foreign nationals. The latter is a 15 percent increase over the number of first-year foreign nationals in last year’s entering class and reflects the V2C goal of Rice becoming a more internationally focused university.

•  There are 397 males and 347 females in the entering class. One factor that contributed significantly to the higher number of males was an 18 percent increase in the number of students planning to major in engineering, a field traditionally dominated by men.

•  The SAT middle 50 percent score range for the incoming class is 1,330 to 1,500; the ACT middle 50 percent score range is 29 to 34. Seventy percent of the students were in the top 5 percent of their high school class.

•  Eighty percent of the freshmen were involved in some form of community service in high school.

•  Forty percent speak more than one language.

•  Thirty-three percent served as president of a club or other organization.

•  Fifty-eight percent were varsity athletes.

“The class of 2011 brings a high degree of academic achievement and intellectual vitality,” said Chris Muñoz, vice president for enrollment. “Their contributions to school, family and community are significant. We are delighted to welcome them to Rice.”