Rice acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Rice admitted 2,948 of 36,791 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 8.0%. Every number below comes from the college’s own Common Data Set, each year linked to its document; a figure the college leaves blank says “Not published”, and the notes at the foot of the page say where a total is the sum of rows the college printed.
What did admitted applicants have? How to get into Rice counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Rice acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 36,791 | 2,948 | 8.0% | 1,263 | 42.8% |
| 2024-25 | 32,473 | 2,597 | 8.0% | 1,148 | 44.2% |
| 2023-24 | 31,059 | 2,447 | 7.9% | 1,125 | 46.0% |
Acceptance rate is admitted divided by applied; yield is enrolled divided by admitted. Both are computed by Aristo Scholars from the two counts printed beside them.
Early decision at Rice
Rice waitlist
Rice SAT and ACT scores
What Rice says matters in admission
In section C7 each college rates its own admission factors as Very Important, Important, Considered or Not Considered. These are the factors Rice rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: None recorded
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: None recorded
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: None recorded
Rice testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Rice recommends, but does not require, that first-year and transfer applicants submit SAT or ACT scores if available.
From Rice’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
The 2025-26 document is marked 'Updated 10-7-2026'. 2024-25 totals are the residency table totals. C7 rates no factor Important.
Rice acceptance rate questions
- What is the Rice acceptance rate?
- Rice's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 36,791 first-year applicants and 2,948 admitted, an acceptance rate of 8.0%. It was 8.0% in 2024-25 and 7.9% in 2023-24.
- What is the Rice early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 647 of 5,748 early decision applicants were admitted (11.3%), against 8.0% of all applicants. Early decision applicants are a different pool who commit to enroll, so the two rates are not a like-for-like comparison.
- What SAT scores do Rice students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1510 to 1560, and ACT submitters scored 34 to 36. 59.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Rice waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Rice offered 3,196 applicants a place on the waitlist; 2,204 accepted one, and 66 were admitted from it.
- Does Rice require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Rice recommends, but does not require, that first-year and transfer applicants submit SAT or ACT scores if available.
Applying to Rice?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Rice says it weighs.
Source: Rice Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Rice. All official acceptance rates