Minority Interest in Rice for Fall 1996 Increases

CONTACT: Mike Cinelli
PHONE: (713) 831-4795

MINORITY INTEREST IN RICE FOR FALL 1996 INCREASES

The Rice University Admission Office expects
to have a higher percentage of underrepresented minority students in
the 1996 freshman class than in any previous year.
The number of underrepresented minority students who have
committed to attend Rice this fall increased significantly over
minority students committed at this time last year.
If this trend holds, based on the numbers at hand, the Admission
Office expects the number of underrepresented minority students in
the 1996 freshman class could be 13-15 percent higher than in 1995,
Rice officials said.

Preliminary figures from Rice’s Office of Admission also show
that the yield-the number of students committing to attend Rice from
among the number of students offered admission-will increase to 39
percent for incoming African American freshmen, up 9 percent from
1995, and to 43 percent for incoming Mexican American freshmen, up
11 percent from 1995. The number of Native Americans accepting
admission to Rice for the fall semester is up by 20 percent.

“Once again, we have recruited one of the most capable entering
classes in the nation, without sacrificing a single one of our long-standing admissions goals,” said university president Malcolm
Gillis.

“This happy outcome stems first from the extremely high quality
of our applicant pool, whether minorities or otherwise,” Gillis
said. “Second, it reflects our determination to maintain admissions
policies best suited for Rice, not some other university. Finally,
the persuasiveness and resourcefulness of our own students in
recruiting resulted in a much higher yield on minority admissions.
The results vindicate our policies.”

Rice had a total of 7,002 applicants for 674 positions in the
class of 2000, entering the university this fall. Overall,
applications to attend Rice for the fall 1996 semester increased by
3 percent over last year’s applications. Within the overall
increase, applications from African Americans increased by 29
percent, and applications from Mexican Americans increased by 10
percent. Of all students admitted, 37 percent have already put down
deposits to enroll this fall.

“We are pleased by the response to our offers of admission for
the class of 2000,” said Julie Browning, director of admission.
“Once again, Rice’s freshman class will be among the strongest, most
diverse classes in the country. We admitted only 23 percent of those
who applied, and our yield of minority students is up. Students,
faculty, administrators and alumni all responded generously to our
office’s request for help in the recruitment process, and their
efforts have yielded an outstanding class. We responded as a unified
community.”

Ironically, the Hopwood decision, a ruling by the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals that prohibits the use of race as a factor in
admission decisions, may have played a role in increasing Rice’s
minority yield, said Chandler Davidson, a Rice sociology professor
and chair of the Admission Committee.

“Students, faculty, staff, administration and the committee were eager not to allow Hopwood to undercut minority recruitment,”
Davidson said. “While we scrupulously obeyed the law as interpreted
by the Hopwood opinion, we reached out to those minority students
whom we accepted, and we succeeded in getting a yield that was
unusually high. This has been our best year so far in attracting
underrepresented minority applicants, and there’s a good chance
we’ll get the strongest minority enrollment we’ve ever had at Rice.”

Overall, current statistics show the class of 2000 as 52 percent
white, 15 percent Asian American, 10 percent Mexican American, 8
percent African American, 1.5 percent Native American and 1.5
percent “other Hispanic.” Some 11 percent elected not to report
their race or ethnicity or identified themselves as “other.”
Currently, the Admission Office expects a freshman class makeup
of about 48 percent women and 52 percent men, representing 46 states
and 11 foreign countries.

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