Rice ranked number 2 among top universities for Hispanics

CONTACT: Lia Unrau

PHONE: (713)
348-6778

EMAIL: unrau@rice.edu

RICE RANKED
NUMBER 2 AMONG TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR HISPANICS
Rice Second on List
of Hispanic Magazine’s Top 25

Hispanic
magazine has ranked Rice University number two in the nation among schools that
are succeeding in recruiting and retaining Hispanic students.

In its March issue,
the magazine selected the top 25 colleges and universities for Hispanics and
ranked them according to the number of Hispanic students, Hispanics graduating
rates, Hispanics-related degree programs, Hispanic student organizations,
recruiting and minority support programs, and Hispanic faculty. Academic
excellence was also considered.

University of
California-Berkeley was ranked number one, while Florida International
University in Miami placed third, followed by Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and Stanford University in fifth place. Last year, the first year of
the magazine’s rankings, Rice placed fourth.

The magazine
applauded schools such as Rice for using more creative methods in maintaining a
diverse student body in the wake of the Hopwood decision, which banned the use
of race in admissions and financial aid for Texas institutions.

“Even though Rice is
a private school and not state-run, we still began to employ more creative
recruiting methods-like looking at a student’s personal and academic
profile-while doubling our efforts to recruit Hispanics,” Rice recruiter Peter
Guzman said in the article.

Among the sources
that Hispanic used in compiling the list were Hispanic Outlook in
Higher Education; Top 100:The Colleges Best for Hispanics, and
U.S. News &World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges,
1999.”