The semi-annual letter from Rice president Malcolm Gillis just showed up in my mailbox. The letter isn’t published to the Rice website, yet, but click on alumni letters on the Office of the President’s page if you care to see old alumni letters and eventually, the fall 2002 letter. In addition to pointing out the top ranking in Seventeen Magazine, he notes the following awards and results for Rice this year:
- Named “Best Academic Bang for the Buck” by Princeton Review
- U.S. News top five colleges for educational value
- Fiske Guide to Colleges – Best Buy
- USA Today/NCAA Academic Achievement Award for highest graduation rate of student-athletes among Division I-A schools: 91 percent
- Second lowest student-to-faculty ratio (after Caltech)
- Full-time faculty teach 96% of undergrad classes
- Despite the Hopwood decision that prohibited most affirmative action programs, the student body diversity has returned to a level close to before the Hopwood decision
- Student tuition is only 40% of actual cost of undergraduate education
- Ranked second among private universities for lowest debt per student