Rice Facts

Glossary

Undergraduate Admission

Applicant:

A prospective student becomes an applicant when the Common Application and the Rice Supplement have been completed and submitted by the deadline, with the application fee, or a request for a fee waiver has been granted. Application numbers are provided by the Office of the Vice President for Enrollment.

Accepted:

Undergraduate student admitted to the institution under Early or Regular Decision Plan. Acceptance numbers are provided by the Office of the Vice President for Enrollment.

Entered:

A student who has matriculated into and is enrolled for classes in an undergraduate degree program as of the official enrollment date of the fall semester. The official enrollment date for fall 2010 is  August 23, 2010. Entering student numbers are provided by the Office of the Vice President for Enrollment.

Class of:

Year entering undergraduates will graduate, which is calculated as 4 academic years from the time they have entered.

SAT:

All freshman applicants must take either the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and two SAT Subject Tests in fields related to their proposed area of study or the ACT with the writing test. Rice uses the highest scores from any sitting of the SAT and/or ACT in order to consider each applicant's most positive test result. ACT scores are re-calibrated into SAT scores using a specific and standardized methodology.The ACT does not condone splitting and combining subscores from multiple sittings, therefore, it is Rice's policy to use the highest ACT composite score in admission consideration.

SAT 25th Percentile:

25% of the entering class scored less than this figure.

SAT 75th Percentile:

25% of the entering class scored more than this figure.

Ethnicity

• African-American: Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
• Asian-American: Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Asian is considered any person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander is any person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
• Hispanic-American: Hispanic or Latino. A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
• Native-American: American Indian or Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North or South America (including Central American) who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community attachment.
• Multiracial: A person of two or more racial groups.
• White: Caucasian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
• Not Reported/Not Designated: Race or Ethnicity information was not provided by the individual.
• International: A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who has not been admitted as a legal immigrant for the purpose of obtaining permanent resident alien status. An international student (aka foreign national or non-resident alien) is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely.

Office of Admission 

Enrollment and Degrees Awarded

Enrollment:

Enrollment data are taken from the Registrar's Report to the President. Fall enrollment data for this report is captured on the census date which is October 1st of each year.

Undergraduate:

An undergraduate student is a student who has matriculated into and is enrolled in a bachelor's degree program. Undergraduate students participating in various study abroad programs or who are on leave are not included in the enrollment count for the Registrar's Report to the President.

Degree-seeking:

Students enrolled in courses for credit who are recognized as seeking a degree or formal award. At the undergraduate level, this is intended to include students enrolled in vocational or occupational programs.

Professional:

Professional students are those who have already earned a four-year baccalaureate degree and currently are pursuing either a Bachelor of Architecture or Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. They are not counted as graduate students. Students enrolled in other professional programs (such as non-thesis master's) are counted as graduate students.

Graduate:

A student who has matriculated into and is enrolled in a master's or doctoral program.

Master's Program:

Those students enrolled in a terminal master's program. Includes intended and declared pursue a master's level program. Whenever this number also includes undergraduate professionals, it is so noted.

Full-time Status:

Undergraduate full-time status is less than or equal to 12 credit hours. Undergraduate Professional or Graduate full-time status  is greater than or equal to 9 credit hours.

Part-time Status:

Undergraduate part-time status is less than or equal to 11 credit hours but more than 3 hours. Undergraduate Professional or Graduate part-time status is less than or equal to 8 credit hours but more than 3 hours.

Full-time Equivalent (FTE):

Total FTE enrollment includes full-time plus 1/3 of part-time.

Geographic Origin:

Reflects home location as reported by students which may differ from home location at time of admission. These enrollment data are from the Office of the Registrar.

U.S. Students:

All 50 states, the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and U.S. military bases abroad represented.

Undergraduate Degrees:

Some students are awarded more than one degree. Students with multiple degrees are counted in each degree category.

Professional Degrees:

Includes professional students, who have already earned a four-year baccalaureate degree and currently pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture; other professional programs (such as non-thesis master's) are officially considered graduate degrees.

Office of the Registrar 

Cost and Financial Aid

Undergraduate Mandatory Fees:

Required fees for undergraduates which consist of student activities, student recreation center fees, and medical insurance.

Graduate Mandatory Fees:

Required fees for graduates which consist of a graduate student association, student organizational fund, and Honor Council.

Jones School Mandatory Fees:

Required Fees for the Jones Graduate School of Business which includes a student activity fee and materials fee.

Financial Aid:

Data is provided by the office of Student Financial Services.

Cashier 

Office of Financial Aid 

Faculty

Full-time Faculty:

The full-time faculty figures reflect each faculty member's rank, but exclude deans and other faculty with administrative appointments.

Lectures:

The number of full-time lecturers includes professors in the practice and senior lecturers. (Professor in the practice is a nontenure-track, nontenure-eligible faculty appointment established to fill specific and important programmatic instructional needs of the university.)

Tenured/Tenure-Track:

Refers to the permanence of status within a faculty rank. The rank of Professor and Associate Professor normally shall carry continuing tenure. In those cases where promotion to Professor or Associate Professor is without tenure, the total length of appointment in Professional ranks (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and/or Professor) without tenure shall not exceed nine years. The rank of Assistant Professor at Rice normally does not carry tenure. The rank of Instructor is a nontenured position. Adjunct and visiting appointments, such as unranked titles of Lecturer, Artist Teacher, Artist in Residence, Critic and Preceptor, shall not carry continuing tenure and are used for special appointment of various types.

Rice University Faculty Policy No. 201-87  

Terminal Degree:

The highest degree in a field. Example - M.Arch (master of architecture) and MFA (master of fine arts).

Alumni

Rice Alumni:

All students who have completed two semesters of study in degree programs at the university are Rice alumni.

Alumni in the U.S.:

Includes all 50 states, the District of Colombia (Washington, D.C.), Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and U.S. military bases abroad.

Resources

Research Revenues:

Figures include direct expenses and facilities and administrative cost recovery and exclude amounts received by student financial services for financial aid purposes.

Endowment:

The permanent capital of the university, established to provide a perpetual source of revenue for current operations and certain capital needs.

Gifts by Fund:

Current use restricted included gifts from private foundations in support of research.

Budget:

The consolidated budget is the university's operating budget. It includes research grants. Budget date are provided by the Budget Office and approved by the Board of Trustees.

Rice Financial Statements 

Administration

Faculty Senate:

The Faculty Senate a representative body of the university faculty formed to investigate, discuss, and decide on matters concerning the academic affairs of the University.

University Council:

University Council serves as a representative and consultative committee of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students. The president of the university is the presiding office of the Council.

Board of Trustees:

The governing board of the university. The president of the university also serves as an ex-officio member of the board.

Staff:

Rice non-faculty employees. These data are from the Rice Human Resources Banner Database.