Quote:Rice University has seen a 15 percent rise in the number of applications for admission in fall 2014, the largest year-to-year increase in the institution’s history. Currently at 17,715, the number of applications has nearly doubled since 2007. The university, which has increased the size of its undergraduate student body by 30 percent over that period of time, plans to admit 945 freshman students in the fall.

http://news.rice.edu/2014/02/27/rice-app...-record-2/

Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

Wonder if that will bump up our US News Rating?

Surely they must mean they plan to enroll 945, which means they have to admit more than that.

Regardless -- 17715! Wow.

(02-27-2014 11:24 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

The CUSA Championship and Liberty Bowl appearance, no doubt.

Looks like the admit rate might drop all the way 12%- half of what it was for my class just 6 years ago.

(02-27-2014 11:35 AM)talon owl Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 11:24 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

The CUSA Championship and Liberty Bowl appearance, no doubt.

I wouldn't be surprised if that helped.

But we also had a good year with recognition on multiple fronts for things like OEDK, the Forbes Under 40, and Zack Kopplin and creationism.

(02-27-2014 11:35 AM)talon owl Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 11:24 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

The CUSA Championship and Liberty Bowl appearance, no doubt.

There must have been a lot of application in the final three weeks of December.

(02-27-2014 11:35 AM)talon owl Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 11:24 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

The CUSA Championship and Liberty Bowl appearance, no doubt.

+1

Though certainly our reasonable opening against a highly regarded (even if they didn't turn out so great) A&M and Manziel.

It's not as if these kids sat around and said,... where should I apply? Well, who won the Liberty Bowl?? It's the more frequent mentions on TV, and our game against A&M... plus A&M's issues going into it (both positive and negative) certainly helped (imo).

(02-27-2014 11:24 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

Maybe it's the crappy winter we've had up north

The common application and on-line application availability, which makes it easier and easier to apply to many elite schools, with the hope that you can get into one?

I think we need to see the acceptance rate by those that get offers, to see whether we are really doing better.

If we are just a more popular safety school for those students who are seeking to go to an Ivy or Stanford, we are not making progess.

(02-27-2014 12:33 PM)owlsfan Wrote:  The common application and on-line application availability, which makes it easier and easier to apply to many elite schools, with the hope that you can get into one?

I think we need to see the acceptance rate by those that get offers, to see whether we are really doing better.

If we are just a more popular safety school for those students who are seeking to go to an Ivy or Stanford, we are not making progess.

I agree that you're right that the acceptance rate by those admitted is important, but I'd argue that we are still making progress if we are becoming a more popular safety school. The more that people associate us with the Ivies and Stanford, the better.

Now if we were becoming the safety school application for people applying to Wash U, Emory, and Vanderbilt, then I would be concerned.

So much for the earlier discussion about the damage Rice has done with the increase in tuition/fees.

As I understand it, the reason we have had a skyrocket in tuition/fees (and the subsequent massive increase in the endowment) is because you score better if you charge 50,000 for tuition and the average student only pays 20k than you do if you charge everyone 20k. I suspect it is because 50/20 also gives a school more leeway in social engineering. I don't say that as a bad thing... merely as a statement.

I think the Common Application has helped Rice's application numbers. I think there is also a more significant effort by the Rice Admission Office to market Rice and thus to solicit applications.

I believe Wash U. improved its USNWR rankings using this path: get a bunch of high schoolers to apply--regardless of whether they would have the scores to get in or to succeed--as a way of increasing the number of applicants and decreasing the rate of admission.

My guess is that there is also a "trickle down" effect. The most desirable schools are all seeing increases in applications--Harvard's admission rate is now under 6% or something silly. There's just a wider demand for admission to elite schools, partially spurred, I think, by the schools getting much more aggressive (generous) with financial aid. Schools that once seemed financially unreachable now seem a little more accessible to a wider pool of people. As demand for the Harvards, Princetons, and Yales grows, there are more Harvard/Princeton/Yale applications, which means more Harvard/Princeton/Yale rejections. These kids then look to the next tier of schools, including places like Vandy, Rice, Duke, Chicago, etc.

(02-27-2014 01:52 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  As I understand it, the reason we have had a skyrocket in tuition/fees (and the subsequent massive increase in the endowment) is because you score better if you charge 50,000 for tuition and the average student only pays 20k than you do if you charge everyone 20k. I suspect it is because 50/20 also gives a school more leeway in social engineering. I don't say that as a bad thing... merely as a statement.

From what I've gleaned, financial aid has indeed been increased dollar for dollar with the increase for those who need it so, as Hambone points out, actual increase in tuition outlay for the average student lags list price increase.

I'm not on an inner circle of info here, but as I understand it, a couple of reasons for increasing tuition include: 1) As we expand our global reach we've also had an increase in the number of international students. We're now up to 10% of the student body I believe. Pretty much all of them pay @ list price, so no need to subsidize tuition for them more than we already do (Even list tuition is subsidized) 2) For some parents, especially in the NE, apparently cheap sticker can equate to cheap quality. When we were zero tutition, that was unique (see: Webb Institute of Naval Technology or Cooper Union - although even Cooper is recently no longer free). When we were $4,000 vs. $12,000 in the 80's, that was a huge difference in both absolute and percentages. In 2014 the percentages aren't enough to make a huge perception difference in the "wow what a steal" category, but do hurt us with those equating price with quality.

I also believe we annually spend a higher percentage of our endowment than most any other comparable university does, which has the net effect of decreasing growth in endowment vs. other comparable universities (unless we outperform them on investments or fundraising), leading to a long-term reduction in money thrown off from the endowment and so on... Increasing tuition for those who can theoretically afford it is one way of managing the spend.

Kids seem to be applying to 10-12 schools these days. Just 4 years ago, when my daughter was a high school senior, I think the average range was less, like 8-10. (Does Rice charge a non-refundable admissions application fee?)

Here in the SF Bay Area, for the first time there were more requests for alumni interviews than the volunteers could accommodate. For those I interviewed this year, the attractions were the high quality of specific academic programs (e.g., linguistics, astrophysics, public policy, pre-med (as always)) and the possibility of good financial aid/value. Every year, admissions folks visit some of the top high schools in the area and host information events, which also bumps up recognition and applications from the top students. Of course, the deeper they dig, the better Rice appears, which also helps.

Even mid-level private schools charge $50K, and with California's public universities ranging from $20K (CSUs, but its rare to get all the classes you need to graudate in four years) to $40K (UCs), with little financial aid ... it doesn't take much financial aid for Rice to win.

BTW, the admissions term for "the acceptance rate by those that get offers" is "yield".

For perspective, I just checked the increases at a few other schools - Had expected to see similar numbers there, but was pleasantly surprised to see we outpaced the lot.

University of Pennsylvania +14 % increase
Yale + 4%
Brown + 4%
Duke +3%
Northwestern +1%,
Princeton +0.4%,
Columbia -(-1.5%)
Harvard - (-2%)
Univ. of Chicago (-9.5%)

(02-27-2014 04:11 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  For perspective, I just checked the increases at a few other schools - Had expected to see similar numbers there, but was pleasantly surprised to see we outpaced the lot.

University of Pennsylvania +14 % increase
Yale + 4%
Brown + 4%
Duke +3%
Northwestern +1%,
Princeton +0.4%,
Columbia -(-1.5%)
Harvard - (-2%)
Univ. of Chicago (-9.5%)

I wonder if U of Chicago's reputation for being the place where fun goes to die is causing that dive.

(02-27-2014 11:35 AM)talon owl Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 11:24 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Wow, that's quite an increase. Wonder what has spurred it.

The CUSA Championship and Liberty Bowl appearance, no doubt.

Hey, it worked for Buy-ler....