Rice University students from Baker College sing and chant as they welcome students back to school in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. Rice welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students from Baker College sing and chant as they welcome students back to school in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. Rice welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Eli Lindenbaum, of New York, left, is helped by his mom, Jamie Gordon, organize his room while moving into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Nat Pujet, of Boulder, Colo., moves into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students carry their belongings as they move into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students come back to school on move-in day on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. Rice welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students from McMurtry College carry their belongings on move-in day in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. Rice welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students carry their belongings as they move into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Helen Gong arrives to school on move-in day at Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Matt Miller, of White Salmon, Wash., right, is helped by his mom, Becky Williams, organize his room while moving into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students unload cars as they move into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Matt Miller, of White Salmon, Wash., right, is helped by his mom, Becky Williams, organize his room while moving into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Aalya Jha, of Louisville, Ky., unpacks her belongings with her parents Mili and Manish as she moves into her room at Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University student Aalya Jha, of Louisville, Ky., unpacks her belongings with her dad, Manish, as she moves into her room at Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University students carry their belongings as they move into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice University used to be a fairly quiet campus, but lately, President Reginald DesRoches has noticed a livelier energy during the passing periods.
The change stems from a major growth campaign, which has added 1,500 students, more than 200 tenure-track professors and eight new or renovated buildings over the last five years. University officials say they’re making a statement: as highly selective U.S. schools are accused of gatekeeping degrees to all but a few, an increasing number of people are getting access to a Rice education.
“You don’t see very many schools adding more seats to their student body like we are,” DesRoches said in an interview. “We have been changing the narrative.”
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This month, another record-breaking freshman class swooped on the oak-lined campus for the fall semester. It was a typically jubilant move-in day for Rice, filled with cheers from returning students who greeted their new peers. But enthusiasm was particularly strong at Rice’s newest residential college, which the university opened to meet the growing student body.
Rice enrolls almost 9,200 students, with a goal of 9,500. The amount is staggering when DesRoches remembers where Rice started with 7,500 students when former President David Leebron announced the initiative in spring 2021. (Current enrollment figures are preliminary.)
The university experienced some growing pains during the process, including frequent construction and concerns from current and former students who worried the growth might change Rice’s quirky culture. But school officials said they rapidly boosted infrastructure and faculty hiring so they could protect the student experience.
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Five years into the project, Rice boasts the same ratio of six undergraduates for every faculty member. Rice has expanded the “Rice Investment,” a loan-free financial aid program that has granted students more than $1 billion since 2019. And it has remained competitive, with an even lower acceptance rate than before, at almost 8%.
Freshman Raymundo Martinez, from Edinburg in the Rio Grande Valley, was one of 38,000 people who applied to Rice for this fall. He was anxious about his odds, but when he got the acceptance letter, he knew all of his hard work had paid off.
“Essentially a dream come true,” Martinez said.
Physical transformation
Rice University students carry their belongings as they move into Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
On a weekend in mid-August, clusters of students jumped up and down at Rice’s main entrance, welcoming the freshmen and drawing some honks from parents dropping their kids off at their new home.
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This year, the 1,400 new students — 1,350 first-years and 50 transfers — added to a general feeling of excitement at Rice, several undergraduates said. Some of that came from physical changes on campus.
“The new business building, being in this new Chao College … it’s really nice to see,” senior Joanna Zhao said. “I’m really excited for the next generation on campus.”
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Rice’s physical expansion has been extensive, though DesRoches said the university has maintained its green space, sometimes by tearing down older buildings to make way for newer, taller ones.
In the last few years, Rice has opened new academic buildings for architecture, arts and engineering, and a redesigned quad. This fall, it opened two dormitories, which house the relocated Lovett College and the new Chao College, the 12th residential college on campus. Rice will soon open a new business school building, and construction on a new student center is underway.
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More changes will come with a 13th college, though a timeline hasn’t been announced. The university is also working on a landscaping project to better connect the school to the Rice Village shopping center, including a renovation of the historic Rice Stadium. In Midtown, a tech and innovation hub called the Ion opened in 2021 and will continue to expand, DesRoches said.
Several faculty members said they felt Rice has kept its most defining features, despite the construction and other activity.
“It’s still a kind of intimate environment,” said Leo Costello, associate professor of art history. “We’re still going to have pretty small classes. We’re still going to have the residential system … It’s been gratifying to see that this expansion has been done kind of thoughtfully, with those things in mind.”
Rice University student Santiago Alvarado Flores, of Tampico, Mexico, left, is helped by his brother, Oscar, to organize his room as he moves in at Chao College, the newest residential building on campus, in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The new college opened this semester to meet the needs of a growing student population at Rice, which welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Some students are less certain that Rice can grow without changing the student experience.
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“Having a really larger student body can make it difficult to preserve the unique culture of Rice,” senior Nat Pujet said.
Pujet is involved in the effort to make sure that the new college can integrate into the existing environment. The residential colleges serve as more than dorms — they are tight-knit communities that help carry out Rice’s traditions. So far, Pujet said, Chao “does feel like the same Rice.”
Freshman Santiago Alvarado Flores unpacked his belongings at Chao during move-in. Since students often become deeply attached to their residential colleges, he said he was initially nervous about joining one without an established identity on campus. Now he sees it differently.
“It’s up to us to create the culture all the others already have,” said Alvarado Flores, who is from Tamaulipas, Mexico. “It’ll give us more initiative, especially as the first to have a full connection to it.”
‘More people who look like me’
Rice University students from Baker College sing and chant as they welcome students back to school in Houston, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. Rice welcomed its largest ever freshman class this fall with about 1,350 freshmen and 50 transfer students.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Rice’s original goal was 9,000 students, and officials upped it to 9,500 when they met the mark. That will stretch the undergraduate student population to 5,200, a 30% increase from 4,000 students in fall 2020. The graduate student population also has a goal to grow to 4,300 students, up from more than 3,480 the same year.
Some students, faculty and university officials said they hope the expansion will make Rice home to a bigger cross-section of the community.
Rice’s undergraduate population last fall was 30% Asian, 8% Black, 16% Hispanic, 24% white, 13% international and 9% other. The graduate population skews more heavily international, at 39%.
“We’re allowing a lot of students who come from different backgrounds to actually have an opportunity to get into an institution like Rice,” said senior Chidalu Aniekwenagbu, of Lynn, Mass. “I’m also seeing more people who look like me on this campus.”
Rice rebranded its diversity, equity and inclusion office last year to serve more students. Affirmative action in college admissions has also been barred since a landmark Supreme Court decision. However, DesRoches, who was born in Haiti and raised in Queens, said that the institution still values serving people of all backgrounds.
Students who have historically struggled to navigate the college space are a particular focus as Rice grows. The university recently received a $25 million gift from trustee Jim Whitehurst and his wife, Lauren Whitehurst, to give all first-generation and limited-income students a fellowship that provides advising, mentorship and other college and career services.
Rice also increased its income cap for its free tuition program this summer, extending the benefit to undergraduates whose families earn up to $200,000 a year, starting in fall 2027.
“It’s about accessibility. It’s about affordability,” said DesRoches, who became president in 2022. “The Rice Investment expansion is to make sure, independent of your financial situation, that we have the ability to be successful at Rice. We want you here.”
Luis Duno Gottberg, a professor of Latin American studies, said he feels Rice is handling its growth the right way.
“It’s a growth that is accompanied by a vision of excellence,” he said. “Yes, we’re growing, but we’re not lowering standards. Yes, we’re having even better, higher standards, but we’re not excluding people. We’re including more people because we’re creating opportunities.”