Rice welcomes newest Owls, largest freshman class during O-week

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– August 13, 2009Posted in: Current News

Rice welcomes newest Owls, largest freshman class during O-week

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

Rice University will welcome a new parliament of Owls this weekend when members of the Class of 2013 hit campus for O-week, a seven-day orientation program designed to acquaint students with their new campus, residential colleges and classroom cohorts.

More than 900 freshmen will be moving into Rice’s residential colleges on Sunday. There to welcome them will be upperclassmen and athletes continuing the move-in day tradition of helping with the heavy lifting. See photos from last year’s move-in day here.

The week begins Aug. 16 with move-in day, when students will settle into one of the 11 residential colleges to which they’ve been randomly assigned. Many of the students will be moving into Rice’s two new colleges, Duncan and McMurtry, construction of which was completed just this summer.

Kicking off the week aimed at helping new students transition to academic and social life at Rice will be the matriculation ceremony at which President David Leebron and faculty members will officially welcome the incoming class of 904 students.

This is Rice’s largest group of first-year students, surpassing last year’s record-breaking number by more than 100. The students were selected from the largest applicant pool in Rice’s history, 11,173. The incoming class is almost 14 percent larger than last year’s, putting Rice’s Vision for the Second Century (V2C) plan for a 30 percent expansion of the undergraduate student body ahead of schedule.


O-Week
Get the full schedule and latest information for Rice University’s Orientation Week
“It’s not just the quantity of students entering Rice this year that is impressive, but also the quality and the diversity, ethnically and geographically,” said Chris Muñoz, vice president for enrollment. “We have students from foreign countries that have never been represented at Rice, bringing unique cultures and histories to the university and enriching the educational experience for all.”

Among other distinguishing characteristics of Rice’s Class of 2013:

— Underrepresented minorities make up almost 20 percent.

— The number of Mexican-American, Chicano, Hispanic and Latino students increased by almost 20 percent over last year.

— More than 7 percent of the students are African-American, sustaining the growth from the previous year.

— Thirteen percent are foreign-nationals, an increase of 67 percent from last year, reflecting Rice’s V2C goal of becoming a more internationally focused university.

— The number of U.S. students from outside of Texas is up by almost 17 percent over last year. About 44 percent of the entering class is from Texas. More than 40 percent of the incoming class are from other parts of the U.S. or are U.S. citizens living abroad.

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