I know that a majority of Rice’s applicants come from within Texas. And 43% of the class is from Texas. Does admissions favor out-of-state applicants in an attempt to promote geographic diversity?
Does a Californian or an Alaskan have a better chance than a Texan?
Yes, it is generally thought that is a little harder for a Texas student and a Houston area student especially to get accepted into Rice than someone who is not from Texas.
Texas is a big state and Rice is a smaller school, Rice could theoretically fill up their entire freshman class with top performing Texas seniors. Obviously they don’t want to do this and value geographic diversity.
It is generally more difficult for any school (not just Rice) to recruit “long distance” students, as opposed to “locals” (where “local” = “within a few hundred miles”). Locals are more likely to be familiar with a given school, more likely to apply, and more likely to visit; they are also more likely to enroll if accepted (schools call this the “yield”).
If out-of-staters are a minority of Rice applicants, but a majority of enrolled students, then obviously something is going on. There are two possibilities: either (a) the acceptance rate for out-of-staters is higher than it is for Texans, and/or (b) the yield rate for out-of-staters is higher than it is for Texans. Option (b) is unlikely, because yield rates are normally higher for locals, as noted above. So that leaves option (a).
Other private schools do exactly the same thing, it’s not just Rice. For example, Texans would likely have an out-of-state advantage at a school like Lehigh, which is flooded with applications from the locals in the tri-state area of PA/NY/NJ.
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