Private nonprofit · Houston, TX
Rice University
8,332 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 3,475: about 41.7 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 4,857 live somewhere the college doesn't control. That is the outer edge of the private market, before you take out commuters and students living with family.
Enrollment
Of 8,961 students enrolled in fall 2024, 4,789 were undergraduates and 4,172 graduate students. 6% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 405 from fall 2023 (+4.7%).
Housing the college controls
IPEDS counts 3,475 beds of institutionally controlled housing for 2024-25. That figure is the school's own capacity, on or off campus, so it includes halls the college leases or manages but not private buildings that simply market to students. Capacity shrank by 2 beds from the year before (3,477 in 2023-24).
What students pay
The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $12,000 for the academic year, roughly $1,333 a month spread over nine months. Food added $6,100. For aid purposes the school budgets $18,100 for food and housing on campus and $18,100 for a student living off campus away from family, the same amount.
Those are the college's own figures. Private by-the-bed rents near campus can sit well above or below them, so check current asking rents before you underwrite a project.
How lenders read a campus like this
At 8,961 students the campus is below the 10,000-student minimum in Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide for Dedicated Student Housing (Part III, Chapter 1, section 103.01). Freddie Mac has no stated enrollment floor, but its own product summary says most of its student housing loans are at schools with 15,000 or more students. Banks, debt funds and conventional multifamily programs are the likelier lenders here.
To size a specific property, use the student housing loan sizer. It works by the bed and shows which constraint sets the loan.
Among the 50 Texas campuses on this site, Rice University ranks number 30 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Texas table.
Other campuses in Houston
- Houston City College: 17,150 full-time, 0 beds
- Texas Southern University: 7,366 full-time, 2,081 beds
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: 3,367 full-time, 0 beds
- University of Houston: 35,889 full-time, 8,397 beds
- University of Houston-Clear Lake: 3,918 full-time, 552 beds
- University of Houston-Downtown: 6,028 full-time, 0 beds
- University of St Thomas: 3,029 full-time, 565 beds
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Total enrollment, fall 2024 | 8,961 |
| Total enrollment, fall 2023 | 8,556 |
| Full-time students | 8,332 |
| Undergraduates (full-time) | 4,789 (4,684) |
| Graduate students | 4,172 |
| Exclusively online | 6% |
| College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-25 | 3,475 |
| Capacity, 2023-24 | 3,477 |
| Beds per 100 full-time students | 41.7 |
| Typical housing charge, academic year | $12,000 |
| Typical food charge, academic year | $6,100 |
| Aid budget, food and housing on campus | $18,100 |
| Aid budget, food and housing off campus | $18,100 |
| All first-time, full-time students required to live in college housing | No |
| Combined food and housing charge (if not split) | not reported |
IPEDS unit ID 227757. Harris County. School website. Figures are as the institution reported them to the National Center for Education Statistics. The live-on question asks whether every first-time, full-time student must live in college housing; a school with exemptions or a later-year requirement can answer no. How this data is built.