Rice University Tries to Get the Jump on Its Peer Institutions by Holding an Early Recruitment Weekend for Accepted Minority Students

Many selective colleges and universities hold minority recruitment weekends in April. Most of these schools send out acceptance letters around the first of April. They then invite accepted black students to campus in an effort to persuade them to enroll.

Rice University doesn’t wait. It sent out acceptance letters to many minority students in early February. It then holds its Visions Weekend for accepted minority students later in the month. This year more than 160 black and other minority students came to Houston to attend class and get a taste for campus life. Rice pays transportation costs for students from out of town who want to attend Visions Weekend. Rice reports that about one half of all students who attend Visions Weekend eventually decide to enroll at Rice.