<p>Every single one of the top private universities will limit themselves to a few people from each school. However, this is completely done for a good cause. Living with people from other places, with a diversity of experiences is a big part of college. In order to get a mix of many areas, the admissions committee tries to not overload the class with people from one area. It sounds unjust that qualified people may not get in because there are too many applicants from their school, but it is done so that other parts of the country can be represented in the class. </p>
<p>Also, in Texas alone there are something like 2000 high schools. It’s not logical to say that Rice has written somewhere in Lovett hall that the 4 highest ranked students from a specific school in West Texas must be admitted to make a quota. I would chalk your schools acceptance pattern partly to chance, but would still keep in mind that class rank is one of the factors in admission decisions because it shows an ability to be competitive in school, not just on the SAT. </p>
<p>Finally, MIT and Cornell look for different things than Rice does. In competitive college admissions, getting into one school is no guarantee at all of getting into another. Rice is really into class building, and look for people they think are right. This is especially done through the essay section. Other universities are building their own classes and looking for other things. </p>
<p>Overall, Rice looks for people, not numbers. Otherwise it would be a very different, definitely worse, place.</p>