I can’t really speak to this. The only pieces of information I can offer are (1) Maybe Texas Medical Center and Baylor have an effect on acceptance rates? and (2) Grade inflation at Rice is something the administration began making efforts to combat as of last year (http://www.ricethresher.org/news/faculty-senate-passes-grade-inflation-legislation/article_67973b98-cc12-11e3-99c6-0017a43b2370.html), but it’s more in humanities than engineering if I remember correctly. I can ask premed friends about this if you’d like, though I’m not sure they’ll know why. That 3.70 GPA figure is funny because most premeds freak out about falling below 3.8 haha.
Source: current non-premed Rice sophomore