About

The Rice Architecture Summer Immersion is a tuition-free, twelve-day residential program for current 10th and 11th grade students from the Greater Houston area, run by the Rice School of Architecture in partnership with Rice's Center for STEM Engagement. It runs June 7–18, 2026, with students housed in a Rice University dormitory for the full twelve days. The program is completely free: tuition, room and board, all supplies, and meals are provided at no cost to participants, funded by donors and the R-STEM partnership. Students outside the Greater Houston area are not eligible.

The program introduces participants to the principles of architecture and design through hands-on studio work in both two and three dimensions — model-making, freehand drawing, and other forms of creative production in individual and group settings. The explicit output is portfolio-ready work: students leave with creative projects they can use in the portfolio submission required by most undergraduate architecture programs. Alongside the studio curriculum, participants interact directly with Rice University faculty and currently enrolled students, as well as practicing architects, and receive instruction on applying to architecture school and assembling a portfolio from Rice faculty and students. Space is limited and the program is selective — final admissions decisions are made by the Rice School of Architecture based on the strength and thoughtfulness of applicants' responses. Prior Rice affiliation or prior participation in Rice programs confers no advantage. Preference is explicitly given to students attending Title I high schools, making the program's equity mission structural rather than aspirational.

Eligibility requires that students be current 10th or 11th graders during the 2025–2026 school year, be at least sixteen years old, and attend high school in the Greater Houston area. Participants are expected to remain on campus for the full twelve days and engage actively throughout. Roommates are randomly assigned. Program staff are available at all hours. Applications for 2026 closed April 5; notifications were sent by May 15. Future cycle applications are expected to open in late winter.

Rice's architecture program has a specific and well-regarded identity — small, design-research-oriented, with a faculty that publishes and builds internationally. This summer program reflects that identity directly: it is not an introduction to famous buildings but a studio-based design experience led by the same school's faculty, producing the kind of work that architecture school applications require. For a Houston-area high school student with interest in architecture, urban design, or the built environment — particularly one attending a Title I school who has not had access to design education — this is one of the most consequential free programs in the catalog.