Houston’s acclaimed and much ballyhooed “Ivy League of the South” bastion of higher learning has once again secured serious bragging rights.

Rice University has been ranked as the seventh best college in the U.S. and the best college in Texas.

The accolades come courtesy of Niche.com, which has just released its latest college rankings. Niche’s survey relies on U.S. Department of Education data coupled with analysis of more than 1,000 U.S. universities, along with reviews from current students, alumni, and parents.

Colleges are ranked based on 12 factors, including academics, campus, dorm life, and professors. Niche.com helps parents and students choose colleges and K-12 schools.

If this news seems a bit familiar to Rice Owl alumni and followers, that’s because the university ranked No. 7 overall in last year’s Niche college rankings.

On this new list, Rice ranks top for architecture studies, fourth among the colleges with the best professors, 10th among the colleges with the best value and best campus, and 14th among the hardest colleges to get into in America. The school also ranked 20th for best student life in the U.S.

Rice students are elite; the school boasts a stingy 9-percent acceptance rate.

Here’s Niche.com’s new report card for the country’s 10 best colleges:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
2. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
3. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
4. Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
5. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
6. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
7. Rice University
8. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
9. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
10. Dartmouth College

Earlier this year, Rice made headlines as the best school in Texas for graduates; an average starting salary for a newly minted Rice grad with a bachelor’s degree stands at $72,400. No other college or university in Texas passes the $70,000 mark for starting salaries.

Elsewhere in Texas, these schools topped Niche’s rankings for best in state:

1. Rice University
2. University of Texas — Austin
3. Texas A&M University
4. Southern Methodist University
5. Trinity University
6. Texas Christian University
7. Baylor University
8. LeTourneau University
9. Texas Tech University
10. University of Texas — Dallas

Another list of interest for incoming freshmen is Niche’s ranking of 2022 Colleges with the Best Student Life in Texas. Top-ranked colleges have a positive, fun, and friendly student culture and a vibrant campus community, per Niche. No surprise here, as UT tops the Texas top-5 list:

1. University of Texas - Austin
2. Rice University
3. Texas A&M University
4. Texas Christian University
5. Southern Methodist University