No, Rice doesn’t give anything for NM. My son has applied there as well but has been offered full ride at A&M so will probably take that even if he gets into Rice. Can’t imagine they will be able to give enough scholarship to make him turn down the A&M one.
Does UT-Austin (OOS) give any scholarship based on NMF status ? Already admitted.
read back… if you’re counting on rice and NMF… for get it. over rover. plenty of comments support that. move on and focus on quality schools who actually want your best and brightest, and not the money.
@rosegeo If you don’t mind me asking, what is the name of the A&M scholarship?
He is receiving the Galen and Craig Brown Scholarship
Hi, everyone. I was accepted to Rice via ED as a Semifinalist. I was offered A&M’s NM package, as well as OU’s and a couple of other places, but Rice has been my top choice for a while. I was not offered any merit aid whatsoever, but Rice being Rice, I expected that from the get go. I’m just thrilled to have been accepted. In hindsight, I think the strategy most of ya’ll are going with is smart. Best of luck to everyone in both admissions and NMF!
@Tgirlfriend and @Tex151 I agree. For now, we are just waiting to see if admitted and will go from there. Still waiting for UT major too but expect that to come in the next couple of weeks. @grtd2010 UT Austin does not give any scholarships for NM, so not expecting much scholarship money there either. Fortunately my daughter also has the large Brown scholarship at A&M so expecting she will likely go there. Still just want to wait for all the admissions and aid to come out before she/we make our decision. For that reason, in the meantime, she is still applying for various outside scholarships that she could use at UT or Rice, just in case.
Congrats to @Tipster10. As a family we weren’t ready to go “all in” and commit financially without knowing all our options but it is a great school and I’m sure you will do great.
Can I politely suggest to @lookin for the write schule, to share the information you received as opinion from one person but keep it positive. Try to not to assume other schools you ruled out will not be a good fit for others because of your own decision. There are so many different rankings that put different schools ahead of each other depending on the criteria, majors, etc. and completely unique students. It is clear to me that most on this thread know very well not to expect much money from Rice. Interestingly enough, I personally had generally come to the conclusion that if my daughter doesn’t get many other outside scholarships, that she will get a high value education (for the money) at UT or A&M, and Rice wouldn’t be “worth it”. Right after that, we ended up bumbling onto 2 different random people (our dentist and a friend of a friend) that told a different story of their education and a family member who felt like they got an amazing value and payback for the large investment at Rice with their extensive connections and network of people that know Rice grads are strong and want to hire them. I’ve also seen some ranking that put Rice up there with Ivy leagues and others for best value education for what you get. Obviously depends on your major and other factors.
I guess I am just saying in this long post is that let’s not trivialize each others’ selection of colleges on this thread. Let’s just share info if it will help others and not to make yourself feel better about your decision. It’s a good thing all kids don’t want to go to only the same colleges.
Good luck all. Hope all of our kids find the right fit college for the right price and that they are successful there!
@rosegeo Congrats to your S! I didn’t realize A&M had a competitive full ride. Tucking that info away in my memory bank. 
@houstontxmom I think you read my contribution a bit the wrong way. Rice in some fields is an excellent school, and it also offers a very interesting campus experience. As to after graduating networking and all that? Maybe, maybe not. Better than networking as a grad at many other schools? Funny thing, if you look at the leaders of the Fortune 500…the vast majority didn’t go to anything like Rice or the Ivy’s. If that’s an important statistic. My comments were about being practical while deciding on a solid program of education. Re Rice… $300k for a first degree vs. 100k or with scholarships 20-30k or less, that’s practical. Do well and that 300k is still there for post graduate work or many other things… if you happen to have it in the first place.
I wish everyone well no matter what school they attend Madam!
My son is a National Merit Semi-finalist and he applied to his ED school Rice University and got in and is going. He was also accepted to University of Alabama Huntsville It was going to be very inexpensive, but he really wanted to go to Rice and I liked the financial security of a school. Rice does meet 100% financial need and no loans under 80,000. My husband was concerned with his job 2 years ago. I know Huntsville did have some loans and also there was the 3.0 GPA requirement and though my son is smart I was still worried that maybe the first year would be tough. It is not going to be too expensive since I am self employed and my husband doesn’t make too much like some others I know. It will cost a little more than our state school obviously without scholarships. He would of got scholarships at his state schools. I guess we only have one child and told him he is on his own for graduate school. He was ok with that. So I guess it depends on how much money you make. He worked hard in school and I wanted to give him his own choice. If I had more kids the situation definitely would be different.
Fantastic! Congratulations @fun1234 I am sure you are very proud of him!
Here’s a positive spin on Rice “liberal arts”: great econ. dept. Good job prospects for those who graduate with a BA in Econ.
@Tex151 Yes I am and he is excited to get away from the cold. He is from Maine.
@fun1234 I went to undergrad at Michigan, and every graduate school I applied to was in the deep south or California for the same reason. Enough winter. Been here ever since.
@JBStillFlying Ignore the stale dig at the liberal arts on this thread. The liberal arts are not a frivolous, soft enterprise. They train the mind in critical thinking, reading and writing, preparing our young students to be adaptable and creative in rapidly changing times. The notion that STEM is the only way to proceed is short-term thinking. If we are to measure success in life by post BA salary (ah, humanity), we are doing our kids a grave disservice. So if it’s money we really care about (as opposed to, say, also educating one to be a thoughtful, engaged person), then play the long game. A 20 year longitudinal survey, after grad/med/law school, after the third or fourth or fifth job, will show that the future looks very bright indeed for the liberal arts, which consistently produces prosperous people who lead (in fact, there was an article recently in the NYT recently about this).
@binky17 Let’s also not forget that, over the next twenty years, many of the multi-disciplinary skills involved in STEM fields (process analysis, higher mathematics, engineering, coding) will be automated effectively. These soon-to-be machine-generated fields will largely obviate the need for many people with fundamental understanding of them. There may well come a time when the traditional liberal arts fields will be the last real necessary human contributions to the economy. I think Vonnegut wrote some things about that…
D17 is definitely planning to co-major in History with whatever is her primary major (either econ. or business - she’s not sure yet). I’ve told her that as long as her program emphasizes rigorous methods in historical research, she can even declare History as a primary major. She’s smart and looking forward to being intellectually engaged. Anyone with that approach is going to be a success in college and beyond.
I feel like there is a need for all kinds of different degrees and that every college has positives and negatives. Finding the right college for your S or D is what is most important along with the cost. My S is a STEM major and I had not idea what that even meant until I got on CC. He loves Math and has a passion for it. So he will be following that path simply because of that. I feel like if you have a passion for the field that you work in then you are a very fortunate person. I have personally never found that and want that for my kids…preferably without a lot of debt.
All insight is welcome on this thread however lets keep it about National Merit Finalist as much as possible. Again…counting down the days until the mail arrives. Good luck to all!!!
I expect that S will hear from his school regarding NMF before we get the letter to our home. The school receives the official certificates. If I remember correctly, we get a congratulatory letter to home and information how to set up and log into their portal.
What does everyone in Texas think about time line for the school to get the letter? Please anyone that get notified by their school let us know. I know it is only Tuesday however I think MAYBE some schools will get notification tomorrow if they are close to NMC offices. Any opinions?