<p>Hi: It is a long saga but our son will most likely not be able to attend Rice U. because they have our EFC at 47k while his second choice, Williams has us at 38k. We have gone round and round with Rice and with a reevaluation they gave him a 1500k need based money and a 2k subsidized loan.</p>
<p>Long story short, our son landed a lot of excellent merit aid options at other schools. Nothing at Rice. I remember the admissions counselor addressing the parents stating it was like "separating the wheat from the wheat" in the merit game.</p>
<p>Has anybody, this late in the game, approached the admissions office asking for a reevaluation of merit aid? 25% of the students at Rice received merit. </p>
<p>Rice is far and above our son's favorite school. We just will not be able to justify the additional cost, flights from mass to houston, etc. with such a high sticker value based on a high EFC compared to williams.</p>
<p>If you have a merit aid story to share, positive or negative, please do!</p>
<p>*Has anybody, this late in the game, approached the admissions office asking for a reevaluation of merit aid? **25% of the students at Rice received merit. ***</p>
<p>I would suspect that those 25% have test scores that are in the top 25% for Rice and/or they had high stats or musical/artistic talent for their particular major dept. I would also guess that those whose stats are at the 20-25% mark are getting much smaller merit than the ones who have stats in the top 5-10%. </p>
<p>Rice U test scores of the 2 middle quartiles</p>
<p>Test Scores: Middle 50% of First-Year Students </p>
<p>SAT Critical Reading: 650 - 750
SAT Math: 690 - 790
SAT Writing: 660 - 760 </p>
<p>ACT Composite: 30 - 34 </p>
<p>If your son’s ACT is 35+ or his SAT is 2300+, then you might have a good case to seek a better merit scholarship…or at least ask why your son wasn’t considered (if he had those high stats).</p>