Thanks again everyone for the comments
To make clear I am not encouraging him to go into debt. Just irritated that he’s able to get into a top school but the only option of going is go into debt.
As far as LSU. Tech is better for engineering. Now if he goes to med school LSU would be a better option. He’s already been accepted into LSU honors college but really doesn’t have much interest. LSU is huge It’s a big party school of course. And Baton Rouge is going down fast. Dangerous city.
There should be a middle ground between Rice and LATech though.
I’d look at other possibilities that will be stronger (and better funded per student) than LATech and potentially cheaper than Rice: Lehigh, Lafayette, for instance, offer merit and may be especially interested in a student from Louisiana to boot. Run the NPC?
Are you able to contribute anything (to chip off the loans?) For instance would you be able to cover room&board while federal loans cover the rest?
Have you reached out to Rice to explain any circumstance they might not have accounted for (especially this year with covid, lots of turmoil since the 2018 or 2019 tax years)?
I’m a little confused by the $110k number. Is it what Rice expects you to borrow (over 4 years) in the FA offer? Or is it what Rice expects the parents’ contributions to be (and you decide that you’d need to borrow that amount)?
@Ladadof3 How much is the annual budget - are you planning to contribute anything to your child’s college costs, or is the figure $0? Reason for asking is to suggest merit options for full tuition vs full cost of attendance, can you afford room and board or some portion thereof.
Is the goal a mid-size university rather than large?
(Is this example #2 this week where the family had not learned about the Net Price Calculator before the ED app was submitted?)
No one should take on that kind of debt for college. There is little difference between schools and thats fact born out by all kinds of empirical data. Why on earth would you even take on debt beyond a small amount for college is senseless. Stick with in state public tuition and limit student loan debt to small figure ($20k) or less.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Here’s the problem: the OP appears not able to pay anything for college. It begs the question, when did this begin to become obvious to them?
My daughter was in this boat. She decided to go instate public and use her “ammo” for grad school. Was accepted to Hopkins, UMBC Drexel etc… but it would have cost a fortune for Bachelors.
Who knows but if there is no money than one should attend a 2 year community college and than complete their bachelors at an instate school. You don’t spend what you don’t have. My daughter applied to a number of schools that were above our means. We told her if you get the scholarships that make it affordable, great. If not you choose from those we can afford. If everyone practiced that philosophy student debt would disappear
Fine. But, is it the school’s fault that you can’t afford them? 27K a year is what the average state flagship charges these days.
Pretty simple…if you can afford La Tech without debt that’s where you go. Students and parents are so caught up in the myth that there is some dramatic difference between all these schools. There is not. Rice is like $52k tuition per year vs La Tech at around $11k. You really think Rice is worth an extra $40k? The difference in ROI for an engineering major between those 2 schools over 20 years is about $50k, so why would you spend an extra $160k to attend Rice? Makes no sense
“Thanks for all the comments. Exactly what I was thinking
The 110 amount is what’s left after the financial package rice offered.
It stinks for kids from middle income families. Make too much for significant aid however not enough to write a check.”
I’m not hearing what you have contributed to your student’s college education. Did you save any money for his college?
If not, then I don’t see how you can be so disappointed that he/you can’t afford Rice. It’s one of the most expensive and elite private colleges in the U.S.
I think some people are surprised when their high stats kid has to attend a “lesser” school in order to get decent merit. I know my kids can’t apply to reach schools even if there is a chance of getting in, because we don’t qualify for FA (very high COL area, starter homes start at $400,000 with $12,000 yearly property taxes), and don’t expect high merit packages, if any.
I think some people are being a little too harsh to the OP. Whether they were able to save or not for college or what their circumstances were, she’s (I think it’s a she, I apologize if it’s a he) only saying that their EFC is 110k over the 4 years and it’s not affordable for them. Maybe they lost their jobs during covid and had to go into their college savings if they had any. Or maybe like most middle income people, they fall outside of that range of unmet need and after they pay a mortgage, property taxes, income taxes, and regular expenses, there isn’t much left to give the kid towards college. Even if they divide the 110k by 4 years to get $27,400 and try to take out what they spend on their kid annually, it may not be much less than $27,400 when all is said and done believe it or not (car insurance can be reduced, you’re not buying food, paying gas, utilities go down, extracurriculars, etc) but it is still not $27,400. Work study won’t cut it either. But I am still shocked how harsh people are being.
It is a hard lesson to learn and I think OP gets the point that they can’t afford it and now wants to find the best place for her son. Btw, OP every school is going to have parties so whether it’s LSA or LA Tech or Rice or whatever, there are parties, drugs, and drinking. You just need to find your own group if that’s not your scene. That said, if his final goal is medical school then I would go to a decent undergrad at the least amount of cost, honors program if he can and kick butt so that he has a shot at the best medical school and deal with the debt then or again stick to an in state or public option with lower costs. Medical debt can take 30 years to pay off.
He will figure it out but it is definitely not worth sacrificing your financial health or future for it.
@Ladadof3, I will chime in, although you get the picture. Rice is a fantastic school, but few, if any schools are worth this debt.
Has he considered applying to honors colleges out of state and then seeing what kind of aid he receives? Is he an underrepresented minority, or is there some other “hook”?
If he has the grades and scores to get into Rice, he most assuredly will get significant aid or a scholarship somewhere out of state. Take a look at Miami of Ohio, Arizona State, U of Arizona, U of Kentucky, Univ of Alabama, Florida State, etc. They tend to give out a lot of aid.
He can still have other options, have a great experience, and be ready to spend on med school or go into the working world, all without significant debt.
@sbdad12 I can attest to this re Miami (OH) they just gave my son a full merit scholarship worth $36k/year. 
Looks like I’ve opened up a can of worms.
To be clear the cost of Rice is by no means a shocker. It’s actually less than I was expecting. And yes I did the net cost calculator. One of the main reasons he applied is because it’s only 4 hours away. It was was a no brainer. Rice does give merit to roughly 20% of the students so there’s nothing to lose by applying.
His mother and I are not married and private schools look under every rock for money when calculating financial packages. Public schools use the custodial parent. For this reason and the already mentioned proximity Rice was the only private school we applied to. So far he has been excepted into Texas A&M UT Dallas Louisiana Tech honors LSU honors Alabama honors. Still waiting on Georgia Tech Tech and Purdue and still waiting on final scholarship offers. And of course none of the oos schools will come close to in state offers. And how much will we contribute is unknown to a certain degree.I have twins that are freshman in school and we will be going through this all over again.
I really was trying to see if anybody was in the same boat having to make the same decision.
I am a bit confused. In your OP you say you don’t want him to come out with $110k in student loans. He can’t take that much out. Are you talking about his ~27k that he can take out and the remaining $83 k you will take out?
I guess what this underscores for me is the whole dubiousness of claims that a college is “loan-free”. It’s not loan-free if the family is living from one paycheck to the next.
My apologies for referring to you as a she and completely missing the “dad” in your handle. I am now 0-4 in mistaking gender on here. Either I have assumed someone a male and they’ve been female or the other way around.
I have twins and just a little warning. When you fill out financial aid for them, the one college only takes into account that you have others that will be in college at the same time. They don’t even ask where the other one will be going or the cost for that one. They just apply some arbitrary pre-determined amount. I am also not married to their father so that too makes the whole Fafsa/CSS overly complicated and not overly accurate.
Whatever it is, he will find a great option!
Medical school will be about $250-300k. The big concern is likely the undergrad loan. If the student graduates from med school and is employed, many doctors can refi to a very low interest rate (they’re considered low-risk) and with their income, it’s another expense. I’m not a doc but family and friends are and well-established into their career, none of them are in any rush to pay it off. It’s just a small expense line item for them.