Two comments:
I, also, am curious what has transpired with OP. We are a year behind and looking at many of the same schools for pre-med. Just visited Alabama Honors, in fact, and were very, very impressed.
I’ll disagree with the comments about TAMU and COVID. I have a son there in the Corps of Cadets, and I think they have handled it quite sensibly throughout. Not perfect, but not unreasonably and without undue fear IMO.
@Ladadof3 did your son decide to attend Rice? Rice claims to meet full need (as Rice defines it). Rice gives out some merit scholarship money but very few full rides or full tuition scholarships outside of the Questbridge program. Rice has matched with 55-60 Questbridge students in each of the past few years. These students get full rides. Every student Rice admits likely will get a bunch of scholarship money at other schools.
Pretty sure he did not as he has been posting in other forums about acceptances his kid has received at other schools, so it sounds like he had to decline the offer and apply elsewhere where he can get $ and not be forced to take on such heavy debt.
@Houston1021 No unfortunately it didn’t work out. We spoke to Rice of course and everyone was very nice and understanding.
He did get into Georgia tech, Purdue, UT Dallas, Texas A&M, and Alabama (gave the most scholarships money - oos anyway). We were surprised that oos schools do not give much on merit. And if you do get a significant amount it still leaves a lot.
He was named a finalist for LSU stamps and presidential scholarships, both full cost of attendance. Waiting to to hear.
So looks like it will LSU or la tech, both honors college. One of the downsides of living in Louisiana, limited choices. He wasn’t interested in Tulane.
Goal is to have minimal or no student loan debt for undergraduate which will hopefully allow more choices for grad school.
I’m sorry Rice did not work out financially. My daughter graduates from Rice this year and is now deciding whether to take on debt to go to an Ivy League grad school or go to University of Texas without debt. If we had not used so much of her college fund for Rice, there would be enough to pay for the Ivy for grad school. However, Rice has been a great fit for her, and she has loved it. I hope he gets the Stamps or Presidential at LSU.
@Houston1021 Thank you and congratulations to your daughter. Tough decision to make. I’m sure the right path will become clear