<p>so I was looking at Peterson's book of 366 best colleges and RICE UNIVERSITY was #1 for Best Value--Private School.</p>
<p>WIN!</p>
<p>...Harvard was #10 </p>
<p>=)</p>
<p>I would assume this is because of the huge amount of merit aid they give, on top of the excellent education.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>yes</p>
<p>Rice is ranked consistently in he top 5 for best value by everyone. and its because the tuition is 10k less than anyone else of comparable education</p>
<p>this is how its been for a long time…</p>
<ul>
<li> For families whose income is $80,000 or less, Rice will meet 100% of need eligibility without student loans.
<ul>
<li>For families whose income is above $80,000 who demonstrate need eligibility, we will meet 100% of need and your student loans will not exceed $10,000 total over your four years here.</li>
<li>Thirty percent of the freshman class will receive a merit scholarship.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>30% of Rice applicants get Merit Scholarships not FA, Scholarship, that is actually really big because that also limit’s your loans. 80K or less get’s no loan, that’s actually pretty high when compared to other schools. Also they have a limit on loans, that means you can’t have more than 2,500 in loans in each year. </p>
<p>So it is the best valued school</p>
<p>What’s your source for this statement?</p>
<ul>
<li>Thirty percent of the freshman class will receive a merit scholarship.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’ve never seen that stated anywhere before. That seems pretty high to me.</p>
<p>Here it is: [url=<a href=“http://financialaid.rice.edu/]Financial”>http://financialaid.rice.edu/]Financial</a> Aid at Rice University<a href=“Look%20at%20the%20last%20line%20under%20the%20heading” title=“For Incoming Freshmen”>/url</a></p>
<p>im confused about the point of this thread… its not new news at all</p>
<p>because maybe there are some '14s out there who are thinking about applying to Rice and don’t want to sift through pages and pages of threads that may or may not be relevant to their specific decision-making process.</p>
<p>and maybe there are some '14s out there for whom “best value” matters a great deal, because financial constraints are a huge factor in the colleges to which they decide to apply.</p>
<p>“I’ve never seen that stated anywhere before. That seems pretty high to me.”</p>
<p>Well we have somebody who is impressed by that. That’s score one for Rice! 
What I mean is that if she is impressed well that shows that Rice is really best valued.</p>
<p>I agree with college316. Rice wasn’t even on my radar for a lot of reasons, but once it cropped up, it was nice to read about without having to sift through pages and pages.</p>
<p>fair enough. when I first read the original post I was like… um… and? because i was waiting for the question or the completion of the post.</p>
<p>Personal question, no offence meant</p>
<p>BlackEyedSusan: Thanks for pointing me to the source of that 30% number. Is that recent? I’d never heard it mentioned before. It’s interesting that they say 30% of “enrolled” freshmen get merit money. Does that mean much higher than 30% are offered merit aid at the time of acceptance?</p>
<p>My guess is that fewer than 30% are offered - it seems more likely that people who are offered merit money would choose to enroll. No data to back that up though, and I guess a lot of $$ would be offered to high-achieving applicants who also applying to ivies etc.
I feel like there was some statistic tossed around for class of 2012 that wasn’t quite so high. 21%? 26%?</p>
<p>Good point, SilentSailor. You’re right that the yield is likely to be higher for students they offer merit money to. And, like you, I remember a number in the 20s being mentioned last year. In any case, Rice is more generous than a lot of schools with merit money.</p>
<p>it is probably proportionate to the endowmenrt?? or the amount related to the endowment and not the number of students?</p>
<p>Rice is also admitting more and more students, so that pushes the % down</p>
<p>BerkeleyMom, that is recent. It seems high yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. Look at this website.
[Rice</a> University | Prospective Students](<a href=“http://www.futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Admission_Home1.asp]Rice”>http://www.futureowls.rice.edu/futureowls/Admission_Home1.asp)</p>
<p>This website was updated just this year, not last year or the year before. And definitely don’t be surprise because Rice has one of the largest endowment per student. Because of the small population of student, there can be more amount of money used as scholarship. Also Rice has a great Alumni donation and foundation for scholarships. So don’t doubt it. It’s not surprising when it comes to Rice.</p>