FA or not?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>Hello everyone. I am a Canadian citizen and have established texas residency. I don't know if this helps me out with getting into Rice, but anyways, I'm a junior. </p>

<p>I was wondering if I should apply for FA next year or not. Obviously, my chances of getting in go down if I do apply for FA. If I don't, I have a much better chance.</p>

<p>Now, my dad keeps telling me that I don't need FA (we can afford it, but it would be a burden for sure). He says that after freshman year, you can get your hands on lots of scholarships and other monetary values to reduce costs drastically. Now, this is what happened with my uncle, when he went to Wayne State for his masters in engineering. He paid full international tuition for year 1, but after that year, he got a lot of scholarship money and ended up paying only half or less than half of the actual cost to attend for an international.</p>

<p>Now, I think this happened because:
a) He is a super smart guy, who got his eng. degree in India (hardcore stuff over there)
b) He stood out among the crowd (afterall, wayne state isn't a Harvard or anything) so he, being really smart, stood out</p>

<p>So, I don't know what to think. I think at Rice, I would definitely not be a top student, so I don't know if there is any way to dramatically lower costs by getting some scholarships or some other monetary values. My dad thinks its very possible and says FA is unnecessary. </p>

<p>I know this is really in advance, but I would like to get some info. on this because if it is very possible to drastically cut costs by receiving scholarships and stuff after Year 1 in uni. then that opens up the opportunity for me to apply to more schools that I would never have considered due to costs (Duke, Emory, etc.).</p>

<p>Thank you, and I hope I explained my situation correctly. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.</p>

2

<p>First of all, I don’t think costs should be a barrier to applying a school. You never know how much financial aid you might receive.</p>

<p>Most of these schools are need-blind. I know you are a Canadian citizen, but I don’t think that will drastically affect your chances at Rice if you apply for need-based aid. Rice is aiming to become an internationally-renowned university, so they want to increase the number of international students. I think there are also merit scholarships reserved for international applicants alone. Ask the admissions office, but I don’t think applying for need-based aid will drastically lower your chances of admission (if affect them at all).</p>

3

<p>Rice is need-blind (meaning they don’t take your financial need into account at all when making admissions decisions) for U.S. students. Since you have Texas residency your financial need would not be a factor in admissions.</p>

4

<p>I don’t think you should assume, though, that there will be a lot of merit scholarships available starting after freshman year. Most of Rice’s scholarships, the big ones, are offered with admission. I know there are specific grants you can apply for later, based on research you’re involved in, for example. I don’t know how big those are. There may also be outside scholarships available, but it doesn’t sound like something you should count on without doing more research. Your uncle’s situation may have been unusual.</p>

5

<p>Thanks everyone. </p>

<p>@demonsword. I am not a permanent resident or US citizen though. My dad has just worked there and paid some taxes and such, and he has work visas, etc. So, UTexas said he will have established texas residency based on those factors. WHen i graduate high school, i;ll be under 18, and thus, dependent upon my dad. So, I will inherit the texas residency and apply to UTexas as an in-state applicant.</p>

<p>Now, I dont know if this situation will apply to Rice, since it is a private school and not public. I don’t know if these laws and such will apply for Rice as well.</p>

<p>I heard that applying for FA drastically lowers chances at admission. I know Rice is looking to expand, but I mean, they;d most definitely take someone without an FA application over someone who did apply for FA.</p>

<p>@BerkeleyMom, yea I figured. My uncle was doing all this research with a professor and they were emailing back and forth, working on projects, and such (what I got from eavesdropping when my dad and my uncle used to talk about this stuff lol). And he cut his tuition by so much. I didn;t think this was possible at a school like Rice, where so many kids are brilliant.</p>

<p>@slik nik. yea cost isn’t a barrier to apply. I will apply to Rice regardless. I just don’t know how much lower my chances of acceptance are when applying for FA. Rice is honestly a dream school for me and offers everything I could ever ask for. BUT, I wanna go to med school, and without FA, paying 40K+ a year is pretty crazy.</p>

<p>Now that i’ve explained my situation a little better, what do you guys/girls think? Any ideas, suggestions, etc.? I know schools like Harvard, Yale, etc. are need blind for Canadians as well. Is Rice hard to get into as an international (well, maybe in-state depending on how the residency thing works for Rice, since its a private school idont know if things change) and applying for FA?</p>

6

<p>Your chances for acceptance will NOT be lower if you apply for financial aid - so apply for financial aid. :)</p>

7

<p>^They won’t be lower at Rice? Are you sure, because on Rice’s website it says that international applicants who apply for financial aid will be placed in a separate pool with other internationals that have applied for FA. So, you are in a really competitive pool for that FA.</p>

<p>Now, if they consider me a texas resident (will they?), if Texas resident apply for FA, is it harder to get in? Or are they need blind for texas residents as well (not US perm. residents/citizens!), but just texas residents who don’t have any residency status or anything of that sort (so texas residents who aren’t US citizens or permanent residents)?</p>

<p>EDIT: Any idea what SAT score would give me a really solid chance of getting in?</p>

8

<p>Ahh… I’m sorry, I think I may have erred. (to err is human…) This is a question that your should definitely address to the FA people at Rice. Will they consider you an international student or a Texas resident, since your dad has a work permit and visa? Better ask. Hope they consider you a resident! :)</p>

9

<p>Ohhhh ok I misunderstood what you were saying. This sounds like a complex question, and you should definitely ask someone from Rice admissions/financial aid office to get a definitive answer. From what I understand, very few international students at Rice get FA, and their application pool is very competitive.</p>

10

<p>^yea, that’s what I heard too. I’m gonna ask Rice about this. It’s pretty complicated, that’s for sure.</p>

11

<p>Schools may be “need blind” but arent. It’s the truth. I remember one school got caught with an entire seperatr applicant pool for “priority applicants” and the entire admissions office was fired. You may not want to believe it, but it happens.</p>

12

<p>yea. I honestly find it hard to believe that schools are 100% need blind. Like, especially in the economic situation (not that schools with huge endowments need a lot more money), but they have to probably consider if an applicant applied for FA or not every now and then.</p>

13

<p>The bottom line is that the school is sitting on mountains of cash and accepting weaker students on the grounds that they’d pay full price would damage the school’s Newsweek rankings. I don’t think you two understand how rankings-obsessed schools are.</p>

<p>And the “priority applicants” thing sounds like UIUC’s admissions scandal. That had nothing to do with financial aid–it was all about politically-connected applicants calling in favors from legislators and the governor’s office.</p>

14

<p>Yes Basement cat, but it fits along with the idea that colleges have “special” consideration for different applicants.</p>