<p>Okay I'm pretty sure I'm going to a state school w/ a full ride...I don't have to pay a cent. I'm still applying to Rice though bc it's my dream school. So, my question is, is there anyone whose financial aid package was A LOT better than he or she thought??? I'm a twin, and paying for both of us would be hard...</p>
<p>Mine was!
Rice gives AMAZING merit aid. Like, I got a lot, and that was basically what allowed me to come here. So basically what I pay for Rice is less than what I’d pay for my state school, because even though we have a merit program that covers in-state tuition, rent/housing is still ridiculously expensive.</p>
<p>Apply apply apply!
The worst that happens is that you get in, compare financial aid packages, and have to say no to Rice.</p>
<p>Yes Rice has great financial aid! I got way more than I expected, in fact I pay half as much as I would have had to pay at the other schools I got into! (Emory, GWU, etc.)</p>
<p>I just have a quick question about merit aid:
When do we find out what merit scholarships (if any) we received? Some said it came in the acceptance package but I received it today and there was nothing but a statement on financial aid and the acceptance letter. Does anybody know when you receive information about merit scholarships? Thank you</p>
<p>For RD applicants, merit scholarship came with the acceptance package. I do not know about ED. It is hard to imagine that Rice will decide on who get the merit scholarship without seeing the whole applicant pool.</p>
<p>My son got accepted to Rice with ED. We have very little time to find out about if he got merit or not. We only got a notice in the e-mail if we r not qualified for Is it really should come in the package? Did anyone got it?</p>
<p>I agree with Christian2 on the merit aid. It would not be fair to the rest of the applicant pool. Also, I read that Rice only gives scholarships to 30% of the students for each year, so they can’t just pick a random number of ED kids and hope that the RD kids will help for the rest of the 30%.</p>
<p>I have another question, though. I received a 20,000 grant from Rice. Does this mean i get 20,000 off every year I am there? Or is this one time only?</p>
<p>At the Funding You Rice Education seminar during “Explore Rice” they said they would award merit scholarships to EDers.</p>
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<p>Grants are only for one year based off your family’s financial aid status from this year. I wouldn’t expect it to change much if your family’s financial situation doesn’t change much.</p>
<p>Is it possible to appeal FA decision? I believe we r suppose to qualify for it, but Rice decided we r not. Is it possible to switch to RD for this reason? Would appreciate any insight…</p>
<p>qfm, I see from your other posts that you are in Europe and your son is in a US boarding school. Is he a US citizen? Rice gives NO financial aid for international students admitted under ED, so if he is not a citizen, he would not get any aid.</p>
<p>Rice will give merit scholarships to ED students but that might have to wait until a later time. The FA package is for need base only at this point. Some people speculate that RD students are in a better position to get merit aid since they are not bound to go to any school but I am not sure if that is true.</p>
<p>WM, he is the US citizen as I am now ( even though I was born in a dif country). We just living abroad. No, the reason they say that cut off is $50,000 for need FA. So we do not need it;-) Hopefully we can get something in merit. Or it is too much to hope for?</p>
<p>@Christian2</p>
<p>Do you happen to know when “later” will be for merit scholarships, or rather if that will be before January 2nd when I have to commit?</p>
<p>we wont know about merit aid until the regular decision pool has been selected so that the entire pool of applicants will have an equal chance at the scholarships</p>
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You do mean that if your EFC is above $50,000 you don’t qualify for needbased Financial Aid, correct? (That would be because the cost of attendance is below $50,000…) I just want to clarify this for some families who get worried reading this!!! Personally we make at least twice that, and still qualify for substantial need-based financial aid. :)</p>