Financial Aid Calculator

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>Does anybody know of a relatively ACCURATE financial aid calculator? I am applying to Rice ED this fall, and I'd like to have a rough estimate what I'd be expected to pay before I commit to it. I know that Rice takes the PROFILE into account, which makes things a little tricky, which is what worries me.</p>

<p>Some background info - my parents are married, but only my dad works. He has an income of around $80,000 before taxes (maybe like $81,000, give or take). I have an older sister currently in graduate school. We don't have any assets, except a wad of money saved up in bank accounts. Feel free to share any FA stories!</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I just ran the College Board EFC calculator, and the Net Price Calculator on the Rice website. College Board gave me a FM of 20324 and an IM of 14891. However, when I ran the Rice calculator, it told me the Rice Institutional Grant would be about 11,850, and the self help would be 2,500 - leaving me with 32,920 to pay! O_O What does this mean - am I misinterpreting results, or is this it?!</p>

3

<p>I sincerely doubt you’ll be paying that much. For you, I would anticipate 10-15K, perhaps even less than 15K. With a combined income of only 80K and a sibling in grad school, you’re likely to get a LOT of aid. Unless you have a great amount of high-worth assets, you should be good to go. Rice is GREAT with financial aid. Hopefully you qualify for merit-based aid as well. The average student receives about 12-15K in merit-based aid.</p>

4

<p>Thank you, love4medicine, that’s very relieving to hear! I have heard from many that Rice is great with aid, yet others have told me that they haven’t been able to attend Rice due to the cost. The thing about a sibling in grad school is, a lot of colleges consider siblings in graduate school (or med school) to be ‘independent’, and thus, wouldn’t lower the EFC. Does anybody know the situation for Rice? </p>

<p>We do not have any investments/land/etc., and our house is tiny. I think the only thing that could skew the numbers is the money that we have saved up, which I think is around $150,000.</p>

5

<p>I only got 5000 in aid for the whole year.</p>

6

<p>$150 k in cash will add ~$6k/year to your family’s FAFSA EFC. Can’t give an exact value, because it depends upon the age of your parents, but FAFSA shelters $40 - 50k (age dependent) and then “taxes” parental assets at a 5.64% rate. My experience has been that Rice follows pretty closlely to the FAFSA numbers, but there are no guarantees (especially if parents are self employed or have other non-typical income streams)</p>

7

<p>Your numbers (FM = 20324; IM = 14891) look like you did not include the $150k in cash when you ran the FAFSA calc - the 5.3k difference is about what you would expect for that lump sum of cash. The estimated Rice Institutional Grant ( $11,850) is also probably correct. Add the loan ($2,500) and workstudy you will be offered ($1,800) and it’s more generous than the IM number.
It is likely you/your family will be asked to pay $32k unless you win a scholarship (and that is probably more likely if you apply RD).</p>

8

<p>I just want to correct what was said above about merit aid:</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>I wouldn’t want the OP to be misled by this. It’s been stated in the past that about 25-30% of Rice students get some merit aid, but that includes the students who get the relatively small ($1,000) national merit scholarship.</p>

9

<p>Since it’s been a foggy subject, I decided to ask Admissions for more info not long ago.
I was told that “just under 20 percent of the students gets merit aid,” and that this figure does not include National Merit scholarships.</p>

10

<p>This just tells us that not quite 1/5 of the student body gets merit aid from Rice – some receive over $20,000 per year for four years. It’s unclear how many get the jackpot …</p>

11

<p>(copied from the Rice website)</p>

<p>Merit Scholarships</p>

<p>Student standouts—that’s what we look for! Merit-based scholarship recipients generally distinguish themselves scholastically and personally even within our highly competitive group of admitted students.</p>

<p>Past recipients have included:</p>

<pre><code>political and community service leaders
math/science competition winners
creative and performance artists
entrepreneurs
scholar-athletes
exceptional writers
</code></pre>

<p>All admitted freshman applicants are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships, so that no separate application forms or interviews are necessary. The Office of Admissions notifies scholarship winners at the time of admission to the university. The following is a list of some of our 2011-2012 merit-based scholarships.
Name</p>

<p>Recipients</p>

<p>Amount
Trustee Distinguished Scholarship Students whose personal talents distinguish them within the pool of admitted applicants. </p>

<p>$17,500-$22,500</p>

<p>Renewable for four years.
Trustee Diversity Scholarship Students whose diverse life experiences and contributions to diverse groups distinguish them within the pool of admitted applicants. </p>

<p>$17,500-$22,500</p>

<p>Renewable for four years.
Century Scholars Program Students who demonstrate an aptitude for research with a faculty mentor. </p>

<p>$4,000</p>

<p>Renewable for two years, plus a guaranteed research mentorship.
Barbara Jordan Scholarship Students who have distinguished themselves through initiatives that build bridges between cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. </p>

<p>$17,500</p>

<p>Renewable for four years.
Engineering Scholarship Outstanding applicants to the engineering division. </p>

<p>$7,500-Full Tuition </p>

<p>Renewable for four years.
Edgar Odell Lovett Scholarship Outstanding applicants who are foreign nationals. </p>

<p>Half Tuition</p>

<p>Renewable for four years.
Allen International Scholarship Outstanding applicants who are foreign nationals. </p>

<p>Full Tuition </p>

<p>Renewable for four years.
National Merit Scholarship National Merit Finalists: If eligible for school-sponsored awards, must designate Rice as their first choice with the National Merit Corporation. </p>

<p>$1,000</p>

<p>Renewable for four years.</p>

12

<p>what is the difference between FM and IM?</p>

13

<p>Thanks for all the info about merit aid - however, I don’t think I’ll get any, especially in the ED round, so I’m trying to figure out if I can afford Rice without any sort of scholarship.</p>

<p>I did account for the $150k, and those were the numbers that the calculator gave me (around $14-20k for EFC). However, that confused me, since Rice told me I’d have to come up with around $35k. Why would I be expected to pay $35k when FAFSA tells me my EFC is not even over $20k?</p>

<p>I played around with the numbers a bit for the Net Price Calculator. Even with $0 assets (other than savings, we have no investments, businesses, etc.), the net price is still the same, so I’m guessing this is mostly based off of income - with a reported income of $71k, it just doesn’t seem right that they would expect me to pay $35k per year.</p>