<p>My family's income is 95,000 ish and our ESP is around $16,000
I'm having some really serious family problems, so financial aid is really important to me. I've already been accepted and I know RIce is really good with financial aid but I was just curious if people could share how much they received and how much they think I might receive. Also On the financial aid pamphlet it says</p>
<p>"For families whose income is $80,000 or less, Rice will meet 100 percent of need eligibility without student loans. For families whose income is more than $80,000 and who demonstrate need eligibility we will not exceed $10,000 total over a student's four years at Rice"</p>
<p>Does this mean Rice will meet all my costs except for my EFC of $16,000? And loans will not exceed $10,000?
So since Rice's tuition is $45,000, I should be getting around a $30,000 financial aid package?</p>
<p>Please help!!!! I can't let my family problems get in the way of my education!! :(</p>
<p>Indichick, I’ve never been on this website before, but for some reason I felt compelled to respond to your post, because I have the same problem.</p>
<p>We are a little different, but anyway: My family makes about 60,000 yearly, and I’m a pretty good student. We kinda get stuck in that middle class bulge, and so I’m worried about college. </p>
<p>I read on Rice’s website that “Starting with the 09-10 freshman class, Rice will no longer award loans to students whose family income is below $80,000. All of these students’ financial need will be met through a combination of grants, work study, merit aid (if qualified) and institutional funds.” I think this means that they just don’t give loans to me anymore, lol. </p>
<p>What their site is implying, is that people like me will get 100% of costs paid for. And for people with over 80k a year, you will ONLY have to pay 10,000 per year, which isn’t too bad. If you went there 4 years, you’d pay a maximum of 40,000 dollars. Not too bad for a college education. Not to count other grants or scholarships you’ll get.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you have any more questions, message me. I’m interested in meeting some other Rice hopefuls. I live just north of New Orleans, and I graduate high school in 2011.</p>
<p>That should give you an estimate of around how much you’d have to pay. The bottom line cost for your family would be a bit above that listed for the 80,000 dollar family (with typical assets, I’m guessing).</p>
<p>I am confused because you don’t appear to know your Rice finaid package when you say that you were already accepted. Since you are already in, you should have found out… or at least, should soon!</p>
<p>Anyways! Rice matched my FAFSA EFC (30,000) pretty well but my case is not everyone’s case. A friend’s Rice EFC differed from the FAFSA one by like $20,000. He wasn’t too happy.</p>
<p>Our income is around 70,000 but we have a lot of assets, and i was offered loans… which I am still confused about since 70,000 is obviously below 80,000 I would contact them but their finaid office is pretty slow and nonresponsive not to mention grumpy or mean or both so im thinking about talking to them during o-week or something. Point being, don’t believe everything on that site verbatim.</p>
<p>P.S. the total cost Rice has calculated is like, 50,000.</p>
<p>actually, if you want loans you can ask for them if you’d like. I decided to do a small loan so that i wouldnt have to do work study. If your family income is below $80k they will not initially offer you any loans, but if you call and ask could you take out a loan, they will allow you to do so. However, depending on your income, a larger percentage of the loans they offer you may be unsubsidized rather than subsidized.</p>
<p>As far as your EFC, your FAFSA EFC may not be the same as the EFC that Rice sets for you because they also take the CSS Profile into consideration. If your EFC is $8k and your parents make under 80k a year and lets say that rice’s total COA for a freshman is about 48k…then that means that Rice will cover 40k of your total costs in grants, workstudy, and/or scholarships. The other 8k you will have to find a way to pay…which you can call Rice and ask for loans for both you and your parents if you choose to do so. However, if you win any outside scholarships, those will take away from the loans that you originally took out. If you have no loans, and only workstudy, then those scholarships will take away your workstudy. And finally, if you have neither work study or loans, then the scholarships take away from the institutional grants that Rice gives you</p>
<p>The same happened to me: my family’s income is around $70,000 along with a fair amount of assets (for retirement–my parents were self-employed for a super long time) and they included loans in our aid package.</p>
No, no, no,… that’s NOT what it means at all! (Are you for real, or is this a joke? :eek:) It means that Rice will meet 100% of your NEED with grants, scholarships, etc. So if your EFC is $4000. a year, you would still need to come up with that amount. And if you make OVER $80,000 a year, your STUDENT LOANS will be capped at a total of $10,000 - so about $2500 a year. Your family would still need to contribute the EFC, which is determined by not just the FAFSA, but the PROFILE information, also. If your parents have a lot of assets it may change things. And if you have need-based aid and you get some outside scholarships, your “Need” is less, so your college financial aid is reduced. That’s the way it works. Maybe jump on over to the Financial Aid forum and do a little reading…</p>
<p>Sorry! I shouldn’t have been so hard on TMc! Financial Aid is confusing for everybody, and it takes a while to figure it all out. But, I wanted to make sure that nobody was misled by the statements made…</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Rice is generally generous with financial aid + merit aid, but how generous? As someone above mentioned, the EFC was 20k over the estimated–is this the rule rather than the exception?</p>
<p>I think it is definitely the exception; there must be some large assets/savings/business income/second property or something making the difference. Or perhaps there is some missing information that the FA office doesn’t have. There was one poster who had a problem, and it turned out there was information missing, and he/she ended up getting a great financial aid package after that was all worked out.<br>
I can provide our information as anecdotal evidence. We make about $110,000 a year, with a family (now) of 3, and our FAFSA EFC was about $22,000, and Rice met all our other need with grants, $1800 of work/study, and student loan of about $2500. Basically, we pay about the same amount as we would at our Flagship public university.
We have 6 years of experience with Rice Financial aid, as DD graduated from Rice in '08. Our income was a bit smaller and our family size one larger when she started at Rice, but each year, our contribution towards Rice was almost exactly what the FAFSA predicted. It looks like home equity does not add much- if at all -in the Rice Profile formula. We have very boring tax situation; two earners with regular paychecks, no other complicating factors, not much in savings but no debts, besides house. Dd did receive merit aid, in addition to financial aid, from Rice - and had a FA package with no loans and no work/study. (She still worked at Rice, but not through the work/study program). DS did not have merit aid, but the only difference in their FA packages is that he has a moderate amount of workstudy ($1800 each year) and student loans in his package. Since the loans are reduced by his outside scholarship, he will graduate with about $7-8,000 total in student loans. We are very grateful to Rice for all the great financial aid and opportunities they have provided my kids. I plan to increase my donations to Rice once DS graduates next May, so that the gift can keep moving to the next generation of Rice students. :)</p>
<p>Thank you, anxiousmom, for your thorough answer!</p>
<p>I really, really want to apply to Rice ED this coming year. I’ve talked to my parents about it and they both are gung-ho about the idea (they love the school just as much as I do!). My only concern is the money–while we live a very comfortable lifestyle, we are by no means upper class citizens. My parents say that they are willing to pay whatever is necessary for me to be happy and to be successful, but I still can’t help but to worry. I would rather not have them struggle for 4+ years trying to pay for my education. :(</p>
<p>Your post, anxiousmom, has eased some of my worries though. It seems to me as if a lot of Rice students are very happy with their aid :), and again, I would LOVE to attend Rice; I just don’t want my parents to struggle to pay for it!</p>
<p>Well, if money is an issue, then ED at ANY school is not a good idea! What I think is reasonable and fair may not be for other people. In our case, I feel that the FAFSA EFC IS fair, and doable… in fact we have been doing it for 6 years without taking out any parental loans… and Rice has asked for the same contribution as the FAFSA, so we are happy! But other people may have more complicated finances, or larger pools of personal assets or investment property, etc. So, make sure your parents run the calculators for both FAFSA and institutional method, to make sure they are comfortable with those figures before you apply ED. :)</p>
I would contact them but their finaid office is pretty slow and nonresponsive not to mention grumpy or mean or both so im thinking about talking to them during o-week or something. Point being, don’t believe everything on that site verbatim.</p>
Financial Aid is confusing for everybody, and it takes a while to figure it all out. But, I wanted to make sure that nobody was misled by the statements made…</p>