<p>My DD got accepted into Rice (yay!), but received no merit award. We now have to choose between Rice (full price) vs. UT Austin Plan II+Business Honors (in-state).</p>
<p>It would help us to know if students who do not come in with merit aid have any realistic shot at merit money in subsequent years? My DD emailed her Rice admission counselor, whose rather terse answer was, essentially, no.</p>
<p>Current Owls: is that true?</p>
<p>I’m in the same year your D is, but I would believe so. Freshmen merit scholarships are offered to get the ‘best’ students to go to Rice; once the students are there, the school knows they’ll most likely stay. There’s no incentive for them to offer more merit money.</p>
<p>Congrats on Plan II and BHP tho-- that’s an awesome combination!</p>
<p>austinpop, our S is a 2nd year Engineering student at Rice, and he has asked about scholarships for current students. He was steered (successfully) to a summer research opportunity for pay, but not a scholarship. I have heard of other outside scholarships/undergraduate fellowships that current students can apply for, but not many. Our only experience is with engineering; perhaps someone else can speak to opportunities in Humanities, Archi, or Music.</p>
<p>What a wonderful choice your D has. Honestly, if our S had been admitted to PlanII/BHP or PlanII/Eng, I would have encouraged him to accept. (Unfortunately he wouldn’t fill out the Plan II app.) He did receive a UT Honors Engineering Scholarship, but that is just not the same as PlanII/BHP. I consider that the best of the best.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D!</p>
<p>purpleacorn and JustTryHarder: Thanks so much for your comments!</p>
<p>Yes, we (her parents) too think that Plan II/BHP is outstanding, both in quality and value. We are going to Owl Days for the sake of completeness, so she can make as informed a decision as possible.</p>
<p>For people like us, who don’t qualify for FA, merit scholarships are the sole equalizer when comparing anything to Plan II/BHP. This has been a tough year as acceptance rates have plummeted across the spectrum of selective schools. Without merit aid, it’s hard to justify value at <em>any</em> full price school!</p>