I grew up near UT surrounded by UT alums, and I now have a daughter at Rice. I’m confident that you can have a wonderful career in finance from either one. I think kids are more likely to excel in an environment where they feel most comfortable, so I would focus on which one of these two very different schools is a better fit. We toured both with D22, and she gravitated toward the small size and residential college system of Rice over the endless activities and energy of the sprawling UT campus. But other kids feel differently - YMMV.
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Article from student newspaper that includes some basic admissions statistics for this year’s class.
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Thank you for posting it!
I’m a hospital-based and university-based researcher. We temporarily paused in-person research volunteers in the first year of the pandemic but continued to work remotely as much as possible (as long as we weren’t needed to help staff the patient care floors). Many of our studies are secondary analyses of pre-existing datasets, collecting new analyses from banked tissue samples, or we pivoted to remote strategies for prospective data collection. I tried to keep my volunteers active as long as our projects still aligned with their interests.
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In my comment upthread, I was responding to @Sally16 but thanks for chiming in with additional examples of how labs/universities pivoted during the pandemic to continue offering research opportunities (thanks to you too, @CCPenguin).
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based on this, what was the specific RD acceptance rate? can anyone crunch the numbers on that?
The good news for your daughter is that they can’t make a bad choice out of those two options! I think the outcomes will be exceptional with either program. My advice would be to go with fit as the number 1 guide (where do they feel most at home) and with cost as the second most important factor. I’d also consider what type of industry is most interesting to her for the future. Because Rice is a new program, I imagine they have extensive networks in biotech, space tech, math fields, etc., while UT has strong connections in a more broad spectrum of industries because they’ve been established longer. Good luck!!
ED → 486/2743 = 17.72%
RD → 1913/28306 = 6.76%
The spread between ED and RD was more like 2/1 last year, now edging up closer to 3/1. We’re not exactly talking Tulane here (68% ED rate!), but notable. Overall, they seem to be projecting ~46% yield. With 614 spots left after ED and 1913 RD acceptances, they need 32% in RD to hit the target.
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Here’s the thing about pay to play. Just to clarify my child did NOT do any research. What is the difference between paying to participate in research or paying to participate in sports? Nothing.
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RIce always publishes a “Class Profile” with pretty specific numbers from each round but they don’t usually do it until after they know who has committed and they have a better breakdown of who makes up the incoming class.
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We live in Illinois as well. Son accepted. Im shocked by the financial aid and beyond grateful as well. Cheaper then the state school now.
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To be honest, I also don’t know. All I know is that our GCs has always warned us to not do pay to play ‘academic’ programs since it’s perceived as only available to the wealthy.
But yes, I agree that there is no difference in paying lots of money to participate in sports, especially the niche sports. This goes back to the question of why recruited athletes are given preferences during admission.
ED is completely unfair to other qualified students that can’t afford to take a risk to commit to an ED process. This program is class based where wealth is the deciding factor. I’m surprised more people aren’t upset about unfairness of this type of program.
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Doesnt Rice explicitly state how much tuition everyone pays with the Rice Investment?
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Rice commits to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need through their “Rice Promise”. DS applied ED to Rice (ultimately did not get in) but we went in eyes wide open what the financial obligation would be (FAFSA EFC) if he was admitted. Signing up ED does not mean you pay full rate by default.
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“Demonstrated Need” is ridiculous. I ran the numbers in the net price calculators. I know many people fall into the same category my family is in. We make a good income but are not rich and do not have generational wealth to draw from. We could not financially risk our daughter applying ED to one school.
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Unfortunately you may be in the donut hole where you make too much to qualify for financial need but not enough to commit to full pay.
I wouldnt say it’s pure class based since low income gets a full ride and moderate income gets substantial tuition discounts.
I would also contend that ED does not give that much advantage considering many of the ED candidates are recruited athletes and maybe some other targeted low income kids.
If you take out Questbridge, it’s 15.2%. Im not sure how many recuited athletes there are but Im assuming 50-100? That would take the ED acceptance % way lower.
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Not at all. Nothing is outrageous. The net price calculator gives you a very close estimate. If this number is crazy highs for you, don’t apply and check a school with better financial aid.
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I believe the Rice Investment amounts for each bracket are a minimum guarantee, not a fixed amount. Families making 77k and 135k are both in the same “full tuition” bracket, but the 77k family is likely to receive additional amount bringing them closer (but probably not equal to) a family with 75k in the lower “full ride” bracket. This was my understanding from discussions with the Fin Aid before my daughter enrolled, and I have a lot riding on it - we went from under 140k in 2020 to just over 140k in 2021, and losing an entire half-tuition amount of aid as a result would be a far greater loss in dollar terms than the actual income gained (and would leave us well over our EFC to boot). My guess from the NPC is that our COA will go from 18k to around 31-32k - not great, but could be worse.
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If you don’t mind sharing, how much did your financial aid changed (decreased) when your income went from $140K-under to $140K-over? Pls feel free to DM