Hi everyone!
I just received my financial aid award from Rice and it was not what was expected. With our family’s income alone, we would have qualified for full tuition under the Rice Investment. However I think our assets were not considered typical, giving us a $42k family contribution. My parents have lots in savings and fully own a rental property.
Before applying, I used the NPC and it showed that we would qualify for the Rice Investment. However, I still had doubts and these were confirmed when I received my actual financial aid package.
I guess my question is should I appeal? The financial aid office is probably flooded with appeals now, due to the economic downturn. And there hasn’t been much of a change to my parent’s financial situation. My parents don’t see much hope in appealing and while I do love the school, I also have a full ride at my in-state university that I’m equally excited about.
If anyone has had experience with appealing Financial Aid at Rice, please let me know!
Thanks in advance, and (apologies if this question doesn’t really belong here)!
Rice considers “typical assets” when awarding financial aid under the Rice Investment. The large amount of your parents’ savings and the owned rental property probably worked against you. Contact the financial aid office and ask them to explain how they arrived at your financial aid figure. Then you will have the information you need to decide whether to appeal. Typically schools expect parents to use their savings to pay for their kids’ college. If Rice doesn’t increase your aid, you have a great option with your full ride at another school. Search the Class of 2023 threads for some admitted students’ discussion of the same issue. For example, this thread has some discussion of disappointments with financial aid at page 18 and following. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/2109973-rice-university-class-of-2023-rd-thread-p18.html
Thank You. I will email them and ask how they calculated our EFC, but I don’t think there will be a case for an appeal. I am most likely going to take the full ride.
We appealed last year, and we were successful. I know that rental property is working against you. I do not know how they are calculating things. There might not even be a formula, it could be a case to case basis. We conducted everything via email. They requested copies of W-2, and they changed our financial aid. We didn’t really get an explanation. We just noticed the change on Esther.
@jmeryllman May I PM you about the appeals process?