Rice Merit Scholarship: Does it stack?

Hello, I was recently admitted to Rice and was offered the Trustee Distinguished Scholarship for $25,500 per year. I sit in that awkward middle class area where I get a significant amount of aid but not nearly enough to attend without worry. Now, I know that Rice deducts outside scholarships from need based aid, but is that also the case with Rice scholarships? It would seem a little pointless to offer me a scholarship if it wouldn’t affect my total aid, but I can’t be too sure. This is very important as it could determine whether or not I attend.

@AMCFito congrats. I think merit scholarships are stackable, but best would be to call Rice. The information would then be authentic.

Congrats! I have the Trustee Distinguished and go to Rice- merit aid is never reduced by anything, but need-based aid could be by outside scholarships and your merit award.

So basically, if your determined family contribution is 20k and total tuition is 60k, the school has to pay 40k. Your Trustee Distinguished would cover 25.5k of the 40k and the rest would be need-based. You’d still have to pay your determined family contribution.

they stack with scholarships not with financial aid so congrats!!!

@OWL2021 From my research, only about 10% of admitted students are offered any kind of scholarship, so about 1.5% of total applicants.

According to CDS page 16, looks like total of 100 students (17 with financial need and 83 with no financial need (includes 58 athletic scholarships)) received merit scholarship in 2015-2016.

My D received an email from her Rice admissions officer which said,“Every student who applies to Rice has the benefit of being considered for merit scholarships as the Committee reviews applications for admission decisions; a limited number of students ultimately receive merit awards. Less than three percent of all applicants received a merit award with their offer of admission, with about fifteen percent selected for admission to the Class of 2021. We do not have any kind of appeals process or scholarship matching process, since all students are automatically considered for these opportunities during our application review.”