Some of these answers confuse me. I am a recipient of a merit scholarship, and know at least 5-7 others on scholarship. That’s not to say they’re given out freely, but it is entirely possible and not uncommon.
To my knowledge there are four types of merit scholarships, all of which offer approximately 50% of tuition costs. I forget the names but they basically are 1) for outstanding students of any kind, 2) outstanding URMs, 3) outstanding students who performed significant research in high school (and likely to continue) and 4) named scholarships that meet criterion of the donor. I am the recipient of a named scholarship, which is awarded to “outstanding students from Texas pursuing a degree in the liberal arts.”
Everyone admitted is considered for scholarship, so there’s not much extra you can do to get it besides what’s already on your application. I would say that those who receive scholarships are outstanding in some way beyond grades/test scores… so leadership, involvement, and potential to make change.
We found some information about scholarships. Rice gives merit scholarships to 3%, 1% of those go to most distinguished students among school’s admitted pool, rest to community leaders, outstanding minority and students with research potential.
It becomes confusing as often financial aid recipients also refer their packages as scholarship.
From a school counselor who heard it from an alumni interviewer but “less than 3% recieve merit scholarships” info was in an email counselor received from Rice FA so that part is confirmed.
Top schools are extremely generous with need based aid but extremely stingy when it comes to merit. Only few top 20 schools, mostly ones in south actually offer any merit scholarships at all.
Rice meets 100 percent of financial need and as a Division 1 school gives out quite a few athletic scholarships. Rice gives out over 50 Questbridge scholarships each year. There are some ROTC scholarships. Merit scholarships are very hard to come by. Some are reserved for legacies or for students that are parts of groups that are underrepresented at Rice. Every student that applies to Rice is automatically considered for a merit scholarship. Most of the students applying to Rice are outstanding students that get large merit awards elsewhere. Many students that choose to attend Rice are full pay.
My guess is that a higher percentage are offered merit scholarships in the admission process (I had heard it was a decent percentage, much higher than 3%), but some of the students offered merit scholarships go to other schools. In my kids’ high school, I know at least one student every year who was offered a merit scholarship from Rice (and this is a non-Texas high school). These students had offers from other schools like Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Wash U, Georgetown, CMU. So perhaps the % of students who are offered merit scholarships is much higher than the % of students in the matriculated class.
Look at page 19 for non-need based aid. You’ll see 110, out of which 57 had athletic scholarships, only 53 received merit scholarships. As most awards go to URM, legacy, engineering, pre-Med research applicants, few truly distinguished non hooked students in other majors also managed to make this list.
Its likely some other applicants were also offered similar scholarships but they went to HYPSM. My guess is if 3% statistic was correct then total 130 applicants were offered non-need based scholarships, 110 enrolled.
My son had 35 ACT 36 superstore, NMF, 3 varsity sports, a ton of community service, good essay and was admitted with no merit. When I hear applicants banking on merit aid at Rice, I roll my eyes. He went to the University of Tulsa on their Presidential and has had an outstanding college experience. He graduates in May and as of now has a 4.0 in mechanical engineering.
On the contrary, everyone who can get accepted there knows financial aid is the only sure source to bank on, merit is a long shot but every year some do get it so it’s not impossible.
As everyone good enough to get in Rice on merit, is good enough to get free rides at state schools, getting free education isn’t even an issue.
It’s very common for accepted students with academic accomplishments way above their peers to get $0 in merit aid at Rice. You really need to capture Rice’s attention with exceptional community leadership or be born a URM to have much of a shot at it, though a small number of people who don’t fall into either category do sometimes receive it. Bottom line, listen to @Riversider and @deborahb and go to Rice for other reasons than a probably misplaced confidence that merit aid will come.
I agree with @ricegrad. Run the net price calculator to see if Rice is affordable without any merit. If you get one of the rare merit scholarships, that is a bonus. My daughter got $0 merit aid but chose to go to Rice. Rice was a better fit for her than other schools that offered her substantial merit. Many other students at Rice do the same.