So I’ve narrowed my choices to Rice or Purdue. Going into aerospace engineering
Purdue is a top ranked engineering school, base cost about $42,000. I have secured $17,000 in merit scholarships there, including national merit scholarship. I visited Purdue and liked it a lot
Rice is not as good an engineering school as Purdue. NASA nearby seems to be a very good prospect for engineering students there though. The base cost is around $56,000. The difference is, when I visited Rice I liked it more than any other college I visited. The atmosphere was friendly and close-knit, it’s much smaller, I hear great things about the professors and the individual attention, I love Texas, etc.
Question #1
Am I silly for not just immediately choosing Purdue, a better school and much smaller cost?
Question #2
assuming I don’t immediately choose Purdue, would contacting Rice’s financial aid department and asking for any merit aid, considering my much less expensive choice of Purdue, yield anything whatsoever?
Any help appreciated 
It’s not a silly question. If I understand the math correctly, you’re looking at ($42k-17k=) $25k/year for Purdue vs $56k/year for Rice. That’s $124k over four years. Where will that difference come from?
So you’re saying I should simply choose Purdue
I don’t think anyone is saying simply choose Purdue.
But you need to provide an analysis of where the extra dough is going to come from. If your parents have it stashed in a secret “this is for college if merit aid doesn’t come through” fund- then great. If they don’t have it, and you don’t have it, how is there any debate going on??? If you get money from Rice, you don’t think it’s going to be the entire 125K do you??? When they’ve offered you nothing to date???
Call Rice and ask. No reason not to.
Blossom, I am not expecting nearly enough money from Rice to close that cost gap, or any money at all. I am not going to consider Rice if I don’t get any money from them. My question is whether it’s even feasible to close that gap enough to make Rice an option by contacting them, which I’ve decided to do. The amount I COULD pay isn’t much of an issue, but that doesn’t mean I won’t choose a more practical option.
I’m saying everything has a price; it’s the truth in college selection just like it is for everything else in life. You’ve already stated you think Purdue is the superior option academically. Given that, $125,000 seems like a lot to give up for a “friendly and close-knit” atmosphere. IMHO.
What are your parents saying about paying? That will largely determine your decision.
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have secured $17,000 in merit scholarships there, including national merit scholarship
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So…are you saying that Purdue gave you about $15k…and NMCorp awarded you their one time $2500 award?
Why don’t you include your parents in this discussion. Say, “I know Rice is a lot more (like $125k more) but I fell in love with everything about it. Are you happily willing to pay the difference between that and Purdue, which is fine with me and I liked it, just didn’t love it like Rice?”
Their reaction, as the people paying, are the ones that matter. Not ours.
Edit: and, yes, of course you should call Rice and see what they can offer you. Even without Purdue in the picture, it doesn’t hurt to call. I doubt, however, that they will consider Purdue’s offer to be “peer” offer as the colleges are quite different. That said, absolutely without question you should give it a try.
mom2collegekids - $16,000 trustees scholarship, Purdue provided $1,000 per year for NMS
prospect1 - you’re right, I should ask parents about it, I guess I haven’t because I’m not really comfortable asking for too much. And thank you, I’ve decided to call Rice, nothing to lose I suppose. I realize Purdue isn’t a “peer” in prestige, admission rate, but considering it is a better engineering program, I am in the honors college, and only 100 people receive the scholarship I’m offered each year, do you think it may have some impact on Rice’s decision?