Rise of Costs VS. Financial Aid Received

<p>With seemingly inevitable rises in tuition for Rice, will the amount of financial aid received also increase? I'm hoping Rice parents with students who have gone through the years can help me answer. For example, the tuition for 2011-2012 is $34,900. If it rises to, say, $45,000, will the amount of financial aid received usually increase to bridge that gap?</p>

<p>Also, as a side - does anybody know how Rice's financial aid compares to the Ivies? I know that Rice has awesome financial aid and is considered a "Best Value" college, but it seems that many other top universities and Ivies have financial aid packages like, "students who have parent incomes under $80,000 pay nothing towards their tuition," or something like that. Just wondering how Rice stacks against that.</p>

<p>As a current Rice student, I’m pretty sure the tuition will not rise by more than $800 in 1 year. However, if it were to, I’m pretty sure that financial aid will also increase to offset the increase in cost of attendance. </p>

<p>For Rice’s financial aid, they also have the “under 80,000 no cost” thing and there have been talks to up that number in the future. Also, one thing that Rice does that not many high tier schools do is give lots of merit scholarships. It’s not uncommon to receive a merit scholarship that will tremendously reduce the cost of attendance!</p>

<p>^ Rice has no loans if the income is under $80,000. I don’t think they have a “no cost thing” like some of the Ivy schools and Stanford do. Rice has a financial aid calculator, like most schools do these days, and the OP can plug in the appropriate numbers to get an estimate.</p>

<p>Budget a 4% increase for next year. There is a cost estimator tool within the CSS profile web site that estimates your financial aid award for a specific school.</p>

<p>I think Rice guarantees that your tuition stays the same as the first year for all 4 years. At least that’s what they told me last year if I remember correctly. I think they’re pretty generous with their financial aid like the Ivies/similar are.</p>

<p>As a parent of a Rice junior, I can address a few of the misconceptions about Rice FA. I just finished my fourth set of FAFSA and CSS profiles this weekend. First, yes tuition is most likely going to go up, but as desilu mentioned, probably around 4%, not thousands of dollars. This point is very important- your FA can and most likely will vary from year to year. It is recalculated yearly based on your family’s previous year’s financial figures. </p>

<p>Also, as austinareadad stated, the $80,000 household income is for loans offered as part of the FA package. If the income is less than no loans, if it is more than loans may be part of the package. This is important- if you qualify for gov’t loans, you can still take them out regardless of income. </p>

<p>Lastly, Rice does not have a tuition guarantee of any sort. petaandpita, you must be confused with anther school.</p>

<p>Rice has very generous FA. Be cautious though, when using any program that estimates the cost. It is just an estimate. Rice will make the final determination based on all the information submitted. Be sure to follow deadlines and include everything required so there is no delay. Even with a returning student, I like to make sure everything is turned as early as possible for him.</p>

<p>[Rice</a> announces tuition for fall 2012](<a href=“http://news.rice.edu/2012/03/05/rice-announces-tuition-for-fall-2012/]Rice”>http://news.rice.edu/2012/03/05/rice-announces-tuition-for-fall-2012/)</p>

<p>Ottoline - So, by the rise in tuition, if we applied ED, will our aid package increase, or stay the same for the coming year?</p>

<p>D applied ED. Her estimated aid did not increase when the tuition increase was announced. Contacted Rice and they told us that the increase in costs were known when they made the ED estimates and aid would not increase. A little bit of a disappointment at the time, but Rice has met our expectations in every other way.</p>