Rice dramatically expands its financial aid programs. http://www.ricethresher.org/article/2018/09/rice-to-dramatically-expand-financial-aid Full tuition, fees, room and board for families making less than $65,000/year. Full tuition for families making more than $65,000 but less than $130,000/year and half tuition for those families making less than $200,000/year. No loans required. Rice is trying to make Rice affordable for more families. https://financialaid.rice.edu/thericeinvestment
How competitive will the application process become due to this new policy?
There will probably be an influx of applications, so I imagine it will be more competitive than before.
There is already another thread on this topic.