Rice tuition announcement

[Anonymous]

Sorry, meant to say:

Very good points there.

This is why I prefer the Canadian and European model: quasi-free public colleges for everyone, with admissions based purely on merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An friend of mine who is a Rice alum shared this with me: https://news.rice.edu/2018/09/18/rice-university-announces-new-program-to-dramatically-expand-scholarships-for-middle-class-2

I see this as great news for poor families, good news for the middle class, and a wild unknown for upper-middle class.

So, poor families pay nothing. No loans. This is fantastic.
Middle class gets free or heavily reduced tuition. Must pay room & board. This sounds good, and there is still the possibility for other financial aid depending on the situation.
Upper-middle class: I guess nothing changes immediately, but tuition is going to keep rising & now it can rise according to upper class incomes without much notice.

I'd much rather see a true sliding scale; in this way a family making $201k is not viewed through an entirely different lens than a $199k family.

Thoughts?

You sound bitter.

Anyone who is not bitter about the absurd cost of higher education is either a billionaire, or not paying attention.

This. Damn right I'm bitter. We have been saving and living within our means and because of that we'll be punished by having to pay high tuition? While others get the same education for significantly less or free? We don't make the 500-700+ thousand that lots of people on here make but we have lived within our means. So, yeah, that makes me bitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are a great example of privilege. Just because OTHER people get something for free, it does not hurt you. Yet you are still upset by it. Because you are UMC and used to the world bending in YOUR favor and not the poor kid's favor. You feel threatened and attacked even when your lot in life has not changed.

And you sound like a complete idiot. I'm not the person you are referring to but we have 3 kids entering College 2 years after each other. We don't qualify for any assistance and we certainly are not independently Wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. We've been saving since the boys were born but we will have to pay a majority of these cost out of pocket. The boys will likely take out loans if they don't qualify for any Merit Aid. Why would I pay a University where I am supplementing another child for free while we are going to be barely scraping by so that our kids aren't graduating with massive amount of debt

And you made my point perfectly. Thank you.[/quote

You're most welcome! Why not just have admission based on Merit? You think because a child was born into a family that makes less than $65,000 a year is worthy of graduating without debt but a child that happened to have been born into a family that makes $251,000 should incur debt? The issue is that everyone deserves an education without crushing debt. My kids work their ass off in school, work jobs, and are involved in all sorts of activities. Why are they less Worthy of getting free tuition? You also assume that wealthy parents are all paying for their kids to go to college. You need a reality check.

This. x 1 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An friend of mine who is a Rice alum shared this with me: https://news.rice.edu/2018/09/18/rice-university-announces-new-program-to-dramatically-expand-scholarships-for-middle-class-2

I see this as great news for poor families, good news for the middle class, and a wild unknown for upper-middle class.

So, poor families pay nothing. No loans. This is fantastic.
Middle class gets free or heavily reduced tuition. Must pay room & board. This sounds good, and there is still the possibility for other financial aid depending on the situation.
Upper-middle class: I guess nothing changes immediately, but tuition is going to keep rising & now it can rise according to upper class incomes without much notice.

I'd much rather see a true sliding scale; in this way a family making $201k is not viewed through an entirely different lens than a $199k family.

Thoughts?

You sound bitter.

Anyone who is not bitter about the absurd cost of higher education is either a billionaire, or not paying attention.

This. Damn right I'm bitter. We have been saving and living within our means and because of that we'll be punished by having to pay high tuition? While others get the same education for significantly less or free? We don't make the 500-700+ thousand that lots of people on here make but we have lived within our means. So, yeah, that makes me bitter.

But nothing about your bill has changed, has it? You were paying full price before this and you'll continue to pay full price afterwards. The only thing that is changing is that more middle class kids will be able to go to the school, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have the sense that what Rice is doing with this initiative brings them in line with the financial aid policies of traditionally generous schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Is that right, or are those schools more generous still?

Havard et all give free tuition and room and board to people with family income below $100,000. If your income is between 100K and 200K, you will get no assistance from any of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are a great example of privilege. Just because OTHER people get something for free, it does not hurt you. Yet you are still upset by it. Because you are UMC and used to the world bending in YOUR favor and not the poor kid's favor. You feel threatened and attacked even when your lot in life has not changed.

And you sound like a complete idiot. I'm not the person you are referring to but we have 3 kids entering College 2 years after each other. We don't qualify for any assistance and we certainly are not independently Wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. We've been saving since the boys were born but we will have to pay a majority of these cost out of pocket. The boys will likely take out loans if they don't qualify for any Merit Aid. Why would I pay a University where I am supplementing another child for free while we are going to be barely scraping by so that our kids aren't graduating with massive amount of debt

And you made my point perfectly. Thank you.

Rice is tapping its $5 Billion endowment to subsidize these students. Not your tuition money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the sense that what Rice is doing with this initiative brings them in line with the financial aid policies of traditionally generous schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Is that right, or are those schools more generous still?

Havard et all give free tuition and room and board to people with family income below $100,000. If your income is between 100K and 200K, you will get no assistance from any of them.

Yep. The choice is to either go into massive debt, take a lesser paying job while your kid is in school or go to a different school. Most pick option 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the sense that what Rice is doing with this initiative brings them in line with the financial aid policies of traditionally generous schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Is that right, or are those schools more generous still?

Havard et all give free tuition and room and board to people with family income below $100,000. If your income is between 100K and 200K, you will get no assistance from any of them.

Why do you lie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the sense that what Rice is doing with this initiative brings them in line with the financial aid policies of traditionally generous schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Is that right, or are those schools more generous still?

Havard et all give free tuition and room and board to people with family income below $100,000. If your income is between 100K and 200K, you will get no assistance from any of them.

Why do you lie?

Have you filled out the net price calculators? Our family income is $153K, we have about $20K in non-retirement investment savings and $15K in medical expenses yearly not covered by insurance. We ran the NPCs at Harvard, Amherst and Williams. Harvard - no aid beyond student loans, same with Amherst. Williams offered about $5K in grants.

Obviously the CSS profile may spit out something different in a couple weeks when it goes live. But the transparency of the Rice program is appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the sense that what Rice is doing with this initiative brings them in line with the financial aid policies of traditionally generous schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Is that right, or are those schools more generous still?

Havard et all give free tuition and room and board to people with family income below $100,000. If your income is between 100K and 200K, you will get no assistance from any of them.

Why do you lie?

Have you filled out the net price calculators? Our family income is $153K, we have about $20K in non-retirement investment savings and $15K in medical expenses yearly not covered by insurance. We ran the NPCs at Harvard, Amherst and Williams. Harvard - no aid beyond student loans, same with Amherst. Williams offered about $5K in grants.

Obviously the CSS profile may spit out something different in a couple weeks when it goes live. But the transparency of the Rice program is appealing.

Unless you own your own business - as the college cost calculators unfairly penalize small business owners' revenue as income - then you obviously own rental properties/a vacation home, or have some other major asset you're not talking about here. Harvard caps tuition at 10% of income for families earning up to $150,000.

Our family income is around $170K, we have less non-retirement savings than you - and we pay less than $27K to send our kid to a non-HYP Ivy that's often criticized (though not by us!) for the perceived stinginess of its financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Bumming my DD was waitlisted last year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the sense that what Rice is doing with this initiative brings them in line with the financial aid policies of traditionally generous schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst. Is that right, or are those schools more generous still?

Havard et all give free tuition and room and board to people with family income below $100,000. If your income is between 100K and 200K, you will get no assistance from any of them.

Not true at all. They give sliding scale financial aid after 100K up to $250K - but is based on savings and assets too.

Never ever ever save for college unless you are wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, if we quit our jobs now, we can live off of our savings until the kids finish college, then go back to work when they are finished. Otherwise, I'm the idiot paying 80K a year when other people pay nothing.

Yeah, if these policies exist by the time my kids are college aged, I'll take time off to just build a business with no profit for a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bumming my DD was waitlisted last year

If it makes you feel any better, they waitlisted ~1000 students and took 17 off the wait list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are a great example of privilege. Just because OTHER people get something for free, it does not hurt you. Yet you are still upset by it. Because you are UMC and used to the world bending in YOUR favor and not the poor kid's favor. You feel threatened and attacked even when your lot in life has not changed.

And you sound like a complete idiot. I'm not the person you are referring to but we have 3 kids entering College 2 years after each other. We don't qualify for any assistance and we certainly are not independently Wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. We've been saving since the boys were born but we will have to pay a majority of these cost out of pocket. The boys will likely take out loans if they don't qualify for any Merit Aid. Why would I pay a University where I am supplementing another child for free while we are going to be barely scraping by so that our kids aren't graduating with massive amount of debt

And you made my point perfectly. Thank you.

Rice is tapping its $5 Billion endowment to subsidize these students. Not your tuition money.

does not matter to me where the money comes from only that it is not distributed fairly.