Rice tuition announcement

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

True sliding scale? So does that mean my family, HHI of $700k, would pay far more than your $201k HHI family? I'd just tell my kid not to apply to Rice then wouldn't I?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I believe that this is in response to the new methodology that USNWR is using to calculate college rankings. It is in the best interest of college admissions to accept less affluent students to be ranked higher. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the college admissions sweepstakes over time.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

Not really. I'm fairly certain that whatever Rice (or any other top-tier school) does will not affect me in any way.

I do agree that this has a lot to do with rankings--similar to NYU Med School's announcement.

[Anonymous]

Even before this, Rice was significantly less expensive than most similar universities - total cost of attendance $63K.

It's great news for those kids smart enough to actually get in, regardless of family income. Will help keep Rice from becoming a Wash U STL where everyone is either poor or lower middle class or really rich.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Rice has a $5.5 Billion endowment and an undergraduate student body of 4000. That's why and how they can do this.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe that this is in response to the new methodology that USNWR is using to calculate college rankings. It is in the best interest of college admissions to accept less affluent students to be ranked higher. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the college admissions sweepstakes over time.

Not sure if it's a direct response, as Rice has emphasized the Questbridge program and offered good merit scholarships to diversity candidates for years. Regardless of the reason, I think it's great. I'm a big fan of the school for many reasons.

[Anonymous]

Awesome, but wasn't Rice tuition-free until the 70s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Awesome, but wasn't Rice tuition-free until the 70s?

The announcement said they started charging tuition in 1965.