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early admission to college

T

thirtythree

Diamond Member
I'm thinking about applying early to rice university but have a few questions. according to their website, I will be notified of admission in december and have to commit by january 2nd by making a $100 deposit. I'm wondering if there's any chance that I'll know about financial aid by that time because I won't be able to attend the school without financial aid. if I were to withdraw after that time would I only lose my $100 deposit?

and while we're at it, what are my chances of getting need-based financial aid? my dad makes over $100k but my parents are only willing to pay $1300/semester for college (which is how much tuition at the local college is) and rice costs quite a bit more. it looks like about 15% of families making over $105k qualify for need-based financial aid. a few other things that might be of interest:
Rice graduating seniors have by far the lowest debt burden of seniors at any highly selective college or university in the United States. For class of 2007, a cap of $2,625 has been set on student loans in financial aid packages, thus generating a total of no more than $10,500 in need-based students loans over four years at Rice.
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Percentage of undergraduate students receiving some form of financial aid in 2002-2003: 79%
Percentage of need that was met for undergraduate students who received any need-based aid in 2002-2003: 100%
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I'm not entirely sure what all of this means so any help would be appreciated. thanks.

typo
 
Parents income only accounts for relatively small percentage of expected contribution, so you could still get aid. I doubt you will get any free money unless you win a scholarship, but you will prob get offered some subsidized stafford loans. Anyone can get unsubsidized staffords, which are same as subsidized except you pay or roll interest that accumulates while you are in school.

Nice school btw. I would have loved to have gone there but I couldn't afford it.
 
Originally posted by: wyvrn
Parents income only accounts for relatively small percentage of expected contribution, so you could still get aid. I doubt you will get any free money unless you win a scholarship, but you will prob get offered some subsidized stafford loans. Anyone can get unsubsidized staffords, which are same as subsidized except you pay or roll interest that accumulates while you are in school.

Nice school btw. I would have loved to have gone there but I couldn't afford it.
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any idea what it would take to get an academic-based scholarship? where did you end up going?

another typo 😉
 
Originally posted by: Deslocke
Originally posted by: wyvrn
Parents income only accounts for relatively small percentage of expected contribution, so you could still get aid. I doubt you will get any free money unless you win a scholarship, but you will prob get offered some subsidized stafford loans. Anyone can get unsubsidized staffords, which are same as subsidized except you pay or roll interest that accumulates while you are in school.

Nice school btw. I would have loved to have gone there but I couldn't afford it.
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any idea what it would take to get an academic-based scholarship? where did you end up going?

another typo 😉
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FastWeb is a nice search engine for scholarships. Mmm.. Rice is a pretty cool university. Pricey tho.. Sigh.. if only school weren't so expensive. I couldn't afford Brown or U Penn so I ended up at PSU .. which still isn't horrible, should be a good time.
 
If you do early admission you won't know what kind of financial aid you get. If you're accepted you have to commit to the school, otherwise something bad could happen. My friend was admitted to MIT early, but decided not to go. For some reason MIT called all the Ivies (which she also was planning on applying to) and told them about it. Needless to say, she was not admitted to any of the ivies, and ended up at Stanford.

I doubt you'd get any need based financial aid.... if your parents won't pay, pay it yourself man. I'm paying my own way....
 
Originally posted by: cchen
If you do early admission you won't know what kind of financial aid you get. If you're accepted you have to commit to the school, otherwise something bad could happen. My friend was admitted to MIT early, but decided not to go. For some reason MIT called all the Ivies (which she also was planning on applying to) and told them about it. Needless to say, she was not admitted to any of the ivies, and ended up at Stanford.

I doubt you'd get any need based financial aid.... if your parents won't pay, pay it yourself man. I'm paying my own way....
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I will pay what I can but I really don't think I can afford $26,000 a year and I don't want to be in a lot of debt after undergraduate school (and even more after grad school).

thevrolok: I've used fastweb before but I was referring to academic-based scholarships at rice.
 
Originally posted by: Deslocke
Originally posted by: cchen
If you do early admission you won't know what kind of financial aid you get. If you're accepted you have to commit to the school, otherwise something bad could happen. My friend was admitted to MIT early, but decided not to go. For some reason MIT called all the Ivies (which she also was planning on applying to) and told them about it. Needless to say, she was not admitted to any of the ivies, and ended up at Stanford.

I doubt you'd get any need based financial aid.... if your parents won't pay, pay it yourself man. I'm paying my own way....
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I will pay what I can but I really don't think I can afford $26,000 a year and I don't want to be in a lot of debt after undergraduate school (and even more after grad school).

thevrolok: I've used fastweb before but I was referring to academic-based scholarships at rice.
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The might give you some sort of grant. Some of these type of private universities have generous financial aid packages to their students. It was cheaper for me to go to one of these expensive private universities than some out of state public schools.
 
My stance:
Take out the loans. This is probably the best money you will spend in your life. Georgia Tech out of state tuiton coupled with room and board will cost me $26K a year. Rice is the same caliber school as GT, I doubt you'll have problems paying off your student loans after school. Check out Nellie Mae loans. Unlimited amount of borrowing with a co-signer and they allow for a 20 year payback. Don't sell yourself short if you're capable of attending a high class school because you think you can't afford it.
 
Be a minority and a woman is a good start. I dunno, I looked at one of those scholarship books at the library but since I am a white male I didn't qualify for more than a few, and they weren't enough to get me anywhere really nice.

I attended Texas A&M University in College Station. Lots of people who are smart but lacking funds go to TAMU or UT.

BTW, if your parents are well off, why are they refusing to pay for a good college? They just want you to school near home or something?

Originally posted by: Deslocke
Originally posted by: wyvrn
Parents income only accounts for relatively small percentage of expected contribution, so you could still get aid. I doubt you will get any free money unless you win a scholarship, but you will prob get offered some subsidized stafford loans. Anyone can get unsubsidized staffords, which are same as subsidized except you pay or roll interest that accumulates while you are in school.

Nice school btw. I would have loved to have gone there but I couldn't afford it.
Click to expand...
any idea what it would take to get an academic-based scholarship? where did you end up going?

another typo 😉
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Originally posted by: BigPoppa
My stance:
Take out the loans. This is probably the best money you will spend in your life. Georgia Tech out of state tuiton coupled with room and board will cost me $26K a year. Rice is the same caliber school as GT, I doubt you'll have problems paying off your student loans after school. Check out Nellie Mae loans. Unlimited amount of borrowing with a co-signer and they allow for a 20 year payback. Don't sell yourself short if you're capable of attending a high class school because you think you can't afford it.
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:Q

A Rice undergrad is a higher caliber than a GT undergrad reputation-wise. Rice is a top 20 school. Rice is much more difficult to get accepted into, smaller classes, etc. GT is a really good school too, but it's undergrad isn't on the same caliber in my opinion (but that's just my opinion and doesn't mean anything). I'd never say that I went to a university that was Harvard-caliber or anything like that unless it was Harvard, I guess I'm modest 🙂
 
Wasn't touting my school and never mentioned harvard, but since you mentioned it, Overall GT is ranked like 43 in the nation. If you look at engineering only, GT ranks in the top 10 in nearly every field (#1 in my field (Industrial engineering). My Usnews subscription ended Aug 19, can't see the latest rankings.
 
GT undergrad is ranked 37 now, not 43 🙂 Rankings aren't everything though 🙂

BTW, I was talking about undergrad reputation. GT has a great engineering graduate school, one of the best, top 5. I'm not bashing GT... I was thinking about going there. I think it's a really good school.
 
Originally posted by: wyvrn
BTW, if your parents are well off, why are they refusing to pay for a good college? They just want you to school near home or something?
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I've had six older siblings go to college and they've all gone to brigham young university so I'd imagine that's part of it. maybe they think the environment will be good for me or something .. I'm the only child of nine who left the lds church. they do want me to be close to home also.
 
your chances of getting need based aid is slim to none.

Since a lot of your siblings are no longer dependents, it would seem like there is more "available" in the eyes of the fed gov't.

my parents made over 100k and when i got my fafsa returned, it stated my parents annual contirbution should be about 32k a year - this is with four kids in the family. i was the first to go to college, my brother would follow me the year after. that would cover one year at rice, unless they charge insane housing costs.

that is the risk of applying early - you know earlier, but there are no guarantees on financial aid. if you are an excellent student, national winner of a lot of things, etc, you might get some academic scholarships. there are also some smaller scholarships you may be able to get from the school. also check your local high school as many places offer tons of scholarships to seniors - the alumni association, local rotary/kiwanian clubs, etc.

the 100% figure is given because EVERYONE can get a loan. that is considered part of financial aid. i had to pay my tuition my third and fourth year - hello unsubsidized stafford loan. luckily all of that covered fees and books at UCLA. (haha out before the fee hike!)

oh and when my brother went to college, he also went to a UC. did the government give us money? no. they considered two uc educations equal to one private one, or the same 32k figure they gave us before.
 
my parents are only putting one sibling through college right now (tuition only, $1300/semester) .. not quite 32k a year. in fact, they're expecting me to get a scholarship so they don't even have to pay that much. they're making double payments on our house and they also gave my 26-year-old brother who still lives at home a good sized loan to fund his "business venture" (which is failing miserably). you'd think they'd be willing to put a little more towards college but they aren't.

thanks for explaining what 100% financial need met means but if that's the case, why wouldn't it be 100% for all colleges? I know byu is only 37% (both figures come from usnews).
 
Originally posted by: Deslocke
my parents are only putting one sibling through college right now (tuition only, $1300/semester) .. not quite 32k a year. in fact, they're expecting me to get a scholarship so they don't even have to pay that much. they're making double payments on our house and they also gave my 26-year-old brother who still lives at home a good sized loan to fund his "business venture" (which is failing miserably). you'd think they'd be willing to put a little more towards college but they aren't.

thanks for explaining what 100% financial need met means but if that's the case, why wouldn't it be 100% for all colleges? I know byu is only 37% (both figures come from usnews).
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i can't remember what the fafsa said right now, but i'm not sure how much of mortgage payments they take into consideration. also if the other sibling's tuition is only 1300, its not that large of an amount to suddenly boost you up into aid. i know they also ask for amounts in saving accounts, in other investments, value of property, stocks, bonds, etc.

also since your brother is 26, your parents can't really claim him as a dependent anymore - that's what they look for on the fafsa.

the fafsa will also calculate your own estimated contribution (mine was nearly 2k a year) which could negate the 1300 they're currently paying for someone's tuition.

and 1300 for tuition is cheap! what the!
 
Hey hey! I already sent of Rice app part 1 . .

I'm going early desicion (which differs from early addmission . . early admission is skipping senior year and going straight to college, very rare . . i think you mean desicionsoinoindu or however its spelt.)

Anywho . . . My dad went there for architechture, My mother went there for literature and photography (she is now probably the top wedding photographer in saint louis) My uncle went there for comp sci . . . and got a PhD from there in same subject, he now is a hacker with the human genome project, my Aunt went there for journalism and i don't know exactly what she is doing . .

And I've got high scores, grades(although not as high as they 'should' be), and a killer extracuriculars (very little service, but I was lead design for our robotics team last year and will fill the same position this year (www.usfirst.org))


So, I've got my SATII's done (770 chem, 800 phys, 700 writing) got my SAT (1530) got my 'hardest course selection' from my HS, got my grades . .


and I got my legacy. I think it looks pretty promising, but I'm still worried. . . . .


Maybe I'll see you there . . . Its a great school. BTW, i'm going for EECE (electrical/computer engineering) although I'll probably walk into some mechE lectures, or maybe even get a minor in it . . . .

Its all good.

Good luck!


edit: I forget when the notify early desicion candidates . . . .

But, If I get in (please God!) I will successfullly have avoided the whole college rat-race . .

I mean, Rice doesn't even have an essady on their app, they have a box that says 'fill this with something you like' above it . . . . i visited and they said some kid cut a whole and wrote "hold against window" on it or something . . .

I have an idea, but I'm not telling.
 
LordMorpheus, you will have no problem getting in. legacy is weighted very heavily in the rice admissions process...

i've heard some silly stuff that people put into the box as well - i heard someone taped a grain of rice in it, and another person stuck a mirror in it hahaha
 
lordmopheus: thanks. yes I do mean early decision. I got a 34 on the act and will be taking the sat IIs in october (the last test date for early decision). I'm struggling a bit in the extracurricular area but I've been doing better recently. I suppose it doesn't hurt to try. I'm wondering though .. what will they do if you commit in january and aren't able to attend after all?

oh .. see ya there 😉 I haven't decided on a definite major but I'm looking at psychology at the moment (reading some psych books and taking ap psych this year to get a feel for it).
 
I love the atmosphere.

Although I'm in Stl now, I was born in houston, and my uncle (the one working on the human Genome project) lives real close to the campus. Hes kinda like a 40-year old college student: blue jeans and plaid shirt to work, big bushy (although gray on the edges) pony-tail . . .

Hes a great guy . . .

And Rice is such an awesome school. I can't wait . .

and have you seen the new dormitory they are putting up?!?!?!?! Its like a freaking ten-star hotel!!! I'm all about living on campus in THAT!!
 
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