Starting this Fall 2019, undergraduate domestic students from low- and middle-income families will be attending Rice University tuition-free. The school joins a trend of taking the unaffordability crisis into their own hands. As the Houston Chronicle explains:
The new financial plan, The Rice Investment, will allow full-tuition scholarships and grants to be offered to undergraduate students whose family incomes fall between $65,000 and $130,000 a year and who qualify for need-based financial aid, according to a news release issued Tuesday by the university.
Students who come from families with an income of $130,000 to $200,000 can also receive scholarships that cover at least half of their tuition. A student whose family makes below $65,000 will be able to receive grant aid that covers their full tuition and mandatory fees, room and board. The financial aid is open to both incoming and continuing students at Rice, the private research university that sits on 300 acres in Houston.
This is a great move that will allow students to consider Rice University regardless of their income. When the school first opened, The school had been tuition-free from its founding as the William Marsh Rice Institute in 1912 until 1965. Said Rice University president David Leebron, “It’s really important to us that all families feel that if their child is admitted to Rice that they can make this work, that they can afford it.”
Now if only we can get this for all low- and middle-income undergraduate students everywhere!