yoyimom

My Son is very interested in going to Rice. He even put Rice as is first choice on the National Merit Semi-finalist application. Does anyone know if Rice gives any scholarship for being NMF?

His interested in Rice because they have a fine Engineering program. If they don't give much for being a NMF does anyone know if they have any scholarship for engineering?

He has a 3.7 GPA, 2300 in the SAT's and 34 in the ACT's, he is in an IB program and has 5's and 4's in his AP tests. He also is a HNMF.

Thank you all in advance.

mom2collegekids

Unfortunately, Rice doesn't do much for NMF - just $1,000.

Financial Aid at Rice University

National Merit Scholarship National Merit Finalists (must designate Rice as their first choice with the National Merit Corporation). $1,000
Renewable for four years.

Your son may want to choose a financial safety that will offer an great automatic National Merit Scholarship.

Some of the competitive ones can be very hard to get since hundreds are applying for a tiny number of awards.


It's easy to go to a college's website and look for the most current info. Sometimes, people will post out-of-date info, so it's best to just go to the website and look for "scholarships".

Competitive Engineering Scholarship.
Engineering Scholarship Outstanding applicants to the engineering division. $6,500-Full Tuition

Renewable for four years

Christian2

Rice, however, is very good with merit scholarships. I believe about 30% of Rice's entering freshmen earn some merit scholarship each year. Your son's stat is competitive for merit scholarship. So apply and find out.

krug

Although Rice does give out scholarships, they tend to be small. With your stats, I think you could expect 5K - 10K since he is right in range for Rice acceptance numbers. If you need more merit aid, you must look at schools that your child will be the top of the entering freshman class.

mom2collegekids

Krug,

It's good to know that Rice's scholarships tend to be small. Many schools like to say that many/most of their students get scholarship money, but that can be misleading if the amounts are small.

Christian2

Rice offers some big scholarships including the Engineering Scholarship for Outstanding applicants to the engineering division. $6,500-Full Tuition Renewable for four years. OP's son shall definitely give it a try.

yoyimom

Thank you all for the information about Rice. I am going to let my son know about the engineering scholarships that Christian2 mentioned and apply.

Krug,

What other schools would you recommend for my S to apply with his stats?

mom2collegekids

I'm not Krug, but I would recommend that your DS apply to some schools that give full-rides to NMF as his "financial safeties". Rice can be his reach/match, but he needs some financial safeties if $$$ is going to be an issue if Rice doesn't offer enough $$.

He can always adjust his "first choice" to NM in the spring when he gets all of his scholarship offers and decides which is best for him. You just fax your change of school choice to NM Corp in the spring.

danas

yoyimom...
We are missing half the picture. Is your family income about $60,000, or about $160,000?
If your income is below $100,000, the strength of need based aid at each college is likely to be more important than merit aid.

krug

Agree with mom2collegekids, apply to schools that will definitely give NMF $$$. There is a thread listing the schools. The engineering scholarship is for SPECTACULAR students (MIT shoe-in, Intel Science winner types, etc.) especially for the full ride.

Depending on how much you can or willing to spend on college will determine where you should apply. Just remember the higher you go in the rankings, the less merit $ are given because everyone there are willing to pay full price and their resumes are all great. Case Western, RPI are a few good engineering schools that have decent merit $.