<p>Rice has a quick-and-dirty estimator of total cost on its website. It’s so brief that it only asks gross parental annual income; it doesn’t even ask about parents’ or students’ assets. I know that the cost of attendance for Rice may be $5K-7K lower than many competitor schools, but how is their need-based aid for middle-class families?</p>
<p>We have 7 years experience with Rice financial aid, and it’s all been good! In terms of assets - there is an asset protection allowance of somewhere in the range of $40-$50,000 depending on the ages of the parents built into the FAFSA/Profile. Above that, I believe 5.6% of parental assets are pulled each year, and 20% of student assets, though 529 plans and small businesses etc. are handled differently. (p.m. me if you want a website link that has info for folks needing financial aid info.) In our experience Rice doesn’t seem to take house equity into account when figuring financial aid need, and our Rice EFC has been the same as our FAFSA EFC all 7 years. Rice costs us about the same as full-fare at our instate flagship U.- a real deal. We make well over the median income for families in the U.S., but in the rarefied College Confidential world, we are probably considered “middle-class”.</p>