Rice University has announced that its undergraduate tuition for the 2018-19 school year will be $46,600.
The total cost, including $14,000 for room and board and $745 in mandatory fees, will increase 3.2 percent to $61,345.
The university says it will increase the financial aid budget for 2018-19 by more than 10 percent "to help all students who qualify for need-based aid meet the higher cost of attendance, including additional resources for personal expenses."
Rice will continue its policy of not requiring incoming freshmen to take out loans during their time at Rice to pay for their education "if they qualify for need-based aid and their annual family income is $80,000 or less."
Other students who have demonstrated financial need "are not required to take out more than a total of $10,000 in federal loans for their four undergraduate years."according the university.
"About 72 percent of Rice students graduate without debt," the university says.
“We intend to address the needs of students from middle-class families, who are increasingly finding themselves priced out of the best in private higher education,” President David Leebron said.
Sixty-nine percent of the freshman class in fall 2016 received some form of financial aid from Rice and/or the state and federal governments. About 15 percent of Rice undergraduates currently receive federal Pell Grants. Almost 25 percent of students receive scholarship aid that covers or exceeds the cost of tuition.
Rice is often named one of the country’s best-value private schools. For example, Rice is No. 8 on Kiplinger’s combined list of public and private best-value colleges and universities for 2018 and No. 5 among private universities. Rice is No. 17 among the “Top 50 Colleges That Pay You Back” in the 2018 edition of the Princeton Review’s guidebook that features schools noted for stellar academics, affordable cost via a comparatively low sticker price and generous financial aid and strong career prospects for graduates.
Yvonne Romero da Silva, vice president for enrollment, noted that Rice’s best-value rankings are complemented by Rice’s No. 14 ranking by U.S. News and World Report and No. 1 ranking for quality of life and race/class interaction by the Princeton Review.