Tuition increases for incoming Rice students

By Ellen Liu     3/10/11 6:00pm

Students matriculating at Rice in the 2011-2012 school year will face an annual tuition increase of $1,780 more than last year bringing the total price of attendance to $47,821. Rice announced this 5.4 percent rise last Monday and concluded that the tuition cost specifically will be $34,900. Its growth rate has fluctuated slightly over recent years; last year, the tuition went up 5.3 percent from 2009, and between 2008 and 2009, there was a 5 percent price increase.

"Rice raises tuition so that it has sufficient funds, together with endowment support and other revenue sources, to continue providing the high-quality education and research opportunities, services and facilities that our students expect," President David Leebron said.

He noted that because tuition revenue is Rice's second largest revenue source after endowment support, the tuition rate has grown every year.

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Leebron said there would be even more pressure on tuition next year,both to keep the distribution of endowment funds from rising in compensation for past endowment losses and to support modest faculty and staff salary increases. He also mentioned that Rice was facing some potential losses in state and federal support.

However, Leebron said Rice is not changing its financial aid policies and will ensure sufficient funds to cover the additional need for financial aid resulting from the increase in tuition and other costs. According to him, the financial aid budget for 2011- 2012 hasn't been finalized yet, but it will probably increase by at least 10 percent from this year's.

"It is also important to note that based on both tuition charges and financial aid, Rice remains one of the most affordable private universities and colleges," Leebron said. "To date, based on schools that have announced tuition rates for next year, we expect that Rice will remain about $5,000 to $6,000 less than our peers."

Leebron stated that this affordability, among other factors, contributed to Rice being named a best value university by the Princeton Review.

"Rice has been named a best value university for all seven years that the Princeton Review has done this rating because of our high quality education, lower tuition and generous financial aid policies," Leebron said. "We have maintained our commitment to both generous financial aid and a lower tuition price even in the midst of the present economic environment and our endowment losses."

However, Leebron said that the university does not speculate on future tuition rates.

Hanszen College freshman Edward Tian said it would be great for tuition to stay low, but Rice can only be so generous, and considering the quality of education and other opportunities provided here, the rise in tuition was not really unexpected.

"Unlike Rice, the world isn't the happiest place, and it isn't free of worries or problems," Tian said. "I'm sure there are a lot of factors we aren't thinking about that led to this new tuition."

Tian said that he really appreciated Rice's mentality of "education for everyone" regardless of his or her financial situation. According to Tian, as long as it's a need-blind system of acceptance into the university, the tuition increase is justified and understandable.

Martel sophomore Ben Chou said that the tuition increase was unfortunate because it was unreasonable to ask students to pay extra in the current economic climate, though he said he was glad that the tuition of current students would stay the same.

"I hope this is not a turn-off for prospective students," Chou said. "I hope we can maintain our best value status."

According to Chou, the Princeton Review's best value ranking is the second most attractive factor for those considering Rice, with the first being the university's quality of life rating.

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