Rice ranks fifth among top 33 private research universities

By Seong Jong Hong 8/20/11 7:00pm

Rice University ranked fifth among the top-33 private research universities chosen by the Carnegie Foundation, an independent research center that reports on every level of education. Rice received this acknowledgement for its low student-debt-to-degrees-awarded ratio.

According to a new study by the Education Sector published in August, each student who had earned a degree from Rice graduated with a debt totaling between $5,000 and $7,500 on average.

This statistic brings to light Rice's financial aid program: Director of Financial Aid Anne Walker, said that numerous donors and alumni support need and merit awards so as to help students receive the aid they need.

Rice will continue to extend its policy of supporting 100 percent of every Rice student's unmet need, Walker said. "A family's ability to pay will never have any bearing on our admissions process as we are committed to a need-blind admissions policy."

The Carnegie Foundation chose Rice along with MIT, Harvard, Caltech, and Stanford.

Dean of Wiess School of Natural Sciences Daniel Carson said that Rice's dedication to selecting excellent students and faculty members and creating opportunities which sustain research at the highest levels led to this accomplishment.

"Notable examples of this commitment are evident in our recent hires of three members of the National Academy of Sciences and the construction of facilities like the Brockman Hall for Physics and the Bioscience Research Collaborative," Carson said. "It is the combination of intellectual capital and research infrastructure that enables us to perform at the level we do."

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