Board approves tuition for next academic year

Board approves tuition for next academic year

Tuition for returning students next fall will rise $400 per year and for new freshman $600, the Rice University Board of Trustees has approved.

That keeps Rice tuition about one-third less than its competitors. The 2000-2001 tuition levels are:

• $15,950 for students entering next fall, $600 higher than current freshmen;
• $15,750 for students entering in 1999
• $15,300 for students entering in 1998
• $14,750 for students entering in 1997

Tuition for Rice graduate students for the 2000-2001 academic year will increase $600 (3.7 percent) to $16,700. Tuition for students enrolling at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management will be $19,700 for the M.B.A. program.

The tuition for all Rice undergraduates is governed by the tuition indexing policy introduced in 1994 to help students and their families plan for the entire cost of their education.

Under the plan, annual increases in tuition after a student’s first year are capped at the level of the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the prior calendar year. The CPI is a measure of the average annual change in prices paid by urban consumers for a fixed basket of goods and services. The growth in the CPI for 1999 was 2.7 percent.

Room and board rates will increase to $6,850, a growth of 3.8 percent above 1999-2000 rates of $6,600.

Rice University admits students without regard to financial need and meets 100 percent of the demonstrated needs of students who matriculate.

About 85 percent of Rice students receive some form of financial or merit aid, with university awards reducing the cost of attending Rice by about 40 percent.

In addition, in 1998, Rice announced a decision to cap student loan debt in its packaging of financial aid. For the class of 2004, the cap will be $2,475 a year. The policy ensures that the most an entering student on need-based financial aid would owe after four years at Rice would be $9,900, a figure well below the national average.