Rice named a best-value school by Princeton Review

Rice University is named a best-value private school in the Princeton Review’s “Best Value Colleges for 2014” and is the only private university in Texas that made the list.

The 2014 selections feature 75 private and 75 public colleges and universities identified as “best values” based on the Princeton Review’s surveys of 2,000 undergraduate institutions in 2012-13 concerning the quality of academics, cost of attendance and generous financial aid awards.

“Rice remains one of the best values in higher education,” the Princeton Review writes in its profile of Rice. “In addition to their terrific financial aid policy, Rice offers a number of merit scholarships to incoming students. … In addition to the monetary value, some scholarships include the opportunity to do individual research under the direction of a faculty member, adding even greater value to the Rice experience.

“With tuition set at thousands of dollars lower than Ivy League and other peer institutions, Rice walks the walk of keeping the highest caliber of education affordable for all,” the editors wrote.

Rice admits students regardless of their ability to pay and provides financial-aid packages that meet 100 percent of students’ demonstrated need. Since 2009, Rice has eliminated loans to students whose family income is below $80,000. The university limits loans to no more than $10,000 in financial-aid packages for need-eligible incoming freshmen for their four undergraduate years.

Rice has been featured as one of the Princeton Review’s best-value schools every year since 2002. The Princeton Review’s “The Best 378 Colleges” also features Rice as being No. 1 for best quality of life and No. 2 for the happiest students.

For the complete list of best-value colleges, visit http://www.princetonreview.com/best-value-colleges.