Rice University announces tuition for fall 2016

Rice University’s undergraduate tuition for the 2016-17 school year will be $43,220, an increase of $1,660 from the current year. The total cost, including $13,750 for room and board and $698 in mandatory fees, will be $57,668, a 3.2 percent increase.

Rice is consistently ranked as a “best value” because its tuition is lower than rates at peer research universities and its financial aid policy is designed to make education affordable to students from a variety of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Freshmen who qualify for need-based aid and whose annual family income is $80,000 or less are not required to take out loans to pay for their education; other freshmen who have demonstrated financial need are not required to take out more than a total of $10,000 in loans for their four undergraduate years at Rice.

Because of Rice’s need-blind admission policy, students’ academic qualifications for admission are reviewed without any consideration of their financial situation. Nearly 60 percent of all undergraduate students at Rice receive some form of financial aid through a combination of scholarship grants, loans and work-study programs, and nearly 15 percent of undergraduates receive federal Pell Grants.

“With the economy in another period of volatility and uncertainty, it’s even more important that we take steps to augment our high quality of education and generous financial aid,” President David Leebron said. “That takes support from our donors and prudent stewardship of our endowment and other resources. Our undergraduate students contribute through their tuition and fees payments on average about 30 percent of the total cost of their education, but we have worked very hard to keep increases in their share as small as possible even while adding enhancements to our educational programs.”

The 2016 edition of the Princeton Review’s “Colleges That Pay You Back” guidebook ranks Rice No. 9 on the basis of academic quality, college cost and alumni’s salaries. Rice is ranked No. 4 on Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine’s 2016 list of best values among private universities and has placed among Kiplinger’s top five private best values since the rankings began in 1999.

“Students who invest in a Rice education get to study at a university that is highly ranked for quality of life, happiest students and lots of race and class interaction by the Princeton Review,” said Chris Muñoz, vice president for enrollment.

Graduate education costs for 2016-17 vary for different programs. Tuition for most doctoral students will increase 4 percent to $43,220. Tuition for graduate students in architecture will be the same as last year at $30,200. Tuition for graduate students in music will be $27,490. Tuition for students entering the professional master’s programs will be $31,500 for global affairs, $36,000 for natural sciences, $40,000 for engineering and $52,000 for energy economics. Tuition will be $53,000 for students in the full-time MBA program at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Tuition for other Jones School programs will be $102,000 for the Weekend MBA for Professionals, $98,500 for the Evening MBA for Professionals, $115,000 for the Executive MBA and $49,500 for the Master of Accounting.

For more information on Rice, visit www.rice.edu. For information about financial aid programs and to apply, see www.futureowls.rice.edu.