Dollars for Scholars: RICE-TMS Scholarships Boost Merit Minority Students’ Interest in Rice

Last year, on the very day she sat down to decide which university to attend—among them Rice, Amherst, Williams, and Washington University in St. Louis—Christel Miller received notice that she had won a minority scholarship to attend Rice University.

“That was the last straw. I was headed for Rice,” says the Brown College student.

Like Miller, 11 other students were swayed to enroll at Rice after being awarded $10,000 scholarships from the Recruitment Into Collegiate Education Through Minority Scholarships fund (RICE-TMS). “The best evidence of the success of the program can be found in the 12 scholars funded by RICE-TMS,” says Carl MacDowell, president of the organization. “All of them had a successful start, made their grade-point average last fall [a 2.8 minimum, which is necessary to maintain eligibility for the scholarship], and are continuing their studies this year.”

The purpose of RICE-TMS is to recruit the best minority students to Rice by offering them merit scholarships. The group, composed of six Rice alumni, is a nonprofit organization that is not associated with Rice University. Started about two years ago, the organization has been very successful in raising funds, collecting $550,000 to date, $95,000 of that from the Rice community. “Rice faculty and staff have been major players in getting this effort launched through their generous donations,” MacDowell says.

Jaime Rios, a student from Sid Richardson College, says that receiving the scholarship was a determining factor in choosing which university to attend. “It made Rice more attractive, and it showed me that the university really cares about minority students,” Rios explains. “I believe that it is important to have diversity at Rice and be competitive in this regard with other universities.”

In addition to receiving the scholarship, each of the winners was assigned a volunteer faculty mentor for the entire four years at Rice. Deborah Nelson-Campbell, professor of French studies, is Rios’s mentor, and they meet once a month. “It’s like meeting a friend for lunch,” explains Nelson. “We talk about what he is doing and problems he might have.” Nelson recently wrote a letter of recommendation for Rios to a minority medical education program.

Last spring, RICE-TMS offered approximately 50 scholarships with the goal that 25 recipients would accept the award and attend Rice this fall. Thus far, 15,000 applications have been distributed, and 420 applications went under review. The scholarships are awarded regardless of financial need and do not replace any financial aid that a recipient receives from Rice or other sources. They are given to students who have been accepted to Rice and have demonstrated leadership potential. The stipends are awarded over a four-year period in annual $2,500 installments.

For more information about the RICE-TMS program, check out http://www.ricetms.org/.

—David D. Medina