Rice Launches New Undergraduate Scholarship Initiative

By B. J. Almond

Because scholarship offers can strongly influence whether highly gifted students from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and geographic regions choose to study here or at some other prestigious university, Rice University has launched an initiative to raise $100 million in endowed scholarships for undergraduates by 2012—Rice’s 100th anniversary.

“In today’s dynamic and competitive college-recruitment environment, the universities that are the most successful in bringing accomplished, ambitious students to their campuses are the universities with endowed scholarships that are both large in size and number,” Rice president David Leebron says. “Substantial need-based and merit-based undergraduate scholarships will help us shape each incoming class with young people destined for leadership positions in their careers.”

The new initiative targets five levels of scholarship recognition: endowed scholarships ($50,000), centennial endowed scholarships ($100,000), distinguished university endowed scholarships ($300,000), presidential endowed scholarships ($500,000), and William Marsh Rice endowed scholarships ($1 million).

“Raising $100 million in scholarships will bolster Rice’s ability to continue its need-blind admissions process and to use merit aid to compete effectively with other schools for students who may be considering Rice,” says Julie Browning, dean for undergraduate enrollment. The funding will be critical in light of the university’s plans to increase its undergraduate enrollment by 30 percent (to approximately 3,800 students) over the next decade as part of Rice’s Vision for the Second Century. Browning notes Rice faces particularly stiff competition for students in the top 5 percent of their high school classes from academic peer institutions offering generous merit scholarships as a recruiting tool.

Half of high school graduates in the United States now come from families earning less than $50,000. “Rice must be prepared to dedicate substantial financial aid for scholarships for highly talented low- and middle-income students so we continue to have a rich learning environment where students are admitted for their capacity to learn and not for their capacity to pay,” Browning says.

Having a greater number of endowed scholarships also will aid Rice in increasing the percentage of its international undergraduates to 5 percent from 3 percent. Diversity in geographic origins and backgrounds can help Rice students gain different perspectives from around the world and help future international leaders who study at Rice appreciate American values.

Rice students who currently are receiving scholarships have commented on how important the funding is to them.

“I live in a middle-class family, and one of our main concerns with college, aside from quality, is cost,” says Angelique Poteat, a junior music composition major from Clinton, Washington. “One of my main worries was the hefty $775-per-semester fee for studying with the clarinet professor, and the scholarship I received truly helped lighten that load. It also will allow me to practice more instead of taking on a second job, helping me to be a better-prepared clarinetist, which will give me a boost when I apply for positions in orchestras.”

Sophomore Esther Tricoche, a psychology and policy studies major from Weimar, Texas, says, “Without scholarships and financial aid, there would have been absolutely no chance that I would be able to afford to go to school at Rice. I have three older sisters in college, and I have seen them struggle to go to school full time while also working full time to pay for their tuition, and I realized how difficult it would be if I had to do that at Rice.”

May graduate Luke Austin Stadel, an economics major from Osage City, Kansas, says his top choices for college were Harvard University and Rice. “Harvard couldn’t give me any scholarship money,” he recalls. “Rice was more affordable to begin with, and it was able to give me a scholarship, so that made my decision very easy. I hope that people like the Rice alumnus who donated my scholarship continue to find creating scholarships to be worthwhile, because this kind of financial help provides awesome experiences for students. It certainly did for me.”

For more information about endowing scholarships at Rice, contact Leslie Brewster, assistant director of constituent relations in the development office, at 713-348-4633 or lbrewst@rice.edu, or visit www.giving.rice.edu.