Rice a best buy in 2014 Fiske college guide

Rice University is one of 20 private ”best buy” schools in the 2014 edition of Fiske Guide to Colleges.

Geared toward parents, counselors and college-bound students, the guide uses high academic rating, inexpensive or moderate price and the quality of student life on campus as criteria for its best buys. All of the guide’s best-buy schools, including 21 public institutions, fall into the inexpensive or moderate price category, and most have four- or five-star academic ratings.

The guide describes Rice as “one of the few elite private colleges that keeps tuition relatively affordable” and notes that Rice “has stayed true to its mission of providing unsurpassed programs in science, engineering, the arts and humanities — with a price tag families can afford.”

The guide points out that “Rice is a good deal among top schools. It is the dominant university in the Southwest…. Add to that a strong football team, a spirited student body, and an impressive success rate for graduates, and you’ve got yourself an incredible deal.”

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

Rice has consistently been identified as a top 10 best-value university and is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Earlier this year, the Princeton Review picked Rice as one of the nation’s best-value schools and the university is currently ranked No. 2 by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Rice is also ranked No. 1 for happiest students and No. 2 for best quality of life, best-run college and students’ love of their school in the Princeton Review’s “Best 377 Colleges.”