Best value ranking sits a little low for comfort
Rice has always been about getting a good education for the best value. From the free-tuition policy that lasted more than 50 years after the university's opening day to the No. 1 "Best Value" ranking in last year's Princeton Review, maintaining the ability to educate students more effectively while charging less than our competitors has been central in Rice's institutional goals since day one. This is why we hope that Rice's placement of only fourth-best on two separate best value lists is only temporary (see story, page 1). It is true while we fell from the top spot in the aforementioned Princeton Review, we did rise one slot from fifth in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, but it might be worth asking: why did we stop the ascent at number four?Certain other universities took the spots ahead of us: Swarthmore, Harvard and Princeton in the Princeton Review, and California Institute of Technology, Yale and Princeton in Kiplinger's. Most of these schools sport tens of billions of dollars in endowment funds, and, consequently, no-loan thresholds higher than the clouds - a factor to which both sets of rankings give great weight. Rice has some reason to complain, though, since the rankings came out before the administration announced a raise in our own no-loan threshold from $60,000 to $80,000 ("Rice modifies financial aid," Jan. 9).
Nevertheless, while Rice should by no means feel disgraced for receiving a fourth-best ranking among a pool of several hundred private institutes of higher learning, we feel that the more lists we can top, the better. Any ranking in which we can best schools like Harvard and Yale improves our national reputation, and assists us in our struggle to the top of the collegiate heap. Therefore, the administration should continue to prioritize making Rice as good a value as possible, and hopefully when next year's potential applicants flip through Kiplinger's or Princeton Review, they will find Rice no farther down the page than the very top.
More from The Rice Thresher
Fund the RWRC
The Student Association's plan to cut the Rice Women's Resource Center budget is wrong, and you should be mad about it.
O’Rourke rallies students in Academic Quad
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, Texas spoke in front of the Sallyport to a sea of sunglasses and “end gun violence” signs April 17. The rally, organized by Rice Young Democrats, took place in the academic quad from noon to 2 p.m.
Five international visas revoked at Rice
Federal authorities have revoked visas for five international affiliates at Rice — three current students and two recent graduates, President Reginald DesRoches announced in an April 11 message to campus. The revocations are “not related to social activism or protests,” a university spokesperson told the Thresher.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication by The Rice Thresher.