Letter to the Editor: on being low income at Rice

As a Rice alumna (Lovett College ’03) and a student who also attended Rice under adverse economic circumstances, I was inspired by Elizabeth’s bravery in writing about her financial situation and how foreign the Rice environment can be to those from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Thanks to extensive financial aid and an external scholarship, I was able to attend Rice. I was the oldest child of a single parent with four kids; my mom made $40,000 a year when I started college. While I was at Rice, I saved money by borrowing library books instead of buying personal copies. I worked on campus and bummed rides from my roommates when we lived off campus. I spent my summers working extensively to cover my expenses and lived off campus where it was cheaper. Study abroad was not an option, as it would keep me from graduating in the four years my funding would pay for. There were so many conversations during which I remember feeling lost, as I had not come from a family where financial planning, savings and budgeting were in the vocabulary.