How should I compare financial aid offers from Rice and Northwestern?

The better offer is the one with the lower guaranteed four-year cost after grants and scholarships, not necessarily the lower published cost of attendance. Treat grants and scholarships from Rice or Northwestern as actual reductions in price; treat federal loans as debt you will repay and work-study as an opportunity to earn money, not money automatically applied to your bill. A package with more grant aid is often safer even when its listed cost is higher.

Compare each school’s direct billed charges first: tuition, required fees, housing, and meal plan. Subtract only institutional, federal, and state grants or scholarships that are confirmed and renewable. Then add back any required borrowing. Look closely at whether a scholarship continues for four years and what academic or enrollment conditions apply.

Include work-study and loans separately rather than counting them as aid. Work-study means you may earn up to a stated amount through an eligible campus job; it does not eliminate a charge upfront, and actual earnings depend on finding and keeping work. For loans, note the type, annual amount, interest terms, and total borrowing over four years.

Also compare realistic out-of-pocket costs that may not appear equally in the packages: travel between home and Houston for Rice or Evanston/Chicago for Northwestern, health insurance if you will not use family coverage, books, personal expenses, and housing or meal-plan differences after the first year.

Put both offers into one four-year worksheet with columns for guaranteed gift aid, direct charges, loans, expected work earnings, and non-billed expenses. The most meaningful bottom line is cash your family must pay each year plus debt you expect to carry at graduation. If a package relies on an amount your family cannot realistically contribute, contact that financial aid office with documentation of changed circumstances and ask whether a reconsideration is possible.