Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering at Rice University

Rice's electrical engineering program delivers first-year earnings of $96,751—putting it at the 95th percentile nationally but the 60th percentile in Texas, where engineering programs are exceptionally competitive. That $96,751 essentially matches what UT Austin's graduates earn ($96,997), despite Rice's far more selective admissions (8% vs. 40%). Meanwhile, graduates from less selective Texas programs like Prairie View A&M and Texas A&M College Station are earning within $10,000-$13,000 of Rice grads.

The estimated debt of $26,000 (derived from similar Rice programs, since graduate counts were too small to report) is manageable against these earnings, yielding a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.27. That's a solid outcome by any measure—graduates could reasonably pay off their loans within a few years. But here's the tension: if your child could gain admission to Rice, they likely have the credentials for substantial merit aid at Texas's strong public engineering programs, where they'd graduate with similar earnings and potentially less debt.

The practical takeaway: Rice delivers excellent engineering outcomes, but in Texas's unusually strong engineering landscape, it doesn't provide the earnings premium over public alternatives that its elite admissions selectivity might suggest. If you're paying significantly more out-of-pocket than you would at UT Austin or Texas A&M, the financial return doesn't justify the difference.