This discussion was created from comments split from: What schools did your child pass on in order to attend Alabama.
<p>Wow, this is such an amazing thread to read! Thanks to all for sharing their stories!</p>
<p>I am intrigued by Alabama (will visit this fall), and would like to know more about the social dynamics between the students. Is there resentment among the in-state students towards the OOS students who are enjoying such generous financial packages and favoritism in the Honors College?</p>
<p>Students don’t care where other students are from, what scholarships they have, or what their ACT/SAT test scores were, though one will often learn that information after knowing someone for awhile. Prrovided a student is reasonably polite and friendly, is happy to be at UA, and wants to make the world a better place, they will find a lot of friends.</p>
<p>Bama Dining has been known to have contests asking students to submit their favorite recipes from their hometowns. Bama Dining might then make that recipe and serve it at Lakeside or Fresh Foods.</p>
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<p>I’ve never heard of any. I don’t think my D has a clue (or cares) who has a scholarship and who doesn’t. In any event, in-state students also have generous financial packages and there are plenty of in-state students who enjoy the perks of the Honors College also. </p>
<p>My D has seen no evidence of favoritism in the Honors College for OOS students. </p>
<p>This type of question seems to come up with some regularity as OOS families consider the many opportunities available to their kids at UA. I know I certainly had them a year ago when we first started our search for affordable alternatives to our pricey state flagship.</p>
<p>Although there seems to be some debate within the state of Alabama about the long-term implications of the increase in the number of OOS students, it seems like UA students themselves have no noticeable issues with each other with regard to out-of-staters and the scholarships many of them receive.</p>
<p>Just last week AL.com covered the topic at great length, and it’s certainly worth noting that the reporter is herself a UA grad who apparently honed her investigative reporting skills at The Crimson White (UA’s student newspaper):</p>
<p><a href=“Are in-state students being edged out at the University of Alabama? What the numbers show - al.com”>Are in-state students being edged out at the University of Alabama? What the numbers show - al.com;
<a href=“Out-of-state students bring in more tuition money to fill state's higher education funding void - al.com”>Out-of-state students bring in more tuition money to fill state's higher education funding void - al.com;
<a href=“https://twitter.com/itsmelissabrown”>https://twitter.com/itsmelissabrown</a></p>
<p>@GMTplus7 </p>
<p>??</p>
<p>What favoritism? The instate students can get full tuition awards with LOWER stats. And anyone with the minimum stats can get into the HC.</p>
<p>The school has grown considerably so that the instate numbers have not decreased. Instate students are not being rejected to make room for the OOS. Bama’s undergrad was about 16,000 students not long ago (and was about 30% oos then).</p>
<p>Also, do you think that students walk around with their awards embroidered on their clothes? I doubt most students are gauche enough to mention what they got. </p>
<p>In life, it is best not to talk about such things (awards, salaries, raises, etc). </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids - You are right of course, but I think they meant that since OOS people paid no Alabama taxes all those years and still get this benefit, there could, in theory, be grumbling. At least that is how I interpreted the question, albeit with inference required. In a sense that is favoritism, or at least I can see people calling it that. As far as a scarlet “OOS S” (the last S for Scholarship), again it is possible at least that people find these things out, even pretty easily. But the important point is that that kids are usually pretty indifferent to such issues. If anything it would be the parents that care, since they paid the taxes. And the parents aren’t on campus on a day to day basis, so it really doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>I seem to recall reading someplace that the argument that was bought into by whoever OK’d these programs was that they figured 1) some of these people will stay in Alabama and create jobs, pay taxes, etc. 2) that even when they move out of state, these alums will have good things to say about Alabama, as people tend to about their alma maters, 3) the tourism $$ generated from visiting relatives, etc. will offset to some degree, at least, the investment made in them, and 4) that by getting students that would systematically raise the stats of the school, which raises its profile, which attracts the next level higher student, and so on. I could even imagine that behind closed doors it was pointed out that the marginal cost of another student is less than the stated $$ benefit for that student, and so if that student is paying room, board, books, etc. plus whatever spending they do on their own, that represents another offset to the stated cost of the program. I personally think these are pretty good arguments, as long as Alabama remains more aggressive in this than other states, which they seem to be for the most part. If everyone, or even just a lot more states starting doing it, the effect would be diminished considerably. Arizona State was taking a pretty good run at it for their Barrett Honors College for a while, but they still didn’t seem as aggressive or as generous as Alabama has been.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, Dr, Sharpe’s goal as Dean of the Honors College is to populate the planet with high-achieving Honors College graduates . . . to spread them far and wide and, in so doing, to increase grad schools’ and hiring professionals’ perception of UA as a first rate university. Success will benefit all UA students - in-state, OOS, Honors College, and non-Honors College alike.</p>
<p>OOS scholarhips does NOT come from citizens’ tax at all. They come from large private donation like football… i m quite sure that majority of us know that simple fact.</p>
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That is indeed what I meant!</p>
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OOS people don’t know that. By football “donation”, do you mean football revenue, or is there a separate endowed fund? </p>
<p>I’d love to see a citation to an article about OOS scholarships coming from private donations, as that might explain how this system was developed and why.</p>
<p>By the way, it’s rude to say things like, “i m quite sure that majority of us know that simple fact.” I have no idea how anyone would know that, if in fact it’s true that “a majority of us know that.” </p>
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This has been discussed on this forum, so anyone who’s spent much time here probably does know that the scholarships are funded by donation. Anyone who hasn’t spent extensive time here might not know this. (A search of the forum for the word “donation” might turn up the earlier discussions.) The football program does not fund the scholarships - it funds the buildings and facilities that attract all the OOS students. :)</p>
<p>Well, @momfromme, some people can’t seem to help being rude and condescending. Maybe they also don’t know what fungible means. I looked, but I couldn’t find any reference to an endowed fund that was strictly for OOS scholarships, or for all the scholarships for that matter. There are certain named scholarships that are endowed for sure, but that is a minority of the scholarships awarded. I just read through the latest University budget. After I woke myself up, it looked to me like some of the scholarships come out of general operating funds, but it is hard to be sure. Hopefully Paul will enlighten us with references, and more politely this time.</p>
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<p>From one of the al.com articles cited here earlier:</p>
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<p><a href=“Out-of-state students bring in more tuition money to fill state's higher education funding void - al.com”>Out-of-state students bring in more tuition money to fill state's higher education funding void - al.com;
<p>^^^What isn’t clear from that article (or maybe I missed it) is whether or not the total population of AL high school seniors similarly declined in 2013. I know in my home state (PA), the high school age population peaked in 2008.</p>
<p>Just to throw this in: I am nearly sure, without going back and looking it up, that nationally the number of high school seniors peaked in 2008. Of course individual states could be different, but it does speak to the overall trend. But I remember reading at the time that the year before my D graduated was the the peak year and everyone was talking about how that would affect college applications going forward.</p>
<p>According to the Alabama State Department of Education., there were 48,945 12th graders in 2012-13. There were 46,200 12th graders in 2007-08. That’s an increase, not a decrease.</p>
<p><a href=“http://web.alsde.edu/PublicDataReports/Default.aspx”>http://web.alsde.edu/PublicDataReports/Default.aspx</a></p>
<p>.</p>
<p>That’s really interesting information, @oldmom4896. I guess the number to look for now is the total number of in-state applications to UA in each of those years. I can’t remember, does the Common Data Set break down IS and OOS numbers? </p>
<p>In fairness to Mom2CollegeKids, more students by far still attend UA than any other school in the state. And I suspect that you would find a similar decrease at Auburn, especially since its enrollment has declined slightly the last two years. </p>