4th year of Presidential Scholarship can now be used for Graduate school!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>Just announced! Presidential Scholars who complete their degree in less than 4 years will now have the opportunity to use their 4th year scholarship for graduate school (including MBA). Good news, but now I’ll have to change my screen name! This was just forwarded to me by my daughter</p>

<p>The Graduate School and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Scholarships at The University of Alabama, with the approval of President Judy Bonner, are teaming up to offer to make available to you a fantastic opportunity for graduate studies. As a 4 or 5 year Presidential, Presidential/Merit or National Achievement/Merit Scholar ), if you complete your undergraduate degree in less than that time, you will be able to retain the balance of your scholarship to enroll in the UA Graduate School and start your Masters, EdS, or doctoral degree. This program would be especially advantageous to accelerated degree students (e.g., University Scholars students or students enrolled in various dual degree programs like the STEM-MBA program) in that you may be able to complete work for BOTH degrees while covered under your existing scholarship!</p>

<p>You are getting this email because our records indicate that; 1) you have completed sufficient credit hours that you COULD finish your undergraduate degree in May 2015 with at least one remaining semester of scholarship support remaining, and 2) your GPA (>3.0) meets minimal Graduate School admissibility standards.</p>

<p>If staying at UA for Graduate School appeals to you, and it looks like you might be able to finish your undergraduate degree in May, please make every effort to do so. Make sure that your undergrad advisor knows that you are interested in this new program. The next step is to get started on your Graduate School application. If you will be continuing graduate studies in your undergraduate major, there is no application fee. However, the majority of graduate programs do require an admission test score (e.g. GRE, MAT, GMAT). If you have not looked into admission tests yet, now is the time.</p>

<p>Who should you contact to find out more? The best person is the Graduate Program coordinator for your intended graduate program. If you go to <a href=“http://graduate.ua.edu/about/degrees/colleges/”>http://graduate.ua.edu/about/degrees/colleges/</a> and then select the college that you are interested in, you will find a list of graduate program directors under a link on the right hand side. Of course you can also send an email to Graduate School at <a href=“mailto:gradschool@ua.edu”>gradschool@ua.edu</a>. Please include your intended graduate program in the email - we will ensure that the appropriate admissions counsellor contacts you as soon as possible. </p>

<p>For our part, we will be publicizing this program extensively in the next few weeks and months, and we will tweak the on-line application materials to add “Presidential Scholar” as an application attribute/identifier to better fast track your application. </p>

<p>For now, the most important thing YOU can do to RIGHT NOW to take advantage of this new program is to work with your advisor to make sure your spring 2015 schedule will allow you to graduate with your baccalaureate degree in May or August 2015.</p>

<p>Best,</p>

<p>David A. Francko</p>

<p>Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School</p>

2

<p>My daughter received this email also. This throws a happy monkey wrench in her plan. She is now looking into rearranging her original spring schedule to have all undergrad courses finished in May. She is meeting with the head of her grad dept.tomorrow to see if it is feasible to do this. One year of grad school paid for would be another blessing from UA. The idea of getting the application and GRE done by early December has her a bit frazzled.</p>

3

<p>This is excellent news as it greatly expands the number of graduate programs available to students. It appears that this announcement excludes programs offered by the UA Law School, which is not part of the UA Graduate School. Its also worth noting that this change appears to only apply to the fourth year of academic scholarships. A number of University Scholars began the program during their third year, with a very small number of students entering during their second year or even their second semester at UA.</p>

<p>Some things to keep in mind before deciding to graduate with an undergraduate degree and then entering the graduate school.</p>

<ol>
<li>Graduate students are not eligible for most, if any, on campus housing should spaces be available.</li>
<li>Certain types of financial aid, such as Stafford and Perkins loans, Federal Work Study, and Pell Grants, are not offered to graduate students.<br></li>
<li>Graduate students are allowed to hold graduate assistantships and are eligible for other types of health insurance.</li>
<li>Graduate students get to register a day or two earlier than most honors students. However, graduate classes typically do not have problems with course availability. In the event only one section of a course is offered, UA will make sure there is space for all students who need to take that course.</li>
<li>Undergraduate scholarships do pay for graduate courses provided the student is approved by the department to take that graduate course.</li>
<li>University Scholars and STEM MBA students do not pay a graduate school application fee regardless of their application.</li>
</ol>

<p>Unless one intends on pursuing a graduate degree which is not part of University Scholars or the STEM MBA program, it really pays to do ones research to decide if one should graduate a year early and then start graduate school under this new program. There are a number of cases when a student might be better off staying in their existing degree plan and graduating with both degrees at the same time. It might also be a better option to be a University Scholar for a semester or more and graduate with ones undergraduate degree partway through their graduate degree program.</p>

4

<p>Seatide, my son is in the University Scholars program right now and when I read the email, I thought “yeah, now he doesn’t have to worry about leaving that last u/g class to the last semester.” However, as a NMF with a housing scholarship, he might “lose” that if he does graduate with his u/g degree first. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Right now he he is a third year student who is finishing his first u/g degree this semester, his second one will take until the end of his fourth year (he believes he will finish his Grad degree then too.) I will tell him to keep going as planned.</p>

5

<p>That is fantastic news! My DS will be a Freshman in the Fall on the Presidential Scholarship and the STEM - MBA program. Can you tell if this new option will be available for all students (including incoming Freshmen) or is it limited to those students who are already enrolled? Thanks!</p>

6

<p>I think more info will be coming out soon but that is a good question to ask at any of the upcoming recruitment receptions.</p>

7

<p>Just to update, I spoke with the Scholarship Office of UA yesterday and they confirmed this change and also said it would be available for incoming freshmen as well. They said it will only be offered to Presidential Scholarship recipients. I was told that HS seniors who have already received their scholarship letters will be receiving a new letter explaining the fourth year grad school option within the next month. I am surprised that this thread is not getting more traction. This is really huge news. I would think many of the Presidential Scholarship recipients have accumulated a lot of AP credits and would be starting UA with enough credits to be a sophomore standing. To be able to obtain an under grad degree AND a grad degree with zero tuition is simply remarkable and I don’t know of any other university where this could be done. I live in Georgia, and as great as the Hope Scholarship is, it can only be used for under grad and not grad school. For any OOS parents / students interested in the STEM - MBA program, this can be the change that seals the deal if you were not already committed to UA. Prior to this change, the only way the fifth year would be paid for is if you scored >700 on the GMAT (which is a really high score even for gifted kids), otherwise that extra year could cost ~$50,000 OOS. This takes the unknown out of the equation and provides my S the incentive he needs to control his own destiny to complete his BS in three years and knows going into the program the fourth year will also be provided for. UA continues to amaze me with the opportunities provided to outstanding students. I would also be curious of anyone knows of a similar program / option at another university? Roll Tide for sure!</p>

8

<p>This is great news for UA Presidential Scholars but just wanted to point out OU’s NM scholarship covers a fifth year and can be used for both graduate school too. This change will make it much easier to compare the two packages;-)</p>

9

<p>^Bama’s NM scholarship already covers a fifth year. The Presidential and NM scholarships are two different scholarship packages. The NM package at Bama includes:</p>

<p>Value of tuition for up to five years or 10 semesters for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate studies
One year of on-campus housing at regular room rate* (based on assignment by Housing and Residential Communities)
A $3,500 per year Merit/Achievement Scholarship stipend for four years. A student must maintain at least a 3.3 GPA to continue receiving this scholarship stipend. If a corporate-sponsored scholarship from the National Merit Corporation is received, the total value cannot exceed $3,500. (For example, if you receive a corporate-sponsored scholarship of $2,000 per year, UA will contribute $1,500 per year to reach the total stipend amount of $3,500.)
One-time allowance of $2,000 for use in summer research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)
iPad</p>

<p>(snipped from scholarships.ua.edu)</p>

<p>The change to the Presidential scholarship is great news!</p>

10

<p>That 5 year NM scholarship is for students who will graduate in 2018 or later. My D is a class of 2016 NM with at least 5 semesters for a Master’s degree program no matter where she goes. Now we have to find out if she were to graduate early, would she keep her housing scholarship. She would lose her full Pell, SEOG and maybe the NM stipend. That’s a big chunk of money that would have to be made up.</p>

<p>She meets with David Francko tomorrow for more info. Over the summer she asked if her program could be part of University Scholars but it was a no go then. I’m not expecting much to change, but at least she will have the info to decide whether she will stay another year as an undergrad and add a business minor or graduate in May. She needs to decide her path before spring registration on Tuesday. </p>

11

<p>Yankee Belle, my son is a 2016 NMF with a housing scholarship too and I was wondering if he finishes his u/g requirements (like he wants to) by the end of next semester, if the housing scholarship would still be available for hmf or the 4th year. If your daughter finds out, please share.</p>

12

<p>I will relay whatever I learn tomorrow evening.</p>

13

<p>I reread the email and have lots of questions that need to be answered. It sounds like the Presidential Scholarship will cover tuition for that 4th year of graduate school, BUT the other Undergraduate scholarships probably don’t apply. For my son who is a NMF with a housing scholarship, this could mean that the housing scholarship, engineering scholarship and NMF $1,000 scholarship will go away. Since he is already in the University Scholars program, it might just be better to be an undergrad for the 4 years while doing his graduate classes and then graduating with his undergrad and grad degree at the same time. I’ve asked me son to email Dr. Francko to find out for sure. For those who don’t have an option of University Scholars, this new policy is definitely something to pursue. </p>

14

<p>If you are changing majors (e.g. getting an MBA) this is a great option. However, if you are continuing in the same major, I do not see any advantage to exercising the option. Is there any?</p>

15

<p>The advantages are guaranteed acceptance into grad school. My D’s major is very competitive to get into anywhere. Starting career a year earlier is another. The disadvantage is OOS tuition, but 3 semesters at Bama is the same price as 6 semesters in state with no guarantee of getting in. </p>

16

<p>This step was taken to help UA fulfill its goal of greatly expanding the number of grad students on campus. But I wonder, how many of the eligible students will go for a PhD at UA, and not just a masters? Increasing the number of PhD students at UA is a priority, per Dr. Bonner in her recent address to faculty and staff.</p>

17

<p>@yankee belle, I don’t understand “the disadvantage is OOS tuition”. Isn’t that the “advantage”? The Presidential will cover OOS tuition for the fourth year (grad school). Am I missing something?</p>

18

<p>ProudPapaBear, I’m guessing it will take 2 years to get the graduate degree, hence one year of out of state tuition.</p>

19

<p>Got it. However with the STEM MBA program you start taking grad courses early to reduce the time to one extra year to get your MBA. If you can leverage your AP classes you can potentially get your under grad in three years and complete your MBA in year four (applying your Presidential Scholarship) and eliminate any OOS tuition. I guess it depends on what grad program you pursue.</p>

20

<p>@ProudPapaBear‌ that’s exactly what convinced our OOS AP loaded son that UA is THE best choice. Honors College+University Scholars+STEM to MBA+other honors programs+generous scholarship money makes other “Top” schools pale in comparison to UA. The total cost for an NMF over five years is what the COA for one year at an elite school goes for. Roll Tide. All the way to the Net Present Value Bank (his and ours).</p>