A little confused with the UA app and scholarships

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>Dear CC’ers:</p>

<p>I have read your many posts on U of A on CC. Thank you very much for all the information. </p>

<p>I am a little confused with my S’s app to U of A. He completed the application online over the weekend. However, there has been not even an e-mail acknowledgment that the app (first step) is complete. He has already requested that his SAT/ACT scores be sent to U of A.</p>

<p>U of A mentions a separate app for scholarships. (He has been designated as a National Merit semi-finalist and has very good chances of getting our corporate (the company I work for) scholarship).</p>

<p>To apply to these scholarships, we need a bama id. How do we get one?</p>

<p>He has put “college undecided” in his NMSC app since I have read m2ckids post on how you could decline the “official” portion of the U of A scholarship and get the best of both the corporate scholarship ($2500/yr) and the U of A scholarship. How does this process work?</p>

<p>Thank you for your time</p>

2

<p>you will get an email in a few days with his ID to sign on to mybama, then you can get into the area that allows him to fill out the scholarship info. They do not send an immediate confirmation email when you submit the application. You can not access the honors application until he has been officially accepted to UA. </p>

<p>As for the scholarship question, I have no idea, sorry. I am sure someone else knows that info and will chime in!</p>

3

<p>HI and Welcome!</p>

<p>And congrats to your son for making NMSF. </p>

<p>I’m sure that you’re aware of all the steps, but one step that people forget is sending the SAT score to NMCorp…code #0085</p>

<p>If you haven’t already, please post on our state roll call thread.</p>

<p>The follow-up emails only get sent out on business days, so your son will get that within a couple of days…with logon in CWID #. Save that CWID #, you’ll need it often, but also can be found on mybama in a few spots after you’ve set that up.</p>

<p>Then you can sign on to mybama and do the scholarship app (which is a formality since your son qualifies for an assured scholarship but must be done.)</p>

<p>I have read m2ckids post on how you could decline the “official” portion of the U of A scholarship and get the best of both the corporate scholarship ($2500/yr) and the U of A scholarship. How does this process work?</p>

<p>Yes…my son did this, too. You can designate Bama as your #1 choice. Then around Feb you’ll contact NMCorp (or they might call you) and discuss the corporate situation. In our case, NMCorp called us. They had us decline the $1,000 official NMF part from Bama, so that son could accept the 2500 per year from H’s company. Then son got the rest of the Bama NMF awards.</p>

<p>You still declare Bama as #1 choice…that doesn’t change…the company is not considered to be a #1 choice. lol</p>

<p>BTW…to declare a #1 choice, you print out the form on NMCorp, fill it out, and fax it in. </p>

<p>What is your son’s major? If he’s engineering or comp sci, then he also gets 2500 per year for that as well.</p>

4

<p>Thank you, vlines. </p>

<p>Since the other colleges my S applied sent an email as soon as the first step is taken, I was a little concerned U of A didn’t send any ack. No worries. (Especially since the app was done over the weekend!) (This is our first foray into the college admissions process in the US)</p>

<p>Wow, what quick and relevant replies … CC’ers.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

5

<p>We probably cross-posted with our above posts. :)</p>

<p>In my above post, I forgot to include this link…</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1096387-what-state-everybody-roll-call.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1096387-what-state-everybody-roll-call.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Thank you for your very informative reply, mom2collegekids.</p>

<p>My son did send his SAT scores to NMSC. (1500/1600 and 2210/2400). He has a 4.5 GPA weighted and a 3.9 GPA unweighted. 3 APs (Calculus BC, Chemistry, US History) with 5’s and 1 AP (European History) with a 4. ACT score of 34. (35 in Math).</p>

<p>He reluctantly (!) completed his essay and has completed the initial portion of the NMSC app. The last step of the NMSC app said “Send to school official” and it’s now done. He writes well – just getting into the mood to write is the problem :-)</p>

<p>No, we don’t write his essays for him! I always wonder how the college reps can read over 20K essays every year. He was very thrilled that U of A didn’t have an essay as part of the process!!</p>

<p>We weren’t very clear on how the Corporate vs the College choice for NMSC works. We weren’t sure if we had put UA as #1 for NMSC, he would still be considered for the Corporate scholarship. </p>

<p>When should we send/fax the college choice form? </p>

<p>Yes, my son is going for Electrical/Computer Engineering.</p>

7

<p>desimeen,</p>

<p>Congrats to your son on making NMSF!</p>

<p>In addition to completing the scholarship application your son will likely want to apply to the Honors College (brief introductory essay, tell him it’s mostly a formality) and consider applying to other Honors programs depending on his interests: IHP, CBHP, or UFE.</p>

<p>Yes, he’ll need to get motivated for his CBHP or UFE essays, but, these programs are worth nagging him about. My son didn’t 'Bama fever until he went to interview for CBHP and could not imagine himself anywhere else after that weekend.</p>

<p>Welcome!</p>

8

<p>He reluctantly (!) completed his essay and has completed the initial portion of the NMSC app. The last step of the NMSC app said “Send to school official” and it’s now done. He writes well – just getting into the mood to write is the problem :slight_smile:</p>

<p>And, yes, the honors college UHP app has an “essay” (ha ha), but it’s really just a few sentences about yourself…don’t knock yourself out.</p>

<p>However, if your son wants to apply to CHB or UFE (and he should) then the essays are important because they’re used for first-round down-select process. </p>

<p>*
No, we don’t write his essays for him! I always wonder how the college reps can read over 20K essays every year. He was very thrilled that U of A didn’t have an essay as part of the process!!*</p>

<p>In many cases, they don’t. Many “essay” schools use grades/rank/test scores/curriculum/URM/regional status for an initial down-select and then use essays to further down-select. When you’re getting 40,000 apps (like some schools do), most can afford to staff enough people to read that many essays. I know the UCs use a GPA filter to initially reject a bunch of apps…and then go from there. However the schools that don’t get a gazillion apps may read them all. </p>

<p>*
We weren’t very clear on how the Corporate vs the College choice for NMSC works. We weren’t sure if we had put UA as #1 for NMSC, he would still be considered for the Corporate scholarship.</p>

<p>When should we send/fax the college choice form?*</p>

<p>Send the form in anytime between now and spring. There’s no harm in sending now, NMCorp lets you resend another form in later if you change your mind.</p>

<p>Yes, you still get considered for corporate by putting Bama as #1 college choice. Corporations don’t get listed as a college choice. However, if you’re ever unsure and want confirmation, never hesitate to call NMCorp…they’re very nice and helpful on the phone about any concern. </p>

<p>COLLEGEBOARD -
Nat’l Merit Corp 847-866-5100
NMCorp code 0085</p>

<p>*
Yes, my son is going for Electrical/Computer Engineering. *</p>

<p>Good, so he’d get the big NMF scholarship, 2500 per year from CoE, and the corporate money of 2500 per year…a total free ride. :)</p>

9

<p>Thank you, loring.</p>

<p>Can you please expand on these acronyms? I am just getting used to the terminology.</p>

<p>IHP </p>

<p>CBHP</p>

<p>UFE</p>

10

<p>IHP - International Honors Program</p>

<p>CBHP - Computer-Based Honors Program (research program)</p>

<p>UFE - University Fellows Experience (service oriented)</p>

<p>You can read about them here: [Honors</a> College - Home](<a href=“http://honors.ua.edu/]Honors”>http://honors.ua.edu/)</p>

<p>CBHP and UFE are very selective. If your son is interested he should spend some time on those essays.</p>

11

<p>UA HONORS COLLEGE [Honors</a> College - Home](<a href=“http://honors.ua.edu/]Honors”>http://honors.ua.edu/) </p>

<p>This thread talks about the different honors programs. </p>

<p>More info about Honors College
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/804961-honors-colleges-4-different-programs-app-process.html?highlight=honors[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/804961-honors-colleges-4-different-programs-app-process.html?highlight=honors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>Loring and mom2collegekids:
Thank you very much for the information on the Honors program.
Some colleges have just one honors program but U of A has four!</p>

<p>(I understand having this variety lets the student choose the one that best fits his/her interests)</p>

<p>I also got replies from the U of A admissions/scholarships office.</p>

<p>Overall I am impressed with the U of A programs/offices so far</p>

13

<p>desimeen, students can actually be a member of every honors program that they are accepted into. Each year, there are 2-3 students that are accepted into both CBHP and UFE and they could also be in IHP in addition to being in UHP, which is the largest and “main” honors program at UA of which almost every honors student is a member.</p>

14

<p>Sea_Tide is right…a student can belong to more than one honors program.</p>