Hi. My HS Jr son just qualified for UA’s Presidential Scholarship for full tuition. (SAT 760CR+690M) Since he wants to do Engineering that will add another $2500/yr.
Are there additional scholarships that he could qualify for that would drive the COA down even further?
I was thinking about visiting the campus for the March 7 University Day and stay the next day for a more in-depth admissions visit. The problem is that even though he has spring break that week, he’s busy with his community college classes and doesn’t want to go, and both he and my wife are kind of “meh” on the idea of UA. While my perspective is, if a good school wants to reward your hard work with $115,000, you check them out and see what they have to offer.
So … how hard do I push for him to visit in March? If he visits and decides UA’s not for him that’s one thing, but I won’t accept him refusing to consider it because of prejudice and ignorance. If he decides not to visit now, would it make sense to just bring my wife? Based on what I have read on this forum, a good visit could sway her opinion and allow us to give him really informed and detailed feedback about UA. If she doesn’t want to go, I guess I could do a solo road trip, but I’m not the one that needs convincing here.
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Are there additional scholarships that he could qualify for that would drive the COA down even further?
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how did he do on the PSAT?
Is he going to apply to CBHP?
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I was thinking about visiting the campus for the March 7 University Day and stay the next day for a more in-depth admissions visit. The problem is that even though he has spring break that week, he’s busy with his community college classes and doesn’t want to go, and both he and my wife are kind of “meh” on the idea of UA. While my perspective is, if a good school wants to reward your hard work with $115,000, you check them out and see what they have to offer.
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And you are right!!!
Many people are “meh” about Bama …until they visit!
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So … how hard do I push for him to visit in March? If he visits and decides UA’s not for him that’s one thing, but I won’t accept him refusing to consider it because of prejudice and ignorance.
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I would give him some incentive to visit. Is there anything between Tuscaloosa and your home town that you could visit for fun?
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If he decides not to visit now, would it make sense to just bring my wife? Based on what I have read on this forum, a good visit could sway her opinion and allow us to give him really informed and detailed feedback about UA. If she doesn't want to go, I guess I could do a solo road trip, but I'm not the one that needs convincing here.
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I don’t see a lot of value in you visiting w/o son. I would “get creative” and offer something in exchange for an open mind and visit. think of it this way…if you had to visit twice…once w/o son and once with son, there’s extra expense. So, instead spend a bit to create an incentive…instead.
@mom2collegekids
he got a 211 on the PSAT. I don’t know what the cutoffs are this year. maybe he might squeak into the NMSF bracket.
he did sound interested in the CBHP when i mentioned it. is there a scholarship attached to that? i could not find scholarship info for that on the website.
I find it strange that I would have to sweeten the pot. If my dad had said ROAD TRIP, I would have outraced him to the car. I will see if there is some fun stuff to do along the way. He’ll probably resist the trip on the grounds that it’s too expensive. He’s funny that way. Pass on a $115K scholarship because you don’t want to spend a couple hundred on a road trip?
Maybe a little problem here is that he is a Junior in HS. College seems far off to him so he is not thinking about it deeply.
What has made my twins, DD2 and DS2, pretty much decide to go to UA is that they would not have ANY debt when they graduate. They saw DD1 and DS1 take out Stafford loans and have heard both say that they wish they had no debt. Obviously, they learned through observation.
Will you be having a money talk with him when he starts applying to schools? Then the reality might hit on what a good deal UA is.
@CyclonesGrad
he’s actually thinking about college a lot. we pretty much bailed on our “bleh” high school, and now HS for him is the local community college. he is trying to get an Assoc in Engineering before graduating HS. the problem is he’s a little too infatuated with US News rankings. his flavor of the month is Cornell, but i keep telling him you need to lock down an affordable, quality option ASAP before you go for your reaches.
@Wien2NC US News rankings are heavily rated on 6 year grad rate. Big discussion about that in the below link. Rankings do not mean much in the engineering world as long as a program is ABET Accredited.
Another point is that engineering positions pay almost the same regardless of where you graduate from. I work as an engineer/manager and tell you that is the case. See link below.
Why Cornell? What is the draw for engineering? I work in the Midwest and have never worked with a Cornell grad. I have worked with UA and AU grads.
@CyclonesGrad
because it’s an Ivy? he likes Cornell at the moment for the same reason he disses Alabama – impressions based on magazine rankings and hearsay, rather than research and personal investigation.
he originally wanted NC State but cooled to that after the 2nd visit. he thinks he won’t get a Goodnight STEM scholarship. well, he might not, which is why he needs UA as his best-value ace-in-the-hole.
UA has invested so much in their STEM program and facilities the past few years, and offers so many interesting academic opportunities, that i just want to drag him into the car and make him go see for himself. heck, at this stage I might just do that.
Things occasionally do change at UA in terms of scholarships, so not entirely sure if $2500 will still be around in another year - it probably will, but don’t completely bank on it?
$$$ of outside scholarship money can be had, but start researching now, so when he is a senior he has a shortlist of about 10-12 that he is going to apply for (usually around the Jan-Apr time frame of senior year). These should be highly specific, high-yield scholarships with low #s of applicants to bolster his chances (i.e., not the ‘lottery’ type which everyone applies to) - see my many other posts on this scholarship subject. Use a good search engine to create a scholarship shortlist; have him work on his resume now and polish it over the next year; have him look ahead to who will write him letters of recommendation.
RE a visit - you have time on your side. You could wait 6-8 more months on that if you needed to. I would not push a reluctant kid/spouse into this at this point, especially given his busy-ness. The visit will cost you I’m guessing several $100s. So why not invest that money instead on him attending a one-week summer engineering camp this year? (many are accepting apps now) This will do two things for you: it will solidify his interest in engineering (or not); and gives him an in-depth look at a school’s eng’g program. If you have the funds, have him pick camps at his top two schools and attend more than one camp. UA has it’s SITE program…and every top university has something similar.
@Nerdyparent
UNC-CH only has Biomedical Engineering. NC State is the Engineering Public U for NC. But it’s still too expensive without merit aid.
@aeromom
his Engr prof recommended the Naval Academy STEM a few days ago. he got picked for the college’s NASA weather balloon project even tho he is still a HS Jr. I will run the SITE idea by him. Thanks for the suggestion. I was just surprised b/c if it was teenage me, I would have jumped at the idea of a road trip with my dad. guess i’m not cool enough anymore.
My recommendation FWIW is to tell him he’s applying to UA as a safety and then back off. If he gets admitted to Cornell (or whatever) and you can afford it, great. But schools at that level are long-shots for everybody. (USNA even more so.)
We didn’t visit UA until spring break of my son’s senior year, after he’d gotten all his admissions decisions in hand and had something to compare it to. The visit sealed the deal for him, much to my (happy) surprise!
@LucieTheLakie
i guess i’m hoping that the UA visit works its magic like i’ve read about so often on this site, and gets him excited and energized about his safety school, rather than “Oh i guess i could go there if everything else falls thru.” or perhaps inspires him to move it up from safety to target, and showing him that he can’t realistically target or reject schools without investigating them.
plus frankly, i am enjoying reading these threads so much that I want to go and check it out myself.
FWIW, my DD has always loved Alabama from afar because she is a huge college football fan. We are from Philadelphia, PA and in the spring of her junior year, when we were mapping out college visits, she took UA off the list because it was not in a " (big) city." Fast forward to November of senior year, we are watching a Bama football game and she says, “I always liked Alabama.” I said - why don’t you apply? You do not have to go, just apply. She is now receiving the last of the scholarship packages and only Alabama and our home school are left in the running due to full tuition scholarships. We are visiting UA at the end of March. She has since realized two things (1) - you do not need a “name” school for engineering (ABET certification matters) and (2) - life after school is so much sweeter without debt. She wants to travel.
My point is – no need to rush. Talk to him about UA and begin the financial conversation. Then, let it go for awhile. In the beginning of senior year, ask him to apply as his safety. As the other decisions (or rejections) come in, he may change his mind.
I totally get it, @Wien2NC. I was in a very similar situation a couple of years ago. If you want to make the trip now, make the trip, by all means. But realize it’s your son’s college journey, not yours. I guess what I’m trying to say is, plant the seeds, but let him think it’s his idea, his choice. Tread lightly! Senior year is a roller-coaster and most students, if they’re applying to reach schools, are going to experience disappointment.
My son was more ambivalent about college than yours (although I think that had to do with the hyper-competitive situation at his private HS), but he was coming up with a list of schools he was interested in (all small selective LACs, including a few with engineering programs). I couldn’t get him to consider ANYTHING in the South. (We’re also from Philly, and he wanted to remain in the Northeast, but was willing to consider schools in the Midwest to hedge his bets.)
The plan was to use our state flagship (Penn State) as his safety and then concentrate on more selective schools. I made him apply to UA so he’d have more than one safety to choose from (it was that or Temple University, which has comparable merit scholarships), but he really had no interest in attending either school at that point. (This totally goes against the conventional CC wisdom to “love thy safety,” but that isn’t always possible when you have a student whose strengths lie on the STEM side, not if affordability is key.)
By the end of his senior year, the LACs no longer looked as appealing. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go to a small school anymore. We visited Bama, then one of the selective LACs we could afford, followed by Penn State, and then he made his choice. He shocked a lot of people, believe me!
I want to add that it may likely be due to timing and the heavy course load of Jr. year.
Personally, my junior is not thinking about college at all right now. Two months ago she was very interested in a visit to UA and we have arranged it for March. Now she is so overwhelmed by her course load and the crush of mid- year (midterms, papers due, finals of 1/2 year courses) and all of her EC’s. She was away for a weekend at music districts (and the preparation), away for a model UN conference, and she is right in the middle of musical season with 4+ hour daily practices and only increasing in the next month until show time. The LAST thing on her mind is college. Her friends all seem to be in the same place right now. They are all just trying to get by each hour and each day.
I imagine as the spring and summer approach and there is a light at the end of jr. year tunnel he may be more receptive to hearing about safeties and matches and good $.
I told my daughter that she had to put one “mom’s choice” school on her list. That school was Bama, not because of the generous scholarships but because she wanted a state flagship and I thought Alabama had a smaller feel and seemed a better fit than the other flagships on her list. She visited during a HS break during junior year, because “mom’s choice” meant she had to visit, apply and consider the school with an open mind. She wasn’t completely sold by the visit, but she did ultimately choose Alabama and will graduate in a few months with absolutely no regrets about her choice.
My daughter is in CBH and has a CBH fellowship, so unless things have changed, there are additional scholarships available. There are University Fellows scholarships as well, but I think those are larger and fewer.
I would not visit without your son, nor would I visit without having an individualized visit set up by the Honors College. There are “virtual” tours on the school’s website that will give you a good idea of what the physical plant looks like, but the personalized Honors College visit is what often seals the deal for high achieving students.
I find it strange that I would have to sweeten the pot. If my dad had said ROAD TRIP, I would have outraced him to the car. I will see if there is some fun stuff to do along the way. He’ll probably resist the trip on the grounds that it’s too expensive. He’s funny that way. Pass on a $115K scholarship because you don’t want to spend a couple hundred on a road trip?
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I don’t think you can fairly look at it that way. Each person is different. I understand your view. All I had to say to older son was, “Road trip,” and he was excited.
However, this SAME son turned his nose at the first Harry Potter book, not even wanting to look at it to see if it was interesting. I bribed him. He picked it up, and didn’t put it down (and never asked for the actual bribe…lol). Of course he’s read the entire series a few times.
he’s actually in a really good mood since he got his SAT scores. maybe he just doesn’t realize he can take his laptop and homework and get stuff done in the car and at the hotel. i think he’ll be up for it in a couple of weeks.
@Wien2NC I live in the South and my son insists he wants to leave. We lived in the “North” for five years while he was in elementary school. But he is eligible for the Presidential and likely the NMF, and we will give Alabama a good visit. I just think you need to make a list of potential colleges with your son. Our list is made up primarily of those schools which are mostly free are potentially free. After your list is made up, then start to visit.