<p>@scholarme Here is the link.
<a href=“http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/rates.cfm”>http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/rates.cfm</a></p>
<p>@scholarme Here is link to meal plans. Please be aware that freshmen are required to purchase full meal plan.
After freshman year, you can choose.
<a href=“http://fawp.ua.edu/bamadining/meals-plans/”>http://fawp.ua.edu/bamadining/meals-plans/</a></p>
<p>Honors housing is in the more expensive suites. My son’s choice to be in this type of housing added nearly $3,000 over double occupancy dorm.</p>
<p>@voiceofreason66 Thanks!
Is your son enrolled or just starting - I was wondering how he likes being at UA.</p>
<p>@scholarme First time freshman. I understand your concern about distance. I too am a bit anxious since he will be over 2000 miles from home. However, our anxieties were lessened after our visit last month. The OOS scholarships got us interested but the visit sold the school to my son. He chose Bama over other schools that were either ranked much higher or offered full ride scholarships.</p>
<p>@scholarme - We are from PA, also…the Hershey area. I will have two kids at UA next year. My son will be a junior and my daughter will be a freshman. Before my son chose UA, I spoke with many families around here that sent their kids at PSU and it was strange how they all said they same thing…They rarely come home.I think I’ve seen my son the same amount as those parentsas have their kids! It is about 14 hours for us to drive, but only a 2 hour flight from Baltimore (have to add the time to/from drive to Baltimore and the drive to/from the B’ham airport to campus, too, though). With the added expense of flying and/or driving to UA, it is still way less than had my kids gone to PSU because of the generous merit aid UA offers…and they are VERY HAPPY at UA. (My daughter is currently attending a summer session at UA to get a head start and is loving it!)</p>
<p>If you would like, PM me any questions you have about my PA kids experience in AL. :)</p>
<p>I’m a VERY frugal single parent, so I understand money concerns.</p>
<p>For us, son had the most luck with local scholarships. He applied to several of the national ones, especially those restricted to engineering, but didn’t receive any, however received several scholarships from local businesses and organizations, which amounted to over $7000. Maybe not much, but along with the engineering stipend, covered most of the 1st year expenses. (He learned about all through the guidance department at his school).</p>
<p>We ‘splurged’ on the suite style dorm his first year, but after that he moved off campus. He was able to get a nice furnished apartment with a ton of ammenities for SIGNIFICANTLY less than the cost of the dorm. (Whereas freshman year was $8800 for the dorm (for him, starting in 2012) and $3000 for the meal plan, for sophomore year, we spent well under $7500 for a 12 month apartment lease + all food he bought).</p>
<p>In engineering, also consider looking into a co-op to finish debt free. You alternate semesters of work experience with courses. ALL co-ops pay students. They finish with a year of work experience to put on a resume (and hopefully good references!) and they can use the money from their work sessions to pay for expenses during their semesters of classes. </p>
<p>@scholarme - Another PA family here. We are outside of Philly. The distance can be a pain, but even adding travel costs (we’ve done train, plane and driving), the overall costs are less than any in state options and the opportunities so much better! Feel free to PM me. My son will be starting his second year and is in Engineering.</p>
<p>Yes, all the honors dorms are in the pricier super suites. However, that is luxury that is really for frosh year only. Students quickly move off campus to one of the many nicer-but-cheaper student apts that are around the campus…many with trams to campus. </p>
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<p>I think the above is a good idea and commonly done … splurging for the first year in honors. And some parents buy their kids a cheap condo if they know that they will have a few kids go thru the school). The condos pay for themselves if the family has a few kids to put thru, and extra rooms can be rented out. Plus, they often provide a place for parents to camp out when needed.</p>
<p>There is a dad here who has 3 Ds to put thru Bama. He purchased an inexpensive 3 BR garden home. When only one D was in college, they rented out one bedroom to a friend…and kept the 3rd room for visiting parents. I think, at most, they only will have 2 Ds attending at the same time. His Ds did not live on campus for frosh years because the parents owned the home.</p>
<p>Some other benefits for moving out after Year One…dont have to keep moving in and then moving out of dorms over the summer…a pain in the tush. With a full kitchen in an apt, it is easier to make one’s own meals.</p>
<p>as for distance…hopefully some Calif and Hawaii parents will chime in…</p>
<p>Regarding the Academic Elite scholarship mentioned earlier (#3), only University Fellows are eligible for consideration. That in itself is a very competitive program. </p>
<p>About a campus tour - did you all mostly do the tour before applying or after applying/getting accepted?</p>
<p>^^^
I think most people tour when it fits into schedules. Anyone with Presidential stats, doesn’t have to worry about being accepted or getting the award, so no need to wait til after (like more competitive schools). </p>
<p>If you tour in the fall, avoid weekends, especially home game weekends. The hotels are either already booked for home game weekends, or the prices are super high. </p>
<p>Even non-home-game weekends should be avoided because faculty arent on campus to meet with…and the school just wont seem the same…kids sleeping in, working jobs, etc. </p>
<p>If you can visit in August AFTER school starts (so, again, rates arent crazy), you may be able to avoid any conflicts with high school.</p>
<p>We too are now considering UA since our DD is a probable NWF. I cannot believe how helpful the staff and students assistants are in engineering. They set up a personalized visit for us and called to check if we had received it. I did not realize the dorm was not included after Freshman year 
DD seems interested in the Computer based honors program. We will be seeing the Main campus tour, the Engineering facilities tour with lunch included, the honors college, a visit with an engineering professor and a visit with a physics professor. We are excited! University of Florida offers no such service! Does anyone have personal experience with the Computer based honors program? This really seems like it would be a hit or my DD. I could use a good hotel recommendation. We are going on the 24th!</p>
<p>I’m not trying to split hairs by saying this but you can’t technically apply for the crimson elite scholarship. In order to be considered a student can apply to the HC and then apply to UFE which is highly competitive. Of the 30-40 who are selected for UFE, a maximum of 8-10 are selected by a committee to receive this scholarship but there is no application process for the scholarship itself.</p>
<p>And this scholarship should not be the sole reason for applying to UFE.</p>
<p>I think our ds is probably rather unusual b/c he has 4 stackable scholarships which cover all his costs. He has the presidential, but he also has a CBH scholarship (which he didn’t find out about until well after being accepted into CBHP. His motivation for CBH was not a scholarship but being involved in research. He loves research and being involved in research is his ultimate goal. CBH is what tipped UA into his “this is where I want to go to school no matter where else I am accepted” category.) He has the engineering scholarship. He also has a departmental scholarship. The latter is not a typical scenario for an incoming freshman. I’m not sure what depts have scholarships available to incoming freshman. You need to investigate.</p>
<p>I meant to add that I don’t know who you are meeting with in the physics dept, but our ds met with Professor LeClair. He was wonderful. Our ds had emailed him with lots of questions and asking about various options and when we arrived, he addressed all of ds’s concerns. He spent about an hour talking with ds and taking him on a tour of the dept. Ds also sat in on a 300 level physics class to get a feel for the teaching style. Ds really liked the atmosphere and people in the dept.</p>
<p>"I did not realize the dorm was not included after Freshman year "</p>
<p>@saismom, there is also an annual stipend of $3500. So if you bank that the first year, and combine that with the second year stipend, you are close to covering housing for the second year. And your D will have that extra $3500 for the subsequent years, so that can really put a dent in housing, particularly if she moves off campus I think.</p>
<p>Yes it is Dr.LeClair she is scheduled to see and also a Dr. Shen. DD is open to see the program but UA is not her first choice. I am hoping she will be impressed.</p>
<p>saismom: Hope you have a wonderful visit!</p>
<p>There was a question earlier in this thread about Amtrak. My DH and DS took it down to T’town from DC area for Bama Bound (orientation). Station is in a safe area of Tuscaloosa. They got a cab to campus - but I believe that there are buses which run from the nearby transit center too. It’s a long ride overnight (not much sleep) but definitely a viable option. Just don’t count on it being on time. Going down, it left Manassas on time but arrived 1 hour late. Coming home, it left 2 hours late from T’town and arrived about 3 hours late in Manassas. We’ll be driving down from VA to move him into the dorms in about a month (!)</p>
<p>@saismom Dr. LeClair was awesome for my son. Dr. LeClair has “open” information on his blog. <a href=“http://physics125.blogspot.com/”>http://physics125.blogspot.com/</a> Worth reviewing before meeting with him. Really shows his personality!</p>