<p>joefrommiami: first, you really need to call Auburn’s scholarship office for specific information, but my understanding of the Presidential Scholarship (part of your NMF award) is 8 semesters of tuition and I believe the contract said the semester can include summer (but that is as a substitute for a regular semester). Therefore, if you need ten semesters to graduate, it will cost you as an out-of-state student unless you declare Alabama residency after living in Alabama for a year. </p>
<p>Second option and one my daughter will do: as a Florida student you can use your Bright Futures to take summer classes at your local community college and transfer those credits to Auburn. First, talk with an Auburn counselor and find out what classes you can take at a community college and transfer into Auburn. The classes may vary depending on your major. If you are a math major they might tell you that you can take English and History at a community college, but not math, etc. Anyways, you can have the best of both worlds. Take full advantage of the wonderful scholarship Auburn offers you for 8 semesters and use the Bright Futures for the general education classes during the summer after freshman and sophomore years. (If you find out about what classes you can take outside of Auburn before this summer, you can use Bright Futures this summer.)</p>
<p>8 semesters with 15 credit hours per semester…120 credit hours total…If you take 16 crediting hours one semester you will pay oos tuition for that extra credit hour. </p>
<p>Proud mom, I have a question to about bright futures. Can the kids use bright futures only for the summer semesters in Florida?</p>
<p>navarre1: I think Florida students can use Bright Futures for any semester. I don’t know the specifics, but I would assume that students are limited to a certain number of credit hours or semesters per year. I just know of a number of students who attend school out-of-state and take extra summer classes at the local community college with Bright Futures. Every little bit of savings helps.</p>
<p>When we were there, we were told that only 46% of students graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Additionally, they said that if you were living in the state of Alabama for the purpose of attending college, you were by definition a non-resident.</p>
<p>I am more than a little concerned that there are pitfalls that will greatly increase the amount of money I am looking to pay at Auburn, even with their VERY generous scholarships.</p>
<p>Unfortunately many of the big public universities have low 4-year grad rates. We’re really hoping for 4’s and 5’s on this year’s AP exams, and are saving in case summer school/extra unit fees are required.</p>
<p>I was thinking about the impact of the AP exams as well as a couple of dual-enrollment classes that I took.</p>
<p>But (a) I will want to live in an apartment (not dorm) probably after the first year and (b) I think I would like to attend summer courses at least for one summer (maybe more) and both of those things (because I’m OOS) REALLY makes the bottom line go up.</p>
<p>OOS tuition is a fortune. You would be better off attending a Florida university if you want to attend one or more summers. 12 semester credit hours x $808 = $9696…</p>
<p>I really enjoyed visiting Auburn and walking away from as much money as they are offering doesn’t seem like it makes sense, but when I weigh it all out and what could possibly happen, there’s too much downside with the OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Joe, are you entering with any AP credit?
I’m from Florida too and I got the Presidential scholarship, and was concerned about summer sessions also. From what I understand, however, is that Auburn is pretty generous with their AP-credit and so for me it will work out. I will enter with most of my requirements done with (I’m heading into the College of Liberal Arts) and can begin taking courses for my major 2nd semester. It’s worth giving them a call to see if it’ll work out for you, they’re pretty helpful especially for OOS, high academic caliber students.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the Bright Futures, as we’re in Louisiana, but we have a program called TOPS which offers free instate tuition for high achieving students. I do not believe TOPS covers summer school, though, so you may want to check to be sure that Bright Futures does cover summer school. When I was in college, it was more affordable for me to stay at my OOS, though private, school during the summer, as I could take courses that applied to my major, I was able to obtain on campus employment through work study, which I wasn’t able to get during the year, which paid much better than my year round job, and I was able to graduate ahead of time, thanks to coming in with 18 hours CLEP. Although it’s nice to get cheap core curriculum classes out of the way at a local college, getting prerequisite courses related to your major done in the summer where there’s no question of transferrability will be worth the extra money. If your child is interested in grad school or research, many professors have grants that may allow for summer students to work in their labs.</p>
<p>Kind of getting back on track with this thread. As many National Merit Finalists are looking at both schools, and since GPA requirements have been brought up in another thread, was wondering if anyone has done a comparison of GPA requirements comparison between the NMF scholarship for Auburn and Bama. Just basic scholarship, irregardless of any extra departmental scholarships.</p>
<p>Auburn’s Presidential Scholarship has a 3.0 requirement. According to others, the standard departmental scholarships have a 3.5 GPA requirement. The additional general NMF scholarship money for does not have a GPA tied to it nor does the NMF departmental scholarships. From what I can tell a NMF only has a 3.0 requirement but non-NMF’s have a 3.5 for department scholarships and a 3.0 for Presidential Scholarships. I think the discrepancy between NMF and non-NMF high achieving students indicates a big competition between Auburn and Alabama for NMF’s. In any case, my daughter’s goal is to keep a very high GPA to enhance her grad school options regardless of the lower requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks Navarre1. Maybe it is different now because I know of some students who have used it then. Thanks for the update. In any case, if my daughter needs to take a class at the local community college to graduate in 8 semesters it is cheaper than out-of-state at Auburn, although I think her AP/IB credits should take care of these concerns.</p>
<p>I believe Univ of Al is doing a better job of recruiting NMF. The packages are pretty similar but the numbers show BAMA is getting larger numbers of NMF. (Last Fall: UA 103, Auburn 64) I believe that the Honors program structure at BAMA offers more flexibility and the additional programs (IH, CBHP, and Fellows) are helping to attract top students. I know my D would not have been able to do any undergrad research in her field at Auburn and that’s a definite perk for those who are planning on grad school.</p>
<p>I can’t speak about research, but there is a point to consider in comparing/contrasting the two schools. There are many fabulous students under the NMF radar, so to speak. They may have missed the PSAT cut-off by one point, yet scored higher in SAT, ACT, class rank, etc… than some of the kids who went on to become an NMF.</p>
<p>Auburn has scooped up many of them and may have spread the scholarships to catch those strong students, too. (why give 103 students full ride when you could give full ride to 64 NMF’s and Presidential Scholarships to an additional 200 who may be every bit as awesome?) Numbers don’t give the whole picture. Seems like a pretty smart ROI that Auburn is doing!</p>
<p>Well, BOTH schools award Presidential Scholarships based on standardized tests and grades so students who were not NMF but Commended status would receive full tuition to either school (ie Unlike some schools where you’ll be considered for these scholarships if you reach the threshold with your scores and grades, it’s a given-which is an amazing policy!) As mentioned in earlier posts, the extras for NMF are really similiar at both schools.</p>
<p>The point is the additional non-monetary aspects of University of Alabama are attracting a larger number of NMF. (Honors programs, research, faculty, etc.) </p>
<p>Well, my daughter didn’t get one of the best scores on the PSAT, but she went on to a 2400 on the SAT.</p>
<p>Being from out of state I never realized the intensity of rivalry between the two schools. We would have been happy if she picked either one, but BAMA was just a better fit for her.</p>