Thanks. I saw that. The pre-reqs make it tricky to get it in sequence. Luckily DD and DS come in with credit for the two freshman English classes. So they can get some other humanities out of the way early for later flexibility.
Reminds me of how I had to maniopulate my electives when I transferred from Econ to Engineering at ISU.
@CyclonesGrad, my son is one of the very rare students in the Honors College/Engineering who came to UA with ZERO AP or CLEP credits. (His private HS did away with AP years ago, and he didn’t want to prep for any of those tests on his own.) He started out as an undeclared engineering major, declared for ME at the end of freshman year, and was offered a great co-op, which he began this past summer.
He is on track to graduate in four semesters, which will take five years with the co-op (three semesters, including one summer session). No room in his schedule for any minors or a double-major, but he and we are fine with that, given the tremendous scholarship he received (Presidential + Engineering).
He received a very fine education in high school, so he was well-prepared for the engineering curriculum, and while he’d like to have more room for electives, he’s happy he can just follow the ME flowchart as it is.
Mind you there is NO wiggle room if he screws up a class, but he’s very frugal and not the type to second-guess his choices, so we don’t anticipate any serious challenges to his being able to get done on time. You never really know, though, so we have all our fingers and toes crossed! 
The 4 year metric does not allow for coop. That is why USNews switched to the 6 year metric. Northeastern is a coop school with a low 4 year grad rate. That is why it ranks very low in Forbes because they use the 4 year metric. a better metric would be percent who graduate after 8 semesters.
@LucieTheLakie How does the scholarship work with coop? Is the Presidential scholarship for 8 semesters or 4 calendar years? The language on the scholarship page seems to indicate 4 calendar years, but that wouldn’t work with a coop schedule. How about the Engineering scholarship?
Is Presidential + Engineering the scholarship that is full tuition +$2500?
Yes Presidential + Engineering is full tuition + an additional $2500 stipend.
With co-ops and scholarships (the presidential and engineering scholarships operate in the same way), during the students work semesters, they are registered for a placeholder course so that they keep their full time student status and their scholarship is put on hold for that semester. When they complete their work semesters, the placeholder course is removed and they get no credits or grades for the semesters they work. There is a small administrative fee during their work semesters that must be paid out of pocket (but is much, MUCH less than the students will earn). The scholarships pay for the semesters the students are in classes. The scholarships will cover 8 semesters of coursework (but if using the scholarships for a duration more than 4 calendar years they have to be officially deferred during the semesters they are not in use - a co-op results in an automatic deferral of the scholarships during the work semesters).
@CyclonesGrad - Yes - Presidential for OOS is full tuition. Engineering adds $2,500 and lowers the ACT score required to get the full tuition.
@lisa6191 - I don’t see 8 semesters in writing, but I understand that it is 8 semesters. If a student uses scholarship for summer term, that counts as one of their semesters.
Out-of-State
Students who have a 27-29 ACT or 1210-1320 SAT (math and verbal scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will receive $1,500 per year for four years.
Students who have a 30-31 ACT or 1330-1390 SAT (math and verbal scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will receive a tuition supplement to bring their University-level scholarship offer up to the value of tuition. In addition, they will receive $2,500 per year for four years.
Students who have a 32-36 ACT or 1400-1600 SAT (math and verbal scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will receive $2,500 per year for four years.
Thanks, @jrcsmom for answering @lisa6191’s question for me!
Yes, that’s exactly how it worked. I think the cost for the summer was <$300, and my son was paid $18/hr during his three-month co-op. Not bad pay for a kid with one semester of college under his belt and no previous experience!
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I feel this could be a problem if my DS or DD want to do an internship/REU between junior and senior years.
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If your child(ren) will be applying to med school, they will be doing it during THAT summer.
Thanks. I saw that [summer req't completed during school year). The pre-reqs make it tricky to get it in sequence. Luckily DD and DS come in with credit for the two freshman English classes. So they can get some other humanities out of the way early for later flexibility.
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If concerned, your kids could take a summer school class (online or at a CC) that fulfills another Core/GenEd.
Is Presidential + Engineering the scholarship that is full tuition +$2500?
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Yes, and the amount for the Presidential will be increased with each increase in tuition.
@lisa6191 It’s for 8 semesters, so co-oping doesn’t hurt that.
Here’s the FAQ from the co-op office: http://coop.eng.ua.edu/faqs/
The most interesting thing about the engineering scholarships is that over 30 ACT with a 3.5 GPA receives the same as 32 ACT with 3.5 GPA. Most schools that I have investigated have a differentiation with 30 ACT a little lower than 32 ACT regarding merit.
I am really surprised that a 32 ACT does not get a little higher stipend then 30 ACT. I am well versed on this differentiation because DD has a 30 and DS has a 32 and both have the same GPA. DS gets more proposals to apply than DD.
Both are going into engineering.
This is kind of a little experiment for me with two variables: Gender and ACT score.
Op, I was surprised to see from you that the norm to graduate from UA for engineers is 5 years. In my limited experience, most of the ones I know from UA graduate in 4 years. UMN has a 4 year graduation promise…I know my son and most of his friends did graduate in 4 years (or at least the ones that started and ended in engineering.) This is unlike other schools like University of WI-Madison which had many “super seniors” in their engineering department. (We have been told that is because of co-ops but we have found that its more likely because needed classes were not available.) My son was a freshman at Minnesota in 2010 so unless it changed, he met with his honors advisor from the College of Engineering before each semester. I did feel he had a little more guidance than my sons at UA, but most likely because they don’t have an “assigned advisor” as the person covering our last name initial is not there any more.
I think students, if they need to ‘catch up’ a little to stay on ‘finish in 4’, they take a summer course at a home state community college or home university. I know a guy that did UA Million Dollar Band (MDB) and a little slower engineering (EE), so he did 5 years but was in-state and had good summer work experiences.
Nephew in CS at TN Tech (TN resident) took 5 years because he wanted to do exceptionally well in all his subjects (graduated Magnum Cum Laud) and was able to take one less class each semester. He actually worked Jan - Dec in a specially arranged co-op with an excellent company (he shared a nice 2 BR apt with another Co-op and company paid the housing) which fit with his courses, and also did an internship his last summer school break (so he actually finished in 6 years; 5 academic years). Landed a very nice CS job.
I know a AU student who not only did extra summer terms there, is taking an extra year to graduate, but then added a minor to have it seem more worthwhile. He turned down co-op opportunities, so will see what happens with job offers at graduation time. He had 4 year full tuition academic scholarship (8 semesters), but now paying full cost of 5th year. Worked a PT job, but clerical in nature.
Brother was ill-advised in Univ of WI system, so when he transferred after 2nd year from UW Eau Claire (where many of his friends went) to UW Madison for civil engineering (his degree plan throughout), it was later that he found out that he needed to take an extra semester. Really irritated him because I graduated on time and before him (13 months younger than him). He had taken a gap year before beginning college.
Second year for DD to do Million Dollar Band. Plans to take heavy course load again in Spring. Will see during Spring term what she thinks for Junior year. A fair number of engineering students in MDB. She will have to weigh out the fall fun and if she can continue with her great grades and being on track for finishing UG degree on time.
The main reasons for taking over 5 years to graduate include major changes, personal issues, and financial issues.
UA used to provide students with a printed course catalog. I’ve read my copy countless times and ended up with a transcript which is quite unique for those with similar majors.
My advice is to build a relationship with an advisor who trusts you and will work to get overrides for courses you want to take. I had two advisors, both of whom were supervisors who trusted me to make good academic decisions. Getting an override was never an issue because my advisors had confidence in me and if they couldn’t process the override, they were good friends with the person who could.
Everything needed in college catalog is now on-line. I know I got the UA one the last year they printed. UAB had stopped printing theirs by then. Since I worked for a University in the 1980’s (TAMU and UAHuntsville), many things have changed - don’t know if the college catalog/degree plan on your admission year and the courses for degree requirement, how long that ‘contract’ is good. Not an issue for FT students, or even Co-op students.
DD liked her UA adviser, and this person is leaving/has left. I have encouraged her to talk to her engineering dept faculty about her questions about taking dual concentrations in her field (civil engineering) as well as the engineering advising center.
DD has had no issues with getting the courses she has wanted - and the honors college class priority has been great at UA.
How about the physics/electrical engineering double major? Is that pretty do-able in 4 years? The only curriculum online was done in 2004 and requires an extra summer semester to do it in 4 yrs.
Has anyone done this program and then done University Scholars for a fifth year masters in either EE or Physics?
Would like to use a few terminal semesters of the NMS scholarship for the masters if possible.
Oops, just want to clarify that my son had one semester under his belt when he got the co-op offer, but a full year completed before he started.
@Nerdyparent Double majoring in Physics/EE is very doable. AT UA it only requires four additional hours beyond the standard electrical engineering major.
http://ece.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/double-major-in-physics/
The University Scholars is also very doable in 5 years (if you’re keeping up on the 3.3 GPA requirement, you likely are not dropping/re-taking any core EE classes, and that’s the number 1 cause for delays). You likely can do the double major and BS/MS (if UA allows it), but I would think your time is better spent taking graduate level classes/electives than the additional undergrad physics classes.
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Do I pay tuition while out at work?
Co-op students reporting to work must register for a Co-op class during the semester they are scheduled to work. The tuition for this class is for one credit hour, for a total of $264 each work term.
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Glad to see that it is one price and doesn’t have a higher OOS cost.
I am really surprised that a 32 ACT does not get a little higher stipend then 30 ACT. I am well versed on this differentiation because DD has a 30 and DS has a 32 and both have the same GPA. DS gets more proposals to apply than DD.
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There are two different stipends, but the other one is for a lower amount for those with an ACT 28 and 29.
We’re just happy that the Col of Eng’g offers anything at all that stacks on top of the univ award. So may schools either don’t have much dept money to offer, or they won’t allow stacking.
When you figure how many Eng’g students qualify for the stipend and how many qualify for the extra 1/3 tuition, the CoE is handing out a very large amount of money every year.
I think the CoE has calculated that they don’t really see that much difference in performance between an ACT 30 and 30, which is why they throw in that extra 1/3 and keep the stipends the same.
I agree that they must not see much difference between an ACT 30 and 32. Actually make sense because you are talking top 96% or top 98%, which is still very high end. I am sure they have smart people, smarter than me for sure, looking at this (actuaries?).
Agreed that UA engineering is shelling out a lot of money. I am sure it is costing them a lot of money but the payoff has been there as the middle 50% ACT has gone from 24/31 to 27/32 since 2012; essentially equal to Purdue, OSU, and better than ISU (my alma mater). I will honestly say that if UA keeps going at this rate they will be top 25 in the next few years.
Maybe not on snobby USNWR, but on other sites that really count. IT is obvious that UA has a plan and are following through. Very impressive! They are going to put the heat on a lot of other schools and they are a game changer for sure.
Being a sports fan, UA never does anything in a small way going all the way back to Bear Bryant!