<p>Atlanta- chill. I am not knocking UA. I’ve mentioned before that I feel that it is a great school where you receive a high calibar education. Heck, I’m spending my summer there. All of my friends are going there. All I’m saying is that it is not hard to get into if you have a decent ACT and GPA. It just isn’t. I think this is actually a good trait because it allows C and A students to mix. The C students ask questions the A students wouldn’t and the A students help the C students with their insights. You asked what the ACT score was and I told you. You said UA was selective and I can tell you its not. Don’t get so offended. But then again I guess this all depends on you definition of “selective” then doesn’t it? And I did not get off topic first. I offered you an opinion but it came a subjective source (my experience) so I thought I would make it more useful by adding qualifiers (i.e. I told you what I have found to be in my experience an acceptable ACT for admission to UA.)</p>
<p>Fleura, </p>
<p>Selectivity is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I dont think UA is very selective, but compared to most universities, it is considered my most to be “more selective” (Princeton Review for example). The fact that 40 % of applicants to UA’s Fall Freshman class were rejected, underscores that UA does not allow anyone to enroll. </p>
<p>But back to the point of this thread - You have not provided me with UA’s Avg. ACT score for Fall 2008. US News does not provide the Average ACT, just the 25-75 percentile range of 21-27. That means that 25% of UA’s class scores below 21, 50% scores 21-27, and 25% scores 28 or higher. These percentages of range of scores will change for the better as UA continues to reject higher percentages of applicants each year. The enrollment goal of 28,000 will be reached by this Fall, two years ahead of schedule, which will allow UA to become much more selective. </p>
<p>Someone else provided a link to UAB’s Avg. ACT for Fall 2007, not to UA’s. </p>
<p>Go ahead and share your opinions, even though a fact was requested. But don’t be surprised when someone provides data that calls your opinion, which is based on anecdotes, into question.</p>
<p>Alabama is one of the few schools that actually does recruit National Merit Finalists by giving them free rides including tuition, room and board, a laptop and, I believe, an enrichment stipend that allows a student to e.g. study abroad for a semester. The only other schools I know for sure who do this are Arizona State and the University of Texas at Dallas. NMF status is primarily based on the junior year PSAT score. In recent years the Alabama cut-off has been around 212 for National Merit semi-finalist. This translates roughly to a 2120 SAT which is about the minimum score to be eligible for the Presidential Scholarship at Auburn. (I thinks its 1440 not including the writing portion) but they also look at GPA etc. --Given this, it would not be surprising if U of A has more NMF finalists since they put an emphasis on that. --In event both are great schools and are making an effort to attract great students (and great athletes!).</p>
<p>I don’t care to jump into the silly banter on this thread. I do want to correct part of PatN’s post reguarding UA’s NMF scholarship package. </p>
<p>The NMF scholarship at UA does NOT include board. As a parent of a current NMF Freshman at UA, I know first hand that his scholarship did NOT include any portion of his meal plan. Our 2008-09 out of pocket expenses per ssemester included:</p>
<p>C & B College Fees ($20), Arts & Sience College Fees ($20), Cost of Books, Dining Meal Plan ($1525 - Athletic Plan) other plans available, (Required) Dining Dollars ($300), Parking Permit (annual $175). We also paid for a one credit hour course fee ($195) for a optional Service Project course which began one week prior to the Fall Semester. </p>
<p>If you are curious to know why my son chose UA over Chicago, Vandy, Carnegie, Emory, Davidson, Wash U and a few others…you can read my posting history.<br>
The bottom line is UA wanted HIM! They were very proactive in their recruitment “sales campaign”. They offered him an environment that all the other schools could not. As his first year comes to a close, UA has been a wonderful experience. He has not been disappointed!
He even walked on to a Div I athletic team (XC) which won a SEC Championship. He is honored to wear his SEC Championship ring. It could not get any better than that!</p>
<p>In my last reply, I said that UA’s rejection of 40 per cent of its applicants shows that it does not enroll “anyone”. I meant to say “every one”. The fact remains that UA rejects a higher percentage of its applicants than Auburn and other prominent institutions. However, due to the high percentage of accepted UA applicants who actually enroll, UA has both a higher number of students who score at the high end (30 or above) on the ACT and a higher number of students who score at the low end (21 or below) of the ACT. </p>
<p>I also incorrectly explained the 21-27 ACT range. What this range means is that around 25 per cent of UA’s freshmen scored 21 or below and that around 25 per cent scored 27 or above.</p>