Best times to visit for potential merit aid student?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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My son is a HS junior and really doesn’t know where he wants to go to college. I am praying that when the PSAT scores come out in a month that he will be high enough that we will be fairly confident that he will be a NMSF. In my view Alabama and Oklahoma are the two best choices for NMSF, but that said, there are a lot of other good options.

My son currently has a 34 on the ACT and a 4.15 weighted, 3.85 unweighted, so he is eligible for the free tuition at Alabama no matter what. He’s going to retake the ACT in December in hopes of getting a 35 or 36; we’ll see how that goes. I’m not sure that will help with any scholarships, but it gets him a Mississippi honor known as STAR Student.

My son really hasn’t expressed any great enthusiasm for Alabama, but as a parent I really like the sound of “free.” And there is a family connection of sorts, in that my wife is from Alabama but she didn’t go to school there. Does anyone have any advice on the best way and time to schedule a visit that would give someone the best opportunity to get a “feel” for the campus? Is there any type of "spend the night " or weekend program?

Also, what I find especially appealing about the Alabama scholarships is that whether for NMF or ACT they are for both undergraduate and grad school. Are summers free? Aside from Oklahoma, what other schools offer this?

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^the Bama NMF scholarship isn’t exactly a “free ride.” It does not cover room and board except for the first year.

It does, however, cover 10 semesters - those semesters may be used for summer terms or study abroad.

Also, if you finish your bachelor’s in fewer than 10 semesters, you may apply the remaining semesters to graduate school or law school should you choose to stay at Bama for grad school/law school.

It is a great deal.

Oklahoma has a similar deal.

Not sure if any other schools except Bama and Oklahoma allow the leftover semesters to be applied to grad school.

Roll tide!

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We found that UA and OU as well as University of Tulsa, University of Pittsburgh, Arizona State and Miami University offered strong merit offerings for similar stats in 2013 and 2015 high school graduates. We have one student at UA and one at Pitt. As far as I know and have experienced, UA and OU are the only ones that offer anything more than early acceptance to graduate programs. Those two schools put money behind their offer!

Visiting schools early in the process really helps, in our opinion. Both students loved their financial safeties, visited early, and had time to find programs, academic and extra-curricular that they were excited about. Also, consider what kind of day to day life-style the campus provides. In our opinion, UA really exceeds expectations in that area.

UA Honors offers a summer week long program and UA Engineering offers SITE (Student Introduction to Engineering) in the summer and both these programs are a great way for a student to see what campus is like. Combine that experience with a visit to campus in the fall or Spring if you can.

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You need to visit! The campus sells itself! What will your child’s major be?

If engineering or Comp Sci, then an additional 2500 per year would be stacked on top of the other big award.

Your son will be sold on Bama once he visits.

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Depending on what he wants to major in - have him at least look at Ole Miss, MS State, and UA.

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@SOSConcern We live in Oxford and I’m an Ole Miss grad. Ole Miss is certainly on the table. My son blows hot and cold on it. In some ways it would be a lot like going to 13th grade. I’m pretty sure his undergraduate scholarships at Ole Miss would be as generous as those at Alabama, and if he is NMF even more generous. BUT, he’s going to be starting college with more than 50 hours, so the four or five full years that Alabama offers almost comes out to a tuition-free master’s degree.

Mississippi State and my son would not be a good fit.

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Late March or anytime in April 2016 would be a great time to visit the gorgeous UA campus! It’s gets rather quiet starting in early May so you don’t get the full campus vibe. And I’ve heard great things about SITE, as mentioned earlier. Good luck!

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@EarlVanDorn neither of my kids liked MS State (H and friend took kids and their two friends on visit in 2009 - I had my first day of chemo for stage III cancer; I have been cancer free for 5 years now). I know Ole Miss has been getting a little more generous for high stat kids. We do have some kids from our N AL area that like MS State.

Yes if your son get NMF he can do very well at UA with his education.

Most kids do want to mix with kids and env’t away. However in our area we do have some high stat kids choose to go to UAHuntsville, and it isn’t just the ones that want to commute from home. It may be expanding social circles and with too many external changes.

My kids definitely wanted to go away - UAH has their majors. Their scholarships helped with going to the schools they wanted that also were better for them for their education and their majors.

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We visited all 3 back in July from Kansas City area. My son wants to study ME. The CME at Ole Miss is very nice, the ME professor went out of his way to meet my son while he was in a meeting,honors college is good, campus is nice and Oxford is a nice smaller city. Miss St has the CAVS program, campus is nice, honors college seemed a little “stuffy” and Starkville is different type of small city. UA has all the bells and whistles but is a bigger school, honors college is good, and very personal professor of ME. All 3 have their positives and negatives.

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It covers room and board the first year? Where didi you find that?

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http://scholarships.ua.edu/nationalscholars/

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GO VISIT.

Our son initially wasn’t keen about Bama either. As we were arriving for a visit, he had a big scowl on his face. Then, WOW…

As a NMSF, the Honors College really rolled out the red carpet for him. We got the private golf cart tour, and DS had an interview with the Dean of the Honors College. The school wildly exceeded expectation in ALL ways.

We stayed an extra day to take in a football game (we parents sneakily sprang for pricey 50 yard-line seats to further the soft-sell…). It was a blast! In the stadium, DS said he could see himself at the school.

So my answer to what is the “Best times to visit”:

Strategically combine the visit w a home game. But be forewarned that hotels will be filled up.

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EarlVanDorn: My oldest son is a Bama grad who was a National Merit kid. He loved his academic as well as extracurricular experiences at the school. He was not wild about the place when we first suggested it in the Fall of 2008, but we told him he needed a financial safety if he did not get a better offer from another school. Now, if you ask him, he would not have traded his time at Bama for anything. He is currently a second-year law student at UVA.

My younger son is at UAH. He loved Ole Miss and Mississippi State. In fact, his decision was between the two Mississippi schools and UAH. UAH won out, as it has incredible academics and great opportunities for internships (my son is in his second year and already interviewed with Boeing). He also got to run cross country there – he chose not to continue in athletics as he wanted to focus on his grades (the coursework is tough) and working part-time.

Your son may want to consider UAH, as a 34 on the ACT cover full tuition AND on campus housing. One of my son’s former roommates has that deal.It is also very generous with AP credits (my son started with 56 credits) and has a program to offer undergrad and graduate degrees in four or five years.

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You should check each school very carefully on how these hours can be applied, many may just go toward general elective credits and may not help much with degree requirements. Most colleges have a chart for AP conversion to their specific course numbers and many have a data base to convert CC course numbers. I had a few surprises when I took a careful look at how D’s AP and DE credits would be applied at OU. I thought her AP Music Theory would count as fine arts course to knock out one of her core required classes but it doesn’t.

Also, although OU will allow unlimited AP credits the specific departments many not. My D plans to major in meteorology and they will only allow 32 credits from AP/CLEP to be applied to their degree but up to 64 from DE classes. My D had to quickly change plans and take some of the classes she was planning on doing AP and take them DE instead.

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@GMTplus7 We live in Oxford (Ole Miss) and have a Grove tent set up every week with a bunch of friends. It’s a sweet a set up as you could want, as there are about nine groups with our tents and TVs and then the guy who sets up up has a triple tent with a giant screen TV for us to share. My son and his girlfriend came out for one weekend this year, and he didn’t attend the game. A lot of his friends from school sit up in the suite section ($8-10,000 per year for a family of four!), so I think it just makes going to the game not so fun (we sit in peon seats). If he were a college student and in a fraternity, I expect it would be different! But I’m not sure a football game is going to sell things, although the Alabama stadium is impressive.

I should add that my father-in-law was an Alabama sports editor and friends with Bear Bryant. We took him to his first Alabama game in many years a while back and they showed a long film on Bryant at the start of the game. I glanced over at him and tears were just rolling down his cheeks. So my son would make his grandfather very happy if he went to Alabama! (If the Ole Miss merit aid package included grad school, I’d be pressuring him hard to go there, but I believe in seeking out the best deal).

@momreads I am probably one of the few parents on this board eager for my children to join a Greek organization, while my kids are a bit ambivalent. My son is as liberal as I am conservative, but there have always been a few liberal guys in the Greek houses, and he certainly has the Alabama frat look (fit and blonde!). At any rate, I am encouraging him to attend a school with a strong Greek system, whether it’s Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, or wherever. He’s leaning to a business major and some type of engineering minor, and recognizes the importance of fraternity membership for a business major, so a school like UAH probably isn’t in the running.

Alabama has great ACT scholarships, but so much depends on the PSAT, and I guess we’ll know about that in about two weeks (unless he is right on the edge, then we can bite our nails for nine months). Alabama is still one of the best choices for the NMF, but there are about a dozen good options out there. I guess we’re in a good spot.

By the way, anyone ever do a college visit with a friend? My son was thinking about asking his best friend of his to join us on a college visit trip. The friend is very smart, maybe just a half-notch below my son on test scores, etc. Are colleges okay with this?

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EarlVanDorn: My sons were/are Greek. The older son, who is a Bama grad, is a former fraternity president who served as a student director on the national board of his fraternity.

The younger son begins his second year as a community services director with his fraternity. While Greek life can lead to some business connections, do not rule out what a good business school can do, too. My son has a big brother who left a well-paying internship last spring to work for a start up business – the kid makes more than $20 an hour part-time.

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@EarlVanDorn - Colleges don’t really care who comes to college visits - they see all kinds, I’m sure. But, if I were visiting, I’d like to go by myself so as not to be influenced by someone else’s opinion about my college choice.