<p>I can’t help wonder how long UA can sustain offering the huge scholarship money they do for high test scores. </p>
<p>Our middle son was influenced by the economic impact UA’s scholarship would have on his college selection back in 2008. After reading posts and meeting so many other parents/students on CC, it is clear that some of you could not ignore the scholarship offered by UA based on test scores alone. </p>
<p>Our youngest will take his ACT for the third time next week (28 freshman yr, 31 sophomore yr) confident he will raise his score at least one point to qualify for Full OOS Tuition for Fall 2011. Although he has visited campus once in 2008 to see his brother, our youngest will get the Full Red Carpet Visit in two weeks. </p>
<p>Does anyone else wonder if the standards will rise for all first time students at UA?</p>
<p>That’s a good question, but I don’t know if anyone has the answer. I’m guessing that you’re talking about the National scholarships, the Presidential, and the UA scholar…which are all rather costly.</p>
<p>Bama actually lowered the req’t a short time ago (the scholarships used to require a 3.75), so that would suggest that Bama’s not going to raise the scores soon. But, we don’t really know. </p>
<p>Frankly, I would like to see Bama raise the OOS and in-state scholarships for those in ACT 28 & 29 (or equivalent SAT range).</p>
<p>I live in Ohio. The Admission standards to get in to Ohio State’s MAIN CAMPUS is higher than the satalite campuses (NEWARK or MARION). I have seen honors students from are area not get in to Main Campus. If they go to one of the satalite campuses and do well, they can reapply to Main Campus after a year or two.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the bigger scholarships will be going away in the next few years. UA has the money and is still working to raise its status as a cutting edge research university that still retains its focus on teaching. While I would like to see the scholarships for ACT 28/29 raised, possibly so they give in-state tuition, but something would have to be done to work around the state law prohibiting this.</p>
<p>Right now it’s the State of Alabama’s problem, but if PACT does fail, UA should do something to help those affected who are attending UA in the near future.</p>
<p>One thing I like most about UA is its stats-driven admissions and scholarship policies, especially for OOS students. There are many schools where a talented student won’t be admitted because of high competition and/or a holistic admissions process that does not benefit them for one reason or another. Yet, these same students are welcomed with open arms to UA. During the Great Depression, the lack of quotas sent many Jewish students to UA and more recently, the Texas top 10% rule and Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program have created a surplus of top students who are admitted to UA, but not their state flagship. Students from states with high tuition are also coming to UA because of its low OOS COA.</p>
<p>Due to stereotypes surrounding both UA and Alabama as a whole, a lot of people don’t consider UA even though it might be a great school for them. It’s sad, but it means that top OOS scholarships aren’t extremely competitive. The situation is not unlike when a person doesn’t want to eat something that you enjoy eating and you remark “well, more for me then.” Roll Tide.</p>
<p>While I would like to see the scholarships for ACT 28/29 raised, possibly so they give in-state tuition, but something would have to be done to work around the state law prohibiting this.</p>
<p>Bama already gets around the state law by giving scholarships which covers all of the OOS portion (UA scholar) or the entire tuition (the Presidental and national).</p>
<p>There’s nothing legally stopping Bama from giving ACT 28-29 scholarships in the $10k range or 1/2 tuition range.</p>
<p>Alabama’s policy on this is rather than raising the standards, they will continue to recruit top notch scholars by charging the people who dont get the scholarships crazy amounts of money…
Over the past 4 years, housing has gone from 2600 a semester to 3750 a semester this year coming up…
Also tuition has raised during this time…
So if there are two non scholarship people for every scholarship person… This extra money paid by the two covers the full tuition/room of the scholarship.</p>
<p>The actual cost for a kid to matriculate is really rather small. After all they’re going to pay the professor the same to teach 20 kids as 21. Only a very few get full. DD has Presidential +$2500 from engineering so my cost will still be around $7-10K/yr. The only cost consideration comes from the amount they’re NOT getting; if they’re getting enough without these kids contributing all is well.</p>
<p>So yes, the guaranteed scholarship was the primary reason Bama was initially considered. (Rolling admissions helped too.) Without that, there are plenty of fine colleges that would have gladly taken my $25K.</p>
<p>So if there are two non scholarship people for every scholarship person… This extra money paid by the two covers the full tuition/room of the scholarship.</p>
<p>That’s not how Bama pays for scholarships. Scholarship $$ comes from donors. Bama couldn’t rely on 2 non-scholarship students paying for full tuition and super suites housing to pay for one scholarship student because many non-scholarships students move off campus after the first year. More to the point, tuition doesn’t cover the real cost to educate at Bama, so there isn’t “extra money” from one student’s tuition to go to another child. Bama contributes $10k per student for academic purposes. </p>
<p>Over the past 4 years, housing has gone from 2600 a semester to 3750 a semester this year coming up.</p>
<p>The above is for the Super Suites housing. I don’t know if the $2600 cost is accurate. When my son started in fall 2007, the suites cost about $3k a semester. So, over the four year period (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 fall prices), the suites have gone from $3k a semester to $3750. I don’t think that trend can continue because at some point, the price would be too high and demand would drop. </p>
<p>The costs keep going up for a few reasons…one: new buildings…two: the cost of campus security for all dorms is causing the housing prices to rise…three: supply and demand. </p>
<p>That said, the price for standard doubles housing is still a reasonable alternative. And, of course, some kids prefer to move to off-campus apts after the first year. </p>
<p>As for tuition increases…all colleges raise tuition. That isn’t unique to Bama, and Bama’s tuition isn’t unusually priced. It’s actually one of the lower priced flagships in the country.</p>
<p>^^^
It doesn’t matter how UA pays for scholarships either way they’re not getting money from the scholarship students (atleast not what they get from non scholarship students) and the extra cost covers the scholarship students not by paying for their scholarship but by covering their lower cost for attendance.</p>
<p>And I just used the suite as an example because my older brother and sister only lived in riverside and I will live in ridgecrest so that is all I know about.</p>
<p>^^^Are the non-scholarship students subsidizing those with scholarships, yes, but not by paying a extra margin that goes directly to scholarship students. I don’t know UA’s exact accounting procedures, but scholarships are largely funded by donations. Non-scholarship students obviously are needed to obtain economies of scale as osdad mentioned. On the other hand, scholarship students help raise UA’s profile to get more donations that in turn help other areas of the school. If you want to get really complicated, consider that UA does not directly own the Ridgecrests and possibly some of the other residence halls. The legal owner is one of the UA-controlled nonprofits, the 1831 Foundation. The student’s bill lists the non discounted prices as being covered by a scholarship, but I’m not sure if the scholarships pay that amount.</p>
<p>Momof3, I think the decision to scale back scholarships will also be somewhat reputation driven if we can use UT Austin and University of Florida as examples. 5 years ago, or so, as you may know, these 2 schools rolled out the red carpet for NMF students. As their reputation as public institutions grew (in part because of the students they were attracting) these 2 schools started scaling back their scholarship offers. </p>
<p>Now UT Austin could care less if you’re NMF and UF has cut WAY back on their offer. Talking with their scholarship offices I was told frankly by both that they don’t think they need to offer these packages to get good students now–especially given their in-state student arrangements (10% and bright futures). They seem to think they are approaching the highly sought after label of “Public Ivies.” I wouldn’t put them there yet but that attitude just means more students for schools like UA. </p>
<p>10 years from now it might be a different story, but I wouldn’t bet it would change before your youngest could attend UA:) </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how UA pays for scholarships either way they’re not getting money from the scholarship students (at least not what they get from non scholarship students) and the extra cost covers the scholarship students not by paying for their scholarship but by covering their lower cost for attendance.</p>
<p>That is not true. IF donors are paying for the scholarships, then the non-scholarship students are not covering their lower cost of attendance…because there is no lower cost of attendance. It doesn’t matter if a student pays full price, his grandma pays his full price, or a donor (third party) pays (or helps pay) his full price…Bama gets the same amount of money. </p>
<p>Now, some might argue that the donors’ money could be used elsewhere, but these donors are motivated to give these big amounts for one reason; they want Bama to rise in the rankings to be more equivalent to - say - UGa or UFl. When donors donate for a specific reason and for a specific fund, Bama must honor the intent of the donors. </p>
<p>Bama has a master plan. They are following a model similar to what USC (Calif) used. A few decades ago, USC was not highly rated. Anyone could get into it. Anyone. Now it’s a top 30 school. I doubt that’s in Bama’s goals, since it’s hard for a state school to get that high without excluding too many of its own residents (and annoying the taxpayers). But, Bama’s goals do probably include getting above the top 75 mark. (That number is a guess based on what Bama appears to be doing with its Shelby Science Complex, other new construction, and the overall makeover of the campus.). </p>
<p>Bama has some incredibly wealthy donors. When you look at how much those stadium luxury suites sell for, and how much they cost to keep/maintain, etc, it can be mind-boggling that there are people who have that kind of money. Here’s one of them: Thurmon Bell, a Mobile businessman, and his wife, Mimi drive up to football games in their plush $2 million RV [which I imagine was purchased from Tiffin motor homes.]. To each game, they bring $30k in wine and champagne.</p>
<p>UA is very generous with scholarships, but this all could change if the PACT fails. The PACT trustees or the legislature (can’t remember exactly which) has already pressured AU and AU to help by waiving tuition increase for PACT holders, and/or other concessions. So far the big unis have held firm, but if something does happen and PACT fails there will tremendous pressure on the universities to do something for the paid PACT holders. I think some of the initial pressure on the PACT has let up in the past year, but it is still in danger. I know a lot of PACT holders that this means the difference in college or no college or UA or community college, so there is going to be pressure to help these folks, at the very least to recoup their investments and go some sort of concession from the bigger unis.</p>
<p>That aside, as long as UA can, they will try to stick to their agenda of attracting high caliber students both in state and out of state. Based on my son’s experience, some of their money may still be going begging toward the end of the application year, so I think they will be over backwards to get an NMF for example. Also based on our experience, that student can get a good education.</p>
<p>I don’t think Bama and Auburn will fall to the PACT pressures. That is the state’s problem. The state has to accept some responsibility for “selling” PACT in a way that made it appear that the state was guaranteeing the program.</p>
<p>I don’t Bama or Auburn are going to allow the state’s problem to hurt their plans for higher national recognition - which giving up scholarships would. There are 10 or so other state universities that can negotiate some kind of PACT deal so that CC is not the only option. It’s not like PACT holders only have 2 universities to choose from in the state. There’s UAH, UAB, Athens State, UNA, USA, Athens St, Alabama State U, Jacksonville State U, Alabama A&M, plus others.</p>