<p>[Spring</a> Meeting - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://president.ua.edu/fsremarks041211.html]Spring”>http://president.ua.edu/fsremarks041211.html)</p>
<p>He said that UA had already received 22, 000 applications as of the date of this meeting, which was April 12. That is an increase of more than 1500 applications from the previous year. He also said that UA continues to hire the cream of the crop faculty since so many schools are unable to hire at this point in time.</p>
<p>Wow. We were at the Greenwich Country club this fall(along with robotbldmom). It was a great turnout. I also met the guy that hosted the first CT recruiting meeting in in his house prior to that, he was helping to organize the Greenwich event. I wish we could go to the send off tomorrow, but S really needs to work. It would be great to meet some of the 44 students who are heading down in the Fall. S feels that most of them will be in the Honors College and he will probably meet most of them anyway.</p>
<p>At the Greenwich event, I asked Dr Witt the following question, or something close. “We have learned that Bama is a great school and has a lot to offer, but as our kids come back up to the NorthEast to look for jobs and apply to grad schools, what are you doing to make sure that employers and schools are also aware of the quality of the education they received”? I wish I could remember what he actually said, but it was along the lines of heavy efforts in the tristate area, meeting with companies, etc. It will be interesting to follow.</p>
<p>44 students are coming to UA from Connecticut? Wow, that is so awesome.</p>
<p>Cool about the applications…did he provide any solid figures regarding the faculty hires?</p>
<p>More than 22,000 apps as of Apr 12th! Wow… This is cause a positive change in Bama’s selectivity numbers!</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Provost Judy Bonner and the deans** have had approximately $3 million to recruit new faculty this year, and I am optimistic that amount will be increased in the coming year. **Significantly, we are recruiting at a particularly advantageous time, since many, if not most, of our peer institutions are financially unable to recruit. **In many situations, we are one of very few schools recruiting, and our deans and our department chairs have their choice of top candidates. ** </p>
<p>Last August we received slightly more than 20,000 applications for the freshman class. We have already received more than 22,000 applications for fall 2011. One of the reasons we are experiencing this recruiting success is the tremendous support we have from our faculty. **I particularly want to thank Chuck Karr, dean of the College of Engineering, and Mike Hardin, senior associate dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, **for the countless hours they have spent traveling around the country attending recruiting receptions. </p>
<p>Last fall, we enrolled approximately 5,500 freshmen, and their academic qualifications were stellar. **One out of every four came to us with a perfect high school record. We had 125 National Merit Scholars, which ranked Alabama sixth in the country among public universities. **The profile of the students we have already admitted for next fall is even stronger. High schools that used to routinely direct their best and brightest students to other universities are now sending them to us on a consistent basis. **Receptions that used to host relatively few students now have literally hundreds in attendance. **</p>
<p>For example, in the fall of 2009, we held our very first recruiting reception in Connecticut in the home of an alumnus, with 15-20 high school seniors and some parents. When we went back to Connecticut for a recruiting reception this past fall, we had to move the reception to the Greenwich Country Club to accommodate more than 200 seniors and their parents. **This past fall, we ended up with 44 freshmen from Connecticut. **</p>
<p>We continue to grow steadily stronger in terms of academic programs. The basic building blocks of academic programs are the quality of the students and the quality of the faculty. Our academic programs are benefitting from the fact that our students and our faculty are continually getting stronger. National rankings are steadily improving, and several of our programs have received national awards. </p>
<p>The grant and contract activity of our faculty is substantially ahead of the same date last year, and we predict another year of increases. </p>
<p>Overcoming our Challenges</p>
<p>In terms of facilities, **we are fortunate that all our projects on schedule. **The third building in the science and engineering complex is coming out of the ground, and we will break ground on the fourth building next fall. ** Even though we lost a $30 million earmark [federal dollars] that was scheduled to go to the fourth building, we have been able to internally reallocate funds, and the fourth building will stay on schedule. **The new residence hall that is under construction will be ready in the summer of 2012. At that time, we will take down Rose Towers and begin construction of a new recreation center and a new dining hall. We broke ground approximately two weeks ago on our new police station, which is located near the Law School. </p>
<p>Plans are progressing for a **new digital media center, to be located in the north end zone of Bryant-Denny Stadium, that will give us a state-of-the-art facility in support our broadcast journalism programs. **We have permission for four new sorority houses and two new fraternity houses and, in the coming year, we anticipate approaching the board of trustees for additional facilities. Two weeks ago, the trustees approved a major renovation of Russell Hall that will result in substantial updates to the interior and exterior of the building. At the June or September board meeting, we expect to submit a proposal that will substantially increase the amount of space available in the Ferguson Center for the book store, student groups and dining. </p>
<p>To date, we have absorbed a $62 million reduction in our state appropriation. And, we have done that without having to slow the university’s progress in any way. The preliminary budget that has been reported out of committee for The University of Alabama restores the $4 million that was cut from our budget in January 2011, and provides a small increase. If the Legislature approves that budget for the university, we will have a stable year ahead of us financially.</p>
<p>We do face some challenges. Competition for the best and brightest students is intensifying. ** Since many schools have replicated the materials and the approaches that we have been using so successfully, **we are continuing to develop new approaches to enhance our efforts. We currently have 28 recruiters who live outside the state, and that number will increase again in the fall. </p>
<p>The economy will continue to present a challenge. Some students who would have attended the university have chosen to stay closer to home to avoid room and board expense. As the economy improves, however, I think the demand to attend The University of Alabama will increase substantially.</p>
<p>Wow this is really exciting stuff to read about from a prospective parent/student point of view. I can see why Alabama is getting so much attention…I wonder how many students from Chicago area will attend next year?</p>
<p>Funny thing…I had reached out to our area recruiter via the email link on the UA website. Twice…never received any response what so ever. I was pretty disappointed by that.</p>
<p>However, once I posted here about wanting to visit, everyone was so helpful that I was able to follow thru on our plans. Very glad that I did not give up because of not hearing from the recruiter. This board plays an important part in recruitment too.</p>
<p>Cannot wait to visit in two weeks! DD is so excited.</p>
<p>Buzymom, </p>
<p>As an alum of the University, I am very disappointed to hear that the recruiter failed to reply to your emails. Please contact UA admissions, and share this with them. The recruiters are paid to communicate with people like you, so it sounds like someone was not doing their job. Thanks for overlooking one recruiter’s inaction.</p>
<p>Busymom3: Really really sorry that your recruiter did not respond back to you. I would definitely let UA know about that, a short note to admissions should do. After all the recruiters are often the first contact point that students and parents have. That recruiter did not do his job.</p>
<p>However, I am so glad that you found us here at CC and certainly feel that you will get great firsthand information from the parents and students that post.</p>
<p>I know that your visit will be great!</p>
<p><strong><em>Funny thing…I had reached out to our area recruiter via the email link on the UA website. Twice…never received any response what so ever. I was pretty disappointed by that.</em></strong></p>
<p>I had the same experience. I e-mailed the recruiter through the website 4 weeks before D was scheduled to visit. I heard back from her while D and H were on campus. Her return e-mail suggested I e-mail her directly rather than through the admissions site for a quicker response. I don’t feel like I should post the e-mail here, but it’s her first initial last <a href=“mailto:name@ua.edu”>name@ua.edu</a>. I haven’t felt any need to contact her since then, so I don’t know if this is actually quicker. I was unimpressed.</p>
<p>Definitely find out if the recruiter’s name/contact info is current. It’s possible that the recruiter listed is no longer employed at Bama. </p>
<p>Bama typically gets a good number of students from Illinois because the scholarships are generous and Illinois publics can be pricey. </p>
<p>I keep looking for the newly updated Factbook for data about last fall’s class, but the link isn’t working. The data is usually available by now. Anyone know about it?</p>
<p>Please let the admission’s office know about this recruiter. If he/she isn’t doing their job then The University needs to know about and hire someone that will.</p>
<p>Buzymom - I looked back at the very belated e-mail that the recruiter sent me, and included in her signature is her cell phone number. Again, I don’t feel comfortable posting it on a public forum, but if you pm me I’ll give it to you in case you need to get hold of her.</p>
<p>S is one of the 44 freshman from CT. We were not able to go to any of the receptions since Greenwich is almost a 2 hour drive for us and the timing just didn’t work with other commitments. He never met any of the kids from CT even randomly during freshman year but didn’t seek them out either. I think he enjoyed meeting his friends from AL, Texas and Kentucky and would have gone to UCONN if he wanted to be surrounded by students from CT!<br>
I have to say our recruiter was really great. S met him at his high school in Nov of Senior year and within an hour we had e-mails from the Honors college and College of Engineering asking if we had questions, offering to set up tours etc. He also called here a couple of times and got back to me with answers for any questions he didn’t know.</p>
<p>I met my recruiter once. I ended up corresponding more with her boss as he was the one I met at the college fair.</p>
<p>I have to say that we did not meet our regional recruiter until after my son had already committed to UA but that was due to no fault of his. We never sought out any recruiter and just dealt with the college directly.</p>
<p>It was then a wonderful surprise when he showed up at my son’s high school Senior Awards Night to present him with his scholarship. A very memorable surprise indeed. UA was the only college to send a representative to personally hand out a scholarship to any senior. People were really impressed.</p>
<p>I’m from New Jersey but “my” recruiter is the one who covers Connecticut because that is where I attend school. He has been wonderful throughout the entire process, has stayed in contact regularly, and always responded to my emails impressively quickly. I attended the reception in Greenwich this year, and it was definitely awesome to see the number of people there!</p>
<p>Does anyone know what the percentage of acceptances vs. applicants is for this year (2011-2012)? Or is that number not available yet?</p>
<p>I don’t think its released yet,
watch for it here: [Reports</a> | OIRA](<a href=“http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/reports]Reports”>http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/reports)</p>
<p>Look for the 2011-12 acceptance versus applicants results sometime in the late summer or early fall.</p>
<p>I never saw the numbers for last fall.</p>