palm - We once visited NEU and talked with a family sending their daughter from Hawaii to study and row (crew). Not sure of her major, but she seemed excited!
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New Mexico, Utah, and FIU. (No interest in Alabama, despite my efforts.)
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She’ll consider New Mexico, Utah, and FIU, but not Alabama??? lol She really has no idea what Alabama would be like, nor does she have ANY idea what UNM, Utah, or FIU are like.
Seriously, she would find Alabama much more attractive than any of those three. Hands down.
Since you’re chasing merit, you all may find yourself in a bad situation at some point during frosh year when she decides that she doesn’t like her school, wants to leave, and then she will have lost her opportunities at better schools with merit that will have classmates that are as strong a student as she is.
She’s an eng’g major. At Alabama, the top 30% of the school has an ACT 30+. Those other three do not come close to having a student body that strong. Not even close. Plus, half the school is from OOS.
UNM… Only 27% have a GPA of 3.75+ It’s upper 30% has an ACT of about ACT 24+
Only 6% have an ACT of 30+
Utah…not only does it admit nearly every applicant, but its upper 30% has an ACT of about 26+
Only 17% have an ACT of 30+.
FIU…only 9% have an ACT 30+. 97% are instate. This is a commuter/suitcase school.
I can’t believe that she’s even considering those schools when she won’t consider a much stronger school, with stronger engineering.
Alabama is not some haven of backwards rednecks. Did you ever get in touch with @malanai ? They are also from Hawai’i and their son had amazing successes at Alabama. I will contact him and ask him to post.
@mom2collegekids, that settles it, I’m buying you a plane ticket so you can come over and shake some sense into her! After reading your posts over the last few months, I don’t think people say no to you very often. 
I have a cashe of articles, videos, and links to organizations and offerings at Alabama that I dole out. As we move towards fine tuning the schools she actually applies to and running the NPC, I hope she will see the quality and cost equation the same way I do.
Thanks for all you do for this community.
Aloha @palm715. Mom2college kids is absolutely right. Our son, Punahou '10 and a NMF, graduated from Alabama last May. His experience there was nothing short of phenomenal. Excellent academics, an unbelievably personal touch from the Honors College, a drop-dead gorgeous campus with a state-of-the-art infrastructure, 2 rec centers and suite-style dorms that border on the luxurious, amazing Southern hospitality (think aloha spirit), ZERO culture shock (his words), generous acceptance of AP credits (he was able to double major with ease), friendships that will last a lifetime, and (are you sitting down?) a vast array of water sports.
The Punahou college counselors have visited Bama and actively recommend the school to its students, and the ones who have followed my son there have absolutely loved their experience at UA as well. I’d be happy to meet with you and your daughter, as would other Hawaii parents with UA experience if you wish. We can also put your daughter in touch with our kids if she wants to get the skinny on Alabama free of parental comments.
You owe it yourself to at least visit, if you can. The Honors College will create a highly individualized day for your daughter that I predict will knock your socks off.
I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from my son, uttered during his sophomore year at UA: “Dad,” he said, “knowing what I know now, if I’d gotten into every college in the country, this is where I’d want to be.” To this day he insists that attending Alabama was the best decision of his life. Oh, and did I mention that the Engineering building is amazing?
Aloha and Roll Tide.
Punahou guidance counselors came to visit Alabama after their surprise that one of their top students was choosing Alabama. They were so impressed! They now proudly hang an Alabama poster in their offices.
I think Malanai is too modest to mention one of his son’s crowning achievements at Bama. Once his son was at Bama, he decided to add a 2nd major in Film (I don’t believe he intended to have that 2nd major). Well, during his senior year, he participated in a regional film contest; won that. I believe that win is what qualified him to compete in Hollywood. He won Best Picture at the Hollywood Campus MovieFest. UAlabama and the Honors College gave him financial support to cover travel costs. Oh, and his film was also shown at Cannes!
Now, this achievement has nothing to do with eng’g, but it shows how a student can really bloom and achieve at Alabama. I don’t believe that Malanai’s son was even thinking about Film when he applied.
But, as for engineering…I don’t know what discipline interests your D. My son was ChemEng’g at Bama. He’s now a 3rd year med student (can’t believe the time has gone by that fast!) One of his med school housemates was also an Eng’g major at Bama. If they had decided to seek employment straight out of college, they would have had many highly paid opportunities.
I had the pleasure of having dinner with my son and two of his college friends last weekend. One was an eng’g major, who was had his job lined up months before graduation…starting salary $85k. He’s now making just under $100k. The other friend wasn’t an E major, but he also was immediately employed, makes a very good salary, and travels extensively with his job.
As you probably already know, Bama has recently added over 900,000 square feet of new STEM state of the art academic space ~ The Science and Engineering Complex (SEC). This was largely funded by the federal gov’t under the guidance of Senator Shelby who wanted UA to “have what MIT has”.
Here is an aerial view of the SEC ~ http://eng.ua.edu/buildings/
3-D Printing Lab Available to all E students
http://3dlab.eng.ua.edu
7 different 3-D printers having different capabilities.
http://3dlab.eng.ua.edu/equipment/
UA Eng’g students recently won this competition…
http://uanews.ua.edu/2015/05/ua-engineering-students-win-national-contest/
For MechE and EE majors, there is this opportunity…
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Students in the program will first complete two years of engineering and German language course work at The University of Alabama, as well as an internship the summer before their sophomore year with Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in Vance, Alabama.
The students will then travel to Hochschule Esslingen for one semester of course work and one semester of professional practice during their junior year.
Mercedes-Benz is not the only consumer in the program. Other industries in the Esslingen area include Daimler, Bosch and Behr.
Balasubramanian said the mission of the exchange program is to prepare students for the variety of German and multinational companies in the southeastern United States.
“The students work as interns in a German automotive company or supplier,” he said. “They get a deep insight into how a German company works, and we hope that when the students come back from their year abroad that they then go to work for a German multinational in Alabama or the Southeastern region.”
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Your D may be an excellent candidate for UA’s STEM to MBA program where she’d earn her E degree along with an MBA.
Lastly…here is a video by drone of the campus…
http://vimeo.com/104625184
@palm715 to keep within budget - for studying engineering, I would insist on application to UA and UAH (easy and cheap). Both have a fair amount of female engineering students. UAH is a smaller campus, but has PhD programs in engineering and STEM that make it a place where engineering students succeed. UAH’s campus is across the street from a very large research park.
Huntsville metro population is around 440,000 and has a unique combination of federal (Arsenal with major army/aviation center and NASA), contractor and high-tech companies and entrepreneurs. Some students in our area choose to go to UAH, while other engineering/STEM students choose UA or AU. AU doesn’t offer as much with scholarship VS the automatic (and with UA the departmental engineering) at both UA and UAH. I know a couple of eng students at UAB - they went there for other reasons but are completing eng degrees (one for sports scholarship; one went for biotech but then switched to civil eng).
If you visit the campuses, as you have the full list of financially eligible schools, she could see choices within your budget.
She needs enough financial safeties on her list, so that when all is said and done, she will have to figure out the best place for her.
Right now she is looking at what she sees on-line, what she has heard about various schools, what other students are saying, etc. Many students don’t know how a campus will feel until they actually visit - so tell your DD you want her to cast a wide enough net so the right fish will not get away for lack of effort.
My DD entered UA last fall, and is studying civil eng. She loves UA, and her scholarships makes us happy parents too. I have another DD studying nursing at UAB.
Even though we are in-state residents, I have worked for two universities and received degrees from three in non-contiguous states. UA (and UAH) offers an excellent education and the OOS scholarships are helpful to families who can add the options to their list.
Your DD probably needs to visit UA for her to really ‘see’ and feel what a great place it is.
This is not a bash of Alabama, but simply a support for a student who says “I won’t go to…” for what ever reason. There are so many good options, there’s absolutely no valid reason to push a student into a place that they don’t think they’ll fit. My son had zero interest in ANY southern state. That’s largely based on his liberal view of the world and the right lean of most southern states. My brother was set to go to Alabama until he visited. The proliferation of confederate flags killed it for him. Call is short sighted, closed minded, whatever; there are simply too many great options to unnecessarily fight an uphill battle. They’ll miss out on a lot of good schools by making these seemingly random choices, but that’s what the process is about, narrowing the field. It’s about the best fit for the student, not the best fit as seen by the parent or the parent’s advisers. Listen to her. There’s a reason she’s not interested.
Also positive on UAH.
We visited UAH this spring and it’s clear the state of Alabama is committed to that university - in very good ways.
I didn’t mention it before because the OP said !AL.
But … you can stand in front of the Werner Von Braun research hall, turn around, and see a stacked Saturn V.
The student union is new, and when we were there, seemed mostly occupied by students, studying. It’s been on our short list since before we visited, and DD remains enthusiastic; I’m positive she will apply. I started a thread in the UAH forum, this site regarding the visit.
Have not visited the other UA schools, so cannot comment.
I have knows students to say ‘I don’t want to go to XX’ and then within 15 minutes on campus change their mind! They may be clouded with an idea that one thing is really negative and that idea gets dis-spelled.
And each student impression is much different than others.
A lot of difference at UA between when your brother visited and the next generation,@eyemgh . Also a large campus is going to have diversity - and UA has a lot more diversity with so many OOS students (and OOS from non-southern states).
So perhaps @eyemgh son will like schools in his region and have something he is happy with. Maybe he fears how people think/behave in other areas that may or may not be really true.
I also know a OOS fellow that had zero interest in southern school (even though UA was a great fit for him on scholarship and his intended major - env’tal eng) - his dad graduated from AU and parents had lived at one time in B’ham (with some relatives in AL too). They didn’t ‘make’ him visit, or apply. So kid thought he was going to have a lot of options like Stanford (ACT was too low, but he believed he had a chance), yet it turns out only his state school safety admitted him for his major. So now he is going to a school where he can only go 2 years and then 3 at a few optional schools for env’tal eng - if he even finishes in his intended major (my bet is that he will finish a 4 year degree where he starts, changing his major). Parents allowed the kid to not have enough financial and academic safeties; I think they were all surprised that this boy didn’t get more options.
UAH has a relatively good student population - students that have ambition and academic aptitude. Getting large enough and developing enough of a campus to be less of a suitcase school.
For some, financial fit along with academic fit means making sure that they are looking at enough schools (and getting on campus before a final decision). Also, some parents don’t want themselves or their children saddled with unnecessary student loans when they can see some options their student may not be initially willing to look at.
When someone is from an even more remote place (like Hawaii), the student is going to have ideas, fears, etc that someone that has more travel in other states may also not have.
Parents are part of this process, some less, some more than others.
As parents, we were glad the best academic fit (outside of commuting to our local university) and scholarships were where our kids chose to attend.
This is absolutely true and can absolutely be done even after eliminating specific schools or even massive swaths of the country.
I am not dissing Alabama. It’s a good school. I am standing up for students’ rights to be part of the process, even, dare I say it, to have veto power.
A parent can and should let their child know that they need at least one safety school that meets three criteria: 1) they will be a guaranteed admit 2) the family will be able to afford it without relying on unrealistic amounts of aid 3) the student will be happy there. Ideally, safeties should not be a school one simply settles for, but should be in the hunt for the top pick.
Students can easily do this without being forced to consider schools that parents believe would be good for them, but that the child does not want to consider.
With respect to Confederate flags and Alabama being a generally conservative state, my son is a liberal from a very liberal state and had no problem making like-minded friends at UA. I’m a California native , a graduate of UC Berkeley (circa the hippie era) and I feel very comfortable in Alabama.
I afraid you’re missing the point. This isn’t about Alabama. I have no doubt that Alabama is a good school. I’m not saying anyone who is interested in Alabama should have ANY reason not to be interested in Alabama. I’m not saying students shouldn’t consider Alabama. It’s about each student’s individual wishes and the OP’s daughter has already stated she doesn’t want to go there. It’s pretty simple.
@malanai, thank you so much for your encouraging post! I loved hearing about your son’s success.
Now that school and the June SAT are over, she is doing a lot more independent research on colleges. She is asking me questions that led me to believe she is being more open to schools outside her original interest, and I’m there to help her with all the ridiculous amount of research I’ve done on possible choices (my husband has started to make fun of me). Our conversations tell me she understands the cost – aid – academics – admissions parameters. If Alabama ends-up making the most sense for her, I think she will realize it. And, if she decides to apply, we would love to take you up on your generous offer to meet.
I agree that getting in would be easier as a female, depending on the engineering major (I have NOT seen recent numbers as low as 20% - 30% engineering; but there are schools that are 70% - 80% male and focus on engineering, which is different).
But I don’t think a female student would automatically get more FA or scholarship money.
I think they are courting females in engineering but females do better in school.
You might also consider adding WPI, RPI, RIT, and U of Rochester to your list for match schools. All are fairly generous with merit, though it may be difficult to get down to a 15K per year COA. Keep in mind, though, that costs can be minimized at many schools after freshman year by moving off campus. My D is a rising senior at WPI where many students live off campus after freshman or sophomore years. Her apartment is closer to campus than many dorms. Rent + utilities over a 12 month period is about half of the cost of living in a dorm or on-campus apartment for the school year and the cost of food is significantly less expensive as well. With her merit, we are paying about $16 K per year.
Like others, I hope your D will change her mind about considering 'Bama. When making his final decision about schools last year, my S’s final 2 choices were 'Bama and UChicago. After visiting Tuscaloosa, he wrote off Hopkins, WUSTL, and all of he other schools he had been accepted to. In the end he chose Chicago, but not without much angst.
Also, make sure you run the NPC, particularly at schools that do not offer merit. After seeing our estimated EFC, S and D crossed many schools like MIT and Cornell off of their lists. Loved, loved, loved the schools but there was no point in applying if they knew we couldn’t afford them if accepted.
Good luck to your D. It’s an exciting time!