<p>Obviously not for me! I was chatting with another parent yesterday whose oldest is a HS junior. They did a college tour over spring break and I was asking about it. His little sis (good friend of D2’s) had already mentioned that he had gotten a 32 on his ACT and the mom mentioned he was looking to major in chemical engineering. Money is a consideration as it is a single parent household. </p>
<p>I asked her if she knew that the 32 ACT = full tuition scholarship at UA (she didn’t) and I remembered the automatic $2500 scholarship if they selected engineering as a major. Her eyes opened up!</p>
<p>What info should I tell her about engineering at UA? What are the parameters for that engineering scholarship? And at the risk of offending anyone, are there any other schools that have such generous automatic engineering scholarships? It’s her first going through the process & I have no knowledge of anything in the STEM area.</p>
<p>Not the expert here, but others will step in that know more.</p>
<p>The Engineering Scholarship at UA is $2500/yr, renewable as long as a 3.0 GPA is maintained and the student remains on track to get an engineering degree.</p>
<p>The only other engineering scholarship we saw was one AU offered of $1000 the first year that the student may be eligible for yearly renewal if they maintained a 3.7 GPA and stayed on track for an engineering degree. This scholarship had to be applied for, so, it may not qualify as ‘automatic’.</p>
<p>^ and speaking as a parent of a son in Engineering on scholarship, much as he’s doing well and loves it, getting/keeping a 3.7 is not a given… 3.0 is much more realistic.</p>
<p>Son got the same offer at AU for Chem Eng. When I saw a 3.7 GPA req to keep the scholarship I laughed very hard. I said that that was just as good as giving it to you for only one year. But this was just for that Freshman Scholarship. They have others that they offer for the later years so additional money can come from there. Still it will be a gamble… you just don’t know.</p>
<p>Anyway, a 3.0 requirement is a much better deal in the long run. Remember that to keep you general scholarship you also need to keep your 3.0GPA, I believe. To me Alabama’s offer is a better deal. One less stress for the kid to go thru. </p>
<p>A think that I have found going thru this process with my son is that the so called “second tier” or regional schools might offer you better deals. For example, at UA @ Huntsville you can get a free ride! with a 34 or 35 ACT. No need to be NMF and they have a good engineering school too.</p>
<p>Combined with an NMF scholarship, which pays for tuition and housing, the $2500 Engineering scholarship covers dining costs (average plan) and the $1,000 merit scholarship covers most lab and misc. fees. </p>
<p>Where else can you receive an automatic scholarship purely for high stats and graduate with a free Engineering degree from an ABET-accredited institution? </p>
<p>The College is in expansion (with state of the art facilities and infrastructure), the professors are genuinely engaged and accessible to students, student research is readily available, involvement in professional societies is encouraged, internships and coops are available, and between the Honors College and the Engineering College, every effort is made to make sure your child succeeds, as long as he asks for it.</p>
<p>Thanks so much guys! I’ve just sent her an email with the links to the info about the Presidential Scholarship and the engineering scholarships, along with quotes from your posts.</p>