<p>Does anyone have experience with the Honors Academy for Rising Seniors? Last year it was a week in July for students to live on campus and attend workshops and activities at the Honors College. <a href=“http://honors.ua.edu/honorsacademy/”>http://honors.ua.edu/honorsacademy/</a></p>
<p>We are looking at schools that offer excellent merit scholarships. We are from Hawaii, and D has never been to the South. She thinks it will be a completely different and incompatible world. I think southern hospitality and aloha have a lot in common. :)</p>
<p>My D is a Junior, has a 4.0 (uw), took AP World His (5), taking AP Calculus and AP Language, and numerous honors classes. Her PSAT is 212 (in range for National Merit in Hawaii, but on the lower side, so it’s an outside chance).</p>
<p>Would the Academy be a good way to see if my D could be happy as an undergraduate? It would be a real commitment for us as a roundtrip plane ticket from Honolulu to BHM is at least $1,200.</p>
<p>The honors academy might be a good option for your daughter, though remember that UA is different during the summer than it is during the regular school year. </p>
<p>Southern hospitality is a very real thing and is one reason why I love visiting Alabama and other southern states.</p>
<p>The students I’ve known from Hawaii typically bid for tickets on Priceline or use airline miles. If you are knowledgeable about airline tickets, you might be able to construct fares such as HNL-LAS (Las Vegas) and LAS-BHM to save money. Southwest flies nonstop LAS-BHM and PHX-BHM, so other carriers will often match their fares on connecting flights. I just flew SEA-LAS-ATL-BHM for much less than SEA-ATL-BHM and got better flight times. LAS-BHM was running $155 each way.</p>
<p>A quick look at airfares shows routings such as HNL-SEA-ATL-BHM for as little as $373 each way. There is a nonstop flight HNL-ATL, but it tends to be expensive compared to connecting in Seattle or Los Angeles.</p>
<p>palm715: Has your daughter talked with any of the current UA students from HI? Enrollment figures for Fall 2014 (which you have probably already seen) show 34 students from HI (28 undergrads).</p>
<p>Malanai (once an oft-time CC poster extraordinaire) is a great source of info - he’s on the islands and can help with any questions you have. Once you get 15 posts, PM him! He’ll get back to you, I’m sure. ; </p>
<p>Thanks so much for the replies! We don’t know anyone who attends UA, but I plan on PMing Malanai. At the moment, I’m combing videos to try and get a feel for the campus. </p>
The Honors Academy would be an excellent way for your daughter to explore the UA. This is an excellent program. Contact Lisa McKinney for details. I don’t believe the dates are published yet for this summer, but I’m sure they will be soon. The $300 fee is all inclusive for the week. My kids had a blast!
@palm715 Thanks for asking this question! I contacted Lisa McKinney (as suggested by @bamagirls - thanks to you as well), and looks like we’ve got our summer road trip planned! We’ll drive down, visit Graceland on the way, drop off the DS, and let him fly home on his own. It looks like an amazing program, and DS is excited.
Ms. McKinney told me that they arrange pick up and drop off at the airport as well- so don’t worry about that part of the trip. I hope you can find decent airfare- it sounds like a great opportunity for your D.
@khidhala I’m sorry. I haven’t been checking in lately and just noticed your posts. Congratulations on the good news! We are currently waiting to hear about a couple of engineering camps at west coast colleges, but if those don’t happen, I think the honors academy would be a great option. We are actually going to a reception here in Honolulu hosted by U of A. Here’s hoping my D is an excited as I am by what the school has to offer.
@palm715@khidhala Not sure if I am too late to give some input- I am a current HS senior who attended the honors college summer program last year and can honestly say, as an out of state student, it was the major factor in my decision to attend the University of Alabama. Ms.McKinney runs a great program which allowed me to not only meet some professors and even the dean of the honors college, but also my future roommate! I would recommend attending this program time and time again! Good luck to your student
@khidhala No problem! Sorry im a little late to respond- I am from Florida and surprisingly there were mostly out of state students from all over the US- Ohio, Tennessee, California, Colorado, others from Florida, Georgia, and many others!
The program offered at least one or two opportunities for every student attending to meet with a professor from their intended “school” of study (Arts and Sciences, etc) as well as the chance to tour the classes and buildings.
I absolutely loved the honors dorms and I plan to live there this year! They are amazing- kind of like your own little apartment and fairly new as well!
Let me know if you have any more questions id love to help as much as I can!
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