<p>I am currently on the NMF scholarship package at the University. This includes on-campus housing which currently is valued at $3500/semester. Next year I hope to live in my fraternity house (which is not owned by the university). I am told that they won’t cover the cost of this, or even give me any money. </p>
<p>Does anyone see a way to try to argue this. It is very important to me. The best way I see it is that if the school were to give me just $2500/semester and give my housing spot to someone else they would accrue an extra $2000/year. I don’t think they would be sold on this. Can some one help me understand the university’s stance on this, as I think I am just being hard headed. Or rather, does anyone see an argument in my favor.</p>
<p>Many colleges offer scholarships for housing as part of academic merit scholarships, and they are very clear that if you do not live on campus, you do not get that part of the scholarship. Bama is very generous in that they give you full housing, whereas other colleges only give 2K toward a 4K total. If living in the fraternity house is that important to you, maybe you can take out a loan or get a part-time job to make up the difference. </p>
<p>I do have to pat you on the back for your enthusiasm. I hope you consider going into law. You will make a great litigator one day. If anything, look into campus forensics at Bama. You will be an asset to their organization.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that you’re already at Bama. Is that correct?</p>
<p>Frankly, any kind of negotiation should have taken place before you accepted the NMF offer (while you were still in high school). At that point, you might have had “some” bargaining power. I’m not saying it would have worked, I’m just saying that once you’ve accepted a contract (in this case, a scholarship), you don’t have the bargaining power to negotiate any change.</p>
<p>You’re in the same boat as other NMF students who can’t use their housing scholarships while on a semester abroad. They don’t get any money for that, either, even though their dorm could be used for a paying customer.</p>
<p>You’ve saved a lot of money with your NMF scholarship, if you choose to live in the frat house next year at your expense, that is your decision. You don’t have to make that choice.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>As an aside…if your parents are refusing to pay for your housing in your frat house because you could live for free in honors, then maybe you can get a job in the summer and pay for it yourself.</p>
<p>As Montegut and m2ck have pointed out, you’re not in a good position to renegotiate your scholarship at this point in time. You are correct that one can often modify the terms of the scholarship, but the time for that was when you were a hs senior. Technically speaking, when UA pays for your housing, UA is really paying itself. While there are outside expenses associated with your living at UA, UA is just transferring money from one subsidiary to another, in this case from whichever one pays the scholarships to the 1831 Foundation (the legal owner of the honors dorms). In paying your fraternity for housing, UA would be paying all its money to an outside organization. Pretty soon, people could be asking UA to pay for all off-campus housing, which it doesn’t want to do. I’m betting UA is more able to grant full housing scholarships because they know that many people will not take advantage of for years’ worth of free housing.</p>
<p>To be frank, I was just curious to see what everyone thought on the subject. I will make a feeble attempt to see what, if anything, can be done. It is really a shot in the dark. I understand the university’s stance and am still thankful for the great offer they made. This place is much doing far more for me than I anticipated. Anyone considering, give it some good thought!</p>
<p>That question is specifically asked and answered on the scholarship FAQ page at UA:</p>
<p>"Can the housing portion of the National Merit Finalist, National Achievement Finalist or National Hispanic Scholar Scholarship be used to cover fraternities or sororities?</p>
<p>The housing portion of the scholarship would not apply if a student chooses to live in a fraternity and sorority. Though on-campus, the houses associated with these fraternities and sororities are not under Housing and Residential Communities control."</p>
<p>It’s not like it’s a gray area. Others must have asked and that’s their answer. I’m not saying not to try for your own satisfaction, but it’s very specifically addressed already.</p>
<p>I can see why the university wouldn’t pay for living in frat/sorority houses. The university has really no control over those buildings. If they were to pay for kids to live there, they would be somewhat more liable if something were to happen (such as a fire or death or something). Bama people cannot just walk into any frat at any time like they can at the residential halls.</p>
<p>I think it’s a legal issue as well as a financial issue.</p>
<p>As far as modifying scholarships before acceptance of the offer - has it ever been successfully done as far as any of you know?
The reason for my question - DS is being encouraged (by the chair of the dept.) to apply for one of several (one year) full-tuition scholarships. This involves a bit of work and may or may not be a longshot, but the fact that he has been contacted several times about it means it may not be out of the question. He is definitely willing to give it a shot.
He plans on double-majoring and has been advised that that is not an issue at all, so would be keeping his Engineering major status (and $).
I asked twice if, given the fact that he has Presidential, could he receive another full-tuition scholarship. The scholarship FAQs website says no, but this department says that it is not a problem. They can’t give any specifics about how it would work out, but said it was not a problem. They did say they pool all their scholarship $ to be able to offer these. Possibly that means they’re flexible about how they allocate the $?</p>
<p>Are you saying that a dept chair at BAMA is encouraging your son to apply for some BAMA departmental scholarship? </p>
<p>I know that double-majoring isn’t a problem, but Bama only lets incoming freshman declare one major (in your case, engineering) and will later let you add the second major after school starts.</p>
<p>Is this for a dept other than engineering? Will it matter that your son can’t yet declare that major as a double major?</p>
<p>It’s true that your son can’t receive a second “full tuition” scholarship, but maybe this other scholarship isn’t necessarily for tuition only. Maybe it’s an amount that can be used towards housing.</p>
<p>yes, exactly, a department chair from another dept. (not Engineering) is asking DS to apply for a one year full-tuition scholarship. This is a department where he plans to take a second major.</p>
<p>It is pretty clear on the app. that students must be incoming Freshmen enrolled full-time in the XX degree program at UA. </p>
<p>Also clear that they are full-tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>Obviously I’m hoping them to love him so much that they let loose some of this tuition money to be just “money,” that we can apply to books, housing etc.</p>
<p>So what I’m seeing on paper contradicts what they are telling me on the phone.</p>
<p>DS is not afraid of the hard work of applying for this, but if it can’t possibly lead to something then it makes no sense.</p>
<p>Do you know where the info about adding a second major is (on the website). He has spoken to both departments chairs and each say it will not be a problem, but if he can’t declare this until after school starts I’d like to know exactly when he can do it.</p>
<p>I know, time to make another phone call (!) :)</p>
<p>*
Do you know where the info about adding a second major is (on the website). He has spoken to both departments chairs and each say it will not be a problem, but if he can’t declare this until after school starts I’d like to know exactly when he can do it.*</p>
<p>I recently called about this same question for another incoming freshman. The number to call is… 1-800-933-2262</p>
<p>I was first given wrong info…a young man said that a student could add the second major at Bama Bound. But, because the person sounded young (like a work-study kid answering the phone), I asked him to ask a supervisor and he did. </p>
<p>He came back and apologized. He said that an incoming freshman cannot add a second major until after school starts in Aug. At that point, the student meets with the advisor of the second major and gets permission to add the second major.</p>
<p>So…it’s possible that the person that is calling your son may not know that your son can’t add that as his second major until mid-August.</p>
<p>*Also clear that they are full-tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>Obviously I’m hoping them to love him so much that they let loose some of this tuition money to be just “money,” that we can apply to books, housing etc.</p>
<p>So what I’m seeing on paper contradicts what they are telling me on the phone.</p>
<p>DS is not afraid of the hard work of applying for this, but if it can’t possibly lead to something then it makes no sense.*</p>
<p>I can understand that your son doesn’t want to do all this extra work if it would just be in vain. Do you want to PM the link to me so that I can look at it?</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the offer, but the rules are pretty clear (even bolded.) I have the suspicion that the person I’m speaking to has not had these issues come up - (Pres $, Dbl. Major). I need to get on the phone 1st to verify the adding a second major issue, and then to the Dept. to let them know the situation and see if that is sufficient or not.</p>
<p>Fine line, you hate to be the nag Mom with all the questions on an award he most likely would not get in any case, but DS (and I) would be fairly upset to win this award and find out he’s ineligible for it. </p>
<p>wow - surprising response from the dept - DS will be going ahead and trying for this.
Guess either 1 - for the small depts. things are flexible, or 2 - he’s such a longshot for this that they’re not concerned about it. hmmm :)</p>
<p>So…did they say that it’s ok that he can’t list their major as his second major, yet? Did they say that they can give it as money towards other expenses?</p>
<p>I realize that departmental scholarships are handled by the individual colleges, but I’m surprised that they wold possibly award two full tuition scholarships to one person. Sometimes, departments can be mistaken about things outside their department. The university scholarships department might say something completely different than what the academic department says.</p>
<p>^spoke with the university admission & scholarship people, who during the call checked with the dept. chair and came back to me with the answer. They said the $ would just apply to whatever was on DSs account (!)… go figure.</p>
<p>I still don’t quite think this is all square, but asked three times and this is the third time we’ve gotten the same answer, not sure what else there is to do. Still quite a longshot but you never know… Guess all that will be lost is DSs time.</p>
<p>As far as the major issue, which I am still going to check on again (just want to get a different person on the line and see if the answer is the same…) the $ is “distributed to three incoming freshman who plan on majoring in XX. Recipients must be enrolled full-time in a XX degree program.” Guess technically he can’t receive the $ until after the second major is declared, but again, noone seems to have an issue with that.</p>
<p>Darn - wish you could just delete posts or edit them, would save me reposting again… sorry.</p>
<p>Online chat with admissions, (Betsy) told me “I am 100% positive that you can not declare a double major or minor until after your first semester, ‘DS’ is ineligible for the scholarship.”</p>
<p>That settles that - nice thought for a minute but sounded too good to be true. Good thing I went for that 4th opinion! Thanks for the input guys :)</p>
<p>edit - kind of scary that we could have gone forward with this based on misinformation, I’m sure it happens everywhere, but lesson learned, always check twice if it sounds a bit odd.</p>
<p>That’s funny, I declared a double major my first semester and could have done so in other departments regardless of the fact that I transferred in a lot of credits. Deans and department heads do hold a lot of power and could probably do something. They’ve been asking your son to apply for the scholarship for a reason, IMHO.</p>
You don’t have to make that choice.</p>