DS '17 is a B+ student with (projected) good SATs, who is undecided in major but would love to move south, away from our snow and cold. We would need very very good FA for this to happen though, and so UAH is now on our list. But the merit scholarships are only for 4 years, and the 4 year graduation rate doesn’t look so good. If DS had to take a fifth (or gasp! sixth!) year to graduate, I don’t see how we could swing it without the full-tuition merit scholarship.
Can anyone speak to this? Also, DS dearly wants to run track and field; this is actually a non-negotiable for him. Is it often difficult for kids to 1. Keep the required GPA 2) Finish in four years and 3) Do a varsity sport all at once?
I always advise students to look at the middle 25-75 %-iles for ACT scores for the schools they are interested in, to see what their peer cohort might be. You probably don’t want to be near the bottom, and, depending on your personality, you probably don’t want to be way at the top. Also, some students will do better if that range is tight (more homogeneous student population) than if it is wide (very diverse stats), and vice versa.
I would also look here for other, concrete, data for UAH: http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=huntsville&s=all&id=100706. College Navigator from NCES gathers reliable data, and it is useful to compare apples with apples. Look also at retention rate for freshman (how many choose to stick around after 1 year). Look instead at 6-year graduation rates, as many students do not complete their work within 4 years (due to changing major, financial difficulties, taking break for a variety of reasons, etc.), but also due to the type of degree programs offered. Some degrees, by nature, require more than 8 semesters. UAH may have a lot of those. Lastly, look at state funding. In IL, Chicago State has a dismal graduation rate, reported recently at ~11%. Now THAT university is in trouble. Look into how well viewed UAH is within the state system and decide accordingly if it is a place for you.
I’d suggest contacting UAH to ask about this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the low 4-year graduation rate is the result of students participating in co-op programs, which would necessarily stretch out the time before they get a degree - but which wouldn’t cost you an extra penny!
We’re looking for lots of FA for a B+ student who wants to be in the south, far away from the snow and cold of his home state. UAH has come on our radar for its guaranteed merit, but I’m concerned about the 15% four year graduation rate. Do you all have any thoughts about the reasons for this statistic? Unprepared students? Difficulty getting into required classes, or other factors I haven’t thought of?
Just trying to figure out if DS would be in the 15% or the 85% .
Yes, where many majors are concerned, you want to ask about graduating in eight semesters, not necessarily four contiguous (?) years due to co-ops.
@momreads has a son at UAH whom I believe started out on the track and field team. (I’m not sure he’s continued with it, but it was a major factor in his decision to attend UAH if I’m recalling correctly.)
I am in agreement with the others that it is probably more the nature of the students attending UAH than the school itself. And I don’t mean that in a negative way about the students, but just that they are probably not trying to graduate in 4 years in many cases, or even most. That isn’t unusual with branch campuses. That also doesn’t mean the education there is not good, I know many state schools that are non-flagship (directionals) that have perfectly good teachers and programs. It is different, though, in that the students in his cohort are probably more fluid in their attendance and availability. Study groups and things like that might be a little more challenging, but certainly not impossible. I got my MBA in the evenings and faced these kinds of challenges. They just require a little more planning and probably for him to be outgoing to initiate these kinds of things.
What I am trying to say is that the bottom line for your son would be simply staying on track with 15 hours per semester (that is typical, I am assuming 120 hours to graduate is also the case at UAH) and he will be fine. As I was trying to say above, one thing he should look into fairly thoroughly is how many of each freshman class are residential. Many of these schools have a large commuter population and are quite dead on the weekends. That may not be the case for UAH, he just needs to check into it. And even if it is the case, forewarned is forearmed. He could know from the start that he needs to look at off campus organizations and activities to balance out his social life. It isn’t the classic college experience, but there is nothing wrong with it either.
P.S. There is also an admissions person for the school that stays in touch with what is posted here. @UAHAdmissions will now see this and should be able to address some of these issues.
As to the commuter school rep: DS is very quiet and if he were to run track, I imagine that he wouldn’t look for much else in the way of social activities. Another school he’s looking at is SUNY Stony Brook, and when I told him that SB has a reputation of being empty on weekends, his response was “Perfect!” That’s a good point about the commuter schools tending to have a larger cohort of students who are stretching out their education on purpose.
@LucieTheLakie thanks for the tip; momreads also posts on the Parents of Class of 2014 so I will ask there too.
I am interested in this as well. Our D is interested in UAH, although we have not visited the campus yet. She wants to go for Chemical Engineering. She definitely wants to co-op, but we hope that she can still finish in eight semesters (although it will take five plus years) and keep the scholarship. She’ll be taking all dual enrollment classes next year (senior), and several of them should transfer to UAH. We hope it will lighten her load enough during those eight semesters so that she won’t be too swamped to maintain a 3.0.
I would be interested to know what percentage of Engineering students keep their scholarships beyond the first year, second, etc.
Another thing we wonder about is UAH’s program of taking classes there the summer before and getting reimbursed for tuition and housing once they pay for the fall semester. We’re not sure if this would apply for students on scholarships. If so, it could be a way to get a couple classes checked off and ease the transition.
D prefers a smaller school, and she loves that UAH has separate bedrooms. Not having a super busy campus (football) on weekends would suit her fine.
One of the problems at UAH is the credits needed for graduation. It is 128, not the typical 120. If you do not come in with AP/DE credit, you will be taking some heavy credit loads to complete a degree in four years.
That said, the 8-hour credit difference probably contributes to the need for an additional semester at UAH.
Many students do co-op or hold very nice internships. My son has one fraternity brother who is spending his summer living on campus and working at Boeing. Two others also worked for Boeing, and they just completed their junior years. My son is an econ/finance major with a math minor. He will intern for a regional bank.
Is it tough to maintain that 3.0 GPA? It depends, my son said. He knows some students who did not meet that requirement, and he can attribute that to several reasons such as the difficulty of classes or inadequate preparation from high school. No, this is not blaming teachers – I am a high school teacher. But, some students may not have been challenged enough. They may have poor study skills. My son is very thankful to his high school teachers who were demanding. The transition to college academics has gone well for him. Some kids also have a tough time being away from home. All of a sudden they need to get themselves up for class, be responsible for laundry and keeping their space clean and tidy, manage their money and study.
Not sure if you mentioned what your son plans to major in. It sounds like there are lots of co-op and intern opportunities right in Huntsville, so maybe an extra semester or two would be paid for by jobs during college. Better to keep the load at a level where he can keep the scholarship until the eight semesters are over, then pay for any leftover semesters with jobs…?
The grad rate has little/nothing to do with the school itself. It’s largely due to the fact that it’s a regional school, so some are working part-time while going to school part-time, maybe commuting from home. There is also the co-op aspect to it.
There would be no reason that a student with adequate funding (merit scholarship/parents) would need to take more than 8 semesters.
When you say that you need great FA, do you mean merit based scholarships or need based aid? I doubt that UAH gives any need-based aid beyond fed aid (loans and (if EFC is low enough) Pell Grant.)
DS doesn’t have a firm major in mind, though computer science has been mentioned. He has great grades in math and physics, B’s in humanities for the most part. He wouldn’t come in with college credits, though. Our school doesn’t have many options there, though his brother and sister say that their school prepared them well for their intense college.
@mom2collegekids Either need or merit, though merit would be better. We have a big Pell grant next year with 3 in college, less the year after with 2 in college, and then the last two years are low Pell with one in school. The full tuition is appealing because it sounds like it would increase with tuition increases which might help ease the decrease in Federal grants with fewer kids in school. It’s kind of the opposite situation of most people, lol.
Our state schools should be manageable (barely) and look like the most likely schools, but I’d like to throw in a couple more options if they look feasible.
(The older two are managing to cover their own direct costs completely by attending a generous full need school. DS’17 won’t be able to get in there, though, and to be honest has no interest in their school anyway. I think he may want to get far away from his siblings’ shadow .)
It’d probably not be one extra credit, but two semesters with an extra 4 credit class, or perhaps 3 semesters with an extra 3 credit class, no? Doable, but he’d have to be strategic and choose wisely. And if he’s running hours every day, he’d have to be extra efficient too. Which isn’t something he’s been consistent with throughout high school, but we have seen a lot of progress this year.
With track and field, practices are every day. They do vary the times. For example, in the fall, the cross country team practices between 7 and 9 a.m. The track team practices more toward the middle of the day. Your son could choose to do what my two sons did. Take a class or two during the summer months to knock out gen ed requirements. My UAH son took music appreciation (fine arts requirement) and psychology last summer at a local community college. This gives him some additional flexibility in scheduling. He has 15 hours this fall – two classes in one major, one in another, one in his minor and an additional required class for his major. He is planning wisely, because not every class in his majors is offered every semester.
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