While practices may sound easy, there are some drawbacks. Missing five math classes on Fridays bothered my son, as the team had to travel for away meets. Fortunately, he had an understanding professor who would meet with him the day before and give him a one-on-one tutoring session. Some team members expressed concern that the bus did not have wifi so they could not do work to and from meets. Maybe that has been corrected.
BTW, I know you said that your son wants to get away from the snow and cold. Huntsville does get snow and ice. And it can get cold there, too. As a freshman, my son said they had some nights in the teens.
Perhaps, or perhaps there are enough 4 credit classes available that it isn’t too hard to take 4x3 + 1x4. It just depends on the school and perhaps to some extent the major.
My D2 visited UAH last month, and was really interested in their coop program. It does contribute heavily to the lower 4-year graduation rate. However, the upside is that merit scholarships do not have to be used in contiguous semesters.
mdcmom: No -20 days or nights. Just teens. And when it snows there, the world shuts down. This is not like the Northeast where eight inches of snow, and you still go to school. My son sent me a gorgeous picture of his fraternity house with at eight-inch snowfall. Suitable for a Christmas card!
As for the co-ops, sometimes it is possible to work and take classes. My son had a fraternity brother who did a co-op in Birmingham this past semester. The business also provided his housing. The way that co-op works is in the cycle of co-op, a semester of school, co-op, a semester of school, etc. In other words, the young man will graduate into a job and have valuable experience.
BTW, all colleges at UAH require 128 credit hours. My son says he is so glad that he had all those AP/DE credits. After this fall, he should have just three classes to finish in one major but a bunch in another. But his math minor will be done.
Yes, their weather is probably similar onto ours. I am from a very northern state, so I’m glad for the occasional snow! But we get a LOT of very nice weather! He would enjoy that with his running. Summers can be very hot and humid, but there are still lovely parts of the days.
Teens we can handle. During the winter “indoor” track season the team runs outdoors every day as long as it’s 20 degrees or above and he sure would be happy if it only occasionally got to 20 degrees, and then at night .
We’ve sent his May SATs to Huntsville so I guess it’s on his list for now.
mdcmom: Remember, the SAT/GPA merit scholarship are automatic. You get the score/GPA, you get the money. That was a huge attraction to my son. He wanted limited debt when he graduated from college. He will have that.
If he knows that he will have a difficult semester, perhaps he can take a redshirt season. Sure, he would miss running with the team, but he also would have adequate time to study and keep his grades up. Again, taking some gen ed classes at the community college would be a good thing. Perhaps his social sciences? Or, if he is interested, he could take the CLEP subject exams at a local college. They run $85 per test (there is an additional administrative fee, too). He could knock out some gen ed classes that way.
I believe the Div 1 hockey team at UAH had 4 seniors this year and graduated all 4 in 4 years. One mechanical engineer, one chemical engineer, one accountant and I don’t know the fourth.
According to the UAH Chargers . com site, all four were on the WCHA all academic team and six team members (including two seniors) were WCHA Scholar-Athletes:
[INDENT]To earn recognition as a WCHA Scholar-Athlete, conference-member student-athletes must have completed at least one year of residency at their present institution prior to the current academic year and must also have a grade-point average of at least 3.50 on a 4.0 scale for the previous two semesters or three quarters, or may qualify if his/her overall GPA is at least 3.50 for all terms at his or her present institution./INDENT
As to how difficult it is, I imagine “very” barely covers it. But given that 4/4 of these seniors managed it, it sounds possible.
The 128 hour degree requirement was the one thing that bothered me at UAH.
For some students (mine?) that could equate to an extra semester.
I’m not sure of the reasoning. It wasn’t enough to stop us from liking UAH and seriously considering it, but I did notice the difference from other schools.
128 was the norm way back when, and I’m trying to think of which 2-3 classes I took that I’d willingly sacrifice and am coming up blank.
I work with enough engineers who have an (IMO) insufficient humanities background that I looked specifically at that aspect of UAH’s general requirements, and personally feel the extra 8 hrs are worthwhile. Other opinions have merit too.
My son is glad that he had all those AP/DE credits coming into UAH. He did not want to sit through another history or English class unless it were required for his degrees. As I mentioned in an earlier post, a student could ease the burden of taking those extra 8 hours by enrolling in summer classes at a home community college. My son knocked out two, gen eds that way. Took the classes online. Had them transferred when they were finished. Freeing up a little time in his schedule to do other things.
Take the CLEP exams in sociology, psychology, or foreign languages. You can pick up an REA test review book and pass the exam. I took 2 weekends of CLEP and got 64 hours of credit, 14 of them in French. That’s less than $10 per credit in the language courses. There’s also departmental exams, though I don’t know if they will give you credit or just exempt you for higher level classes.
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