Did he pick Bama over another school? or did he pick another school over Bama? Your post about automobiles is confusing.
If he chose Bama, the worry about a few thousand seems silly in the long run. With the huge Mercedes plant (and MB announced that it will be expanding), the opportunities for automobile side are strong. Plus there’s the opportunity to spend the year in Germany.
Your first post seems unclear about what he’s choosing and what he’s not choosing (aside from money).
Although Bama gave my kids very large awards, the awards were not the largest that they could have accepted. I would think that if you (the parent) can’t afford the few thousand difference in the school that he wants, he can either work over summers to cover or take a very small loan each year. Sounds like he’d need to borrow very little over all, if necessary.
Thanks for the great feedback. This was not a brag post by any means but when our kids finally finalize where they want to go and the reasons why, there is something in the back of parents mind ( at least mine), if he made the right choice. Paying for any difference was not going to be a problem ( at the most it would cost $10,000 a year) which is pretty darn cheap, especially out of state. We don’t qualify for any financial assistance, which again is fine.
S was sold on UA the second trip, as was I. The Presidential and engineering scholarships are awesome and well earned. The opportunities for ME, work on the EcoCar, honors colleges, and all that UA has to offer is impressive.
S was also accepted into the CME ( Center for Manufacturing Excellence) at Ole Miss. He received the acceptance letter last Saturday along with an $8000 a yr scholarship for 4 years. The total scholarship package came to over $32,000.This had me make a serious double take because of the prestigious honor of getting into the CME and learning the manufacturing side of things. I figure designing cars and manufacturing go hand in hand. So hence the CC post.
I do realize the most important aspect of a college choice is where do our kids feel the most at home and can actually see themselves being a part of for 4 years. UA and Ole Miss offer that but more importantly, my son does not hesitate when asking what school is for you and what school is going to offer you the most opportunity…and he answers UA.
So yes, I could have answered my own question just based on my S’s decision but there is that inkling inside that just had to pose this question to you all on CC. And as it turns out, his ole’ man is crazy! lol
I’m not sure why accepting the slightly smaller of two generous scholarships would give you pause, let alone have you think he was nuts. Congratulations to your son, I’m sure he’ll love Bama.
You really should be looking at net price, not the amount of scholarship. Would it be correct to say that the net prices are:
Ole Miss: $32,002 list price[1] - $31,500 scholarship = $502 net price per year
Alabama: $41,510 list price[1] - $28,450 scholarship = $13,060 net price per year
?
I.e. $12,558 difference.
[1] The Ole Miss list price includes $4,600 personal and travel expenses in a $36,602 list price; this is not listed on the Alabama list price chart, but a footnote suggests $7,776 personal and travel expenses. For comparability, the prices here do not include these personal and travel expenses.
He’s excited about UA and it’s opportunities. Thank you.
I always took out the personal/travel expense when figuring the net price even though you know there will be some cost for that. Net prices are very close for both OM and UA. UA would actually be a little less ( 5500 a semester).
The cost comparison would have been a lot clearer if you had mentioned the difference of $12,558 in net price per year, rather than just listing the (much smaller) difference in the scholarship amounts, in the initial post. The size of the scholarship is not important compared to what you and the student will pay after applying the scholarship against the price.
I am hoping my son is faced with this exact same decision next year. Hey, at least your son took ONE $113K+ scholarship and didn’t pass both up so he could go to $$$ DREAM SCHOOL !!! $$$
best of luck to you both. and don’t forget to check out the UA Co-op program
@raven2016 - the standard for comparing costs is what does it cost the family rather than what is the scholarship amount. There is usually a very specific amount which is provided by the school.
The standard cost at any school includes tuition + fees + room + board + books + personal costs including travel and other expected items.
If you assume tuition+fees+room+board would be normal at any school, you can compare just those between two schools minus the scholarship awarded.
@ucbalumnus posts are very clear in terms of how to calculate these numbers and it is not that big a deal to turn down a 20k scholarship at a school costing 70k while choosing a 10k scholarship at a school costing 20k because one would rather pay 10k per year as opposed to choosing the larger scholarship to pay 50k per year.
Congratulations to your son. He will do fine wherever he goes but a year in Germany sounds pretty cool.
""TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Daimler plans to expand its plant in Vance, Ala., by adding capacity to build 60,000 more vehicles per year so it can begin making the all-new ML Coupe — a new crossover the German automaker plans to add to its lineup next year.
The assembly plant, which produced its first vehicle in 1997, will now be able to produce more than 300,000 vehicles annually.
The decision to make the ML Coupe here comes three months after it launched production of the redesigned C-Class sedan in June. The SUV will also be the fifth vehicle to be built at this 4 million-square-foot plant.
Mercedes-Benz first showed a concept of the GL Coupe in April at the Beijing Auto Show.
“We’re calling 2015 the ‘Year of the SUV’ for Mercedes and Tuscaloosa because we will roll out the all-new ML Coupe and have face-lifts of the ML and GL,” Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche told local officials and community members Friday. “That also means more investment and yet another increase in production.”
Zetsche said the company may expand the plant even more in coming years, perhaps to make vehicle components, but he declined to say when. The decision to make the C-Class — the company’s most popular model — in the U.S. is viewed as a tribute to the local workforce.
“We are the first German manufacturer in the luxury segment to produce a sedan in the U.S.,” said Markus Schafer, member of the board of the Mercedes-Benz Cars. “We are proud of our team members doing such a good job.”
Since 1993, Mercedes has invested more than $4 billion in Alabama — including $2.4 billion for the current expansion."
Reading the post made me think of some advice here…
The auto industry is a tough one. Hubby was robotic engineer for Nissan…total chaos/long hours/constant problems and complaints…so glad he got out of there…the project engineer is not in a good place in an auto plant, but if he can get on the design teams, then life will be better. Tell him to never, ever fix something (mechanical guys can fix everything). If they know he’s a fixer, he will always be stuck. Good luck to him and let us know how UA goes.
Dd turned down a college with $100k merit scholarship (over 4 yrs). I was ok with it at the time. But 1 year later thought about reapplying as a transfer student to this same college whereby she would get 0 merit as a transfer student. That’s when I really started to get upset!
The one thing that blew our socks off was sitting down and visiting with Dr. Bharat at UA. He worked for MB for 40 years and was the actual VP for Daimler over in Germany. UA brought him to change the way automotive engineering was being taught for ME. The MB plant in Tuscaloosa is insane.
S is a fixer and I am amazed what he can do at such a young age. But yes, his goal is to design.
It’s not crazy. Being national merit finalists, high 35+ ACTs and 4.0+ GPAs, my kids could have got into some very good schools for free, but they didn’t even apply. U of Michigan is where they wanted to go no matter how much money they would have gotten from other schools. My son applied 2 colleges, my daughter applied one. They knew they could get into U of Michigan.
The thing about engineering is about where the school he goes to has recruiters come to that school. If he wants to go into the auto industry look at the schools job fair and see what companies come. That will give you an idea of the type and scope of who recruits there.
Now you can get a job with a company that does not recruits at that particular school, my S did. He did get his very good internship at his schools job fair and that experience led to his present job where he is very happy.
Look at average starting salaries. Loose rule, the better the school or department the better the starting salary. Although higher cost of living states will have higher starting salaries.
Now I think I must be cranky tonight. But doesn’t every mechanical minded boy want to design car. D’s boyfriend is car mad (he’s a ME). My S is car mad. I think lots of boys dream of designing cars or airplanes. Not many kids think that they’ll be testing concrete densities or designing machines for mines. So I wouldn’t pin everything on the auto industry. He might find another thing he’d love to do.
My S loves his job but it wasn’t in the very small field he trained in. Things evolved.
The school has nothing to do with the starting salary. That same Mercedes plant will hire engineers from Alabama, Michigan, and Georgia Tech for the same job at the same salary.
That is true @Chardo. Because that Mercedes plant recruits from certain schools that they like workers from. They may not recruit from for example Dayton or Western Michigan or Youngstown State. They like kids from certain schools because they find them a better fit for them.
The reason why Lehigh or Michigan or Harvey Mudd make more than the Daytons or Western Michigan’s is because companies are willing to pay more for graduates from those universities.
I do think that HR will never advertise this but I do think that employers will pay more for employees that they really want. My S and a classmate of his were hired at exactly the same time. She was their first choice but they really liked him and offered him a job also. Same age, same degree (actually he had more internship experience). She was offered more than him by several thousand dollars. He took the job because he wanted to work there and got 2 raises within the 1st year. She didn’t last 6 months and had to pay her signing bonus back.