<p>I have been accepted to UA with the full tuition scholarship, as well as the Honors College. I am planning to major in Mathematics. Is the Math Department at UA good? How is the faculty? I would love to hear from alums who majored in Math</p>
<p>One of my son’s majored in math at Bama and the other one minored in math. There are some fabulous math profs. Some of their fave profs were Drs. Bruce Trace, David Halpen, Hadji, Gleeson, Martin Evans, Shan Zhao, Hsia, and some others that I can’t remember off the top of my head…lol. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids Did your sons have any internships or research opportunities at Bama?</p>
<p>Yes they did. They did REUs, a VIGRE program, and 2 summers and 2 Christmases at Redstone Arsenal.</p>
<p>Were your sons in the super competitive Computer Based honors, or University Fellows? Do you know if its possible to get research opportunities if not part of those programs? I qualify, but since acceptance is so competitive, I do not know if I’ll be able to make it</p>
<p>Research opportunities are definitely not limited to those students selected for CBH. There are Many students in many departments who do research.
Go to this page on the Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity Conference
<a href=“http://osp.ua.edu/UndergradResearch.html”>http://osp.ua.edu/UndergradResearch.html</a>
Search through the catalogue to see what the students researchers do.</p>
<p>UA has developed where first year honor students can apply to do research freshman year. My DD is a current freshman, and did not apply, so I don’t know how many are doing it. My understanding is there is a ‘class’ they attend, and do the research either first semester or second semester, but the two go together. DD received an email (I believe early summer) via her campus email inviting her to apply to the program. I am sure many students were pro-active to seek the research experience out and applied prior to the email invitation.</p>
<p>UA has developed where first year honor students can apply to do research freshman year. My DD is a current freshman, and did not apply, so I don’t know how many are doing it. My understanding is there is a ‘class’ they attend, and do the research either first semester or second semester, but the two go together. DD received an email (I believe early summer) via her campus email inviting her to apply to the program. I am sure many students were pro-active to seek the research experience out and applied prior to the email invitation.</p>
<p>^
You may be referring to the Emerging Scholars program?</p>
<p>I majored in mathematics at UA. Like most professors at UA, the math professors are very friendly and approachable. However, this doesn’t mean one can just take classes and expect professors to notify you about every interesting opportunity. I would highly suggest visiting professors during office hours and joining Pi Mu Epsilon, which is the mathematics honor society at UA. </p>
<p>^^^ sounds like the emerging scholars program is what you are referring to. This is another program in which students apply to do research. </p>
<p>However, there is nothing wrong with the old fashioned tried and true method of " knocking on doors". You can contact professors by email, or during office hours, or simply by going to their designated labs. Express an interest in their current research, read up on their research in journals or magazines, ask around about which professors like to work with students and speak with the professor who interests coincides with yours. Granted there may be some professors who probably prefer not to work with freshmen but there are definitely some who do. </p>
<p>There is a UA journal online that you can read titled JOSHUA. The Journal of Science & Health at The University of Alabama.</p>
<p>There is also a UA research magazine.</p>
<p>There is the posted link I gave earlier about the yearly UA research conference.</p>
<p>Go to the department of choice and research the professors for more info on ht they do.</p>
<p>Yes I was referring to emerging scholars program - well established and handles quite a few students.</p>
<p>As others have posted, can find your own opportunities too.</p>
<p>There are some programs to get familiar with other students and the university - Outdoor Action and Alabama Action Honors Programs before school begins (that also runs at the same time Rookie Camp for Million Dollar Band and Rush - so have to sign up early for what you want, OA and AA fill up their spots). Camp 1831 (also fills up their spots) - also runs at that same timeframe. Some students also choose Early College.</p>
<p>Many good suggestions on this thread.</p>
<p>@OlyaLukashina Where else have you applied? What is your home state? Is your family happy about the scholarship award? What are they saying?</p>
<p>I’m from California. I also applied to UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, Cal Poly SLO, Stanford, and Yale. Alabama is a very interesting option because I would not have to take out a loan and can graduate in 3 years (with my AP credit). Also, I am planning on going to medical school, and I feel like I can get a better GPA at Alabama.
I hope that I do not lower my chances of getting into a great medical school because I chose a less prestigious undergrad.</p>
<p>You definitely do NOT want loans for undergrad if you want to go to med school.</p>
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<p>lol…uh…no. And Alabama is not considered to be “less prestigious” than most of your listed schools. First of all, presitigious schools do NOT help a person get into med school. And possible “help” is too tiny to consider and only applies to a top 8-10 school, which only Stanford is on your list. The rest of your schools, including Cal and UCLA are viewed as publics and med schools aren’t “extra impressed” by them at all. </p>
<p>As a med school applicant, a UCLA or Cal grad is not considered to be “better” than a grad of other flagships. </p>
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<p>You may not realize this, but EVERY MD school in the US is “great”. We don’t have ANY non-great med schools here in the US. Any med school applicant is THRILLED to get into ANY US MD school…because they are ALL excellent…EXCELLENT.</p>
<p>There are several advantages for a Calif premed at Bama:</p>
<p>1) You’re not competing with the gazillion other premeds at Calif schools - where there is a total glut and not nearly enough seats in the entire state for even UCLA’s premeds. </p>
<p>2) You will have a tie to Alabama’s med schools, which want more females.</p>
<p>3) Alabama does Committee Letters which NONE of the Calif publics do.</p>
<p>4) OOS students at Bama who apply to med schools have an 85% success rate…contast that to Calif applicants that have a less-than 50% success rate. </p>
<p>One thing to be aware of – UA recently changed the policy for Presidential Scholarship. The scholarship covers 8 semesters. If you complete your undergrad is <8 semesters, you can than use the scholarship for graduate courses. </p>
<p>Math major then med school, that’s rough. The math department here is quite good, although sort of small for the number of students and importance of the subject.</p>
<p>^^
I agree that it’s a tough way to be premed, but if the OP is very good at Math, then she should play to her strengths.</p>
<p>When my son was premed, he was a Chem Engineering major with minors in Math, Chemistry and Biology. As a Chemical Eng’g major, most of the premed prereqs were already included and it was easy to add the extra classes for those minors (altho the minors certainly aren’t needed for med school.</p>
<p>My MD boss got his UG with a major in math at Duke, then went on to med school and internal medicine and other specialty. However he was a bit of a Renaissance man - he also considered becoming a concert pianist, and still plays at a very high level every day.</p>
<p>Look at the courses needed for graduate plans, and based on the school attending, see what is workable.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is a pediatric emergency medicine doctor. She got her B.A. in math from Swarthmore. </p>