<p>Since they haven’t updated the Factbook in several years, I thought I would ask them directly for the latest info (Fall 2011) about UA’s incoming freshman class. Per correspondence with the UA OIRA, the following are stats from the Fall freshman class of 2011. The first three are the avg. or mean values, and the last a percentage value. Notice that the avg. ACT is a substantial increase from the avg. of 25.1 from Fall of 2010. Not sure how the SAT value below compares with the one from Fall of 2010. I think the GPA is roughly the same. Overall, I think this shows that UA is indeed growing with quality. </p>
<p>That ACT is quite the improvement! Dr. Witt’s efforts really paid off! </p>
<p>I wonder how that will move the middle quartiles?</p>
<p>The quick, but steady increases have been amazing. The jump in US News rankings over the last 2-3 years has been a 20+ step increase.</p>
<p>I still can’t get over that admit rate! Auburn’s is 70%…lol. They must be shaking in their poop-kickers over there. ;)</p>
<p>For these reasons, any past data on many things isn’t really relevant anymore. </p>
<p>For example…The College of Engineering has gone from about 1000 students to 3100 in just a few years. That makes it suddenly an easy place for companies to “fish” for employees…go where the numbers are. And, during this time, the school added something like 600,000 square feet of STEM building space and that doesn’t even include all the other non-STEM academic buildings, dorms, dining areas, etc.</p>
<p>As an incoming freshman with an ACT that does exceed the average by quite a bit, I love seeing these numbers! Not that I should need justification for attending Bama, but it sure is nice to see an upward curve like this!</p>
<p>Yes, many of the NMF, Presidential and UA Scholar scholarship recipients have ACTs much higher than the avg ACT, but unless you’re picking a rather easy major, your classmates will be well above the avg.</p>
<p>Speaking of NMF’s, Presidentials and UA Scholar’s are these #'s available…what I’m trying to ask (in case I’m not being clear) is how many of each of these were in the Freshman class of 2011?</p>
<p>There were 182 NMF frosh last fall. About 30 NAFs. About 600 national scholars on campus total.</p>
<p>The Presidential numbers haven’t been updated in awhile.</p>
<p>The last time I saw the Presidential numbers it was about 450 frosh. </p>
<p>I’ve never seen the numbers for UA scholars.</p>
<p>But, when you consider that there are about 6000 frosh and 25% have an ACT of 30+ (1500 frosh), you can get a rough idea of how many large scholarship holders there are.</p>
<p>Despite these high numbers/percentages of students receiving scholarships…we feel very blessed and special to have received one!<br>
Don’t forget to read from another post recently that UA offers career services FOR LIFE for its graduates, for those of you reading this and wondering about job prospects, internships, career fairs, etc.
I just keep finding more and more reasons to be thankful that we have found this magic kingdom…</p>
<p>I haven’t seen those for a long time. I don’t know why they aren’t done anymore. Maybe they are, but just not posted? </p>
<p>Last time I saw them (I think it was for 2007 school year), the CBH average was about an ACT 33 and the UFE was about 32.7 or so. I don’t remember what the whole Honors College was. Whatever it was, I’m confident that the average is higher now. With 25% of frosh having an ACT 30+, that bodes well for the HC as a whole.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind…Bama does NOT superscore. Many other schools that are posting super-scored stats, which is not comparing apples to apples.</p>
<p>ditto to aeromom’s comment about feeling blessed…here’s hoping the scholarship monies last for a few more years…as Bama’s reputation rises I worry the merit money may dry up and my 2nd child is already a huge crimson and houndstooth Bama fan :)</p>
<p>If anyone wants additional info, all you have to is visit the OIRA page within UA.edu and submit an information request. I think they would be happy to provide potential students and their parents with info. They were very quick with the data when I requested it.</p>
<p>Super scoring is what many/most colleges are doing these days to bump their middle quartiles.</p>
<p>Say a kid take the SAT 3 times and his scores are:</p>
<p>M…700
CR…600
W…600
1900 total</p>
<p>M…650
CR…650
W…620
1920 total</p>
<p>M…650
CR…690
W…610
1950 total</p>
<p>The school will cherry pick the best section from each sitting to create a super score. In this case, the student would then have a M700 (1st test), a CR690 (3rd test) and a W620 (2nd test). This creates a super score of 1390 M+CR and an overall score of 2010…rather than 1950 from the best sitting.</p>
<p>Obviously, when schools superscore, they’re reporting better middle quartiles than they should be. And, in recent years, more schools are doing this with the ACT as well.</p>
<p>Atlanta…since you’re in touch with OIRA, can you ask why a few pages are missing from the last fact book. It skips that pages with Honors info (I can’t remember the exact pages but something like page 59 or so). And, why are they so behind in more recent publishing?</p>
<p>XXJcat…, most schools have an OIRA section within their website. Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Look for Common Data Sets. For some reason, UA tends to post their previous fall’s common data set a lot later than other schools. But that would be a good way to compare. Or search for college board site on google. </p>
<p>Mom, </p>
<p>They said that they currently do not know when the Fact Book will be updated.</p>