<p>"I’m wondering if the change is because the school is enrolling many students with higher stats than some of the NMFs have, so maybe the school doesn’t think it’s fair to give the NMFs free housing for 4 years? "</p>
<p>I wonder what the breakdown of NMF by state is? This could be a factor if the majority of NMF at UA come from neighboring (lower-cutoff) states. If the goal is still to raise the average ACT/SAT score for the incoming class a low-cutoff NMF does not help achieve this.</p>
<p>And just for the record, while DS had planned, like many do, to stay in the honors dorms all four years, he is chomping at the bit to move off-campus for his upcoming third year. Finding a place is beyond easy, even this late there are still may choices and incentives. Bonus is we figure this move will save around $4K/year.</p>
<p>while DS had planned, like many do, to stay in the honors dorms all four years, he is chomping at the bit to move off-campus for his upcoming third year</p>
<p>this is very true. Many kids think that they’ll want to stay on campus for 4 years, but after a year or two, they WANT to move off campus for various reasons.</p>
<p>I wonder what the breakdown of NMF by state is? This could be a factor if the majority of NMF at UA come from neighboring (lower-cutoff) states. If the goal is still to raise the average ACT/SAT score for the incoming class a low-cutoff NMF does not help achieve this.</p>
<p>I don’t think the issue is NMFs from neighboring states. GA and FL send a lot of kids to Bama and they don’t have a lower cut-off. I think the issue is that the housing scholarship is too expensive and some of the recipients have lower stats than some of the Presidential scholarship holders who are only getting tuition.</p>
<p>My NMF upcoming Freshman son is already complaining that we are “forcing” him to live on campus ALL four years when his friends will be moving off campus. We have tried to explain to him that his housing scholarship allows us to help him in other ways(grad school, he doesn’t have to work while in school, etc).</p>
<p>This is rather disappointing to hear. I most likely would not have come to Bama if full housing was not offered. That being said, I think the better idea would be to move to a housing stipend system. I know several people have suggested that before. Many NMFs think they want to live on campus all four years, and then are eager to get away after one or two (myself included). Some do stay on campus their entire time at Bama though.</p>
<p>I’m hoping that Mary Spiegel responds to my email today. </p>
<p>Since Bama didn’t offer a stipend alternative, it has to be a money issue as well as a honors dorm space issue.</p>
<p>When schools start getting 200+ NMFs and 30+ NAs enrolling in the fall, giving free rides becomes incredibly expensive. For OOS kids, the tuition part is about $85k…and then you add about another $40 for housing…plus the study abroad and ipad. </p>
<p>The rising cost of honors housing must be part of the problem. When my NMF son was a frosh, the honors dorm was about $6k per year…and there were far less than a 100 NMFs enrolling. Now the cost is up 50% and there are more than twice as many frosh NMFs. </p>
<p>I would have rather they got rid of the study abroad money. </p>
<p>I was surprised to learn that Oklahoma NMF scholarship no longer covers as much as it used to either. OU has fees that run into the thousands, so the stipend that used to go towards housing, now just covers the fees. Fees have had very large increases in recent years because the legislators won’t allow much in tuition increases…so the school resorts to raising fees. So, NMFs end up paying $1k towards tuition and don’t have any housing scholarship money at all, not even for frosh year.</p>
<p>i think most people who take a scholarship with housing expect their kid to stay the 4 years…those costs do play a role in the final acceptance decision… but realistically i think most parents should prepare themselves for at least a “plea” to move off campus at some point :). my S2 has a full housing scholarship and his campaign to move off campus started at the beginning of 2nd year. (but he has lived in dorms since grade 10)… guess who threw the scholarship away?? But for some that isnt economically feasible…and i think the housing portion did make ua stand out for alot of students.</p>
<p>The idea of an “Honors (Residential) Community” also is a strong selling point. Especially for those who are concerned with selecting a LARGE university and are seeking a smaller arena within.</p>
<p>The concept of an honors community still exists. The scholarship change doesn’t eliminate that.</p>
<p>Those who want to stay on campus will likely be able to continue to do so, but as said above, by junior year, most students (even NMFs) want to go off campus.</p>
<p>My D isn’t on campus yet, so I have no idea how things will play out, but I’ll give you our thought process. We’re assuming that D (and most honors students other than those with housing scholarships) will be on campus for only a year or two. But during that year or two, she’ll meet other students in the dorms, become involved in the activities that interest her and find her niche. She won’t NEED the honors dorms for a “smaller arena” after that. She’s also likely to find her smaller community within the big school through HCA, CBH, honors seminars, etc. I would imagine that even the kids with housing scholarships have the majority of their friends off campus by junior or senior year. There are many ways, other than living in honors dorms or even being in the honors college, to make a big school smaller.</p>
<p>FWIW, it appears the Academic Elite Scholarship has also changed. It appears they have entirely dropped the 4 year housing portion of the award:</p>
<p>Academic Elite Scholarships for 2013-2014</p>
<p>There are typically eight to ten of these scholarships offered each year. The pool of eligible applicants ranges from 900 to 1,000 students. </p>
<p>Academic Elite Scholarship recipients typically receive:
■$8,500 per year for 4 years
■The value of tuition in-state or out-of-state for 4 years
■iPad</p>
<p>To be considered for the Academic Elite Scholarships, a student must be accepted as a member of the University Fellows Experience. The student must maintain membership in the UFE to continue holding an Academic Elite Scholarship. Complete information on the UFE can be found on the University Fellows website.</p>
<p>I have a hard copy of last years description and it says the $8500 per year for four years, tuition, 4 years of on campus housing and a laptop.</p>
<p>Alumni Crimson Scholarship has not changed yet. However, we were told that this scholarip was not offered to any OOS this year. I don’t have documentation to support this, just a verbal.</p>
<p>That doesn’t surprise me that the Crimson Alumni wasn’t offered to any OOS students. Their budget is limited and awarding to an OOS student just costs too much for the tuition portion…especially when the student takes more than 16 credits in a semester.</p>
<p>Our regional recruiter emailed me. The director explained to the recruiters that the decrease from 4 to 1 years for housing is because UA does not anticipate having room for all upperclassmen to remain in on-campus housing for all four years. Because of the growth in enrollment, UA isn’t going to be able to accommodate everyone going forward, so the housing scholarship was decreased to one year starting in 2013-14.</p>
<p>So it seems more of a housing availability issue and less of a financial issue. I did suggest to her that UA should have considered a flat stipend (say $4k/year x 4 years), or better yet, full honors housing for 1 year so the kids can benefit from the honors community on campus in year 1, and then with a smaller stipend for years 2-4 to encourage looking elsewhere, either on or off campus.</p>
<p>^^^That’s new. D was only offered “housing” and it wasn’t “guaranteed” that housing would be available (although word of mouth was that if you were a NMF, you would get housing)</p>