@websensation no he ended up at Louisville. He got a full ride competitive scholarship there (Brown Fellows) with funding for study abroad all three summers. Also chosen to be part of their GEMS program (guaranteed entrance to med school). He loved UK and the Patterson is a sweet deal, but the perks at Louisville were just too good to pass up.
The NMF is the same for all NMF students at Bama.
Thank you for the info, @mom2collegekids
The 2019 NMF was announced yesterday. The Bama NMF package is really good. I just wish my kid will select BAMA!
My son got this letter yesterday. We live in TX and he has declined UT and A&M for Baylor, but this deal is awesome. Mom and dad went to LSU but are willing to ‘Roll Tide’ for this kind of deal. Bama NMF is significantly better than Baylor, LSU and A&M (which is pretty good). UT offers nothing.
Texas A&M and Baylor require a 3.5 to keep the scholarship
@scicem19 yikes!!!
Aren’t you concerned about that? Do you realize how many A students faulter in college? What is his major?
BIO. Yes very concerned. It is a high bar to maintain.
@SICEM19 - I don’t see a recent announcement. Isn’t the NMF package the same as last year’s (when they bumped it up a bit?)
With regards to GPA requirements for maintaining scholarships - we pretty much eliminated any school that required above a 3.0. S19 plans in engineering and we don’t want the added stress of high GPA requirements.
I believe Bama used to be 3.5 but for this year it’s lowered to 3.0 .
Alabama also has A+ as a grade. So if a student is “peaky” then they can do really well in some classes and less well in others, while more easily maintaining a required GPA. Even one A+ really helps.
I know the info on this year’s NMF package was just announced, but how do you think it’s looking for next year? Any educated guesses? I know it’s early but we can only visit one maybe one OOS school this spring/summer, and UA is high on the list. (Daughter will be NMSF and hopefully NMF). guess we won’t really know for another year…so debating about whether it’s worth a visit this early.
Also, do you think she’d have a better experience in terms of a tour and/or personal attention if she waits until she’s at least officially a semi-finalist? Large one-size-fits-all group tours are not ideal, given that the honors college and special program (Randall, etc.) would factor heavily in her decision.
Kim
The flip side of that is the A- … you end up “needing” those A+ to balance the A-
Suddenly getting a 91 on an exam is not so great!
@mountainmomof3 - D applied to Alabama university and it looks like full tuition scholarship for NMF.
Is housing covered in the scholarship as well?
Did you already receive the scholarship offer in mail?
Does student have to mention Alabama as first choice school to get the NMF scholarship?
Not sure about D, but I am impressed with the scholarship for NMF.
How is computer science program at Alabama?
@learning19 here are a couple of links - if you have not gone for a visit and this is your most affordable option, I HIGHLY recommend you take the time to visit. We had to coax S19 into a visit last year and he came away very impressed - the honors college, the Engineering facilities, professors and students, and the overall campus feel. If you make the time to visit be sure to schedule through the honors college.
Bama sent out scholarship notifications today.
Does the Bama NMF cover full tuition for both in and OUT of state? Daughter got her offer today but we are in Florida and can’t tell. It just says “value of tuition” but then lists as $14k (i think) per semester which is the in state amount. She has gotten an offer at OU too and we are trying to determine what our actual costs will be. OU is full tuition but no housing…thank you!!
@AMyDishi - you’ll pay $0 at Alabama if you are a NMF.
That $14k per semester is the OOS tuition. In state is only about $5k a semester.
@tpike12 While it seems that a National Merit Finalist will “pay $0 at Alabama” for tuition and on-campus housing, that does not mean that a NMF will pay nothing out of pocket to attend.
@AmyDiShi My son also received his Out of State National Merit Finalist Scholarship Offer today from University of Alabama. While it is a very generous scholarship, it does not cover everything.
The estimated Cost of Attendance for Out of State students is $50,032 per year (source: UofA website).
When adding together the NMF scholarship offer per year amounts:
$29,230 (covers full tuition)
$8,900 (covers full room cost @ regular room rate)
$500 (books scholarship partially covers the estimated $1,200 book cost)
$3,500 Merit Scholarship Stipend
Total = $42,130
$50,032 - $42,130 = $7,902 potential out of pocket
Another thing we are making sure to look at is that (to our understanding) scholarship money that does not go directly to pay for tuition, books, and materials costs are taxable. This means that the $8,900 housing scholarship + the $3,500 stipend = $12,400 of the scholarship money will be taxable. Based in this, we are seeing the $3,500 stipend amount as money to be put aside to cover eventual taxes, making our estimated potential out of pocket amount higher:
$50,032 - $38,630 (tuition, room, & book scholarship amounts without the $3,500 stipend money we will set aside for taxes) = $11,402 potential out of pocket
We live 2,000 miles away from Alabama, so we also realize my son’s/our “transportation” costs could be higher than the $2,940 amount estimated on UofA’s Cost of Attendace estimate.
I figured out the above today. Hopefully I was able to communicate it clearly and you will find it helpful.