<p>So am I reading correctly that to apply to UA you just need</p>
<p>application
$40 application fee
transcripts
SAT or ACT scores</p>
<p>There’s no form for a HS guidance counselor to fill out?</p>
<p>You got it right. No guidance counselor form, no teacher recs, no essay.</p>
<p>Thanks beth’s mom!</p>
<p>Seems too easy, doesn’t it? So here is my take on this… after I got over the shock myself. </p>
<p>The powers that be at UA have figured out that the majority of GC and other “references” are very limited in their usefullness. Some GC’s actually use form letters, and most schools pad the school profiles they send. So the info they get from the schools are marginally useful at best. Essays for admission are another thing that is easily manipulated by outside people (parents, teachers, GC’s). And they are repetitive in the admission process. </p>
<p>The main criterion for admission to UA are gpa and test scores. I would guess that the info for EC’s, awards/ ect come into play for the honors colleges and other advanced programs that are available to students. </p>
<p>I was a little shocked by this at first too. Until I realized that by doing admissions this way they are not trying to be deceiptful, sneaky, or difficult to understand. They are completely upfront by putting up the criteria. If you meet it, you get in. A KISS approach. If you want to apply to the honors college, for some you get in based on criteria, others need a little more work and background info along with the criteria. </p>
<p>The time, effort and money saved doing admission this way is probably significant. I would bet that adding all of the extra steps other colleges require from students to apply to their schools would not really change the admission class much. </p>
<p>I have actually gained a significant amount of respect for UA because of this numbers/ criteria based admissions. It seems to make so much sense to me. Having never been through this before, I could be missing something though!</p>
<p>^ I for one am IMMENSELY grateful for UA’s KISS approach. It’s a totally No-BS approach, and that’s fine with me. All the agony and drama involved with essays and ECs – oy!! Soooooo not worth it.</p>
<p>As home-schoolers who live in a rural county, we could not provide a ton of EC opportunities to our kids. It was church youth group, yearly church youth conferences, and the occasional Meals on Wheels delivery, and that was about it. This really hurt us – not so much WRT admission (DS was accepted everywhere he applied except for Washington & Lee, which wait-listed him [and we let the wait-list thing lapse, because we weren’t interested anyway—waaaay too expensive])… But where the relative scarcity of DS’s ECs really hurt us was WRT scholarships. When it comes to awarding scholarships, our UNC-system schools follow that “holistic approach,” whereby grades and stats are just one factor among many, with HUGE emphasis on ECs. This worked to DS’s disadvantage. It was as if the various UNC-system scholarship offices could not care less that he was an NMF who had excelled in a really rigorous curriculum. Nope. All that mattered was that he never led student government or lettered in track at a conventional high school.</p>
<p>Plus, it didn’t help that we were home-schoolers. I think home-schoolers must have cooties or something – at least in the minds of public-education bureaucrats here in NC. They just assume home-schoolers are benighted backwoods bumpkins. Sigh.</p>
<p>Anyway, it was so refreshing to find UA, a school that looks at stats and rewards academic achievement and doesn’t give a hoot how many EC hours you racked up with your expensive summer trip to Costa Rica. :O)</p>
<p>More on this later. It’s one of my fave topics, LOL.</p>
<p>I like you LadyD…you think like me! Hope that does not sound too egotistical!</p>
<p>LadyD, THANK YOU for posting this! I am a home school graduate, and so like you have had difficulty with thinking about some of the typical admissions requirements for colleges. During my high school years, we lived in a VERY VERY rural setting (town of 3000 people), so the opportunities were very limited. I am SO happy that UA looks at academic standing rather than all this other stuff! Because those opportunities for me were so limited, I really focused on my studies, which allowed me to do really well and get great SAT scores.</p>
<p>Plus, there are quite a few children in my family and my parents cannot afford to put us all through college. So scholarships are a huge consideration for me, and I was despairing of ever being able to get any significant merit scholarships. </p>
<p>I about fell over when I was researching UA and saw their automatic Presidential Scholarship; I had to email the scholarships department several times to make sure I wasn’t reading incorrectly!</p>
<p>Guidance Counselors routinely include a “School Profile” with transcripts for all colleges. That tells Bama what courses your high school offers and other info about your high school.</p>
<p>Bama admits by GPA, test scores, high school coursework. </p>
<p>Frankly, many state schools do not have the time/personnel to read thru a bunch of essays, teacher recs, etc. They simplify admissions using a GPA/test score/curriculum formula. </p>
<p>Imagine getting 20,000 apps and for each app getting 2 LORs, 1-2 essays, and a GC report. What a waste of money to pay people to go thru these things. </p>
<p>Typically the schools that require such “extras” are schools looking for “subjective reasons” to admit a lesser qualified student over a more qualified student. Kind of a “cover your hiney” deal.</p>
<p>vlines–LOL, thanks, and big BLUSH. Egotistical? Surely you jest. More like very flattering and tooooooo kind. </p>
<p>And ArizonaGirl–I totally hear ya!! My DH kept saying re UA’s scholarship opportunities, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Then he saw it, and now he believes it.:)</p>
<p>BTW, P.S. and off-topic: We just had an earthquake here in NC. We are so excited, LOL. No one is hurt, thank God. Twitter is hoppin’. Here’s a picture of the earthquake devastation, sent to me by a friend:</p>
<p><a href=“http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation[/url]”>http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation</a></p>
<p>I just heard about the earthquake! My grandma is in Greensboro, NC. That photo is so funny, LOL!</p>
<p>Oh dear. I hope no one was sitting in that chair when it was toppled by the earthquake. As a former southern Californian, I have a deep respect for earthquakes and the damage they can do. I’m glad yours didn’t cause much!</p>
<p>Beth’s Mom – On Twitter, all the West Coasters are calling us East Coasters wusses and wimps because we’re freaking over our earthquake. But hey, 5.9 is no joke for the East Coast!</p>
<p>LadyD, I borrowed that pic, put on FB, here are some of the responses I received (some from west coast friends)
“Will your insurance cover that?”
“Hope the search and rescue team arrives soon”
“We will arrange a benefit concert for you”
" I can see the headline: “Three left standing as a fourth fell and lies motionless.”"</p>
<p>(I explained to the last guy that he need to stop watching FOX news so much! )</p>
<p>I have such funny and supportive friends! I am so glad that there was actually very limited damage, and few injuries. We (all of us in the earthquake area) were very very lucky, and that is the only reason we can joke!</p>
<p>LOL, vlines, those responses are priceless.</p>
<p>We (all of us in the earthquake area) were very very lucky, and that is the only reason we can joke! </p>
<p>Ain’t that the truth!!</p>
<p>I think the West Coasters have to realize that perhaps the buildings in the East were not built to withstand earthquakes as those in the West are.</p>
<p>Those with brick homes probably are going to have damage. There’s a reason why the West Coast doesn’t have brick homes and lovely brick college buildings…those don’t mix with earthquakes.</p>