NSF Grant Funds Engineering Preparatory Class, Scholarships

[LucieTheLakie]

The University of Alabama College of Engineering is using a National Science Foundation grant to start three preparatory classes and a scholarship fund in an effort to address student retention.

The grant will fund a one-credit preparatory class offered to students the semester before taking one of three gateway courses. Circuit analysis, statics and data structures/algorithms were chosen to be the focus of the scholarship program because they set the foundation for future courses to build on and are also known to be difficult for students. …

Students must successfully complete the preparatory course and have financial need to be eligible for the scholarship. The amount of each scholarship is based on financial need and can be renewed for two years.

“Generally, they are sophomores or juniors by the time they take circuits so that would be a scholarship they could have until they graduate,” Burkett said.

About 10 scholarships will be distributed among the three prep classes each year. The exact number of scholarships given depends on the amount needed by student scholars.

https://www.ua.edu/news/2017/09/nsf-grant-funds-engineering-preparatory-class-scholarships/