<p>Working to be sure your child receives and accepts the best scholarship package for them is advocating. Expressing entitlement for something that wasn’t offered is whining.</p>
<p>As an employer, that analogy is not accurate either. Things change. Needs change. The market changes. Pool of potential employees changes. To hire someone that is willing to accept the lower pay next year may not be the best candidate for the position. If that person is of lower caliber…</p>
<p>bamagirls, I agree.</p>
<p>Not sure how “lower caliber” applies here in a standardized testing situation. The qualifications for this job couldn’t be more objective and measurable, whether you agree with the merits or not.</p>
<p>Apparently needs and market did not change, just the poor anticipation of what the market would yield. Feeling entitled to fair pay? Guilty. As someone helpfully pointed out earlier, UA is not doing us a favor with these scholarships. They are paying for a desired outcome, be it greater prestige, higher statistics, improved ranking, etc.</p>
<p>class2012mom – the gap year option has come up in several PMs. The equivalent of having to quit ones job to get out of the lousy contract, automatically qualifying for better salary next year. As a hypothetical it is amusing and sad.</p>
<p>UA is not doing you a favor by giving you these scholarships? Are you kidding me? While UA is indeed looking to continue to improve its rep, it is a fact that alumni such as myself have donated to generous scholarship endowments. Gratitude is the logical emotion you should express, just as those of us who have given, are grateful to you for considering UA in the first place. The gratitude should work both ways. I think you are twisted to think that UA has done you no favor.</p>
<p>AL … Yes, yes, yes … and a big ROLL TIDE! But as an aside, I’d like to call the big oil companies and ask them to allow me to pay less for gas. After all, they charged less in the past, so why not. I feel I’m being treated unfairly.</p>
<p>I agree Atlanta68! Gratitude is the logical emotion to express. Be thankful for what UA has provided you not jealous of what they will provide future kids. I haven’t heard anyone complain about the big jump in scholarship for a 29 ACT. Y’all already have full tuition, a year of housing, an iPad, and a stipend. Be thankful for all you have recieved through the generosity of UA!</p>
<p>*Is it possible for those of you who feel your students have been given “less than” to have your kids take a gap year and then enter next year under the terms of the “new” NMF package?
*</p>
<p>Not possible…the NMF scholarship is only awarded to the current year’s NMFs. A current NMF student would not be able to name Bama as “first choice” next spring.</p>
<p>I believe that it is unreasonable to suggest that a college can not (or should not) change its plans, direction or scholarships. It is a buisness that needs to qualify itself each year and improve. The university has been more than generous in their scholarship awarding. If that had not been true, many of our students would not be here.
If you accept the scholarship (whichever one), then you accept all the requirements and criteria that it was granted with. It seems like you want to make changes and have them only apply to your student’s year. I don’t see how that would be fair to other scholarship holders. UA has not given out a fifth year of tuition to any scholarship group before, so should they change all scholarships retroactively across the board? Not every scholarship that The University of Alabama or the Alumni Association gives out will necessarily be equal in value or criterion, nor is there a guarantee that they won’t change the requirements or the dollar value for future freshman classes. The only guarantee is that your scholarship (student’s scolarship) will remain the same as you were granted. Scolarships have changed over the years and probably will continue to be tweaked in the future according to the university’s needs.
I suppose some students will feel slighted, but I think that it would be best if they remember why they chose UA instead of some of their other college choices. I doubt that it was “just” the money. UA has so much to offer each student, I hope that they can go forward and not have this situation color their outlook. As parents, maybe we should lead the way and remind our students that " life is not always fair". I believe that we should always be grateful for what we have received, even when those achievements have come through hard work and perseverance.</p>
<p>2013 NMFs parents, The University of Alabama has so much to offer that these differences are miniscule to the opportunities that will be made available to your DS or DDs.<br>
“Priceless” is the term I will use that the Capstone will offer you beyond these scholarships.
Alabama will support your DD or DSs applications for other scholarships like the Truman, Fulbright, or even the Rhodes. Now, that’s “Priceless.”
Side note, Alabama just fulfilled my DS interest in travel and basketball, Crimson Tide Hoops is going to Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Paris this week…ROLL TIDE</p>
<p>i haven’t heard anyone begrudge new recipients their enhanced benefits. The new package merely illustrates that last year’s scholarship reduction was not an intentional change in policy regarding NMFs but a blunder, either in unintended consequences or short-sighted planning or both. The question has always been the 1-year aberration that singles out only the 2013 students, not for a tweaking of the much touted scholarship, but for receiving approximately 20-25% less. I haven’t heard any of the affected parents or students suggest that this will seriously cloud their Alabama experience, but it is valid to shake your head and laugh and say, “What the #%?” And ask the administration for an explanation.</p>
<p>Ad hominem attacks and irrelevant references (gas prices?) aside, this forum and its PMs continue to be helpful for venting and sharing information relevant to interested current and future students. For those who object to how their donations are being spent, perhaps this discussion will prompt you to ask some questions of Alabama’s adminstrative choices too.</p>
<p>I agree that our 2013 NMF kids are not entitled to the improved benefits that the next crop of students are offered. However, this does irritate me to no end.</p>
<p>My fear is that we may have developed an unrealisticly high opinion of UA and that this is just the first stage of disillusionment. I sure hope this isn’t true. But I have been talking up UA quite a bit lately and depending on how they proceed with this I may not be as enthusiastic.</p>
<p>It may not be warranted but $7500+ does have that effect.</p>
<p>reading the blurb… the 3500/year stipend is not a definite…it can be lost if a 3.3 gpa is not maintained.
also not to stir the pot but for those who did get whatever year nmf scholarship you got…did your own state school offer you as much as you are getting here in alabama? are you angry or disillusioned by your own state school?</p>
<p>*The new package merely illustrates that last year’s scholarship reduction was not an intentional change in policy regarding NMFs but a blunder, either in unintended consequences or short-sighted planning or both. *</p>
<p>so they made a planning mistake, it happens. I’m sure they didn’t make this decision lightly, the weighed the potential upset vs. the reward and make a choice.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you feel slighted, and I honestly hope this is the worst thing that ever happens to your child at UA.
*
My fear is that we may have developed an unrealisticly high opinion of UA and that this is just the first stage of disillusionment.*</p>
<p>Experience has shown (me) that you will have to learn to roll with the punches at UA like at any other college. While we’re “all in,” we have had some issues that should not have been allowed to happen at any college, but again, happen everywhere. I’d caution against having an unrealistically high opinion of any college.</p>
<p>well said AL34!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Depending on how they proceed with what, exactly?</p>
<p>The high school class of 2013 NMFs were offered a package. You could choose to take the package UA offered or decline the package and attend elsewhere. No one has taken anything away from you. The only thing that has changed is the mindset of people who went from thinking “my student has a great financial package at a school that is a great choice for him” to “someone else is getting more and it’s not fair”.</p>
<p>As parents at this stage in life, we’ve learned life isn’t fair. How you parents are choosing to react to this situation is teaching your students how to react to the disappointments they are going to encounter in their own lives.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, with UA increasing the scholarship packages in order to continue to attract the higher caliber student as a protection of your investment.</p>
<p>^ Both good posts :)</p>
<p>Please read my first sentence. </p>
<p>As far as what other schools offered. Yes,my daughter turned down other offers. Since we are not associated with those other schools, what they do won’t irritate me.</p>
<p>How they proceed? My continued opinion of the administration will depend on the nature of their responses. So far their responses have had a dismissive air to them?</p>
<p>Again, read my first sentence. I didn’t say we are entitled to anything other than what we agreed to, but the fact is I am irritated and worried that UA is “just like every other school” which is basically what I am hearing on this thread.</p>
<p>of course it is just like any other school, why would it be any different? it has its good points, and its bad points, just like every school.</p>
<p>@parent56: That is exactly my fear.</p>
<p>Throughout the last year and a half of investigating schools my daughter and I come to the conclusion that UA has “something special” not found at other schools. She chose UA over other great opportunities because of gut feeling. We know the ultimate reality can never really live up to the imagined but my fear has been that when she gets there in 2 weeks the reality that UA is just like any school will come crashing down.</p>
<p>Like I said, we’ve been delusional and this is the first dose of reality. It will take a little time to accept.</p>