<p>I for one, don’t understand why anyone would post on an open public forum, if they weren’t willing to hear alternate viewpoints, encounter " criticism ", discuss pros and cons, or recognize that others will not always agree with you. I am always up for a lively discussion, do not mind playing the devil’s advocate in a debate, or proffering an unpopular opinion. I stand ready to advocate free speech. For me in particular, unless a thread is against CC’s rules, not just unpopular (according to a few opinions), I would keep the thread open. Posters can choose to leave whenever they wish, or choose to read or not read the thread as they like. I think that the open discussion here is a learning experience for students, parents, and prospective participants in the college scholarship community.</p>
<p>Well said, robotbidmom. Public forum, freedom to express opposing opinions, and old enough to decide for one’s self whether to participate: cc in a nutshell.</p>
<p>@bg … don’t get me wrong, I strongly empathize with the feelings expressed here by the parents. Many of us having been waiting for weeks for the official word for 2014 to come out, and in my case, waiting to see if there’d be any change in the Presidential requirements since my S qualifies. Imagine our collective relief when the news arrived that there would be no change. I can also imagine the huge amount of disappointment I’d “FEEL” if it had changed and let’s say that he now only qualified for the 2/3 because they adjusted the ACT levels or something. I get it. The feeling of missing out on something is real and justified.</p>
<p>Pure and simple, the consensus expressed by me and others is that any of the posters here that expected remediation, explanation, or justification is patently absurd … in all respects. Why? Because there is full disclosure going in. It’s published ahead of time, the limits and amounts being set by policies, procedures, data, and analysis that we’re not privy to … nor should we be. And this is my opinion, and I have a right to it. As a matter of fact, if it were me sitting behind the receiving end of these queries, I’d consider them grossly misplaced, rude, and expressing a non-existant sense of entitlement, not deserving of an answer.</p>
<p>Back to the recent publishing of the 2014 values, I’m very happy that they haven’t changed, and I understand that I would have been upset personally if they had, but I would never believe that I was owed an explanation for a process that I have no knowledge of, with any kind of fairness or equity in mind. These are ALL wonderful awards / gifts that we should all cherish. God forbid they change the awards to be competitive and not guaranteed … what then?</p>
<p>Late to the game, but regarding the main theme of this thread… I can respect 2013 NMF scholarship recipients & their parents expressing “disappointment” and “frustration” at the enhancements being offered to 2014 NMF scholarship recipients. I can also understand respectfully approaching the UA administration and asking if any consideration will be given to offering 2013 NMF scholarship recipients any similar enchancements.</p>
<p>I don’t respect some of the stronger language being used to express your disappointment, specifically in a public forum. It comes across as petty, spoiled and entitled.</p>
<p>I sincerely agree with last post, robotbldmom. Some people will even continue to express their disagreement ad naseum, in escalating terms, presumably until everyone else loses interest or the thread gets ugly enough for the moderator to close. Learning experience indeed.</p>
<p>^^Well said Dad2ILD. </p>
<p>"people who find you entitled have failed to put themselves in your shoes. " I seriously doubt that there is anyone here who hasn’t been in those “shoes”, one or more times in their life. That’s why its so easy to empathize with the experience. However, not everyone responds the same when they have those “shoes” on. Here is a personal example. During his first semester, my son found out the the daughter and I just returned from a college visit to UA this last Wednesday that we had arranged through the Honors College. During our first meeting with someone from Honors College admissions it was explained that they had changed the GPA standard for automatic admissions to the Honors College in the time since we had arranged the visit. While my daughters GPA was well over the old standard when we arranged the trip, it was now just a hair’s breadth under the newly established GPA. Rather than demand an explaination as to the reason for the change and demand that “equity” be served by giving my daughter the benefit of the old standard, my response was to tell the person that the change was understandable given the success of the Honors College at UA. Having said that, I still think she has a chance at the Honors College because her GPA is so close and she has some outstanding EC’s (which will generate outstanding recommendations). She and I both understand that the standard GPA could change again for 2015 for any number of reasons, but that doesn’t really matter because she will be applying to UA for 2014 admissions. I am sure if she doesn’t get into the Honors College and UA lowers the GPA standard for 2015, we will both be very disappointed, but we won’t be making any demands of UA, nor will we be starting any threads here in CC land to berate UA, to call out UA staff by name, or to seek assitance in somehow forcing UA to somehow produce “equity” for my daughter. </p>
<p>“Some people will even continue to express their disagreement ad naseum, in escalating terms, presumably until everyone else loses interest or the thread gets ugly enough for the moderator to close.” Indeed!!! Pot, let me introduce myself, I am the kettle (suffering from a brief moment of self-awareness). ;-)</p>
<p>“I can also understand respectfully approaching the UA administration and asking if any consideration will be given to offering 2013 NMF scholarship recipients any similar enchancements.” Well said. I agree.</p>
<p>Well said, Dad2ILD, randomparent, and Bull.</p>
<p>And as for this,</p>
<p>"Some people will even continue to express their disagreement ad naseum, in escalating terms, presumably until everyone else loses interest or the thread gets ugly enough for the moderator to close. Learning experience indeed.</p>
<p>Well, both posting and reading this thread or forum are optional.</p>
<p>I think I will try one more time. </p>
<p>A significant factor in our choosing UA over other schools was the positive attitude, responsiveness, and flexibility of the administration. We are now experiencing a different attitude from the administration. It is not the specifics of the situation, it is the COMPLETELY DIFFERENT attitude the administration is now presenting.</p>
<p>My concern is that during the “sales” period we get one UA, but now that we are “in the system” we get the real UA. Which is the UA we will experience over the next 4 years? </p>
<p>I know, no place is perfect, but again it is a nagging feeling I am expressing, not that we are entitled to anything. </p>
<p>This is supported by the responses we are seeing on this thread. Instead of “UA is a special place where the administration is open and receptive to all its students” that I usually see, I now read “Don’t expect UA to be any different than any other place, why should they talk to you, they care no more about the student than any other college”, etc.</p>
<p>Call me whatever names you want. But I would rather hear of examples where people have encountered dealing with the administration when not everything is peachy.</p>
<p>I am reminded of the Software Salesman joke. Upon passing, the software salesman attends presentations on Heaven and Hell and is given the choice. He chooses Hell based on the Devil’s extraordinary sales pitch.</p>
<p>He arrives in hell to fire and brimstone. He turns to his demon tormentor and asks “But where are all of the parties, casinos, and attractive women?”. The demon responds “Oh that’s just in the marketing material”</p>
<p>And just to clarify, I am not equating UA to hell ( I hear that is on the east side of Alabama ). I am making a joke about sales materials vs reality.</p>
<p>The UA publishes the criteria for the scholarships for the upcoming year’s applicants. </p>
<p>Students meet the criteria provided for the appropriate year for the scholarship to be awarded.</p>
<p>Scholarships are awarded as described in the published criteria for the specific year.</p>
<p>Students and parents decide for themselves whether to accept the offer.</p>
<p>The offer is non-negotiable and isn’t tied to any other decisions the UA makes in the future or has made in the past.</p>
<p>Approaching the administration with genuine humility and grace is one thing, but assuming the UA owes anyone an explanation or other perks of an equal value to prior or future years expresses entitlement. Disappointment is one thing, but for anyone to suggest they are owed something or have been cheated is blatantly inaccurate.</p>
<p>@bamagirls: I can assure you if that were the style of communications we had been receiving from UA over the last year and a half my daughter would not be at UA this fall.</p>
<p>gsstudent, FWIW, since our son has started at UA, almost every contact with UA administration has been positive and reinforced what we experienced before he accepted admissions. One example of how UA has been willing to work with parents and students are the changes made to the Airport shuttle schedule this year to better reflect the flight times available to OOS students. </p>
<p>As an example regarding academic opportunities, like many who post here, my son is a high achiever with many high achieving peers from his High School. I can say that without exception he has obtained more acedimic oppotunities and achieved more through those opportunities than any of his high achieving peers from his High School, all of whom elected to go to schools that are percieved as more prestigious than UA.</p>
<p>Having said that, UA has its set of issues like any large institution, and not everything is perfect, or anywhere close to perfect.</p>
<p>gstudent, I understand your disappointment, but it doesn’t change the fact that the scholarship is for a different year, it doesn’t impact the offer your daughter accepted which will be honored by the UA. She applied for and received the scholarship OFFERED by the UA. I’m sure she was like many of the students of parents here and had other options, but she chose this one knowing what was being offered.</p>
<p>I feel strongly that the UA does a fabulous job recruiting, perhaps to a fault. Perhaps it leads to many, including myself, bit spoiled. This is the beginning of your family’s journey. You will find there are wonderful opportunities on campus there for the taking if students seek them. I have a student there now, two in Early College for the second year, and those two will be entering in 2014 and 2015. Now back to my point about recruiting. If anyone is suggesting that they thought the courtship would continue as feverishly as it was before, they need to think of it in terms of a marriage. It isn’t really that the marriage phase isn’t as nice, but it is different. Courtship and marriage are different stages in a relationship, but most spouses will readily admit the marriage phase is different from the courtship phase. There are over 30 thousand students on campus, most of whom find the UA to be as special as they thought it would be. It isn’t perfect, however, and one size doesn’t fit all.</p>
<p>My student’s experience has been excellent even into this stage as she begins her sixth semester on campus. She has enjoyed amazing opportunities even though she hasn’t always received everything she thought she wanted when she thought she wanted it (read as sometimes her schedule hasn’t been perfect or she has experienced some disappointment in some form). That’s life. Life just doesn’t allow for us to have everything our way or in a manner we personally feel is fair no matter who we are or where we find ourselves. She had extremely high stats and accepted what remains a very generous scholarship package for which we are grateful. The second child also has extremely high stats and will also receive an excellent package. The third child scored nearly perfect scores as a sophomore and will hopefully receive an even better package, but we will be pleased with what she receives once she signs to accept it, even if someone else later receives a sweeter deal.</p>
<p>In our family’s experience, the UA continues to impress. After more than 25 years, my husband continues to be the love of my life as well, but he doesn’t always smell as nicely as he did when we were dating.:)</p>
<p>I wish you and your family the best as your daughter arrives on campus and hope that she will be confident she made the right decision for her in coming years. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>gstudent99 - Can you reference a specific circumstance or issue where UA has not followed through on their “sales pitch”? Have they reneged on any portion of the scholarship offer that your daughter accepted? Did they change the test scores, gpa requirements or benefits after they were published but before or after your daughter accepted? How about other issues related to housing, scheduling, or Honors College?</p>
<p>Your comment of “a significant factor in our choosing UA over other schools was the positive attitude, responsiveness, and flexibility of the administration” leads me to believe that you & your daughter have experienced such a positive attitude, responsiveness and flexibility from UA’s administration firsthand. And yet now, despite honoring a scholarship as it was presented and which you & your daughter gladly formally accepted likely within the last few months, you accuse the administration of presenting a “COMPLETELY DIFFERENT attitude” because they are not upping the scholarship or providing you with a response to your satisfaction of why they are not upping the scholarship.</p>
<p>SERIOUSLY?!? It sounds as if what you mean by demonstrate a “positive attitude, responsiveness, and flexibility” is “do it to my satisfaction or I am going to whine about it”. Perhaps you should consider home-schooling your daughter at the University of gstudent99, so that every decision & policy meets your personal satisfaction.</p>
<p>@Bull87: Please read all of my posts on this thread to understand what I am saying. If it is still not clear then I’m sorry for my inability to express myself.</p>
<p>What you wrote in no way reflects anything I have said or expect.</p>
<p>gstudent99, Again FWIW regarding UA administration behavior after a student has accepted, just browse the threads here in this forum, which are filled with positive testimonials of student’s experiences with UA (may have to use search to see prior year threads); compare the activity and enthusiasm in the UA forum to every other University specific forum in CC land; and look at how many people here are, or plan on being, return customers to UA, sending one child after another into the hands of UA administration, all of which should serve to counter the “nagging feeling” you have expressed.</p>
<p>Thank you to those who have offered information about their positive experiences. I’m looking forward to move-in weekend in 2 weeks. </p>
<p>For those who have chosen not to listen, well …</p>
<p>gstudent99, one example of a both a good and frustrating (but understandable) experienc we had is when we moved our son into UA housing early (the summer before his initial fall semester) because of an opportunity that he had obtained. The good was that UA housing was willing to accomodate our son even though he was moving in with late notice and odd circumstances because of the uniqueness of the opportunity. The frustration was the somewhat disorganized move-in day proceedure we experienced, but it was countered by the willingness of the staff to allow us to find an acceptable room assignment for our son “on the fly” during move-in. The futher frustration was the horribly dirty condition of his room and bathroom, which required hours of cleaning to make liveable. The understandable was that UA was still recovering from the tornado which had occured that spring when many students were told to simply go home while skipping the normal move-out procedures, including cleaning up their room and bathroom, which is what occured with the room our son moved into. Even with that, UA housing was very apologetic for the condition of the room and the failure of the cleaning staff in missing the clean-up of the room (which I suspect was because the suite was occupied by an RA who had stayed in the room from the spring semester and the cleaning staff must have incorrectly assumed that other rooms in the suite didn’t require cleaning). </p>
<p>I am not a UA alum, but our experience with UA far exceeds the experiences I had with the three colleges that I am an alumni of, and because of that and what I believe UA has offered our son, I feel much more loyalty to UA than any of my three colleges.</p>
<p>Our recent positive experience, I can not think Dr. Causey enough right now. Otherwise, we would still be hanging out in Alabama waiting to move our D into her Fall dorm. D was invited to attend UA Early College for the summer and took full advantage of such an opportunity. The generous OOS scholarship made the extra work on us, the hurry up and get all she needs even before graduating from high school, etc made it all worthwhile. UA Housing had first told them that EC students could not move into their Fall assignments until Aug 6th even though classes ended Aug 2nd. Dr. Causey went to bat for those kids and we were allowed to move all of her belongings in on the 2nd. YEA! Permitting DH and I to be back home in time for D2 to start summer band practice and get into the office to finish month end work in a timely fashion. </p>
<p>Dr. Causey hosted all Early College kids at her lake house one weekend with a cookout. She also organized other weekend activities for them. Dr. Bonner, UA President hosted the EC students one afternoon a the Presidents Mansion for an Ice Cream Social and met each one of them personally to welcome them to UA and ask about their experience. </p>
<p>Dr. Causey was at move in for EC and personally met every single student and their parent. She snapped our pictures with her phone and added our phone numbers. She gave us her number as well. It was after moving in that we found out it was her husband that was one of the helpers that helped us tote things to D’s dorm. </p>
<p>She kept us abreast of activities going on during the summer semester for the EC students constantly. I can not talk highly enough of her. She is awesome with an outpouring of a wonderful attitude and personality. </p>
<p>When we moved in on the 2nd the RA from EC was not able to get to D’s dorm building that morning at our “assigned time”. The RA’s on staff at Tut went above and beyond to help her and us. They gave us temporary access passes into the building and elevators. Unlocked the room for us and came and locked it back up when we were done. They made our experience of move in beyond easy even though we did not have all of the regular move in helpers that the rest will have in the coming days. </p>
<p>Early last Spring when on campus for Preview Weekend D decided she wanted to talk to an advisor. We had no appointment as we thought we had everything “under control”. D was just wanting some self assurance from them concerning her AP and IB credits. They squeezed us in and made time for us without making us feel unwelcome for not having an appointment scheduled. </p>
<p>If our experience of all we have encountered at UA is indicative of what is in store for the next several years while on this journey, I’m pleased as punch.</p>