My son was awarded the Hollings Scholarship last spring, which is a national scholarship program through NOAA. Part of the scholarship is a stipend that is given during the junior and senior years of college, so my son needed to send them an official transcript this week (the start of his junior year). He received an e-mail from them this morning saying that he has a graduate designation on his transcript, and therefore he is ineligible for the Hollings Scholarship, which is only for undergrads.
My son called and explained to them that he is not a graduate student, but he is participating in the University Scholars program at Bama, which means that he does take some graduate classes that are dual counted for his Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s in computer science. He has both a Bachelor’s and a Graduate designation on his transcript, but he is still officially a Bachelor’s degree candidate with a graduation in May 2017. The person at Hollings, being a true government bureaucrat, said they still needed some kind of official letter from the University stating that he is a Bachelor’s candidate.
My son went to the Registrar’s office to find out what to do, and they told him he needed to speak to the Engineering Registrar and the Engineering Dean. He e-mailed both of them with the information about the situation and what he needed. He was trying not to freak out, but he was certainly concerned that he was going to lose this scholarship that he worked so hard for.
He just texted me - the letter is DONE. Already. This entire drama played out over the course of about 6 hours, thanks to the incredible responsiveness of the administration at Bama. I wouldn’t expect that kind of service at my high school, much less at a University with over 30,000 undergrads! Truly exceptional commitment to helping the students achieve the results they need.
Anyway, I just wanted to share. Roll Tide, for sure!
Fantastic news! UA has been incredibly responsive to the many questions that I have had over the last year and a half about housing, orientation, scholarships, you name it… I usually use email and always have gotten very timely responses. They really know what they are doing!
Congrats to your so. I can tell you, with all honesty, that my children’s high school here in IL would have taken at least 6 DAYS to get the letter out, if they ever got it out without badgering.
That responsiveness from a university Dean is impressive!!!
Engineering staff at UA are on point! Thank you for sharing this story, so that others can see yet another example of why UA is so great to its students.
Congrats! I think @momreads son went thru something similar a few years ago and everything had to quickly get straightened out so that he wouldn’t lose his big national award. Can’t remember if his was Goldwater, Hollings or one of the others. She can clarify.
I should probably get in touch with @momreads, they are still giving him trouble. It’s really disgraceful - they award scholarships to the best and brightest, and then try to penalize them for being ambitious students. I’m confident Bama will work with my son to get it fixed though.
I should mention that it is, in the scholarship rules in small print, that a student cannot take masters-level classes if he or she is awarded the Hollings. This happen to my son when he was at Alabama. He received the Hollings, but had overlooked that tiny print. He was in University Scholars, so he registered for his econ classes at the masters level. Then, he got a letter from NOAA. We had to scramble to find a way to save that scholarship, which is with $22,500 and offers a government internship. I sent my son to see Jane Batson, who works with CBHP (my son was in the program), for some advice. She was wonderful. She and Kiki, who works with the Honors College registration, made some calls for him. Yes, he would have to drop out of University Scholars if he wanted to keep his Hollings. So, he did. The registrar’s office removed the graduate label from everything. He also dropped a masters-level econ class to the undergrad level.
Did he survive without that masters degree? Yes … and then some. He spent nine weeks as an intern in American Samoa. The NOAA office took him and two other interns to Samoa (it is a different country) for the July 4th holiday. He is published for the research he did. He also traveled to New Zealand for a week at the end of his internship – alone. Today, he is a Dillard Scholar at UVA Law.
Why on earth should they care if a student takes Masters level classes?? I get that it is an undergraduate scholarship, but again it just seems like penalizing ambitious students. They are still undergrads while they are doing University Scholars.
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I’m glad to know that Mrs. Batson will know what to do if this new letter doesn’t do the trick.
The moral of the story remains true though - Bama is awesome at helping its students achieve their goals.
It’s really disgraceful - they award scholarships to the best and brightest, and then try to penalize them for being ambitious students. I’m confident Bama will work with my son to get it fixed though.