Tulane vs. Alabama vs. Wisconsin-Madison

Your question was posed to @EarlVanDorn but we made a similar decision so am happy to answer your question. One quick question first- where did you go for undergrad @juillet? Just wanting to look at it from both perspectives.

@EarlVanDorn >>>People often mistype and refer to Alabama as offering a full ride when what it offers is automatic full tuition for anyone with a 32 ACT and 3.5 g.p.a. In rare instances Alabama gives additional scholarship money, but the free tuition is their thing and where they put all their money.
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Rare instances? Lol. There are over 700 NMF students at Bama with much more than just free tuition. And there are 1000s there with add’l dept awards stacking with their tuition awards.


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There are a lot of folks at Tulane who choose to pay half-tuition of about $25,000 rather than go to Alabama for free, so I wouldn't say the choice is a "no-brainer." My son was offered $32,000 at Tulane, and we're giving serious thought to paying the $19,000 difference rather than take the free Alabama offer. We're also going to carefully consider Georgia with an OOS tuition waiver at $9,000 per year. In my opinion the three schools offer very different potential experiences and opportunities, and I'm not out to just grab the lowest price -- although that may very well be what we end up doing in the end.

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Sure, there may be some folks at Tulane doing that. There are folks at Alabama paying full or near freight rather than grab their HOPE or Bright Futures awards for a Florida, GA or Tenn school. It happens. Usually due to student choice and affluent parents willing to spend the extra bucks. It’s not really a statement on their cheaper schools.

$80k more for Tulane? For Accountancy? If you’re fine with than, then super! Necessary for accountancy? No, not at all.

Alabama’s Accountacy ranking: Ranked 8th best Accounting program in the nation by the 2015 Public Accounting Report, Masters and Ph.D. are both ranked 9th

If a student is paying full or near full freight at Alabama and did not meet criteria for much or any automatic scholarship money at UA, they probably did not meet the requirement for HOPE or Zell Miller at UGA or bright futures at UF.

That edited incorrectly above. Should say a student not qualifying for automatic tuition discounts at UA probably didn’t qualify for the GA or FL in state merit awards.

I don’t think the Hope and BF awards (tuition discounts) require that high of stats (high enough to get 1/2-full OOS tuition awards at Bama).

I was talking to a FL mom whose child did qualify for BF (dont know which level), but only got half tuition at Bama. So, her costs are much higher than if she had gone to a FL school.

Is this still true for the larger Zell?


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A Zell Miller Scholarship recipient must graduate from high school with a minimum 3.7 grade point average combined with a minimum SAT score of 1,200 on the math and reading portions or a minimum composite ACT score of 26 in single national test administration and maintain a minimum 3.3 cumulative postsecondary grade ...

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If so, then a GA student could get full tuition Zell and get nothing from Bama.

An OOS student needs at least an ACT 30 to essentially come close to rivaling what they’d net pay at their home school.

Yes, the Zell requires a 3.7 and a minimum SAT/GPA . So yes, scholarship money available for instate students is frequently a lower bar than for OOS students. At UA an instate student needs only an ACT of 24 or new SAT of 1160 (1090 on the old SAT) and GPA of 3.0 to be eligible for scholarship consideration.

Right…but we’re talking about GA, Tenn, FL students giving up their instate Zell, HOPE, Bright Futures to attend an OOS public that costs significantly more.

It’s surprising, but it happens a lot.

Does it happen as often in the reverse? Would think it likely happens both ways. Are there programs/majors offering tuition reciprocity?

Bright Futures requires a 26 or a 29 on the ACT depending on coverage.

Right- exactly. People give up discount instate tuition for higher priced oos or private school tuition all the time. Thst is the point.

@mom2collegekids Mom2college is absolutely correct that Alabama has generous National Merit scholarships, and I failed to mention these. Alabama and Oklahoma compete to see who can get the most National Merit scholars, and both schools offer a very good package that substantially exceeds full tuition. I wasn’t thinking about that package when I made my comment. With that said, Alabama offers very few scholarships over and above the free tuition to non NMF students. Ole Miss, which attracts far fewer NMF but gives a similar NMF scholarship, ends up giving out a lot of academic scholarships over and above tuition to those who don’t reach NMF status, as do a number of other schools. This was not intended to criticize Alabama, which has an amazing number of merit scholars.

I agree with you that Alabama has a very good accounting school, as does Ole Miss and Georgia. But I do think it’s possible that Tulane might be worth $80,000 more than Alabama, or that Georgia might be worth $36,000 more than Alabama, or, if my son should get an Ole Miss full ride, that Alabama might be worth $40,000 than Ole Miss. There are some factors involved beyond just the accounting degree. We’re just going to visit every campus again and make up our mind before May comes around.