<p>I posted this over on the Parents Forum, but I suspect I may get more replies here. I apologize if this topic has been discussed previously on this forum.</p>
<p>I am curious about the out of state NMSF scholarships at the Univerisity of Alabama. The NMSF scholarships are definitely hard to turn down. I have friends who live in Alabama and they complain about the quality of the elementary and secondary education. They have told me that they have to provide many basic necessities for their children that other states provide. Maybe my friends school districts are not the norm.</p>
<p>I am wondering how Alabama can afford to provide such generous scholarships for out of state students? What is the funding source? Do they have a large endowment?</p>
<p>I live in North Carolina which is usually somewhere between 47-50th in K-12 school stats. Meaning graduation rates, test scores…overall quality rankings. </p>
<p>We parents (and teachers) have had to provide for our local schools as federal and state funding are laregly inadequate…yet UNC Chapel Hill, NC State and Duke are all highly regarded. </p>
<p>My point being that while NC & SC K-12 schools do not have a good reputation overall the universities are highly regarded so don’t let your friends who complain about Alabama’s schools imply that the Universities in Alabama (including Auburn) are inadequate as they are anything but.</p>
<p>I know that really wasn’t your question but felt I needed to address that concern. The scholarship funding is from non state and federal funding (i.e. taxpayers) but rather from alumni, fundraising, athletic department successes, appareal sales, etc.</p>
<p>I’m sure others will answer here as well.</p>
<p>Roll Tide! the University of Alabama’s school spirit is helping grow student body quantity and quality :)</p>
<p>I can’t think of many states that don’t have parents complaining about their state’s K-12 education, funding issues, supplies issues, etc. </p>
<p>In Alabama, like many states, its rural K-12 schools are worse than their suburb schools. That speaks more to what the parents are doing/expecting rather than funding. Rural kids often have parents that are less educated than suburb kids.</p>
<p>I’d love to hear the basic necessities that the Alabama schools aren’t providing that other states are. Because I’m sure my state isn’t supplying them, or is charging us for them. We get charged for everything (although we do have good schools). My D’s public high school charges 4 times the cost of a Bama parking permit to park in the high school lot!!</p>
<p>I have to laugh at this because in Calif, kids come home with lists of supplies for the classroom (not just for themselves) that they are supposed to bring in…kleenex, paper towels, reams of paper, baby wipes (for hand cleaning), hand sanitizer, etc. </p>
<p>Nearly all parents complain about their schools not having enough of this or that.</p>
<p>^^ Yup, we had to bring all of that and more in elementary school. I find it very hard to believe that Alabama parents are expected to contribute more than parents in other states.</p>
<p>There is a reason the new suite style dorms cost $8800 a year. There is a reason UA has dramatically increased it’s enrollment the last 10 years. And there is a reason UA now has more OOS kids than instate. And that is because Dr Witt knew that if he wanted to increase UA’s academic ranking then he had to offer some serious merit aid to attract the best and brightest from around the country. And he knew he needed more kids paying high OOS tuition to pay for his plan. His plan has paid off and UA is doing very well. </p>
<p>UA has a fairly good size endowment and I’m sure they’ve leaned on that a bit as well. But to put your friends concerns at ease. UA doesn’t receive a substantial amount from the state. In fact the state has cut back on higher education quite a bit in recent years. The scholarships UA gives are because Dr Witt and others had the foresight to put together a revenue plan that matched their spending plan.</p>
<p>^^^We do that in Indiana (in my county/school system anyway).
Best Places To Live 2010:
Top 100 rank: 8
Population: 69,000<br>
Unemployment: 6.2%</p>
<p>Book rental, classroom supply list, student supply list, 10 cents a page for copying, on and on…it’s still much less than a private but privates aren’t funded by my very expensive property taxes. Oh well, I think it’s another shift in education.
For sports (high school teams), we pay a bus fee to get to the away meets/games/whatever. I would much rather drive my child there but that’s not allowed. Rules, rules, rules.</p>
<p>According to the last six or so annual US News and WR Rankings, UA has been at the top or near the top in terms of percentage of alumni that give. That is how we can afford to be so generous. Few alumni love their school as much as do ours.</p>
<p>I think if everyone were to compare notes, most of us would find that we had to subsidize K-12 education by providing this or that.</p>
<p>The OP’s friend may just not realize that providing supplies/books/etc is par for the course in other states. She may think that other states are paying an X+ per student rate so all things are supplied, but not realize that that doesn’t mean that X+ is actually being spent on each student. Special Ed and administration costs are grabbing a huge chunk of that money…and the no-special-needs kid is having 1/2X spent on him.</p>
<p>Yes, and Bama Athletics netted over $30 million dollars AFTER paying for coaches, athletic scholarships, equipment, uniforms, etc for ALL sports. And, some of that money is funding scholarships.</p>