UA Scholar & AP credits

My daughter has the stats to qualify for the UA Scholarship (2/3 tuition). She also will be coming in with 30+ hours eligible from AP credits. So hopefully I can word my question properly. If she gets $17900 per year from the scholarship but she can graduate in 3 years because of the AP credits, can she apply the $71900 over 3 years?

Does that question make sense? I’m just trying to figure out a way to make UA more affordable. She is retaking the ACT next week to try to raise her score up to the 32.

If you are asking if she can take the money she would get the fourth and apply it to years 1-3, the answer is no. UA will “give” your daughter the 2/3 of whatever the tuition is for the years she attends (up to 4 years.) If she is going into engineering, she will get an extra $2500 per year on top of the 2/3 scholarship. There might be other scholarships she is eligible for, but I wouldn’t “count” on them. Many of them go to students who do not get other financial help from UA.

Many other schools are not as generous as UA in accepting AP credits, Clep etc., so if she can graduate in 3 years, she is still financially ahead of other schools which would require her to stay 4 years to get all her credits. This is a plus. Keep in mind, many students even at UA do need the 4 years, especially if they are in a curriculum which does not offer classes every semester or if they change majors. (PS, definitely look at CLEP. My son was able to get 14 credits by taking the CLEP test for spanish which handled two required classes for him.)

Thanks. You totally understood what I was asking.

No, for a couple of reasons…

The award is “per year”…not a total divided by number of years in college.

Just because your DD has 30+ AP credits does not necessarily mean that she’ll graduate in 3 years.

Many kids come in with 40+ credits. My kids came in with 45 AP credits each, but still went for 4 years. Many of their AP credits were “extras”…they took AP Euro and AP US history…that’s 12 credits right there…but only 6 were actually usable towards their degrees.

Depending on what the AP credits are in, they may not perfectly cover the req’ts for her degree…or she may change her major.

What AP credits will she come in with?

Her AP credits that UA will accept so far are:
Bio- 6
English- 6
US History-6
and this year she has:
Stats, English Lit, Econ, Govt, French, Psych

Excellent advice above^^.

On another note, once your daughter applies and gets in to the UA system, I think she will have access to DegreeWorks which can help you both figure out where the DE (oops, AP in your case) and CLEP credits would “plug in” in terms of the major and gen-ed credits.

Someone told us to not rely completely on DegreeWorks, but it is very helpful in terms of planning.

What is her major?

English - 6 credits FC designation

US History - 6 credits HI designation and sequence complete

Bio is 8 credits - N designation

She can get 3 elective credits for the other AP English in HU designation if she gets a 4+ on the exam

Stats - 3 Computer designation

Econ. 3 credits …SB designation

Gov - 3 credits…SB designation

French - 4-10 credits…FL designation

Psych - 3 …SB designation

As you can see, she has an excess of SB designated. (She will likely have 9, and she only needs 3)

She will also likely have an excess of FL or C designated credits.

For non College of Eng’g majors…Core Gen Ed

To achieve a general education while pursuing a specific concentration in a chosen field of study, each undergraduate student will construct a curriculum that includes coursework in the following areas:
Six semester hours of written composition (FC).

Six semester hours in 300- and 400-level courses, preferably in the student’s major, approved for the writing (W) designation. The (W) designation indicates that one of the conditions for a passing grade is that students write coherent, logical and carefully edited prose in a minimum of two papers, at least one of which will be graded and returned before mid-semester. All (W) designated courses are taught and graded by instructors who have at least the master’s degree and preferably are limited to an enrollment of no more than 35 students. The (W) requirement must be satisfied with courses taken on this campus.

Six semester hours of one of the following:
*Six semester hours in courses that are approved for the computer © designation. These courses either substantially integrate the application of appropriate software or require writing computer programs. Students must make extensive use of the computer as a condition for passing the course. Courses approved for the © designation assume that students have a working knowledge of the computer.

       *Two semesters in one foreign language (FL). A grade of C or better must be earned in the first-semester course of the two-semester sequence that fulfills the requirement before the student will be allowed to enroll in the second semester course. Students with two or more high-school units of a foreign language will be assigned to foreign language courses by the foreign language advisers on the basis of placement test scores. Students placed into SP 103 Intensive Review Intro Spanish or intermediate courses (FR 201 Intermediate French, SP 201 Intermediate Spanish) will satisfy this requirement in one semester. NOTE: These six hours are in addition to the requirements for humanities or mathematics.

Twelve semester hours of courses approved for the humanities and fine arts (HU, L and FA) designations, to include three semester hours of courses approved for the fine arts (FA) designation and three semester hours of courses approved for the literature (L) designation. Each student must complete a six-semester-hour sequence in either literature or history.

Twelve semester hours of courses approved for the history and social and behavioral sciences (HI and SB) designations, to include three semester hours of courses approved for the history (HI) designation. Each student must complete a six-semester-hour sequence in either literature (L) or history (HI).

Eleven semester hours of courses approved for the natural sciences and mathematics (N and MA) designations, to include eight semester hours of courses approved for the natural sciences (N) designation and three semester hours of courses approved for the mathematics (MA) designation. This mathematics requirement must be satisfied with MATH 110 Finite Mathematics or higher. A student must complete both the lecture and the lab in order to use either the lecture or the lab to fulfill the natural sciences (N) general studies core curriculum requirement.

Pre-professional, major and/or elective courses applicable to the student’s declared major program of study. Students are to consult with their major departments/program areas for specific course designations that fulfill this requirement.

A course may be used to satisfy only one core requirement. For example, if a course carries a designation for both foreign language (FL) and humanities (HU), it may only be used to satisfy one of these core requirements. An additional course or courses must be completed to satisfy the remaining requirement.
A student may satisfy some general education course requirements by demonstration of competence on a proficiency examination, such as the CLEP subject examination.

Review of general education (core curriculum) courses is an ongoing process. New courses may be approved and added to the list of those that meet core curriculum requirements. The Core designations for existing courses may be discontinued. A course carries general education designation if the course is approved at the time the course is taken. The student must consult the general education designations as found in the appropriate section of the schedule of classes booklet to ensure that the general education designation is in effect at the time the course is taken.

General education credit may be earned for courses taken at another institution, provided the courses transfer as the equivalents of courses that have been approved for general education credit at The University of Alabama. The (W) requirement must be satisfied in courses taken at The University of Alabama.

What is your daughter’s proposed major? Some of those credits will probably just be applied as general elective credits, as there will be overlap in fulfilling required Gen Eds. For instance, Psych, Govt and Econ will all fill the SB requirement, and most students can’t use that many SB credits. AP Lit on top of AP Language will probably only net an extra 3 humanities credits. My daughter came in with 14 language credits that she really had no need for. But every credit counts for registration priority, so that’s good.

She’s looking at anthropology with plans on attending law school.

The AP credits info I will have to reread. Thanks for pointing out how the credits will fit in.

Like many parents Im trying to find a good, affordable college education for my kids.

Is your DD going to retest? Retake the ACT and SAT? If she gets a 32 ACT or 1450 SAT by Dec (and uses the free score send for the Dec test), then she’ll get free tuition.

Anthropology uses the Core Gen Ed list above.

She may find that she’ll get more credits doing French CLEP rather than AP exam…many find CLEP easier.


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Like many parents Im trying to find a good, affordable college education for my kids.

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Totally understand. I don’t think any school will let a student use the 4th year of a scholarship to help fund the earlier 3 years.

Sounds like retesting is the best bet.

She’s retaking the ACT next week, 9/10. Taking the SAT for the first time in October.
I’ll tell her about the French CLEP. Thanks!

If she doesn’t get a 32 on the ACT next week, have her take it again. The tests vary in how difficult they are for a particular individual. My daughter had subscores that swung 5 or 6 points. Getting her higher subscores all in one sitting (her last) moved her composite a couple points. She signed up for every ACT offered in the fall, and it paid off.

I know you are still trying to figure this all out with credits, but IF she has enough credits to graduate in 3 years realize that she can use her scholarship for study abroad (and if she is out of state that will be around $18,000 to use if she receives the 2/3 scholarship and more if she receives full tuition). Just another point to consider :).