UAH Competitive vs Merit Scholarships?

My dd qualifies for the 2ND highest merit scholarship ay UAH. That leaves about $10,000 per year. She has also applied for their competitive scholarships. We won’t hear back until APRIL. Ugh. Anyone have experience with UAH competitive scholarships? Are they usually large packages? Do they award for the 4 years or do you have to reapply each year? What are some of your experiences with this?

Good morning, Mango1919 and Happy New Year. My son has also been accepted to UAH with full tuition. He really liked the school and it’s only about 2 hours from our home. I also think it’s a really good fit for the nerdy set, which my son is a part of. My understanding of the scholarships offered is that the merit is for the 4 years, as stated in the acceptance letter, assuming gpa and progress is met toward the degree. As for the competitive scholarships, you can look up and read about each of them but the ones we reviewed had the same criteria. I believe each, however, must be reapplied for each year - meaning if you meet the renewal criteria, they will be extended each year. All that should be laid out in the financial letter sent in April. I agree it’s a long time to wait. Good luck to your daughter.

Another a quick thought. Has she applied for the honors college yet? There are benefits.

Garden Mom have you heard about average size of competitive scholarship packages? We are torn about whether or not to wear ourselves out applying for more outside scholarships to cover other costs, or bank on getting more money from UAH. Also going to go at the ACT 1 more time to see if she can move up a bracket on the merit scholarships. We are about 3 hours away in NC, you?

My DD is planning to attend UAH, she applied as an education major but then changed her mind and contacted admissions to change to undeclared, we don’t know if/how that will affect competitive scholarships. She really wants to go into astrophysics but is concerned about the job market, she is also contemplating medical school as she is intrigued on the career path of a medical examiner. She has been accepted to the honors college which she applied to mainly for the study abroad options as well as the honors housing.

My DD took a gap year so outside scholarships are very limited. She did qualify for the top tier Tuition/Housing scholarship but we are 900 miles away in Central Texas and she will still have dining plan, travel, books, fee’s etc. to cover. I am really pushing to get her out of her undergrad debt free, especially since we know that she will most likely need to continue her education post undergrad.

I have not details about the size of the competitive scholarship packages and like the rest of you, we are awaiting the final offerings.

My son is currently a senior at UAH. He has full tuition. Each year, he applied for additional scholarship money, but he did not receive it. The only other scholarship he received was a small one from his fraternity for holding the highest GPA among its members. That said, plan without the possibility of the extra scholarship money. We did, and he applied for lots of local scholarships. Walked away with enough money to pay for his housing for three semesters. He has loans for his housing, but we pay for food, books and fees.

Most of my son’s fraternity brothers are engineering majors, and they landed co-ops or internships. Those opportunities pay nice money that often assist with housing/food/book costs. Attend the job/career fairs in the spring and fall to check out the possibilities.

DS is a current freshman at UAH, and we live locally, so I know/have known lots of families of UAH students.

DS has the full tuition scholarship. He applied for competitive scholarships and got nothing.

Two years ago, his older sister also applied to UAH, although she decided to attend another school. She was eligible for the 2/3 tuition scholarship and also applied for competitive scholarships. She was offered $1400 in competitive scholarships.

DD had more ECs including holding a leadership position. DS had minimal ECs. However, DS had much better gpa/standardized testing than DD.

I don’t know anyone who received both a full tuition scholarship and a competitive scholarship. I only know one other student besides DD who received a competitive scholarship. It was also less than 2k. Neither of these students was an engineering major (one was education and one was nursing).

My takeaway: Competitive scholarships are small and are used to “close the gap” between EFC and COA (we were not eligible for any need based aid). Those students who receive full tuition or above will probably not receive competitive scholarships. An exception might be a student who might otherwise go to an Ivy/top tier school that UAH really wants for some reason.

@Mango1919
My DS has also been offered the full tuition scholarship. He is not decided yet if he will attend but there is a strong possibility he will. We live in Texas.

He has very good grades and okay ECs and is an Eagle Scout. We do not qualify for any need based aid.

This past summer we visited UAH and met with a financial aid person. She was very open and told us that the competitive scholarships were very competitive and to really not plan on them, but instead see them as icing on the cake if he were to get one. She said especially in engineering it is very difficult to get one. So we are not planning on him getting any other money from UAH even with his decent ECs. DS did fill out the competitive application, but we are not planning on it to be safe and not disappointed.

Hope that helps some in your planning.

My son is in his second year at UAH and has the tuition/housing scholarship. He was a good candidate for many of the UAH competitive scholarships and spent a lot of time applying. He didn’t win any unfortunately.
The head of financial aid told me at orientation that a student is less likely to win the competitive scholarships if he has the top merit scholarships because they want to try to help others that have less merit money.

My DD is a freshman. She applied with a 36 ACT and a very high GPA, spent a lot of time on her application, and won no competitive scholarships. I agree that they’re probably given more to students to close a gap that will entice them to attend.

I have no issue with that, as they are administered individually and can be awarded based on any criteria they like.

My DD earned the Tuition/Housing. We received her award letter the other day and I have to tell you, seeing the dollars spelled out really had an impact. Knowing our out OOPocket is basically fee’s, books and the dining plan (travel of course), I am not devistated over the lack of additional funds. Sure, it would be nice, but tuition/housing is already a huge blessing and this parent is not complaining, I am smiling all the way!

Your best option might be for your DD to use the ACT prep book and really work to get her score to 34 so she can qualify for free housing. I believe if her score increases before the beginning of school starting, she’ll automatically qualify. Co-ops and internships are strongly encouraged at UAH, so that is another way of dealing with costs.