UAH - University of Alabama Huntsville Class of 2024

I did not see a thread started for class of 2024 yet. Wanted to connect with some other families. My daughter was admitted and we just got our Charger Distinction Scholarship letter. This school is 12 hours from home, but all I hear is amazing things. Wanted to see who else is out there having to make this decision and see if we can help each other process through this big decision!

DS20 was accepted a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, since they upped the bar now he only qualifies for Charger Scholar award with a 31 ACT. It’s still in our “Final 4”, but that put a bit of a damper on things. He really wants to work for NASA or something in the space industry, so the location is perfect for him…but he doesn’t want to retest to try for a 34, so he obviously doesn’t want it bad enough I guess! It’s still in the running cost-wise with our other options, but the 900 miles away part is a concern.

Where else is yours considering? Mine is also accepted to and considering Texas A and M, LeTourneau, and UA Tuscaloosa. Money may be why we choose to go so far from home.

Two University of Minnesota schools, Duluth and Twin Cities, and Iowa State and University of Iowa. He’s been accepted to all but Twin Cities so far. I really think it will come down to between Iowa State and Duluth, but we’ll see. We haven’t visited them all yet either. Going to a couple in a few weeks. We’ll wait on visiting UAH until after all the financial aid info is out.

Let me know! We may not be able to go to Alabama until Jan for visit. It is a hike!

cshell2, we have the same situation here. DS20 was all on board for UAH, but missed the stats for full-tuition scholarship with the new out-of-state cutoff. Which makes staying in-state more likely. I even offered him cold, hard cash to retake the SAT and raise his score, (since I’m paying his tuition anyway) but I don’t think he is gonna go for it since he just doesn’t have much free time to study after school work.

FWIW, I have two sisters who live in the Huntsville area. We are all from the Mountain West, so their both ending up in Huntsville is entirely due to the engineering and tech industry there. They both love it and I have always enjoyed visiting.

Thank you for sharing that. The area and opportunities really makes it enticing. I think it was a mistake to lower the cut offs as it was clearly attracting many really quality students. We have several places where she would have tuition and room and board, but those are not necessarily best fit.

We are re-taking the SAT Oct 5 just to give us some other scholarship options that may help with room and board.

Where do you live and what other schools is he considering?

We are in California. He is applying to Calpoly which will end up costing about the same as UAH once we factor in travel cost, so if he gets in (very hard to predict) I think that would be the right choice. It would be nice to have him close but I’d really like him to experience the world outside of California. Colorado School of Mines (least affordable) and Utah State University (most affordable due to merit and child of alumni benefits) are also on the list. Probably another Cal State or two once the applications open next month.

@PacificFog - I think I could bribe my son to take the ACT again, but I know he wouldn’t study, so it would probably just be a waste of my money, both in paying him and the testing fee. He’s just so busy right now with school and work and trying to finish up his Eagle rank. Meanwhile I’m hounding him all the time with scholarship applications to the other schools.

I think UAH walking the fine line between still trying to attract the top students who are chasing merit and not grow quite as quickly as they have during the last 5 years:
2014-2015 total enrollment 7,348 (down just a bit from Fall 2013) [baseline]
2015-2016 total enrollment 7,866 Freshman enrollment was 1,037, a 45% increase over the prior year.
2016-2017 total enrollment 8,468 including 1,216 new Freshmen
2017-2018 total enrollment 9,101 including 1,345 new Freshmen
2018-2019 total enrollment 9,736 including 1,428 new Freshmen (roughly double 2014-2015’s Freshmen enrollment)
2019-2020 total enrollment 9,988 including 1,500 new Freshmen

They’ve gradually made the pot less sweet (lowering # of years of room & board scholarships, increasing the scores necessary for getting the extras in the scholarship matrix). The school has grown 30+% in just 5 years. Their goal was 10,000 students by 2020. They are very close. Time to slow growth a bit more & hopefully improve facilities & programs to catch up with the growth.

I figure I’ll chime in, my son got his acceptance email today - Yay!! Haven’t had a chance to visit yet but maybe before auditions in Feb. School rep is in the area this Monday and we’ll be there!!

I was accepted in early October! Waiting on my honors college decision, I submitted a couple weeks ago… anyone have more info on that?

Fantastic news! We have not yet either, but we are itching to. My daughter believes it is top of her list and if something happens and campus visit does not go well, not sure what we will do. We may be there this month, that is what we are hoping for.

Music major? What does he play? Mine wants to play in the orchestra if she can, for fun.

Congratulations. I was told 2-3 weeks after we submitted honors app and sure enough it was 3 weeks. The letter came in the mail. They sent first batch out dated 9/27.

Found out in my meeting with the dean of the honors college I’m admitted. He said they sent out letters last week but I still haven’t gotten mine.

DS was accepted with the full OOS tuition, but really wish housing had been included. We went for a 2nd look last week (1st look was after Space Camp a couple of years ago) and he still likes it a lot. And LOVES that you can see the Saturn V from campus. We also looked at Mississippi State which is up on his list as well. They’ve offered tuition, some fees, 1st year housing and $4K study abroad as guaranteed merit. However, Huntsville is 8 hours and MS State is 11 hours away for us. I’m not sure he wants Honors at any school.

Perhaps you can take that offer to financial aid and see if they will match it when the final letters come in with offers. It never hurts to ask. I started a FB group for UAH Class of 2024 if you want to join. You can search and request in.

Yay!!! I started FB group for UAH Class of 2024 students and parents if you’d like to join and connect with others.

Our son just got an acceptance email. His packet hasn’t come yet. He wants to major in Aerospace Engineering. Ga Tech is his other top choice. I’m trying to get him to consider several other schools as well, just so there are options, especially for financing. Thank you for creating the thread. This is my first time seeing this website.

Is the GPA on the matrix weighted or unweighted?