i dont know if bama recalculates grades or not; but well -done to your kid for sure!
also editing to add; had a high stats kid a few years ago; (not NM; nor 36) but admissions offered him a random $4K annual scholly in february of senior yr; enticement maybe?? it’s not a listed scholarship; we asked about it this weekend; it came from admissions, not scholarships & FA.
we just got back from touring
a few things: engineering scholarship is guaranteed for engineers; it stays for 4 years even if kids switch majors within engineering school (but leaves if kid switches outside of college). mech e is the biggest engineering major (1200+); in total about 5K + undergrad; 6K+ including grad students. lots of cool clubs and projects.
for dorms: the average kid has to sign up for housing by feb . . otherwise school will select rooms for that kid. I do NOT know if that applies to NHRP scholars.
the weekend with football was absolutely NUTS. campus was gorgeous. I found it interesting how so many of the adults had southern accents; but i heard very few on the kids. Kids from all over go to school there.
Did anyone who applied the free app week hear anything yet?
My D23 has not heard anything yet. She is a NMSF so not worried about getting admitted but surprised its taking this long.
Mine has a 36 ACT so not worried either, just wanting that early acceptance 
Applied October 11 and waiting.
DS23 has been invited to the local Alabama in town open house next week. Maybe they will hand out acceptances there? Ok, I kid. A t-shirt is guaranteed though.
So, for the parents of rockstars, is Alabama seriously in play or a safety – just in case.
It seems everyone is applying to become a #legend.
D23 is a NMSF and a rock star in my eyes 
Alabama checks all of her boxes. So many opportunities that she is having trouble deciding between them and the NMF scholarship is almost too good to be true. She’s toured, applied, accepted, deposits paid and Bama bound. She considered applying elsewhere but ultimately decided even if accepted somewhere else she would still choose Alabama so it wasn’t worth applying anywhere else. Roll Tide!
My son is not a NMSF, but is a national recognition scholar, he is pretty set on Bama, as long as he gets into Blount. I think the only thing that could tempt him away is if he gets much more in merit than we expect from MSU via the competitive merit pathway. If he doesn’t get into Blount I think it drops down the list. We are all paid up for deposits.
What if the student isn’t 100% sure on school selection? I have read people shouldn’t put down multiple freshmen deposits. Some schools are fine with a housing deposit knowing it is non-refundable and some kids may not choose to attend. How does UA look at rescinding enrollment deposits?
Bama requires enrollment deposit first before you can put down housing deposit, and with freshman housing such an issue at so many schools, I think many feel they have to. We haven’t put down deposits anywhere else and don’t plan to.
I don’t see a problem with rescinding a deposit. Most schools make you agree to not double deposit though. So fine to deposit and reserve your spot, but if you change your mind let them know before you deposit somewhere else.
My rockstar doesn’t know where she wants to go or exactly what she wants to study. Her dad went to Bama and loved it. That along with the merit put it on her list as a financial safety, but it is definitely a contender. Re: housing- does Bama have a housing shortage?
I think they have enough space for freshman. After that, nope. Some NMF kids were able to choose to move to apartments, still paid for by Bama. Some are still in a dorm. But if you don’t have a solid reason to be on campus after your first year, you most likely will not be. Athletes, scholarships, etc can apply for housing, but everyone else just puts in an interest form and if there is space, they will open it up. My son is hoping for 1 more year on campus and then to be able to move off and have it paid for. We will see.
I don’t think there is an actual shortage for freshman, but the housing application crashed the first day it was open this year because your date/time of putting housing app in gets you priority for selecting the hall/room. I don’t think it actually matters for specific programs (e.g. Blount, EPIC) since they are LLCs, but it might matter for getting hall preference as the suite style dorms are very popular, and I think new Tutwiler is as well.
Just thought I would share our experience so far. Son applied to Bama in early Oct, got accepted just a few days later. About two weeks after he got the letter detailing 24K in merit aid due to GPA and test scores. I should mention we are in Houston. We also found out about the $2500 engineering scholarship. That puts Bama cheaper than the in state flagships he applied to.
So he reached out to the local recruiter and she set up a campus visit for last Monday. My husband and he flew to Birmingham Sunday and drove around but unfortunately DS was sick and unable to explore the town as much as they wanted to.
Monday he first had a campus tour, then an information session at the Honors College. They were very impressed with all the opportunities offered. Then they had lunch with a student ambassador who was in the Honors College and she explained a lot about how it worked which sounded appealing to my son. He said the dining hall food was ok, nothing special but not bad.
They really liked how the Honors and LLC dorms are located so close to all the engineering classes. In fact the tour guide joked about how the engineering students get all the perks.
After lunch they toured the engineering facilities with another student who talked about lots of design team opportunities especially for Computer Science majors, which my son would be. My husband noted how much partnership there is with NASA and other space related companies. My son was impressed by the Eco car challenge.
Then they met with a Computer Science professor who is an expert on artificial intelligence. My son asked about why there is no Data Science program, since that is really his focus. The prof said there is one in the works, just going through approvals. Only catch is it will be housed in the College of Natural Sciences, not engineering. So glad it’s coming and we hope maybe he can make a minor out of it while still majoring in CompSci.
They came back pretty confident that Bama is the place for him. We are still waiting on LSU, Texas A&M, and any merit aid from UHouston. But Bama is now the front runner. The price cannot be beat.
I’m still working on convincing him to join the Million Dollar Band. Band was his life in high school, but he thinks it will be too much time in college. I think he’s crazy not to join such an incredible band.
Sounds like a great visit!
If you have any marching band questions, let me know. My son does not feel like it’s a huge amount of time, really. Yes it is an ongoing commitment, but it’s been very manageable. Lots of engineers are in it 
Great summary of the visit. We are going to the open house tonight in our area.
Quick question – was the engineering scholarship included when your son got the scholarship letter? Also, was the letter through the portal, snail mail, or Alabama student email account?
My son qualified for the automatic presidential scholarship ($28k) and that was all that was contained in his initial scholarship letter. My understanding is he will be awarded the engineering scholarship as well but that comes later along with any other merit based scholarships.
The letter was snail mail only, so far it hasn’t appeared in his portal. The 2500 was not included in that letter, the minimum stats are listed on the website somewhere and the tour confirmed it is guaranteed if you meet whatever the stats are.