It’s been quiet, anyone else applied yet? UA was a recent (like within the last 2-3 weeks) add to D24’s college list. I don’t think she’ll make NMSF with the Texas cutoff, but you can’t turn down the scholarships and honors opportunities.
It was one of her first 3 applications submitted. We are really doing this thing.
It’s quick, it’s easy. My kid had zero interest until one day on job shadow or college visit day, a few buddies invited him to go down.
And he flipped from Purdue engineering on the spot - because of the Honors Dorm - Ridgecrest South. Tons of kids do Honors but don’t finish - but they do it for the dorm and earlier class selection.
Regardless of national merit, the auto merit table makes it great financially for solid statistical kids. That and it’s a ten minute app and they get back to you relatively quickly makes it a nice confidence booster for the kids and the price point if the kids are solid, makes it a nice win for the parents.
Then you can shoot for the moon if you want!!
Great that she is getting applications done early. Is she interested in Greek life…
“With around 12,000 students, the UA Greek community comprises 36 percent of the undergraduate student body and is home to 69 social Greek-letter organizations. Since Fall 2011, The University of Alabama has held the coveted honor of being the largest fraternity and sorority community in the nation with regard to overall fraternity and sorority membership.”
My daughter is most definitely not interested in sorority life. Nerding out in the honors college is more her speed.
I did see Bama Rush when it came out and that was initially why Alabama was not on her list, but she started looking at it again because of her potentially expensive graduate education, and learned that it’s not that hard to avoid Greek life if that is not what you are in to.
I have no doubt she can “find her people” and it sounds like she is being extremely responsible and mature. I am looking forward to following your journey. Good luck!!
Just curious - what are the other two?
There are other schools with auto merit - a UAH is smaller and just as aggressive but more STEM focused (but still has other majors). Obviously some of the SEC have big merit - an Ole Miss or MIss State or LSU or Arkansas but they also are big SEC schools.
And then there’s a school like Truman State, very well thought of and much smaller. It has a $34K cost of attendance but with auto merit you’d be mid-20s.
Just may be another option given how you described your daughter.
She is interested in double majoring Psychology and Philosophy, so very much a humanities kid. Future plans include a Ph.D. in psychology (which are funded, but competitive) or a Psy.D. which are not so competitive, but are generally only partially funded, if at all. She wants to be a clinical counselor.
Funny story about her and Greek life. She is really into Greek and Roman mythology and was excited to see a Panhellenic Association on the list of student activities at UA, but then she realized it was sororities/fraternities. I pointed out that they have a Classics department, and those people probably have an organization and would be delighted to talk to someone with interest in their field. I think she would probably prefer Classics to Philosophy, but while she has taken Latin as her language in HS, she is ambivalent about learning Greek for some reason.
Other schools she has already applied to are University of Denver and Elon. We are in Texas, and the other three left on her list are Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech (because she does not care for the vibe of UT/A&M and doesn’t seem to mind Lubbock and it’s an auto admit safety). Alabama comes in at a negligible cost difference to Tech, and are obviously the cheapest options. The others all are likely to come in a very narrow range price-wise, but some school can always surprise you.
She looked at some of the auto merit schools, for a while was looking at Ole Miss or Mississippi State, but they aren’t really different enough in her mind. She was only going to pick one of them, and she decided Alabama was the most her vibe.
That’s good - but you might look at Truman State - it’ll more more size wise along the lines of Elon and Denver. People who post about Elon on the board here speak about it in reverence - but obviously unless you have demonstrated need, you’re not going to get to a price close to T Tech or Bama. Denver too. But perhaps you’ll qualify for need aid?
That’s why I mentioned Truman State - when you said nerdy, etc.
My daughter’s bf goes to Denver - it’s a very “rich” kid school and a lot of outdoor pursuits.
Best of luck to your daughter.
Anyone know when acceptances will start to be posted?
S24 applying but through the Common App. Lots of other SEC schools on his list as well.
My daughter will apply, but it is low on her list. She really doesn’t like the heat. But the scholarships, generous credits for AP and IB, and being able to escape quickly because her brother is there with a car, all keep it on.
But it appears we are switching from Naviance to Parchment, but have had no information from the school yet. And she has no counselor. So we are waiting.
I don’t know if it’s like b4 but my son did the Bama app. Took ten minutes. We didn’t even know he applied as he expressed no interest til he visited at the invite of friends. Only a few days later when he was accepted did we know he applied. It was cake to apply apparently. Our school used parchment for sending transcripts. We didn’t have naviance - thank goodness. I think it’s better to self determine chances.
So we attended a virtual admissions session last week that was a walk-through of the application and it is definitely more that a quick app this year. They did not show the actual application, but they went through each section. The biggest part seems to be the activities section where you list every activity, paid job, volunteer, etc in hours per week, then what it is, when you did it, etc. S24 started the common app and even though a lot of that is covered there, Bama asks all their own extra questions and it is more in depth in terms of activities. They definitely want to know about all that stuff now, not sure if that was the case before.
last year our D23 filled out the school app - very easy, not hollistic. She was accepted quickly; and later on, after high school started, filled out all of the activities/honors etc. for scholarship opportunities. ** Maybe it’s different a different timeline this year?
Alabama does not admit kids based on those sections.
but, the school can use those activities/accomplishments for scholarships and special co-horts. and FYI: From the parent FB pages, scholarships offered to kids without test scores, but rather based on gpa and ec’s are way way less (in money amounts and in frequency) than those who send in test scores.
Interesting - they don’t even list non test scholarships on the web page.
It does make sense to send in the extra scholarship app - my daughter (not attending) rose from $24K to $28K based on that.
right - the competitive scholarships are given without test scores are very nebulous, not transparent.
My son applied Aug 4 and was accepted Sep 8. He knocked out the easy ones early - UA, UAH, Auburn - no essay, no LOR.
We had a really happy surprise this week. He made the NMSF cut off because GA’s index dropped a point. He would have gotten generous aid without but now…Alabama’s NMF package is insane.
Does UA do NMF specific info sessions/tours? Do they find out he’s a NMSF? On CC someone said to reach out to his UA recruiter to set up a tour and they’ll roll out the crimson carpet for him.
He’s not excited about Alabama, which is fine and it’s early in the process, but we’d like for him to consider the school more seriously once it’s all said and done. Should we visit now or later? We parents are so curious that we want to go now. But maybe later he’ll have a different perspective when he has fewer schools to imagine himself attending?
D applied in mid-August, but we were waiting for her SAT scores to be sent from the August 26 test. Scores were sent on Tuesday, and she just got her acceptance!
OK, and now I understand the housing application opens October 2, but that you have to pay the enrollment deposit first and confirmed that her other top schools with housing issues are a lottery where you just have to do it by May 1, and another place that doesn’t seem to require enrollment for the housing app.
Hmmmmm. I guess I am off to read prior years threads on if it’s a really big deal if you want to live in the honors dorm.
If your son/daughter is interested in UA I would pay the deposit and get on the housing list. There is an option to get a refund if your kid decides in the spring to go elsewhere for college. Housing fills up quickly… there are many students who attend but end up living off campus having to go potluck on roommates.