<p>Does Alabama give out scholarships that are not listed on their website? I have below the sat requirements for all of them but significantly higher gpa, is there any hope for money?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about your situation, but there are unmentioned scholarships. I had an SAT score of 1310 (and an above 3.5 GPA), which is below the 2/3rd scholarship but significantly above the 3500 per year scholarship, and they gave me a scholarship called “Foundation in Excellence” for 1/2 the value of tuition.</p>
<p>The scholarship deadline has passed though, and so if you have not already applied for one then you are out of luck. If you did apply, you should have gotten an offer in the mail by now.</p>
<p>* If you did apply, you should have gotten an offer in the mail by now. *</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Many of the scholarships haven’t yet been awarded.</p>
<p>BTW…congrats on the 1/2 tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>Speaking of unmentioned scholarships…Mom2K, I saw on an old thread that you mentioned Alabama sometimes gives out “extra” scholarships to high stats kids who apply early…</p>
<p>My D is a junior, didn’t make NMF, has a 30 ACT and a 1390 SAT. Is retaking ACT which she said was easier for her and hoping for a 32 for full tuition. Could we get more than full tuition???</p>
<p>I’d be happy with full tuition, VERY happy. But trying to help my DH realize that just paying room, board, & books is still a bargain. So any extra $$ to help in that department would help my D!!!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m not M2CK but I remember her saying the extra scholarships were for kids with ACT’s in the 35-36 range.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>That’s the only negative I’ve found with Alabama. I was told by admissions they will give the extra scholarship money to the kids with 3.4 and 35 ACT scores before they would give the money to those that worked hard and have over 4.0’s and lower test scores. An unweighted 3.4 gpa just doesn’t seem like a student that takes their schooling seriously. In Florida we’re told the well rounded child is what schools are looking for, but the bottom line it’s gpa and test scores and at Bama test scores trump gpa. I’ve told my younger daughter not to do as much ec and leadership as her sister and just concentrate on her test scores. Wish we had focused more on test scores. DD was too busy with student government and was happy with her test scores. Of course at the time she wasn’t seriously planning on Alabama so it didn’t matter. Boy does she regret that decision. One more point and we’d be sitting pretty:)</p>
<p>Not all high schools grade equally…GPAs are all over the place. Especially with some schools grading on a 5.0 scale and other schools that are really stingy with their As and grade on a 4.0 scale. I have a child in public and one in private. There is no way to compare their GPAs. It’s two totally different ideologies between the school systems. The bottom line is that you have to know your high school’s philosophy about grading and their grading scale. One school offers 1.0 for AP, the other school offers 0.5 for AP (after 8 APs, that really adds up). One school offers 0.5 for Honors, the other offers 0.33.
I think Standardized tests offer the best level playing field. I know some students aren’t the best test takers (I have one of those, too). There has to be a cut-off and it’s clearly laid out by The University of Alabama. I appreciate BAMAs transparency with Merit Aid requirements. Other state schools use a “matrix” and it’s certainly a guessing game.
At most of the colleges/universities that we researched, a 3.5 gpa is the minimum for scholarships. For ACT, a score of 32+ was also the target. In Indiana, the state schools (Purdue and IU) require a 3.8 GPA for scholarship consideration and an ACT score of 29.</p>
<p>As for unmentioned scholarships… when we took a quick dorm tour on Capstone Scholars Day, the young man who was showing us around (RA?) said that most of the honors students don’t pay for room and board. He said to go to the housing website and look for a scholarship form. I was surprised by that since I hadn’t seen anything on the site, or on this site, that would suggest that. And I didn’t find anything that night when I looked all over the housing site.</p>
<p>when we took a quick dorm tour on Capstone Scholars Day, the young man who was showing us around (RA?) said that most of the honors students don’t pay for room and board.</p>
<p>I think that student was very wrong. Perhaps he’s assuming that most of the students in honors are NMFs? If so, he’s made a wrong assumption. And, there isn’t a scholarship form for housing on the Housing website, unless he’s talking about becoming a RA…which is certainly not “most students”. </p>
<p>Young people often throw around the words “lots of students”, “everyone,” “most people”, etc, without anything to really back it up except for their own situation or the situations of their closest friends.</p>
<p>and, virtually everyone pays for board…not even the NMF scholarship pays for that. Too bad there wasn’t anyone present who could immediately challenge/correct this student…he gave out very misleading info.</p>
<p>Not all high schools grade equally…GPAs are all over the place.</p>
<p>Right…and there’s all kinds of grade inflation going on…that’s why so many applicants these days have high GPAs. Test scores somewhat clarify things. Bama is generous because it takes weighted grades of EVERY class you take…and even lets you count PE and electives for scholarship consideration. </p>
<p>There is a huge pool of applicants with high GPAs.</p>
<p>There is a much smaller pool that has high test scores.</p>
<p>There is even a smaller pool that has both. Those get the first awards. Those with only high test scores and OK GPAs will often get the remaining. There often isn’t much difference between a 3.4 student and a 3.7 student…especially if the 3.4 student took harder classes. </p>
<p>*I was told by admissions they will give the extra scholarship money to the kids with 3.4 and 35 ACT scores before they would give the money to those that worked hard and have over 4.0’s and lower test scores. *</p>
<p>Right…because it’s the middle quartile test scores that influence rankings. A 3.4 vs a 3.7 doesn’t influence rankings like ACT 35s vs ACT 29s can. Those test scores of ACT 32+ help increase that middle quartile range…so getting more of them on campus is a big plus.</p>
<p>Most honors students do pay for their housing as most all first year students are required to live on campus. After the first year, a larger and larger proportion of students who live on campus will have some type of housing scholarship, but there are still many who don’t. While the housing department has a couple of scholarships, it is likely that the student whom you talked to was mistaken.</p>
<p>As asaunmom posted, grading is different at all high schools and does not necessarily reflect a challenging academic program. UA has to draw the line somewhere and chooses to do it with specific GPA and test score requirements rather than taking a totally holistic approach which would disadvantage many excellent students. Note that UA reserves the right to award scholarships in excess of the posted amounts and to use holistic methods in the admissions and scholarship processes.</p>
<p>After the first year, a larger and larger proportion of students who live on campus will have some type of housing scholarship</p>
<p>Right…that’s because those with NMF scholarships stay on campus to use their housing scholarships, while many who don’t have that scholarship will move off campus. However, the majority of students in honors do not have housing scholarships. </p>
<p>* UA has to draw the line somewhere and chooses to do it with specific GPA and test score requirements *</p>
<p>Right…because like it or not, people often look at that middle quartile test score range to get an idea of how academically strong a school and its student body is. Few ever look at the GPA stats because so many schools have kids with high GPAs that that data has become rather meaningless since it doesn’t reveal the curriculum that was taken. How do you compare a 3.8 GPA with few/no APs with a 3.4 GPA (from a school that doesn’t weight GPA) who took 10 APs including Cal BC, Chem, Bio, and Physics? Test scores can make the difference.</p>
<p>Are you saying that UA will stack additional scholarships (not mentioned online) onto the Presidential for higher test scorers? S scored 35 on the ACT (and 3.92 GPA), so he now qualifies for the full ride at UA-Huntsville. However, I’m concerned about him being so far away from home at a commuter school; plus, he wants to learn Chinese, and they don’t offer it. I think we’d both be happier if he were at UA, but it’s hard to ignore the savings at Huntsville.</p>
<p>I actually think Alabama has one of the better scholarship programs around. Our daughter is attending the UA on the Presidential Scholarship and also received a departmental scholarship, an alumni scholarship, and a couple of other private scholarships. Let me assure you, most of the kids (with the exception of a couple of friends who are National Merit Finalists) DO pay for housing. The National Merit Finalists DO get housing scholarships. </p>
<p>As an OOS student, her scholarship made attending the UA possible, although she could have gone to many other really good schools and received many scholarship offers. The UA did the absolute BEST job of recruiting her over any other school and she loves it. I grew up in Tuscaloosa, so I was happy too. </p>
<p>In addition to many generous merit based scholarships, the UA also allows a sliding scale (so if your child is between two levels, they will likely get more than the minimum for which they qualify, but less than the level they “almost” reached. The website says a minimum GPA of 3.5, but if they are flexible, that is fine.</p>
<p>With rampant grade inflation at many schools, I am happy our daughter’s ACT and SAT scores were also considered. She finished first in her class, had better than a 4.0 weighted and a 4.0 weighted, many ECs, and many AP courses. She also happened to have the highest SAT in her school. </p>
<p>Although I agree some don’t test as well as others, I believe it is important to have a validation of ability and not just consider GPA.</p>
<p>She did not qualify for any financial aid and missed some scholarship money because she earned the Presidential Scholarship. Still, I cannot complain. She earned it and the UA offered it. I am proud of that.</p>
<p>It is unlikely the young man giving the tour was an RA. It is possible he was an Avanti. RA’s and desk assistants don’t generally give tours. I’m sorry the information he provided was incorrect. It would be nice to save a little more money.</p>
<p>Hi Bamagirls,
Did your daughter have to apply for the additional scholarships (alumni & private ) or were they awarded from the original scholarship application? Thanks!</p>
<p>The alumni are supposed to be included on the original application, but we did follow up with the local chapter in our state too. They conducted the interviews locally. The departmental scholarship was also from the original scholarship application. There were a couple of private scholarships she applied for locally separately within our home state that were tied to community service.</p>
<p>She was NOT NMF so she does pay for housing.</p>
<p>May I ask when these “unmentioned scholarships” are typically given for the 35-36 ACT students?</p>
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<p>Not necessarily a fair assumption. One of my children attends a small high school where the average SAT score is 2100 and the average ACT composite is 31. A quarter of the class makes National Merit semifinalist and another quarter of the class is commended. At his school everyone takes exactly the same required courses and there are no honors or AP classes offered – and yet the average student completes five or more AP tests with a school average AP pass rate of 92% across all AP tests taken. </p>
<p>We are thrilled that he is in the middle of the class with a GPA lower than 3.4. We can assure you that he works very hard in his classes and takes school seriously. He is expecting to take – and hopefully based on past school experience will pass – the AP Bio, AP Computer Science A and possibly the AP Comparative Government tests this year as a high school freshman. </p>
<p>I am hoping that he is the kind of student that Alabama might choose to award an “unmentioned” scholarship because he may not end up with the average for the Presidential or National Merit automatic scholarships – yet the education he is receiving right now is so outstanding that even the possibility of an assured scholarship due to a better GPA from a less demanding school wouldn’t cause us to move him to a different school.</p>
<p>wow, paying4collegex4. I really like that school record your HS has. What is their magic formula? And where are they? If I had another student to put through school, I would consider moving there!</p>
<p>payingforcollegex4, keep in mind that UA will accept “weighted” GPAs that are handwritten on the transcript by the student’s guidance counselor. However, since the school doesn’t have AP or honors courses, it may be harder for the guidance counsellor to do this. I’m surprised that the school doesn’t have a non-standard grading scale to reduce the the temptation to compare its students’ GPAs to those of students from other high schools.</p>
<p>Texas schools are well-known for considering class rank in admissions and scholarship decisions. Such a policy is in place to help those from disadvantaged schools have “better” college options, but at the same time disadvantages those who were able to attend highly competitive schools.</p>