What Else Should I Do?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>Hello! I, like many people right now, am super relieved after the scholarship requirement announcement. As a result, I’m pretty much committed to Bama for next year.</p>

<p>However, I’m kind of lost as to what I should be doing now and for the rest of senior year. How many other schools should I apply to? It seems pretty pointless since the only possible way I wouldn’t be attending would be a similar scholarship offer at a school with equal or greater benefits (to Presidential). This seems incredibly unlikely to me, as I’m at the bottom of Presidential for test scores (though a lot higher on gpa), and even if I got another offer - I’m already incredibly committed to Bama.</p>

<p>Also, for a chance at other scholarships/opportunities at Alabama (and outside scholarships for books and housing), what should I be doing to make myself a better candidate? Should I take a last try at standardized testing? Do some extra volunteer work? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!</p>

2

<p>I get it. When my D received her acceptance to Bama we wondered why bother with many other colleges. She did apply to a few other schools anyway. The ones with the automatic schollies and the hard-to-get schollies. She also applied to 2 colleges near home. (That was on my insistence. You never know if someone will get very ill and the student might want to be nearby.)</p>

<p>Some questions for you. Please only post the info you want to share. </p>

<p>Is UA close to your home? Maybe you could apply to your state school. What is your major? Maybe we can point you in the direction of the scholarships. Are you close to getting a 35 or 36 ACT? That might bring extra money. Are you interested in CBHP? UFE? Have you applied to the Honors College?</p>

<p>Keep your senior grades up. You will be sending a final transcript. Good luck to you. Bama is a great school. Roll Tide!!</p>

3

<p>How many schools in total did your daughter apply to?</p>

<p>Alabama’s really far from Chicago, but I have a little bit of family in Tuscaloosa and a lot of family in Mobile and parts of Tennessee.</p>

<p>The major I have listed currently is marketing - but I will be starting with a lot of credits, so I’m still looking for possible second major (finance/accounting, advertising, psychology) or a straight to mba path. </p>

<p>34-36 Consistently on any subject other than science, which is at a sad 25 every time. I’m taking the October SAT just to see where I’m at there.</p>

<p>I’m waiting until all leadership positions for senior year are finalized (September-ish) to fill out the scholarship and Honors College applications. I’m interested in UFE, but not sure about my chances on that (I’ve heard it’s highly competitive).</p>

4

<p>If you don’t get any other aid is UA still affordable for you? A lot of students and parents forget to look past the scholarship… Room and Board is still costly.<br>
Beyond that I would say at least apply to your second choice as well as something close to home. My D was 80% certain since April 12 that Bama was where she wanted to be and she still applied to 10 schools.</p>

5

<p>There is a trick to improving the Science Reasoning score on the ACT, but I don’t remember it. Curmudgeon is the one who knows. His D used it to better her composite and ended up with a 35. </p>

<p>I know that the answers are in the charts, so don’t expect to know the answers.</p>

6

<p>My son has applied to Alabama, but he also has at least three or four other schools that will receive applications. </p>

<p>Longsx3 is correct about room and board. It is expensive at Alabama. Maybe you can land some additional scholarship money. My son is hoping to do that, but it is not a certainty. So he is applying to other schools, although Alabama (his brother recently graduated from there) is on the top of his list.</p>

7

<p>It’s still affordable, but money for first year housing/food/books would definitely help - especially since I’m trying to convince my parents to let me join a sorority, which is not cheap at all, and they only have four years until my sister comes along who is a lot less likely to get an academic scholarship. </p>

<p>mom2collegekids - I’ve tried a couple times to teach myself how to do the science section - to no avail. If you remember, please let me know, although I’ll probably be taking the SAT regardless. Any tips on that one?</p>

8

<p>My S applied to 6 schools during the fall of his senior year. 2 were pretty big reaches, 1 I had encouraged him to apply to for competitive merit aid, and 1 was a nearby private that we knew even with aid would be the most expensive option, but their app was free. Of the 6 schools he applied to, only 2 were ever really strong considerations and of the reaches, I think only 1 was still being considered by the time apps were submitted. We could have just as comfortably done 3 apps instead of 6.</p>

<p>Back when I applied to school, I applied to 1 school, was accepted there, and that’s where I attended. But that was an in-state, public and back then (before the internet) it wasn’t as easy to get info on other schools and where you could get good aid.</p>

<p>Personally I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on apps if you know the schools aren’t serious considerations. If you want to apply to other schools, just to do it, then find some schools with free apps. If you know you can afford Bama, that’s your preference, and the distance doesn’t bother you, there’s really no NEED to do other apps.</p>

<p>As mentioned the course fess + dining dollars + dorm + meal plan + books/supplies +other expenses (parking?, travel) can add up. Best guess about $14,000-15,000/year. You can get a Stafford loan for $5,500 of that for freshman year, you really should try not to borrow more than that. So, that leaves a little less than $10,000/year.</p>

<p>My S also got the engineering award, but even with that, he applied to just over 30 outside scholarships. His school’s guidance department announced a lot of local scholarships and I made sure he applied to ALL of them, then I found other regional, national, and major-specific scholarships on sites like Fastweb and Cappex. He didn’t win any of the national awards, but did win 4 local awards, so the time was well spent.</p>

<p>Other than that, take some time and ENJOY your senior year. My S’s senior year was so hectic (we revisited 2 colleges, he was still trying to improve his test scores, he sent in his apps, and then worked on scholarships, on top of planning for graduation) that I wish I would have had more of a chance to just relax and enjoy his last full year at home.</p>

9

<p>My son was in the process of applying to a few other schools but once we got the letter saying he qualified for the Presidential (we knew he did, it was just reassuring to have it in writing) we told him to think about it and even if he got accepted to every one of the schools if he would choose UA in the end then he could stop applying. He thought about it for a week and decided he was done.</p>

<p>After that we had him focus on some scholarships. In hind sight I wished we went after some more but he did manage to get a few other outside ones which helps.</p>

<p>It is not unheard of for freshman to be aggressive in scholarship searches and applications to get 100% for their freshman year (i know of two that managed it). It takes a lot of work but you can manage to get quite a bit of $$$ to help out. Don’t count on getting 100%, but if you work hard you might be able to some $$$ to help offset the cost of the sorority.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

10

<p>**** My D applied to 6 colleges. Three with guaranteed merit for NMF. She also took the SAT and ACT to qualify for guaranteed merit scholarships. </p>

<p>Your ACT scores are stellar. You should sign up for the next ACT tests. I see that your science score was the lowest. That can be one of the easiest to bring up. Did you practice beforehand? Do you run out of time? How many questions are left when you run out of time? I hope you bubble in all off the answers even if it’s a guess. There is no penalty for guessing on the ACT. My D used some of the following tips for the ACT and scored a 36 on the science part. Before the tips she was lower. Hope this helps!</p>

<p>Here are some hints for the Science ACT:
[The</a> ACT Science Section: Strategies for Success - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com](<a href=“Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos”>Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos)</p>

<p>and search for George Mizzel on You Tube. Do what he says.</p>

<p>Practice the science section until you can finish.
That work will be worth $$$.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for all the information everyone !</p>

12

<p>Not an ACT trick. More of an ACT observation. Backstory. My sciencey kid takes ACT cold. Nails every section except science, which she bombs. What is up with that? " Dad. I missed ever question in a section about dewpoints. I don’t know anything about dewpoints. We never studied dewpoints. WTH is a dewpoint? I didn’t miss any other questions." </p>

<p>Hmmmm. It became pretty obvious pretty quickly that my kid mistakenly thought that this was a “knowledge” test. The science section doesn’t require much knowledge. Very basic. It requires “science reading” and “science reasoning”. And some speed. Everything you need to answer the questions is given you in the words and graphs. Assume the tools needed to get the answer are there! Your job is to ferret it out quickly and accurately.</p>

<p>She retook the ACT with no other prep than that new understanding of the section. She improved her science score by 9 (? Hmmmm. That sounds like too many. Just go with it. :wink: lol ) points which put it in line with her other sections.</p>

<p>( This observation has helped many testers who had the same issue with the science section.)</p>

13

<p>Ahh Curmy…thanks for weighing in! </p>

<p>Curmy’s an old CC poster (not old in age! lol). I’ve been following his posts since his darling D was in goat pastures many moons ago. :wink: She’s now in med school and will soon be residency bound.</p>

14

<p>What else should you do?! Goodness. The time to take the foot of the pedal is NOT now. Finish strong as a HS senior! Extra strong. Don’t coast. You might get out of the habit of working hard, quite honestly. Take a full load of classes (esp some that you enjoy) + ones that can earn you college credit (think about taking the CLEP test for language, even if you have only taken a few years of a language). Join additional clubs that interest you. Volunteer if it interests you. Do anything that interests you. And this is why I’m saying this: my S applies for any relevant outside scholarship he can. Last year he ‘earned’ $10,000 in outside scholarships, and this year he has $7500 already confirmed, with more possible soon. This pays for his room/board + books + travel expenses. All of these scholarships ask for achievements that you have done and activities that you are still involved in. Most scholarships have you focus on what you are currently achieving, and it is always useful to have something to say from your current year of study. (Similarly, once you graduate HS, most outside scholarships only want to hear about what you’re doing in college - all that you achieved in HS doesn’t mean a hill of beans, so there is no time when you are really have nothing else to do.) Further, work on receiving solid letters of recommendations from your best teachers who know you well (and only from those who can write well - writing a great LOR is somewhat of an art form, I’ve found). PM me if you want more info on scholarships. Good luck to you!</p>