We are from OOS and looked at UA for our first child. We did not visit as it seemed so far away (12 hours) and my son was able to get a full-tuition scholarship at a similar school closer to home. I kept reading the UA forum so when son #2 wanted to got to a school in a warmer climate, I sent my husband and son down for a visit. They came back sold. Son#2 will be graduating this school year with a double major, and a masters degree. Son #3 looked at several schools, but really wanted to go to UA. He is a rising sophomore there now. Honestly the NMF award and Presidential scholarship is the reason we checked the school out. However, we have been very happy with the quality of the school and the many programs they offer. I have recommended UA to many students I have talked to, and plan to continue doing so.
@ucbalumnus I don’t think conservative politics plays a direct roll, other than the state limits spending (and taxes). Indirectly, the states conservatism plays more of a roll in NOT having a lottery, unlike Tennessee, Georgia and Florida, to help fund education.
Alabama has no money. A lottery might be its last hope.
No need to be skeptical. The most expensive dorms on campus (amazing super-suites) and the freshman-required unlimited meal plan will total $12,500. Other dorms cost less. After freshman year, most students move off campus to less expensive apartments (many newly built) and no longer need or want unlimited meals, so net cost is usually even less for upperclassmen. Only thing they might be hoping to recoup is future donations from grateful and successful alumni wishing to pay it forward.
We were thrilled to “discover” UA’s generous merit scholarships as my son was finishing his junior yr in HS, and my son was not opposed to going to school many hours from home. It’s been a great experience for him to live in a different area of the country and wonderful to meet so many students from all over! If you are new to learning about UA, you might not realize that 62% of last year’s freshman class came from outside the state of AL. Sure, lots from the southeast states…but huge chunks from TX, CA, IL, too…and some from just about every state in the U.S. ROLL TIDE!
“It is also in a state with conservative politics, where helping those from lower income (relative to the state) families attend the state flagship may not be that high a legislative priority. That the state is politically racially segregated probably does not help.” Dear UCBalumnus, UA helps those lower income state residents by keeping the admissions standard less stringent for in state students. And name another state that is not “politically racially segregated.” What does that mean? UA has one of the highest enrollments of Black students of any state flagship in the nation.
How well does the state fund UA? Is it UA’s excellent football program and its huge revenue that makes it possible to draw many OOS students?
Querty said, "Alabama is not a third-world country by any means, but it is still relatively poor compared to other states in the country with weaker education than my home state and a conservative climate that made me extremely uncomfortable when visiting my relatives down south. " Don’t you appreciate diversity? Or only racial/religious diversity?
Isn’t the effective admission threshold for an Alabama resident student from a poor family 3.5 GPA and 30 ACT (needed to get the in-state full tuition scholarship), because the school is otherwise too expensive for such a student to afford? (Those close enough to commute may be able to make do with one of the lesser scholarships at 27, 28, or 29 ACT.)
Are there significant numbers of white Democrats or non-white Republicans in Alabama?
With a high black population in the state, that should be expected…
I wish people would bother to read through the myriad other threads on the UA forum here (hundreds of great questions with a ton of informative posts from hundreds of experienced families with actual UA students). There is so much more credible information about the school instead of some of this eloper discourse, above.
Any way I can get my “Senior Member” title replaced with “Senior Eloper”? I like it! >:D<
I’m surprised no one has brought up gay marriage in this post, too…because, I actually meant interloper. But you can marry me if you like! 
I have to comment to some of the comments made in this thread specifically by @tk21769 and @qwerty568 - H and I have lived a long time in WI (both native, and through UG education) lived for some years in TX (Houston and College Station) and for a lot of years in N AL.
When we first moved to AL in the early 1980’s, people from my home town (10,000 people and largest town in the county/county seat in WI) had NO IDEA of the positives in the area we moved to (Huntsville area) - their idea was shot gun houses and dirt roads for AL. Very far from the truth! Absolutely clueless.
Birmingham AL has a very highly rated medical center/hospitals - look at the top 10/15 rated in the country. Highly rated medical training.
Kiplinger had rated Huntsville third among best cities for professionals in 2012; livability.com rated them high (#30 out of 100 best places to live) in 2013;. Huntsville is one of the 10 top tech spots in the country; large research park; large Arsenal with Army Aviation/Missile Command (4 Star General Command) and George C Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA (here 55 years); AL is strong on business - I believe #4 nationally on business growth. Gee, Google is building a $600 million data center in NE AL in Stevenson (geographically located center of Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, Birmingham, Huntsville). The growth of auto manufacturing and supply chain for automotive - look where all the new plants are (in the south, with a good share in AL). Toyota has expanded their engine manufacturing plant numerous times in Huntsville. Mercedes Benz plant near Tuscaloosa.
The school district we are zoned for has been rated # 5 in AL and in the top 4% in the nation at #802; the senior class for 2015 (572 students), 23% (130) had a ACT score of 30 or higher.
So yes there is a very broad range on numbers, as with any state.
The State of IL is a lot ‘poorer’ than AL in many, many ways. You wouldn’t criticize IL as a ‘northern state’ - yet they are struggling as a state in a lot of ways. For many years the commerce in Chicago has kept the overall state’s numbers looking not as bad.
There are some poor counties in AL, but you cannot judge a school or opportunities within AL based on perceptions or what is going on in a few poor counties. Nor exclusively on what is going on with a few top counties - however the poor counties do not have a big population.
Another comment is that UA does draw OOS students that want to be at a school with a sizable Greek presence. At UA it is 30% of the students, but it is big according to Greek numbers.
Visit UA and research the institution and the state before you make some unmerited and untrue comments.
My daughter is a rising senior at Alabama who has the Presidential Scholarship plus another generous fellowship associated with a program she’s in. Based on her experience, I can tell you that there’s no catch. Everything Alabama promised, it delivered on. The merit scholarships are straightforward - if you have the stats and apply by the deadline, you get the scholarship. The education is good, the school spirit is great, and the experience she’s having in a different area with a lot of different people is invaluable and has forced her out of her comfort zone in some ways. And FWIW, my midwestern daughter, who was initially reluctant to choose Alabama because it was far away and hotter than she’s used to, would not hesitate to stay in the south if that’s where her best job offer happens to be.
If there is a catch, it would be keeping 3.0GPA+.
However, you wouldn’t get scholarship from the start if you can’t keep 3.0GPA+
^^ Not entirely true - there are kids who lose their scholarships for failure to keep that GPA (particularly kids in tougher majors), although there are generous probationary terms and it will not happen without some time to pull the GPA up. Compared to many schools, though, a 3.0 GPA requirement isn’t bad.
Come to think of it, @beth’s mom, my roommate told me that the school “pardoned” kids who failed to meet scholarship requirement on Fall 2015 because so many Freshmen struggled.
No smoke and mirrors here, and Bama is not the only school that offers guaranteed merit scholarships based on a combination of SAT/ACT scores and GPA/class rank. School like LSU, Kansas, Arizona, Iowa and ASU do the same. Even a school like Ohio State, which is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities offers a similar type of scholarship in the form of their National Buckeye Scholarship. The only difference between UA and these other schools is how much more generous Bama’s merit aid packages are. Of course, that’s because Bama has been more aggressively seeking to increase the percentage of OOS students in the student body in recent years, thus they’ve offered much more robust merit aid packages. From the parent/student perspectives this is a very good thing, so long as it lasts.
I thought LSU merit scholarships ONLY outlines minimum requirements? Plus, I think UA is the only state school that offers guaranteed full tuition merit scholarships to INTERNATIONAL students.
Similar to Bama, LSU offers guaranteed freshmen merit scholarships based on a combo of SAT/ACT scores and high school GPA for resident and non-residents. Bama has multiple tiers from the Capstone level to the Presidential (full tuition). LSU has a similar tiered structure; however, the highest level of their guaranteed scholarships, Flagship Scholars Award, requires a 33 ACT/1440 SAT and it offers non-residents a fixed amount of $20,500 plus a $1,550 per/year work study assignment with a member of the LSU faculty. That’s a significant discount but it does not cover the full of the cost of LSU’s OOS tuition rate of $26,877.
The distinguishing factor about Bama is the amount of merit aid it offers and the generous terms to retain scholarship eligibility. For example, Kansas requires that students must register for 15 hours a semester and they have to maintain a 3.5 GPA to renew their scholarship eligibility.
The key point here is that there is nothing “fishy” and there are no hidden conditions respecting Bama’s freshman scholarships, which is the concern expressed by OP. Many schools offer these type of scholarships to attract the so-called “high stat” freshman students which can improve a school’s overall ranking. What does make Bama’s packages special are the generous amounts of the scholarships and the very friendly terms for retaining scholarship eligibility.
^ Just to clarify, UKansas’ requires 30 credit hours per year (not 15/semester), and a 3.4 GPA to maintain scholarships (not 3.5): http://affordability.ku.edu/scholarships/faqs