Where do the honors college students come from?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>You asked where some of the honors kids come from. Well, my son is from rural Virginia. His girlfriend is from Texas. Several of his friends who are in the honors college are from Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Washington State and California. He also knows kids from Alaska and Indiana.</p>

<p>And mom2collegekids is right. These kids in the honors classes are very bright. My son said it was sweet walking into the National Merit ceremony to get his laptop in August. There were about 140 kids in the room. Four of the 16 kids in his Alabama action group were National Merit/National Hispanic/National Achievement scholars. So the challenge is definitely there.</p>

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<p>momreads, Tell me about the National merit ceremony. My d is NMSF and plans on attending UA.
Thanks</p>

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<p>Catfan, The NM ceremony occurs one day before classes start. The NM students receive notification that they are to meet at a specific time. This year, because there were so many students, my son said that they split the ceremony, and I use the term “ceremony” loosely. About 70 kids were at each assembly. Each student received his laptop and some limited training – just so they had a clue how it worked. What left my son just speechless was the number of kids in one location. More than 130 kids. That’s a lot of money that UA invested in some of its top students.</p>

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<p>What left my son just speechless was the number of kids in one location. More than 130 kids. That’s a lot of money that UA invested in some of its top students.
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<p>My DS1 went to the 2007 NM Ceremony. It also had a ton of kids. What impresses us was the quality of the laptop that he was given. It wasn’t a cheaper run-of-the-mill laptop that people typically buy for their college students. It was from the Dell business line, a very high quality laptop.</p>

<p>Another cool thing is that the NM kids are given these black backpacks with the Alabama logo embroidered on it. So, when kids are walking around campus, they know who the other NM kids are. I should add that the Fellows kids get them, too, but many of them are NM also.</p>

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<p>I know that UA has kids from all 50 states, but it amazes me that kids come all the way from Alaska. What a change that must be…lose the Mukluks and bring out the Rainbows.</p>

<p>:)</p>

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<p>Let’s not forget Ohio. I know of two NMF that started Fall 2008. One is DS (central Ohio) and the other is from northern Ohio. </p>

<p>My youngest S is a HS Junior. He is leaning toward UA as well. He scored a 30 on his ACT last spring. We are confident he will raise his score. PSAT scores come out in late December. The Presidential Scholarship is in reach. Being an OOS student, if youngest does not get NMF but can raise his ACT by 1 point, UA will still be a stong consideration. Youngest S will be a Freshman when middle S starts his fourth year.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Yes! The NM, Fellows/academic elite, and Presidential schollies are reeling 'em in from coast to coast… LOL</p>

<p>BTW…if your OOS student doesn’t make that ACT 32 cutoff for presidential…there is another (albeit harder) route to try. CBHP usually gives out full tuition schollies to its students who don’t otherwise get the university offered ones that require ACT 32. Since most of the CBHP kids get the auto schollies, the few that don’t qualify then are given the CBHP schollies. Therefore I doubt that there is a kid in CBHP that is paying for his tuition.</p>

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<p>Mom, is that black backpack for the NMs a laptop backpack?</p>

<p>That just might seal the deal.</p>

<p>Just kidding!</p>

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<p>S in honors college from IL. He told me this funny story.</p>

<p>Mom, I was walking across the quad and this kid comes up to me and says, “Hey, are you from Antioch?” Son is shocked and says, “Yeah, how did you know?” Kid responds, “I saw your Sequoits shirt (fake indian word that our school calls itself). I’m from Garyslake.” Both of these are small towns on the WI border who play each other iin sports. What are the chances?</p>

<p>Small world.</p>

<p>ROLL TIDE!!</p>

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<p>Mom, is that black backpack for the NMs a laptop backpack?</p>

<p>That just might seal the deal.</p>

<p>Just kidding! </p>

<p>Yes…it has the padded area for the laptop… Funny thing is…when DS1 started college, he thought he’d need to take his laptop to class. He soon found out that most kids don’t. Only a few need/want to take their laptops to class. Most just keep their computers in their dorms. If they need to use a computer during the day, they’ll use a lab. Kids get very efficient about keeping their data on a flashdrive or emailing their files to themselves so the files can retrieved from anywhere.</p>

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<p>Mom, I was walking across the quad and this kid comes up to me and says, “Hey, are you from Antioch?” Son is shocked and says, “Yeah, how did you know?” Kid responds, “I saw your Sequoits shirt (fake indian word that our school calls itself). I’m from Garyslake.” Both of these are small towns on the WI border who play each other iin sports. What are the chances?</p>

<p>Small world.</p>

<p>ROLL TIDE!!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<</p>

<p>Well, I guess the answer to the thread’s title: Where do honors college students come from, is…</p>

<p>The scholarship tide rolls them in.</p>

<p>:)</p>

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<p>Based on this thread, I’m guessing that Bama is not a suitcase school. That’s son’s main concern in going to a state school. So, if he lives in the honors dorm, he’ll likely have roommates from all over the country? Fantastic!</p>

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<p>I would say that Bama is a tiny bit of a suitcase school (which is probably true of any public campus). There are some kids who are from Tuscaloosa on campus (altho maybe they’re allowed to commute??). Maybe a few from B’ham go home more often, but I doubt they go home every weekend. Most kids want to stay on campus because of games, fun, off-campus hang-outs, dates, parties, whatever. Many kids have jobs at local stores and restaurants, so they have to stay on campus to go to their jobs.</p>

<p>BTW…I think most kids can handle a part-time job of about 8 hours a week (plus or minus). When DS1 first went to UA, he didn’t have a job. He had too much free time on his hands even though he got involved with a couple of clubs. He began spending too much money at off-campus hangouts… :frowning: So, he got a part-time job and voila. Now he has less time to waste money. Moreover, now when he does have time go somewhere, he has his own money to spend! </p>

<p>:)</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids and momreads: Is there anyone from the northeast?</p>

<p>We are. The bigotry of of our neighbors and families up here is just so overwhelming. Most of them just accept as fact that all southerners are illiterate fools. So I’m not surprised that neither mentioned a state north of MD.</p>

<p>I swear, I hope my son gets into Chicago and Rice just so he can choose Rice. Of course none of them would get it anyway.</p>

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<p>Yes, there are kids from the NE… UA has kids from all 50 states. My son has had suitemates from MA and NY. </p>

<p>We are residents of Alabama, but we’ve only lived here a short time. We’re from Calif. Many, many transplants now live in AL and many of their kids go to UA. </p>

<p>The state of Alabama has the second largest research park in the USA - Cummings Research Park…google it…CRP have many, many Fortune 500 and high tech companies. Driving thru CRP is a “who’s who” of famous companies.</p>

<p>As for your friends…</p>

<p>Show them the links on this post… <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063362859-post1.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063362859-post1.html&lt;/a&gt; And ask them why UA has more such students named than Harvard does? Not just one year, but year after year for the past few years.</p>

<p>Remind them that altho a state may reside in the south, that doesn’t mean it’s profs are from the south or that many of their students are “southerners”. Most of the profs are from the Ivies, Stanford, UMich, UVa, Berkeley, UCLA, etc.</p>

<p>Yes, in the more rural areas of the AL, there will be low educated people. But, guess what, I have found the same in rural parts of California and in the rural parts of many other states. (I’m not claiming that all/most rural people are low-educated in any state. I know that wouldn’t be true at all. )</p>

<p>Anyone who visits a major southern city is not really going to see many differences between any of their similarly-sized cities in their home states. When my family visits my county, they say, “this is just like Orange County but less crowded and more pretty trees.” </p>

<p>Remind your friends that it’s a sign of closed-mindedness to judge something so harshly when they haven’t visited or really don’t know much about. Many judge southerners because some have accents, but that would be like the rest of us judging notheasterners everytime we hear a “My Cousin Vinny” accent.</p>

<p>BTW…few kids on UA’s campus have southern accents.</p>

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<p>^^If I said any of those things they would no longer be my friends. At best, they would think I’d had a stroke or something; at worst they’d start screaming. Remember this is a religion we’re talking about here.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>LOL - oh, I know…one of my brothers has never visited us in Alabama, so he continues to make silly comments. Of course, since he’s my bro I can “really tell him off” (LOL), and he has to still be my brother. :slight_smile: I don’t know how he tolerates that my kids’ SAT/ACT scores are higher than his kids…</p>

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<p>“BTW…few kids on UA’s campus have southern accents.”
I disagree…many do, but you may not have encountered them on your visits. ;-)</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Possibly. </p>

<p>The ones that I’ve encountered seem to be the ones that are from the more rural parts of the state or are the cheerleaders. </p>

<p>Also, I don’t know if it’s an honors thing or what. Many times we’ve been on campus have been affiliated with honors or similar.</p>

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<p>As far as accents, my S is called “damn Yankee” (totally kidding) by his 2 Alabama honors college roommates. Both of them are huntin’, fishin’ good old boys - ma’am-ing and sir-ing us to death. They actually claim that the 4th roommate is not actually southern because he’s from FL. However, he claims that since he’s from northern FL, hunts, and eats grits - he counts as a southerner.</p>

<p>In fact, for Halloween S “dressed up” as an Alabama kid. Some girls gave him “bama bangs” and he borrowed a button down shirt, khakis, sperrys, and a fabric belt from his roommate. Of course, the kids that didn’t know him thought that he didn’t have a costume on - too funny.</p>