Coming off get another thred where U of Alabama is lauded as the golden egg has me wondering…why does the U of Alabama seem to be CC’s go to as an example of where to find “the money” for OOS?
Let me qualify this… for the B/ B+ student with corresponding mid 20(s) ACT scores, (anyone with below a 29 ACT) Alabama is no bargain with OOS cost of attendance at $42k. https://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php. Similar and even more merit money can be found at plenty of better or similarly ranked private & public schools. For our particular HS, the acceptance model hardly makes it an outstanding academic choice either (this is the low/average/high from our Naviance) they consistently have a 75% acceptance rate for our HS and has a bit of a reputation of an “anybody can be accepted” school. We have in state publics with better academic stats for far less money.
What am I missing about the allure of U of Alabama? Admittedly, I have never been on campus, but the pictures seem to show it is a lovely campus! There clearly is a lot of school spirit/ loyalty. I assume that it is a pretty friendly place. I guess it has brand name national recognition too. I see that it it a solid choice and for those with the high stats I guess it is something of a cash machine, but for the regular stat kid, beyond the fact that you are likely to be accepted, it doesn’t seem to be a bargain.
There are so many high stats kids on this site that I think many assume that everyone is above the threshold to get merit at Alabama. I agree that for the more average student it is just an expensive OOS public.
There is a very prolific poster who offers Bama in just about every financial aid thread and has for years. It’s now ingrained in our minds. That’s a large part of why it’s so prolific on here.
I know several kids who currently attend/ graduated from Bama but they are of the high stat kind of student. These students were looking ( in addition to academics) for big sports, nice campus, something a little different but at the same time something like a B1G Ten school.
The students I know have gone on to medical school, jobs in engineering, the business world , held great research positions, studied abroad, etc. And they all saved a lot of $. And they loved/love it.
And no, my kids don’t go there.
For the average stat student perhaps $ wasn’t an issue in those cases and they liked it for the reasons I stated above.
I think it’s also because their merit aid is a known quantity. You know exactly what you’re going to get, which means you know right away if it’s affordable vs. that nebulous “my kid has pretty good stats and I hear school X gives good merit.” For some people, “good merit” is $5k off tuition. For others, it’s full tuition or better. The variance is so large that it’s hard to know where it’s worth applying.
We never visited Bama, but it was on our list for a long time because the finances were cut and dried, easy to compare to other schools, easy to make a list ranked by out-of-pocket cost, etc.
We’re in CA, and we did our visits by car. If it had been closer, we would have visited for sure. If S hadn’t fallen in love with UNM, we’d have flown out.
@DiotimaDM I agree the upfront nature of their merit aid is a wonderful plus, but many schools do that as well. Everyone I know who visit campus comes away saying they love it!
We know a couple of kids at Bama. If you have higher stats, it is an affordable option for kids who want to attend a large, public school in the south that has all of the amenities (football, Greek life, honors college, wide variety of majors) afforded to large, public schools.
^ Out of the options you list, only Ole Miss offers similar merit. We visited both. Bama has a gorgeous campus and Ole Miss’s campus is very pretty. They are similar schools. For a high stats student, I would think Ole Miss might come in cheaper. For my D, Ole Miss was the better fit, but she loved Bama.
For a student that wants a well rounded experience and merit, Bama is a great choice. Same for Ole Miss. Bama just happens to have more vocal cheerleaders on CC.
I have two UA students - one who graduated 1-1/2 years ago and a senior. They both love their experience at UA, their classes, their teachers and all the opportunities. They are very glad they attend/ed UA and woudn’t change their experience for anything. They both are/were OOS and received generous scholarships making the school almost free for one and the same amount overall as the regional school for the other. They had experiences that they wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere (go Crimson Tide, yeah for their generous AP policy and university scholars program); however, they probably would have found most of the same opportunities if they attended our big state school. I know cost was a big factor for our family and if they didn’t have the grades for the UA Presidential Scholarship, I am almost 100% sure Alabama would not have been on our radar and they would have attended elsewhere. Thankfully for us they qualified for Presidential/NMF scholarships. My graduate has a fantastic job in Silicon Valley and I feel my senior will do well on his upcoming job search.
My dd is a freshman. Bama offered her more $ than any other of the schools that she applied to. It also was much less expensive than our in state options. We did not go down to see it until January of last year only after she had received admittance and scholarship info. We were blown away by the campus. Her decision was made.
@kjcphmom and @shelleyr25 so your kiddo’s were/are high stat kids? @shelleyr25 everyone who visits ends up loving it! I am going to have to take some time for a visit!
@labegg my dd was high, but not high enough for full academic Presidential. Still, what she was offered was more than any other schools had offered. For her career choice she will need to go to graduate school so, for the most part, where she gets her undergrad does not really matter. What matters is that she has a high GPA and involvement. So far she is excelling at Bama and saving us money at the same time. Roll Tide!
@labegg thank you for posting this thread. I have been asking myself similar question.
DD has been awarded the Presidential Scholar. We are in NJ, our in-state option is about $12000 more than the out of pocket for Bama per year, but I suspect she may be able to get some scholarships in-state which will narrow the gap more…Therefore financially, it is not really attractive for us. I think Bama may be good for students interested in pre-med but I am concerned the academic such as CS (yes, I have looked into the courses offered).
We will visit to see how DD feels.
@annamom my son graduated with a CS/math bachelors and a CS masters in 3-1/2 years (due to AP and CLEP credits and the university scholars program.) He interned at Facebook and is now working at Google so attending UA in CS worked out for him.
i don’t think anyone really pushed Alabama for mid-20s ACT kids. 32 ACT was for a while the magic number for the automatic full tuition scholarship. i guess now it’s 33. Ole Miss and UAH also had great automatic scholarships (full tuition or close to it) for 32 ACT and higher. these were the three, i guess most recognizable schools on that Yolasite automatic full-tuition list that has been bandied about the last couple of years.
unless i am reading them wrong those LSU and Auburn scholarships you linked are not automatic and/or not full tuition.
the allure of Alabama (and to a lesser extent Ole Miss and UAH) is obvious – it’s a guaranteed full-tuition backup option if you have the stats. if you don’t, you are probably better off choosing your in-state options.
If I am being honest I think Alabama was/is playing a boost our numbers/desireabilty/ranking game and am not surprised that they have raised the threshold on the money they award and changed the benefits, it would be difficult to keep that level of monetary distribution up if their admissions capture rate has increased. They certainly are not alone in their strategy and it definitely has had its desired effect!
We visited Alabama. Our child would have had the Presidential scholarship (full tuition) and UA would have been cheaper than our state school (notwithstanding travel costs which would have made it a wash). The campus is very nice, certainly above average in terms of aesthetics. The weather is fantastic relative to the northern half of USA. Academics seemed fine. Our daughter chose elsewhere but we would have been happy for her to go to UA, despite their weaseling into the football playoffs. As parents, we appreciated the transparency of merit scholarships.
Roll Tide!