<p>I'm very impressed! Since I made a phone call to University of AZ last week, asking them about their NMF scholarships, they have sent me info from their engineering department & today (Sunday), their HI Club advisor just called & has spent a LOT of time speaking with me & now my son. She's very nice & knowledgable. She gave me names & phone numbers of some kids who from HI who have attended UA, as well as their parents names & phone numbers.</p>
<p>Son has had a longer conversation with her than any other schools to date! In fact, they are still speaking as I type! It's nice to see him taking more of an interest than previously. </p>
<p>RATS! After hanging up, son said he was just "showing interest," & was surprised to learn that the school had a good astronomy program (since it's in the desert). Oh well, he did speak with her for a while & she even gave him her phone number.</p>
<p>Anyway, who knows with kids--he may be more interested that he's pretending. At this point, I don't think even HE knows which schools he's really interested in & UA is on the list of schools he is curious about.</p>
<p>Actually, I'm not surprised AZ has a good astronomy program--because it's in the desert. Same reason that U of Nev-Las Vegas has a good astronomy department.</p>
<p>On a clear night... you can see forever, and ever...</p>
<p>Actually, the #1 astronomy program (or one of them) is supposed to be in HI, but UA's is ranked among the top 4 in the nation, from what I've read. He likes physics so far (he's taking "C" this year), but don't know about astronomy.
Unfortunately, their engineering program (like most) has mostly men & not many women.</p>
<p>HIMom
If your S is interested in Arizona (the state) have him look at ASU's program for Merit Finalists as well.D just graduated from there and had a great experience.Also was courted mightily.
On seond glance I see an interest in Astronomy...U of A excels in that..but if its other sciences, have him make a comparison......</p>
<p>Thanks. Have looked at the ASU program. So far, they haven't courted him at all (but then again, neither did UA, until I called them). He listed both ASU & UA when they asked him in the spring which colleges he wanted notified & each sent him a tiny postcard.</p>
<p>I've heard that keeping your ASU NMF scholarship can be challenging, as some folks have lost it when their GPA dipped below the 3.5. At UA, the minimum GPA is 3.0. This seems a bit more forgiving of the fluctuations that can occur in a bad semester or year. Will continue to investigate. Son isn't sure WHAT he's interested in, but so far likes most everything except English. <grin></grin></p>
<p>UAz accepts 85% of all apps...the in-state requirement is a ~2.5 gpa for automatic acceptance........Obviously, any high stat OOS kid will be an easy admit since it raises their scores. </p>
<p>Yes, the desert does provide great views of the stars.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm just wondering what research opportunities would be available, to keep high performing students. Sometimes they really work hard to attract & keep such students, which can give them opportunities not available at other places. Will discuss this further with them if son decides he's interested.</p>
<p>I believe that U of Ariz was one of the schools featured in a recent PBS special on the state of higher education in the United States. Probably worth seeing if it's available on DVD.</p>
<p>The U. of A. has some fantastic opportunities, especially for the brighter kids they are striving to attract. (Professors WANT to work with those kids!) My daughter's friends are students there, and are quite pleased. The sciences are good, so is the business school. It IS funded by the state, however, with a mission to educate the populace. Not every student is motivated, some are a bit clueless and are just there for the parties. The PBS special upset the president of the U of A; he felt that it wasn't fair to single out the school ... they are doing the best they can with the what they have been given.</p>
<p>One of my daughter's friends is a Flinn scholar ... she has traveled to Eastern Europe and loves the linguistics and history classes she is taking. She is about as intellectual as you can get, and is getting more than her fill at the U. of A.!</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, the Vatican's chief astronomer was in residence at Arizona (or may still be). My career was in electro-optics, and in my circles, Arizona is considered to have one of the two best programs in optics in the country (the other being the University of Rochester). </p>
<p>My daughter was accepted there about 4 years ago and was vectored to enroll. She decided against it after attending the summer orientation program. She is a theatre major and preferred a smaller department that was more intimate. I, however, as a parent was impressed. Of all of the parent oreintations and open houses that I have attended at different schools, these people struck me as having their act together. Even though it is a big univeristy, there was a fair degree on intimacy conveyed.</p>
<p>The recent PBS program mentioned by interesteddad was called "Declining by Degrees". There is a book that accompanies the program. It is an analysis of the problems with higher education in the U.S. today. The book is more generic and does not totally parallel the PBS program by concentrating on a few schools as the program did. The program tended to concentrate on the negatives of U of A, as it generally focused on the negatives of higher ed in general. It did, however, show how U of A nutures "high promise" students. The New York Times, essentially took the U of A portion of the program and crafted a story about it in one of their Sunday Education Review supplements about 3 to 5 months ago. If you can't get access to the program, it is a good, maybe even better, look at the U of A assessment of the authors.</p>
<p>If you become a NM finalist, the UA will make some very sweet offers and some of their programs are indeed top notch, including Astronomy. Alas, neither programs, nor geography, nor profile of school were of any interest at all to my D. I still sometimes sigh when I write the checks.</p>
<p>Both U of A and ASU have good honors programs and excellent scholarships for top students. The students we know from Barretts have been amazingly succesful with many top med and grad school acceptances. We would have been thrilled if my D chose it, she had free tuition plus a few thousand towards room and board but desperatly wanted to get out of Arizona and try something new. A visit in the winter Hi Mom might help peak his interest!</p>