Bama just upped their NMF scholarship to include 4 yrs of housing!

[8filltheheart]

Wow, that is a huge change. The scholarship is now essentially a full ride.

National Merit Finalist Package

• Value of tuition for up to five years or 10 semesters for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate (or law) studies
• Four years of on-campus housing at regular room rate* (based on assignment by Housing and Residential Communities)
• $3,500 per year Merit Scholarship stipend for four years
• One-time allowance of $2,000 for use in summer research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)
• $2,000 book scholarship ($500 per year for four years)

Apparently, they will stilll award it until April 30 for 2018 applicants. (If you need an affordable option, call and ask!)

Roll Tide! (Ds loved his time there!! Can't believe he is graduating in a month.)
 

[katilac]

Wow! 

[Sneezyone]

I'd be really interested to see how this program benefits the state of Alabama as a whole. It's obvious how it benefits the students who receive the awards, and more power to them, but I wonder how many of them actually stay in Alabama and grow their families there long-term. I also wonder (worry?) how this affects K-12 education in Alabama. Importing another state's finished products to serve as managers doesn't improve the overall workforce or education picture in the state.

[8filltheheart]

AL is actually an awesome place to live. Cummings Research Park is the 2nd largest research park in the country. There is quite a bit of manufacturing in the state (engineering students have lots of options.) Hospitality careers on the Gulf.

Fwiw, their sports revenue and alumni fund a lot of their scholarships.

 

 

[Sneezyone]

5 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

AL is actually an awesome place to live. Cummings Research Park is the 2nd largest research park in the country. There is quite a bit of manufacturing in the state (engineering students have lots of options.) Hospitality careers on the Gulf.

Fwiw, their sports revenue and alumni fund a lot of their scholarships.

 

 

I don't doubt that there are wonderful places to live within the state. I'm curious as to whether their gamble is actually benefitting the state (where there is tremendous need) as a whole. They may ultimately accelerate their conversion into a state like Georgia. I'm not sure that's what the PTB are really aiming for though I wouldn't see that as a bad thing.

[GoodGrief]

That's going to make AL a hugely popular choice for NMF. Interesting move when some schools have been reducing the value of the award.

[wapiti]

nevermind - I see it discussed over at CC

[Lanny]

5 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

I'd be really interested to see how this program benefits the state of Alabama as a whole. It's obvious how it benefits the students who receive the awards, and more power to them, but I wonder how many of them actually stay in Alabama and grow their families there long-term. I also wonder (worry?) how this affects K-12 education in Alabama. Importing another state's finished products to serve as managers doesn't improve the overall workforce or education picture in the state.

 

There is another (very recent) thread, somewhere on WTM, which I read a day or 2 ago, that has a link to a Chicago Tribune (?) article about 'Bama recruiting students from IL.  I think they have almost 1200 of them now. How does this benefit the State of Alabama? IMO you can bet your boots that a large percentage of the students who graduate from 'Bama are going to accept jobs in Alabama and live there permanently. I don't think many of them would want to live in IL after living in AL. Especially those who Major in Engineering and related fields, because of all the stuff in Huntsville. How this affects K-12 education in Alabama I do not know.  That's an interesting question...

This is a lot different, than a school like UNC Chapel Hill, which the NC Legislature requires to have a minimum of 82% of the Freshmen Class be NC residents.  I suggested to my DD that she not apply to UNC, which has great financial aid available, for that reason. 

There are also several other Public Universities in AL that if my DD becomes interested in them, or, they in her, that I will encourage her to explore and possibly add to her list of universities. 

 

[RootAnn]

3 hours ago, GoodGrief1 said:

That's going to make AL a hugely popular choice for NMF. Interesting move when some schools have been reducing the value of the award.

I wonder if Alabama's decision to do this has to do with Florida's widening of their (full ride to NM Scholars) Benquisto award to Out of State Students. According to what I've read, it is open to this year's seniors who are making decisions for this fall. 

I hope these are the first of a few more schools increasing their awards (vs. the recent trend GG1 mentions above of decreasing their awards). I'm on the side of more academic merit although I know from discussions here that others think it is unfair to not having merit tied in some way to financial need.

[chiguirre]

I hope these changes will light the fire beneath TAMU and U of Houston to sweeten their deals too.

[GoodGrief]

It's interesting to me though that Texas Tech's exceptional National Merit award does not seem to be terribly popular, at least in the chatter on College Confidential. They seem to have the best deal of the bunch, with transportation included.

[chiguirre]

I don't think the U of H deal is that popular either TBH. In my entirely selfish interest, I listed those schools because they're only 2 hours and 45 minutes from my house. Texas Tech is 10 hours away. Bama is slightly closer I think.

[obsidian]

Texas Tech requires a 3.5 GPA to keep the scholarship and also requires at least 15 credit hours a semester. Those things would scare me off; I'd consider them doable in general, but one bad semester could have a huge impact. UA seems to only require a 3.0 GPA and no certain number of credit hours per semester.

[8filltheheart]

The Bama scholarship does have a cr requirement.  I don't know what it is, though, bc our ds tended to take at least 18 hrs per semester. (which the scholarship was equally great for bc it did not have a limit in the number of hrs it covered. :) ) 

I am pretty sure that Bama puts students on probation for a semester and that they can keep their scholarship that semester giving them the opportunity to pull their GPA back up. (Again, that is 2nd hand info, but I am pretty confident that it is correct.)

[Lanny]

14 hours ago, chiguirre said:

I hope these changes will light the fire beneath TAMU and U of Houston to sweeten their deals too.

I don't know anything about U of Houston, but I have interest in TAMU and it is on the list of universities my DD has begun. They are one of 4 that will receive her SAT scores.  There are 5 on her list now. TAMU has on their web site information about automatic scholarships for National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars, which my DD qualified for.  As I told her, yesterday, A&M had an Endowment of $9.9 Billion in 2016 and Tech had an Endowment of approximately $676 Million then.   So, I'm guessing her Financial AId offer from A&M will be better than that from Tech, for those reasons. That's an assumption and it could obviously be the other way around.   OK, I looked on USNEWS at University of Houston. Their Endowment in 2016 was approximately the same amount as that of Tech.  A&M is a much older university, much larger, and they have a lot more money.  I would place my bet on A&M being more able "to sweeten their deals"...

Edited April 9, 2018 by Lanny
Typo corrections

[GoodGrief]

14 hours ago, obsidian said:

Texas Tech requires a 3.5 GPA to keep the scholarship and also requires at least 15 credit hours a semester. Those things would scare me off; I'd consider them doable in general, but one bad semester could have a huge impact. UA seems to only require a 3.0 GPA and no certain number of credit hours per semester.

 

Ah yes, that is significant.