<p>Am I alone in mourning the passing of the University of Alabama - Huntsville full ride scholarship?</p>
<p>For six years, this may have been one of the best college deals in the country, but the new scholarship matrix published by UAH yesterday signaled the end of an era. UAH no longer offers a full ride scholarship (other than for National Merit finalists).</p>
<p>I had not only counted on this scholarship for my own student, but I had also recommended it to countless other students here on CC . . . none of whom will now be eligible for it. I hate to think how many students were relying on this scholarship as their financial safety for next year, and may now be disappointed. UAH still offers a number of competitive scholarships for incoming freshmen, so many of them may end up doing just fine, but I’ve no doubt there will be some anxiety as applicants await notification of their awards.</p>
<p>For those students who won’t be applying to college until next year (or later), I am hoping that we might be able to pool our collective CC resources and come up with some alternatives to the UAH full ride.</p>
<p>Alabama State University
Coppin State University (Maryland)
Jackson State University (Mississippi)
Louisiana Tech University
Newberry College (South Carolina)
Prairie View A&M University (Texas)
Southeast Missouri State University
Troy University (Alabama)
University of Arkansas at Monticello</p>
<p>It’s not a long list . . . and most of these are schools that are rarely, if ever, discussed on CC. So, what do you know about any of these schools? Any insider information at all would be helpful - especially for those of us from other parts of the country who really don’t know anything at all about them.</p>
<p>And, yes, I know there are still NMF full rides available, as well as competitive full ride awards. But for students who aren’t National Merit finalists and who need a reliable financial safety, those won’t work.</p>
<p>So, any ideas?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, please join me in lighting a candle for the UAH full ride . . . it will be missed.</p>
<p>I’m a little surprised that the scholarship got changed this late in the app season. I’m guessing that they got changed before any awards were made, because doing so afterward wouldn’t be right…unless they grandfathered those awards. Did anyone get an award from an early app?</p>
<p>When certain assured scholarships become “too well known” they become unaffordable to continue.</p>
<p>Scholarships and grant everywhere seem to be going down. Last spring when we really got serous about D’s list, we ran the Net Price Calculators for about 60 schools on her list , and broke them down into categories in terms of affordability. When we ran it again with a pared down list of 20 schools in August, the numbers had changed significantly at several of her schools, and most did not change in our favor. For the privates with large endowments, it probably signals a change in the way they calculate need - tweeking that ended up not in our favor. At the publics it is tightening of the belt, because nothing is free. For them to be able to offer a full ride, the taxpayers have to pay the tab, or their have to raise tuition and fees for everyone else. They have to balance the benefit of having those top students on campus with the reality of whether they are likely to stay long enough after graduation to help the local economy.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids is right - it may have become too well known, and was thus attracting too many OOS kids. When it is a small handful of students, you can argue that they help provide a certain atmosphere on campus, whether they stick around or not. But then you hit a critical mass, and the likelihood of them sticking around becomes more important - when they spend taxpayer dollars, helping in-state students has to become a priority. They can’t really help more instates with the same money, but those instate student are more likely to stick around long enough to contribute to the tax base after graduation.</p>
<p>I was very surprised as I had been told by UAH that they would probably not change very much. Although I can definitely see why they reduced it. It was on my son’s list as well, but now it just makes his college choice decision easier. It has become too expensive, so one crossed off the list.</p>
<p>It’s true that tax dollars are limited, but Alabama has had among the highest per capita expenditures in the country for higher ed . . . and it appears that a good portion of that budget has been used (successfully!) to attract OOS students.</p>
<p>And Huntsville had a setup that was pretty close to ideal for attracting - and keeping - OOS students. Because of their location, they have an abundance of internships and summer jobs literally at their doorstep. And once a kid has worked for a company all the way through college, there’s a good chance you might be able to convince him or her to stick around. I’m just guessing, but if it were my kid, I wouldn’t be encouraging him to move away and give up a good job opportunity!</p>
<p>Despite the local employment opportunities, though, I can’t see OOS students continuing to choose UAH when they can get better offers from both UA and UAB. And the more that OOS enrollment at UAH drops, the less attractive it becomes for OOS applicants, causing OOS enrollment to drop even more . . . it becomes a downward spiral.</p>
<p>I guess we’ll just have to see what happens this spring. If OOS enrollment drops significantly, maybe UAH will reconsider its scholarship awards.</p>
<p>But, as m2ck points out, what a nightmare for all those kids who’ve already applied and been accepted. It’s pretty late in the season to find out that your financial safety is now a financial “maybe.” It looks like the majority of this year’s early admits applied to UA . . . but there were still several who applied to UAH. With scholarship deadlines for other schools either imminent or already passed, they could have a real problem.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure scholarship awards aren’t announced until sometime after New Year’s, so I doubt that any students yet had commitments on paper. Still, when you’re applying to a school with “automatic” awards, and you’ve got the stat’s to qualify . . . it’s not unreasonable to rely on the award levels you’ve seen posted on the school website.</p>
<p>Crossing my fingers that these kids will get generous competitive awards that will help make up the difference!!! :)</p>
<p>Though not a necessity for DS, this school was helping me sleep at night. </p>
<p>Also - not counting on the NMF full ride. NMF refers to the “old” Platnium level scholarship. I won’t be surprised if they tweak the NMF language before February.</p>
<p>I understand that the school has every right to change before the scholarship deadline, but this was very disappointing. It basically cut the OOS scholarship in half.</p>
<p>My frustration is that I spent MANY hours identifying a list of financial safeties for DS to “work” toward. UAH fit him well and it encouraged him to take the ACT seriously.</p>
<p>We’re lucky that DS is casting a wide net. He may not have a guaranteed financial safety, but at least he is putting himself in a good position. I think the only difference he would have made if he knew last month is that he would have applied to USC. USC has competitive full tuition, but seemed to pale when compared to UAH merit and opportunities.</p>
<p>If it helps any, I believe the NMF awards are still in place - and not scheduled to change. Although, I agree, the language on the website is confusing.</p>
<p>Even after the scholarship app opened, they still only listed 12-13 scholarships, so I knew the possibility that they could change. In hindsight, I wish I wouldn’t have encouraged S to work on that app so early…it was a lot of writing…he ended up missing the deadline for another competitive full ride scholarship.</p>
<p>ARE YOU SERIOUS??? I’ve been SLAVING away to get my UAH scholarship application done in time for the deadline tomorrow (THREE ESSAYS), so that I would be guaranteed full OOS tuition!!! My aunt wanted me to live with her and I’d be on a full tuition scholarship for having a 31 ACT and 4.0 GPA. PLEASE tell me this is some sort of sick joke!! I won’t be able to afford UAH without the full tuition!!! =’ ( I JUST spoke with the scholarship lady on Tuesday and she said that they were making some changes regarding deadlines and such, but she spoke NOTHING of cutting half the scholarship award!!!</p>
<p>Don’t give up! As an out-of-state student with excellent stat’s, you’re still eligible for all sorts of competitive merit scholarships. So get your application in!!!</p>
<p>lgibson with your stats you would qualify for 15 k against total cost of attendance of 25-28k at uab… 15 k would cover the majority of the tuition, and dorms are 5200 per year so not too hard to keep it closer to 25K. deadline is technically tomorrow to be accepted by, but last year they did extend it until the money was gone. quick app, no essays, (unless you apply to an honors college ) contact person for scholarships is Heather Mcknight (get your app in tonight…call heather monday)</p>
<p>Heather L. McKnight
Coordinator of Undergraduate Scholarships
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
(205) 934-8132
(205) 934-8941 Fax
<a href=“mailto:hlm@uab.edu”>hlm@uab.edu</a></p>
<p>they still have their nmf scholarship of tuition and 4 years housing with a stipend</p>
<p>Count me as another parent who is very disappointed with the change. If we had known the change would be so extensive, we would have not bothered to apply.</p>
<p>This is NOT The University of Alabama - the flagship - in Tuscaloosa. Bama’s scholarships for full tuition have not changed.</p>
<p>And, it’s not UAB, either. This is U of A in Huntsville.</p>
<p>Did anyone call UAH since the change was announced? </p>
<p>I wonder if they will rethink this change (for this app season) since they’re getting such negative attention DURING the app process. It was really short-sighted for them to institute this change this late in the app season since many only applied to have a financial safety. </p>
<p>It could be argued that they waited in order to get the max apps, and then “pulled the plug”…but by getting more apps, it helps them with their selectivity numbers.</p>
<p>I think a few outraged calls to UAH need to be made…not just to the folks that answer the phones…but to those who are in decision-making positions.</p>
<p>^^^ Agreed, the full tuition scholarship at UA is unchanged. And the “just about equivalent to full tuition” scholarship at UAB is also unchanged.</p>
<p>However, this was, sadly, the only guaranteed full ride scholarship offered by any of the three schools (other than NMF scholarships). And there are some kids who really needed those extra dollars, And some families who were really counting on a full ride for one kid so they’d still be able to afford to put their other kids through school! This really was an amazing opportunity for a lot of students.</p>
<p>As for outraged phone calls . . . I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make. What will matter, I think, is how the numbers break down next Spring. Are high stat out-of-state kids staying away in droves? If so, they may need to rethink things.</p>
<p>And I am assuming that the last-minute notice of the change was not deliberate. I have no way of knowing for sure, of course, but I’d guess there were some heated debates before the decision was finally reached to implement such drastic changes . . . and that probably delayed things. I can’t imagine anyone in the admissions office was happy about the changes.</p>
<p>But, for those who’ve already submitted applications, I’ll reiterate: there are some very generous competitive awards for which you are all still eligible. So, with any luck, for some of you anyway, those will fill in the gap.</p>
<p>I agree that the last minute change wasn’t deliberate, but was likely done out of fear of too many scholarship awards. However, a cynic could draw a conclusion that having the old info on the site brought in add’l apps, and then a change was made late in the season.</p>
<p>If a school doesn’t want the info that is currently on its website to be used, then that info should be taken down with a note that announcements will be made later. </p>
<p>Yes, by springtime, UAH will see that their high-stats yield will be low. They were offering more than Bama as a way to steal-away some of those high stats kids. Now, by offering less or a similar offer, many students will logically choose the Flagship so as to have a more full college experience. </p>
<p>With a lower high stats yield, who knows what UAH will do. Yes, they may tweak their offers for the following app season, but it will be too late to salvage this one. </p>
<p>I think a wiser decision would have been to keep the old scholarships in place for STEM and business majors (since those are UAH’s strengths), and to give the lower scholarships to those with other majors that do less for the university. They should have also eliminated the offers to int’ls, since frankly, int’ls can’t do most of the internships/co-ops or get hired by most of the companies in Cummings Research Park anyway.</p>
<p>It would have been easy enough for UAH to take down the old scholarship info but they left it up. The cynic in me would say: they did it on purpose to get more applications and when they saw how many they got, they decided to change the awards. Of course, they can do whatever they want but I believe they will lose a lot of the top stat kids to UA and other schools. Now with the OOS tuition they charge – it is really not that affordable even with the the maximum scholarship.</p>
<p>Now with the OOS tuition they charge – it is really not that affordable even with the the maximum scholarship</p>
<p>Well, it’s not free with the maximum scholarship, but to say that it’s not affordable kind of presumes that the student can’t take out a federal student loan and the parents won’t contribute anything. </p>
<p>I think UAH (wrongly) assumed that people are simply looking for a school will cost less than the COA of their own state school. That might be the case if the UAH were a big flagship with all that has to offer. But, when the school is largely a commuter/suitcase school, to attract OOS students, you have to dangle a BIG carrot; not one that is quite similar to what one has at home.</p>
<p>OOS tuition is about $21,000 per year at UAH.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, the scholarship for those with perfect/near-perfect test scores get a lesser scholarship if their GPA isn’t a 4.0. Really? Does an ACT 36 with a 3.9 GPA really not get a $6500 per year housing scholarship, but an ACT 34 with a 4.0 does? If so, that is just crazy. The ACT 36 student is more valuable to the school than the ACT 34 student is. That’s just not good business sense. What computer models were they using to come up with these awards? </p>
<p>It’s ridiculous that the UAH student with an ACT 36 and 3.9 GPA would be expected to pay over $10k for the balance of the OOS tuition and pay for all of room, board, and books. That means that the cost would be about $20k per year. Why pay that for an OOS school that isn’t a flagship or similar? </p>
<p>That same student would get full tuition at Bama and could get a bonus of 2500 or 4000 per year stacked on top.</p>
<p>well not everyone wants a “flagship”… some want a smaller school, some want a specific program at a school, some want the opportunities offered by that school. uah is a great school known for engineering, and 10K per year for a college education is becoming a “deal”… i do agree that the gpa criteria is a little strange here but a school has a right to offer what it will or not offer anything i guess… if you like the deal you apply, if you dont you dont. sad that they left it to the last minute to make the change but when S2 applied to schools a few years ago, same thing happened at 2 different schools oos for him. it sucked but we just took them off the list.</p>