EDIT: WE ARE APPLYING THIS WEEK! My son wants to apply to U Alabama, Tuscaloosa for entry as a freshman in the Fall of 2025. He’s also interested in applying to UA Honors and the Blount Scholars Program. The housing situation is confusing as I see two dates listed: October 2024 is listed as the housing app opening date and Feb 3 is listed as priority deadline for housing selection. There is no EA or ED option, and the only application due date is listed as Jan 10 (if you want to be considered for merit aid.) My questions:
If my son waits until Jan 10 to apply, when would he apply to UA Honors or The Blount Scholars program?
If he applies before Jan 10 (say, Nov. 1), do they consider his application upon receipt and an offer their decision sooner than March?
Should he apply for housing now, 3 months before his application to the university is due? That seems crazy.
He is applying to 12 other schools and every one of them makes the process clearer than U Alabama.
It’s rolling admission. The app opened in August. They have already accepted students, so those accepted students have already been able to apply for honors, housing, etc.
There is zero point in waiting to apply.
The Honors and Blount application becomes available to him only after he applies, if I recall correctly. He needs to apply now. From what I can remember, the UofAlabama application is a fairly simple process. There is no reason to wait.
He can’t get on the housing list until he’s been accepted and paid his enrollment deposit. And he can’t apply to honors or Blount until he’s applied or maybe even accepted.
The Feb 3 deadline is for being able to select the room he wants. After that, a room is assigned to him instead. Honors housing is often still open well into the picking process, but general housing will fill certain buildings or types of rooms early. Blount all room in the same building, so less stress on that.
Acceptances have been going out for 3-4 weeks now. If he applies today, there’s a good chance he will have a decision this month. Last year, my daughter applied Sept 24 and was accepted Sept 28.
We applied in early August last year and did not go test optional. We waited send SAT scores until she got her results from the late August test. She was accepted less than 48 hours after her SAT results were sent.
I think you should pay the housing deposit ASAP after acceptance. Yes, you also have to pay the enrollment deposit too, but our admissions rep was very open that it was nonbinding (though I did confirm that everywhere else we paid housing deposits did not require enrollment).
She applied to Blount on October 9, and received the invitation to interview on October 16. We went to Capstone Scholars Day in January, and the interview was later that month, and accepted to Blount March 1.
If your student is not going to go to Bama without Blount, then the housing deposit doesn’t matter, really. And if you are doing Honors, you can probably get a good single later in the process, but the housing part is very stressful. Fortunately you can bypass all of that hassle with Blount.
Not familiar with the dates of the differing programs - but yes, you don’t wait. If a program opens later, get in, then apply when it opens.
Many schools - in the SE anyway - you apply and deposit housing before acceptance or you get a bad spot.
The app is here - you can email and ask the timing - like should you wait til your into the university or should you apply to Honors too - they’ll answer you.
I think he would “consider” UA if he is accepted into the Honors College and “very strongly consider” UA if he is accepted into Blount. If I understand correctly, admission into Blount automatically means admission into the Honors Program but not the other way around (Blount being much more exclusive). But if I’m hearing you right, if he would ever consider going to UA with ONLY admission into the Honors College, he should fill out BOTH of those supplemental apps (because he might get into Honors, but not Blount). Right?
And housing is automatically guaranteed in Blount’s LLC but Honors College kids must apply more aggressively for housing and perhaps pay the enrollment/housing fees?
Academically at Bama Honors is there if you want but my son said most are like him. They do it for the early registration and dorm (single rooms, share bath with one). He said, most like him drop last semester. They don’t make you keep pace. He didn’t go to speakers and such.
It makes sense what he says since it’s by far the largest honors college in the country.
But his gf took advantage and did have a nice experience.
Blount obviously very different, unique. No clue if housing is better than Ridgecrest (honors dorm) which is or was 5 years ago superb.
My son is in year 3. He applied for honors early on and was accepted. He decided to apply to Blount, and was accepted, but ended up declining because it was going to add a few extra classes and he wasn’t thrilled with that. He had AP and IB to cover all gen ed and he’d be in them in Blount. Otherwise, I think he would have done it and enjoyed it.
He did live in Ridgecrest in honors and liked the dorm space a lot. It’s very nice. If you want to sift through housing info, the Facebook page of “Housing and Residential Communities, The University of Alabama” posts updates on availability as housing selection progresses. It starts in May, so you could scroll back and see which dorms fill on which day. Honors does last quite a while.
Ok, so yes, if you are in Blount you get automatic admission to Honors, and you don’t have to do any of the regular honors stuff (the first year class and book, set number of ‘honors’ classes, etc. But, and this trips people up sometimes, you do still have to apply to honors as well, if you want honors designation on your degree. You just automatically get accepted (but honestly you’d get into honors anyway).
The Blount dorm is suites: two double rooms with a shared bath. It’s not the nicest rooms on campus, but the dorm is widely reputed to have the best community spaces of any dorm. Lots of lounges, a kitchen, the classrooms on the first floor that are always free for students to use if class is not in session. When assignments are due the kids will proofread each others essays and the double rooms make it so the kids really do hang out outside the rooms and socialize.
This year they switched up the curriculum a bit, so it’s not exactly what we thought it would be when she applied (they said short essays every week and a couple longer ones) and she hasn’t been assigned that much writing, but has done more journaling so far.
We did some orientations with Blount alumni and every single one said the writing skills developed in the program really prepared them for grad school.
The application changes a bit every year. Some things stay the same (the song list), but hers had a haiku about nature and giving two books that ‘yearned’ for each other. That question about AI was the topic of her Blount interview, if I recall correctly.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I think last year they had almost 500 applications for the 120 or so spots, so they do heavily utilize a waitlist at the end.
My daughter came in as a Sophomore and was still able to get credit for her gen eds from AP.
The first year classes are just a requirement for the minor, like you’d have with any minor. They are definitely not the same freshman composition requirement, for example. They are 15 person seminars where you also have upperclassmen mentors giving you a lot of personal feedback to improve your writing.
Some of the Blount classes actually count towards the general education requirements. And if you weren’t out of the Freshman English/composition, they offer a section just for Blount that knocks out both classes at once.
He had both English done and all the other gen eds (HU,SB, FA, etc). He only has the engineering curriculum to do, and none of the Blount counted for that. Yes, if he wanted the minor in Blount, it would have been fine, but it didn’t make sense for him. He’s a good writer as a result of the IB program, but still worried the writing required might take away time he needed for other classes and the marching band.
He did take 2 required honors classes, but I’m not sure he’ll keep honors next year or not. At this point, there aren’t a lot of section options for classes, so early registration doesn’t mean as much.
And isn’t this the week of their free application?
“ Your students have until 11:59 p.m. CST on Friday, October 11 to apply for free via the UA Undergraduate App. Applications submitted through the Common App will continue to require UA’s standard $40 application fee this week.”
Thank you— you have explained everything very clearly and it makes complete sense to me now. I may find that I have additional questions later and appreciate you saying I ca reach back out. I have to say, the Blount application is amazing and my son’s interest skyrocketed after we read through it and talked about some of the questions. It has a sense of humor but asks them to really think— a great and promising combination! And hearing that writing is emphasized is a plus, I think. That is a life skill that will continue to impact those kids’ lives always. Again, many thanks.
Isn’t it also a living community with some good activities to meet others? That was a big draw 3 years ago when my son applied. Maybe it has changed and is more just focused on the classes/minors now. But it at the time it seemed like a great group to belong to for the social and living aspects.
Yes, it is an LLC and they have their own dorm and social activities and student government so there is definitely more, but that is all an add-on to what is primarily an academic program:
