FWIW - a few years ago when I found out about the scholarship, I was very skeptical. It was by far the best guaranteed scholarship I’d seen anywhere. I’d heard that some other schools are generous with their merit aid, but that would take an investment in sending out applications and a gamble on how much would actually be awarded, but at Bama it was all spelled out in black and white and even though it was spelled out in black and white, I’d always learned that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so I was still skeptical.
When my son applied, I was confident that he’d actually receive the award, but still had lingering doubts that for some reason it would fall through, it wasn’t until we actually had the official scholarship notification letter in our hands in the spring of his senior year, that I was able to fully believe it.
The ‘catches’ as others have said are that you have to maintain a 3.0GPA and it’s not a full ride, it’s a full tuition scholarship, so you still pay for course fees, books, housing, and food. But even with those expenses our annual bills are half of what attending our in-state flagship would have been.
So, far my son has been enrolled for 6 semesters and EVERY time the tuition bills were sent out, we got money back from the school (that is helped with his stipend from the engineering school and was also helped by some additional outside scholarships his freshman year).
As far as the education is concerned, it is a solid education from a state flagship school. It has enabled him to get an internship in his field on his own in another state and has also enabled him to get a co-op position through the school, so he will graduate with more than a year of professional experience on his resume.
We’re definitely getting more value from the school than we are paying for.