THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA GRADuatE SCHOOL ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE. BUILDING CAREERS. TOUCHING LIVES. INTRODUCTION ounded in 1831 as the first public university in the state, The University of Alabama is a comprehensive research university that enrolls nearly 5,000 Fgraduate students in over 120 master’s, educational specialist and doctoral programs and is on target to grow to 5,200 students in the next few years. But what makes us special? Why is UA the best place for you to build your academic reputation? Those are important questions, and we hope that this viewbook will help you as you search for the right graduate program. Be assured, at The University of Alabama you will be part of a community that cares about you and your future. Whether you want to be a researcher, professor or practitioner, you will find ample opportunities to develop academically and professionally with the help of our graduate faculty, staff and administrators, who want nothing more than to see you succeed. In addition to reading our print materials, feel free to contact the Graduate School with further questions or to schedule a visit to Tuscaloosa and our beautiful campus. We welcome the opportunity to show you firsthand that we are here to advance knowledge, build careers and touch lives. Sincerely, Blake Bedsole Director of Graduate Recruitment The Crimson Promenade CONTENTS Message from the Dean 2 Graduate Student Support Groups 4 Graduate Financial Support 6 Highly Ranked Graduate Programs with 8 Outstanding Faculty Commitment to Diversity 9 College of Arts and Sciences 10 Manderson Graduate School of Business 12 (Culverhouse College of Commerce) College of Communication and Information 14 Sciences College of Education 16 College of Engineering 18 College of Human Environmental Sciences 20 Capstone College of Nursing 22 School of Social Work 24 Interdisciplinary Studies 26 Application Checklist 28 Small-Town Feel with Big-City Opportunities 30 Contact Information 32 The Crimson Promenade | Graduate School | 1 Dr. David Francko outside of Rose Administration Building 2 | The University of Alabama | MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN hanks for your interest in The brightest and most-diverse student body University of Alabama Graduate desiring a student-centered approach School. A graduate degree to their graduate education. As you offers numerous professional study this prospectus, you will see that Tadvantages, no matter how the economic this commitment to student welfare and winds blow: better career prospects, professional development runs deep, from higher earnings and enhanced personal our many financial support programs for satisfaction. But deciding where to student research and professional travel pursue your graduate education is to our innovative, student-led support and complex. Universities with nationally mentorship programs. prominent programs featuring top faculty mentors should be high on your list, as We hope you will soon be joining well as ample assistantship and fellowship the Alabama nation and the vibrant opportunities. The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa community, located in one of as one of the nation’s fastest-growing the most beautiful parts of the American and most dynamic top 50 public Southeast. Peruse our website and by all universities, easily meets these criteria. means work with departmental contacts From just under 20,000 students in 2003, or the Graduate School to arrange a UA now boasts a student population of campus visit. Let us help you build your around 35,000, and growth in graduate reputation and realize your personal and education — in terms of students, professional goals. academic excellence and diversity — has been equally dramatic. Roll Tide! But we hope you will look deeper. UA’s commitment to advancing knowledge, building careers and touching lives applies to your growth as a teacher, scholar Dr. Dave Francko and whole person. Our goal is not to Associate Provost and be the largest graduate school in the Dean of the Graduate School Southeast and nation but rather to be the graduate school of choice for the best, | Graduate School | 3 GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT GROUPS UA Quad in the spring “ GPS is an amazing support group at UA. I am a single mom and feel so lucky to have a group leading the pack in the country to support parents who are getting a degree. The Sitters for Service program has been monumental in my ability to meet program requirements throughout the semester. Last semester, when both kids got a virus on my defense day, a sitter came and kept them during my full committee meeting. Having that type of support from the University has made those rough times so much more surmountable. Thank you GPS!” —Kelly Parvin 4 | The University of Alabama | Tide Together Graduate Parent Support The Tide Together mentoring program We understand that it is challenging uses a team approach to mentoring to be both a graduate student and a in order to help graduate students parent. Therefore, the Graduate School acquire the personal and professional has developed the Graduate Parent skills needed for success in their future Support program, which serves as an careers. Program participants are innovative and accessible academic, matched with faculty mentors and a social and emotional support system graduate-student-peer mentor who help for graduate students who have foster the academic and social needs children. GPS provides information imperative for success in a graduate about campus and community program and beyond. Tide Together family resources; offers a centralized provides resources on a variety of topics platform for students to communicate related to the successful completion about various topics related to of a graduate program; networking balancing graduate work and family; opportunities with faculty, graduate coordinates events that allow graduate students and other professionals in students with children to network the larger community; and academic with each other, with professors guidance and encouragement through and with members of the larger close and sustained contact with a community; provides opportunities mentoring team. for professional development and academic socialization; and serves http://graduate.ua.edu/tidetogether as an advocate for graduate- student parents on campus. Graduate Ambassadors http://www.gps.ua.edu Graduate Ambassadors are current graduate students who represent Sitters for Service a variety of academic fields at UA and serve as official student The Sitters for Service program offers representatives for the Graduate student parents up to 30 hours of free School. Our ambassadors are happy baby-sitting per semester. This free to help support potential graduate service not only provides financial students to The University of Alabama assistance to student parents, but it by providing information, responding also provides emotional assistance. to email inquiries, offering tours, Student parents have used Sitters for meeting for lunch and participating in Service to take time for themselves, recruitment activities. to build relationships with others, to enjoy extracurricular activities and to http://gradsystem.aa.ua.edu/admin/ be something other than a mom or a programs.aspx?type=ambassadors dad for a moment. http://www.gps.ua.edu | Graduate School | 5 Dr. John Clark, associate professor of biological sciences, in his lab GRADUATE FINANCIAL SUPPORT With reasonable tuition costs and plenty of funding opportunities, you will find The University of Alabama Graduate School an affordable place to study. Annual graduate student fiscal support exceeds $60 million, including the following: • Over 2,000 0.5-FTE (half-time) • Every year approximately 30 teaching and research assistantships, Alabama residents are awarded each carrying a competitive stipend, the National Alumni Association full-tuition scholarship and paid graduate fellowship. student health insurance. Paying for a graduate education • In addition, over 200 students involves more than a stipend and each year receive partial fellowship, tuition scholarships. You need assistantship or scholarship support. support for your thesis or dissertation research and funds for those all- • The Graduate School awards over important networking and research 90 Graduate Council fellowships presentation trips to national and annually, each with a generous international meetings. Here too, UA stipend, a full-tuition grant and offers unparalleled support to help health insurance. you build your academic reputation. • The McNair graduate fellowship Our research and travel grant program, begun in 2008, has program partners with departments awarded nearly 60 McNair graduate to provide over 800 students per year fellowships. Students from McNair with nearly $550,000 in research and undergraduate programs or McNair- travel support, including additional eligible (underrepresented groups funding opportunities for international or first-generation, low-income) enrichment activities. students qualify to apply. 6 | The University of Alabama | Institute for Rural Health Research grant group “ Looking back on it now, the decision to go back to school and earn a PhD was probably the second most life changing experience I will ever have, second only to the birth of my daughter. I began my journey in the fall of 2009,when I enrolled in the instructional leadership PhD program in the College of Education. This program focuses on both the social and cultural foundations of education and instructional technology. My coursework has not only challenged every