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The Blount Scholars Program

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2019 Application

Although this will easily be the most fun you will have in connection with your college search, you may want to give the application the once over before starting. This will enable you to save your responses in advance in a word processing program, which is always a good idea with web submissions. Not trying to get all in your business, or anything. Just saying....

The application has three sections:
- Section One - Pedestrian but nonetheless necessary biographical data--name, contact information, GPA & test scores, etc.
- Section Two - In which we try to get to know the person behind the myth. This might include: querying you about your preferences, passions, prejudices, and peeves; asking you to inhabit hypothetical scenarios or imaginary worlds; having you write a little poem; requiring you to translate a prose passage from Iriquois into Urdu.
  
  Ok, the thing about the translation was a gag. We do ask you to solve some differential equations, though.
  Ok, the differential equations bit was a gag too. Loosen up, will you?
- Section Three - Wherein we wax curious about how Blount might fulfill your educational quest and how you see yourself fitting into the program.
Now get busy. And remember: if you're not having fun doing this application, you're living wrong.
Section One
Just the facts.
Name*
First Last
Email*
Enter Email Confirm Email
UA email*
Enter Email Confirm Email
Permanent Address*
Street Address City State / Province / Region ZIP Country
Phone*
CWID
Areas of Current Academic Interest*
GPA
Current High School*
SAT EBRW (if taken)
SAT Math (if taken)
ACT Composite (if taken)
Reference's Name (Please select someone who knows you in an academic capacity. N.B.: we are not soliciting a letter of recommendation, simply the contact information of a reference in the event we feel we need additional information.)*
First Last
Reference's Position/Title*
Reference's Email
Enter Email Confirm Email
Residence in the Blount Living/Learning Center during the first year is required. Please indicate your assent below.*
- I understand the Blount residency requirement and am willing--indeed, am eager--to live in the Blount Living/Learning Center.
Section Two
♫ Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...♫
Please run with the following prompts. How long should responses be? Totally up to you--there's no minimum or maximum.
The limerick is a (usually) humorous verse form of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme. The meter is roughly anapestic, which means the lines are composed of three-syllable units called anapests which have the form unstressed/unstressed/stressed (e.g., the word “understand”). Lines 1, 2, and 5 contain three anapests and lines 3 and 4 have two. An example is below. Replace it with a composition of your own. If you resent this ultimately arbitrary constraint on your aesthetic prerogative, choose a verse form you prefer and run with it. If you exercise this liberty, make sure to let us know what alternate form you've chosen. (And yes, free verse counts.)*
Since long before the reality of space flight, humans have been obsessed with traveling to Mars. Now that we can actually make the trip, we adduce a variety of reasons for doing so. But as is the case with most human pursuits, there’s probably more to the story of our motivations than we usually cop to. Why do we actually go to Mars versus why we say we go to Mars?*
When he made his first appearance in 1954, Kool-Aid Man was received as a benign and upbeat, if slightly quirky, exponent of the powdered soft drink product after which he was named. In the decades since, ever-evolving cultural norms as well as developments in behavioral categorization have caused a shift in perception, producing a somewhat more problematic image. Explosively breaking through walls, fences, and ceilings amidst groups of terrified children, Kool-Aid Man emerges as a guy with anger management problems. Imagine a brief exchange between Kool-Aid Man and his therapist, the sagacious, salty, and debonair Mr. Peanut, as they try to work through KAM's issues.*
In his novel Auto-da-Fé, Elias Canetti ruminates “But what proof have we that inorganic objects can feel no pain? Who knows if a book may not yearn for other books, its companions of many years, in some way strange to us and therefore never yet perceived?” Give Canetti’s thought experiment the provisional credence it deserves. Tell us about two books you have read that could conceivably yearn for one another. What is the basis of their yearning? What induces their desire for companionship? (NB: Your choices needn't be novels or even fiction; any book is fair game.)*
Take a blank piece of paper (8.5 x 11) and make your mark upon it, so to speak. You may write, tear, draw, color, fold--anything you like except a photo collage (which doesn't rule out either photography or collages). When you're done, scan it and upload. Alternately, of course, you can create a digital file from the outset and just upload it. It must be in one of the formats specified below, though.*
Accepted file types: jpg, jpeg, gif, png, pdf, doc, docx, txt.
Are you a smoker?*
- Yes
- No
No way! Dude, you shouldn't smoke. It's unhealthy. And besides, the dorm, indeed the whole UA campus, is a non-smoking area. Promise you'll give it up. (Note: agreeing or refusing to give up smoking will not affect your admissions decision.)
- I promise to quite smoking.
- Negative. I'm not promising. It's none of your business and I resent the institutional paternalism that has produced this question.
Excellent. Don't start. It's not good for you.
Section Three
The Fit
How did you first learn of the Blount Scholars Program?*
What aspect(s) of the Blount Program induced you to apply?*
Far from operating on a merchant/consumer model, The Blount Scholars Program is a partnership between faculty and students. Blounters, as students in the program are called, are legendarily intrepid in helping to shape their academic and social lives. Which of the Blount groups below could you imagine yourself participating in?
- Executive Committee (student governance)
- Ambassadors (student recruitment)
- Mentors (new student orientation and transition to UA)
- Social Committee (Fun--note capital "F")
- Media Committee (print publications, website, social media)
- Blount Instruments (music, aka the food of love)
- Poetry Collective ("eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone")
- Trivia Team (undefeated!)
- Blount Cineastes (film group--turtleneck sweater required)
- Roll Tile (mah jongg team)
- Blount Literary Magazine
Now name an activity that isn't in the list above that you could imagine initiating.*
What did we miss? If there are additional documents (tax returns, dental X-rays, talley sheet from that time you bowled 285, etc.) that you would like to include in your application, please upload them here. (Optional)
Drop files here or

Accepted file types: jpg, gif, png, pdf, mov, doc, docx, txt.
Once Your Application Is Complete, Click the "Submit" Button Below
Questions? We would be happy to answer your questions regarding participation in the Blount Scholars Program or send you a program brochure (created by our students).

Please contact the Blount Scholars Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Box 870257, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0257, telephone: (205) 348-1706, email: heidi.benstead@ua.edu.
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(205) 348-1706
202 Oliver Barnard Hall
blountscholars@ua.edu

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The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0257

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