For three consecutive years, UAB has seen record overall enrollment, climbing to 17,575 in fall 2011. This burgeoning enrollment reflects not only the increasing quantity, but also the caliber, of students drawn to UAB's unrivaled research and scholarship opportunities and distinctive student experience.

This young, dynamic university attracts students who themselves fit that same description. They are talented, diverse - hailing from every region of the nation and some 100 countries around the globe - and driven to pursue their dreams, to breakthrough and excel academically, socially and culturally.



Performing on the State and National Stage

UAB students continue to distingish themselves with numerous awards and honors at the state and national level. Accounting graduates have earned the highest CPA exam score in the state ten of the past 14 years. Engineering students have been named by the Alabama Society of Professional Engineers as Outstanding Undergraduate Student of the Year for the past five years, and 7 of the past 14 years (more often than any other university in the state).

UAB students continue garnering prestigious national honors, as well. They earned an impressive roster of national awards in 2011 alone, and over the past three years, they have won:

• Rhodes Scholarship (UAB's second)
• 8 Goldwater Scholarships (making eight in the past three years)
• 6 slots in the highly-competitive "Teach for America" Program
• 4 NSF Graduate Fellowships (5 in the past 3 years)
• 3 Phi Kappa Phi Fellowships 
• 2 Truman Scholarships 
• Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Fellowship, one of 10 nationally
• UAB's Ethics Bowl Team won the national championship in only its second year of competition in spring 2010.
• In spring 2011, UAB's Bioethics Bowl Team won the national title in its first year of competition.

• 6 Fulbright Scholarships in the past three years (for study in Ireland, Chile, Taiwan, Jordan, Australia, India and Germany)
• 2 Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarships in the past three years (to Northern Ireland and Egypt)
• 3 DAAD - RISE research internships in Germany and a DAAD Ambassadorship, one of only 30 in the nation
• 2 William Jefferson Clinton Scholarships to study at American University in Dubai
• An NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship, one of only 15 in the nation

Breaking Through in a Collaborative Campus Culture

Back on campus, students are fully engaged in UAB's intensely collaborative culture. They are taking part in leading-edge research and scholarship - many of them in their freshman year - in a range of disciplines, alongside globally respected mentors.

Students from many different discliplines showcase their own discoveries in Inquiro, a landmark research journal published by and for undergraduates. And every spring, the UAB Expo schowcases undergraduate research, scholarship and creative projects on an eclectic mix of topics - everything from microbiology to German Expressionism to Birmingham housing patterns.












Diversity Runs Deeper than the Data

UAB has a longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. Increasing diversity has accompanied the rapid ascent of UAB over four decades and is a key element of the university's growth and success.

In 2003, The Office for Equity and Diversity was established to recruit and retain more minorities to UAB’s campus. This office conducts a host of programs, including the Comprehensive Minority Faculty and Student Development Program, which last year awarded more than $636,000 in minority undergraduate and graduate scholarships.

UAB is among only 15 universities nationwide with a five-year, $2 million Research and Academic Career Development Award from NIH to increase the number of minority students entering careers in biomedical research and to expand partnerships with historically black universities.

UAB's strong commitment to diversity is reflected in its enrollment numbers:

• 24% of freshmen are African-American.
• In the past five years, Hispanic enrollment has nearly tripled.
• More than 1,100 international students and scholars on campus representing over 100 countries.

According to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education), UAB is the top university nationally for awarding undergraduate degrees to African-Americans in the allied health diagnostic, intervention and treatment professions, and 5th nationally for awarding undergraduate history degrees to African-Americans.

But it's about much more than stats and demographics. At UAB diversity runs deeper than the data; there is sense of genuine community among students and faculty from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures. Such an environment mirrors today’s world and prepares students for a successful and meaningful careers in the global, knowledge economy.

This diverse campus culture has not gone unnoticed nationally. In The Princeton Review, UAB has been heralded as a “truly a great American melting pot" and a "mecca of multiculturalism" and is ranked among the top five universities nationally for diversity.