The Graduate School now offers automatic admission into a master’s program for exceptional high school students. Beginning with the Fall 2019 cohort, any high school senior who qualifies for UAB’s Presidential Scholarship is also offered admission into the Graduate School’s Early Acceptance (EA) program. This exciting new program offers guaranteed admission to any participating master’s program, provided the student meets necessary pre-requisites. 

“Early Acceptance is a fantastic way for UAB to recruit and retain its best and brightest students,” said Jesse Keppley, Director of Student and Academic Services for the Graduate School. “It gives us a competitive advantage when recruiting and gives these students peace of mind knowing they don’t have to worry about graduate school. And we are able to offer them a wide range of interest areas, with eligible programs offered in every school across campus.”

But the benefits don’t end there. Applying to graduate school can be tedious and expensive, but EA students don’t need entrance exams and won’t pay an application fee. They can also use any unspent scholarship dollars for graduate courses even after their undergraduate degree is awarded.

Even in its initial year, Early Acceptance met with immediate success. In Fall 2019, the Graduate School sent out 1,851 letters to qualified applicants and ended up enrolling 351 Early Acceptance students. 

“We initially thought we might get 200 students to participate,” Keppley said. “The immediate success of this program speaks to the strength of our graduate programs, and to the dedication these students have to their education.”

This success led to the hiring of Mellissa Taylor to serve as Accelerated Learning Opportunities advisor for UAB. Recognizing these are high school students, it’s likely their interests may evolve as they learn more about where their academic and professional interests lie. Taylor’s job is to bridge that gap and serve as a resource for these students. 

“I am excited to serve this growing group of students through advising sessions and creative events to help them learn more about the various programs involved in Early Acceptance,” Taylor said.“While Early Acceptance is still so new, we are seeing the fruits of our labor as a handful of our Early Acceptance students beginning to enroll in Accelerated Bachelors Masters and Fast Track programs.”

Starting out with 11 participating masters programs, EA ballooned this past year to a robust 27 offerings. And student interest hasn’t slowed down either. For the 2020 cohort, 2,070 letters were sent out, and 369 students have already accepted their Early Acceptance offer.