E-mail: pdelmas@uab.edu
http://www.ed.uab.edu

Overview
In just thirty years, UAB has grown into one of the state's largest public universities, with twelve schools, a large graduate school, and a world-renowned medical center. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a publicly supported institution of higher education located in Birmingham, Alabama. The University serves Alabama's economic, industrial, and cultural center. Six schools offer a full range of baccalaureate and graduate degree programs. The campus also includes six health professions schools and a graduate school. The University enrolls a highly diverse student body of approximately 16,000 reflecting the heterogeneity of its urban environment. Two libraries hold more than 1.7 volumes and 800,000 titles. UAB provides primary, secondary, and tertiary health care through the University of Alabama hospital and health clinics. The School of Education was founded in 1969. It currently operates on an $8-million budget and has awarded more than 13,000 graduate degrees to date. The School of Education has the largest number of alumni among the schools of UAB.

The Community
Birmingham is located in the geographic heart of the Southeast, 2 hours by interstate from Atlanta, 4 hours from Nashville, 6 hours from New Orleans, 5 hours from the Smoky Mountains, and 5 hours from the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. Birmingham is a dynamic, progressive urban center of great natural beauty. Almost 1 million people live in the metropolitan area. UAB's campus consists of seventy-five city blocks near the heart of Birmingham. Restaurants and clubs in the Five Points South neighborhood, VisionLand theme park, McWane Center science museum and Imax theater, Oak Mountain State Park, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham International Airport, golf courses, malls, art shows, music and film festivals, and more are all just minutes from campus.

Programs of study and degree requirements
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Education's mission is to prepare and support education and health professionals in meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century through programs grounded in research. These programs prepare students for careers in childcare, classroom teaching, corporate and industrial training, counseling, fitness, health care, laboratory research, school administration, and social service. The School of Education's programs, which lead to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Educational Specialist (Ed.S.), Master of Arts (M.A.), and Master of Arts in Education (M.A.Ed.) degrees, are fully approved by the Alabama State Department of Education, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Interstate Agreement on Qualifications of Educational Personnel, the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

Programs in early childhood education lead to M.A.Ed., Ed.S., and Ph.D. degrees. Elementary education programs confer M.A.Ed and Ed.S. degrees. Programs in high school and nursery-12 education lead to M.A. Ed. and Ed. S. degrees. Agency counseling, rehabilitation counseling, and school counseling programs award M.A. and Ed.S. degrees. The program in health education/health promotion leads to the Ph.D. degree. The program in health education confers the M.A.Ed. degree. Programs in physical education award M.A.Ed. and Ed.S. degrees. Educational leadership programs lead to M.A.Ed., Ed.S., Ed.D., and Ph.D. degrees. Programs in special education confer M.A. and Ed.S. degrees.

Facilities & Resources
The Center for Educational Accountability was established in 1995 and is housed in the School of Education. It offers access to all the resources of the University, including library, computer, and support services. The purpose of the center is to improve educational accountability through a program of research and service that addresses this issue from kindergarten through higher education levels for local, state, and national sectors. To serve this purpose, the center studies the relationships among the resources available for education (e.g., funds, facilities, community support, etc.), educational processes (e.g., curricular implementation, accreditation, policy implementation, etc.), and the outcomes of education (e.g., achievement, retention, graduation rates, etc.). The center is funded primarily from outside sources, and during the past fiscal year it received funding in excess of $1.5 million.

The goal of the UAB BellSouth 21st Century Classroom Project was to design and demonstrate teaching models using a creative, state-of-the-art classroom. This facility is used to teach various methods classes and other classes for preservice and inservice education students. It is also used for professional development programs. The desire is to have a classroom that is visually and aesthetically appealing, models what might be found in some creative K-12 classrooms, addresses the learning and physical needs of all students, and has the technological tools and other tools for teaching in a classroom of tomorrow. Students have access to the World Wide Web through a high-speed, wireless network. Instructors use the facility's multimedia capabilities to deliver content and demonstrate best teaching practices. Teachers and students are all investigating new ways to promote student learning in a stimulating environment.

The Mervyn H. Sterne Library houses a collection of more than 1 million items. The collections support teaching and research in education. In addition to monographs and subscriptions to more than 2,500 periodicals, the collection consists of microforms, sound and video recordings, and electronic resources. The facility has seating for about 1,100 users.

Expenses and Aid
Graduate student awards are available in limited number in the form of assistantships (service required). Applications for assistantships should be submitted to the director of the graduate program in which the student plans to be enrolled. Students who qualify may apply for the following School of Education scholarships: Alumni Scholarship, Artie Manning Scholarship, Delbert and Roberta Long Endowed Scholarship, Kathryn Cramer Morgan Scholarship, and Virginia Horns-Marsh Scholarship. The Financial Aid Office administers traditional loan, grant, and work-study programs.

Tuition in 2004-05 was $163 per semester hour for Alabama residents and $297 for nonresidents.

On-campus housing costs range from $1663 to $2556 per semester, based on double occupancy. More than 1,700 spaces are available for students in five campus residence halls. Within a 10-minute drive of UAB there are thousands of apartments and houses available for rent. Many reasonably priced apartments are located within easy walking distance of UAB. Students should budget $7500 per year for room and board.

How to Apply
All application materials must be submitted to the UAB Graduate School by April 11 for the summer semester; July 1 for the fall semester; and November 3 for the spring semester. Students can apply online, download application materials, or request application forms by mail. In general, applications are accepted from students who have earned a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited academic institution, who have good letters of evaluation, and who have scored well on a recognized standardized test (usually the GRE). Each application is evaluated by the program's faculty on the basis of all information available about the applicant. Successful applicants have usually presented at least a B average on undergraduate work and scores above 500 (550 for doctoral programs) on each section of the GRE General Test. If space is available, some programs may allow probationary admission to applicants who fall short of the above standards.

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