FAQ

ASMS provides an exceptional education in our state to academically gifted students where they can take advanced courses that are not traditionally offered in their current public school setting. At ASMS, your student will find other students that are just like him/her and will feel challenged by the rigorous and college-level courses. 100% of ASMS graduates enroll in college and have earned millions of dollars in merit-based scholarships over the years.

ASMS prepares our children with the important elements needed to develop the skills and knowledge to successfully transition to higher education roles and assume future leadership opportunities.

Students live in residence halls under the care of residential advisors, counselors, and hall directors. ASMS offers a wide-ranging residential life program that consists of athletics, academic clubs, service clubs, publications, hall competitions, and many other planned extracurricular activities.

Residence hall rooms include an XL twin bed, armoire, nightstand, and desk for each student. The student may choose to raise their bed to allow for storage underneath or loft their beds that allows more room underneath for desk, refrigerator, etc. Each residence room also includes two internet ethernet ports to connect directly to internet, WiFi, and an air conditioning and heating unit. Bathrooms are community bathrooms with individual and private showers, sinks, private toilet stalls, and storage cubicles for students to store their shower caddies, towels, etc. Each hall also has a common area/lobby in the middle of each hall with TV, couches, and kitchen area with sink for washing dishes and community appliances such as microwave, toaster oven, electric water kettle, hot plate, pots and pans, cooking utensils, and other necessities to cook and warm their own food. Students are responsible for washing and cleaning items after use. Students can have Keurig or K-cup type coffee makers and small residence hall sized refrigerators in their rooms.

ASMS does not require its students to pay for any meals. Students are given three meals a day, free of charge. The dining fee is covered by the state of Alabama as a public school. The cafeteria offers various types of food items to meet all dietary and special diet needs and requests. Any student that would like specific items to be provided can speak with the Cafeteria Director who is always willing to listen to students and to try to accommodate their reasonable requests. Students are able to purchase food from restaurants and services that deliver to our campus, but these expenses are responsibility of the students.

ASMS has first-rate security for its students and all community members. A trained and experienced security guard is on campus 24-hours a day, 7 days per week. The security team has video surveillance that provides them with the ability to monitor all public areas around and on the grounds of our school. Security makes routine rounds of the campus and can assist in an emergency if needed. In addition, there are Community Life and Compliance Coordinators in charge and on call during the night and on weekends.

ASMS utilizes several systems such as REACH Boarding, walk-off policies and procedures, and others to ensure the safety and location of its students. Parents and guardians have the freedom and ability to assign certain privileges such as walk-off, drive-off, etc. and provide advance approval for certain individuals that can visit the student on-campus, leave campus with for day trip, or stay with overnight or for a weekend. Identification is checked on every individual that visits our campus or arrives to pick-up a student, regardless of whether it is a parent, relative, or friend.

Students are permitted to have cars on campus but do have driving restrictions based on their class status. They are required to park in a gated and secured area that only allows entry with card, and students must check out their cards and receive approval to leave campus by their personal vehicle.

ASMS offers a wide assortment of athletics, clubs, and extra-curricular activities. Some of the athletic activities are basketball, volleyball, cross-country, cheerleading, chess, and much more. There are various clubs such as foreign language clubs, BETA, computing, gender studies, introduction to flight, and more. A student can start a club by recruiting 5 other students and applying through the Student Affairs office where a faculty/staff member will be assigned as a sponsor. Extra-curricular activities include intramural sports, and many more. ASMS students also can participate in service clubs such as Labs of Learning where ASMS students provide tutoring for Mobile area students.

ASMS has a trained and experienced nurse on campus during the day Monday through Friday. All Student Affairs staff including residential advisors, counselors, and hall directors are also trained in providing care such as assessing symptoms, administering medications, and more when the nurse is not on campus. Our nurse is always on call as needed. If required, ASMS will notify parents and guardians and will transport the student to a local urgent care facility or emergency room depending on symptoms and severity of case and will stay with the student until he/she has been released to return to campus. If student is admitted to the hospital, ASMS staff member will stay with student until his/her family arrives. University of South Alabama’s Women and Children’s center is an excellent facility receiving numerous awards and recognition.

If your student struggles in a class, there are several resources available at ASMS to assist him/her. Instructors have assigned office hours to allow students to schedule one-on-one meetings with them. There are also study labs available that allow students to receive tutoring from other ASMS students that have been approved by instructors. Students can also reach out to their academic counselor who is assigned to their class.

If a student is struggling on an emotional or mental health level, ASMS has an experienced personal counselor to assist them with personal matters such as depression, anxiety, loss of loved one, and other mental health issues. Counselors also provide twenty-four (24) hours a day/seven (7) days a week crisis intervention to assist students.

One of the main tips ASMS parents can provide to new ASMS parents is to teach your child how to ask for help when needed. Learning to ask for help is a life lesson that we all encounter at some point in our lives, and it is not a weakness but a strength to be able to ask for assistance when needed. Resources are available at ASMS if your student needs and asks for help.

Campus life at ASMS is a constant and fun-filled year at ASMS including events such as GeekFest where students engage in a night of games and activities, winter formal, spring prom, Goofy Olympics which is a fun-filled afternoon where halls compete against each other in games to win points, Open Mic Night, and other events throughout the school year.

Our Student Affairs Office also provides daily runs to area stores, and students can sign-up for a current scheduled run or request a run where the Residential Life team members drive students in ASMS vans to various locations such as Wal-Mart, Target, Publix, CVS, Walgreens, restaurants, and other locations as needed. There is a food loop run where ASMS will transport students to various restaurants to pick-up food. Purchases made on runs are the responsibility of the student.

Each student is required to pay an annual activity fee that includes fees that cover traditional expenses such as winter formal, spring prom, yearbook, and other expenses you would pay at any other high school.

The majority of ASMS instructors have taught at the college level and have either received their doctorate or are pursuing their doctorate. Some instructors have knowledge and experience in performing research projects and provide our students with research opportunities that are not able to be provided at majority of other high schools in our state.

Parents and guardians can be involved in many ways at ASMS. ASMS has a Parent Association consisting of parents and legal guardians that can join. Our Parent Association partners with the school to assist in volunteering for events and programs, raising funds to provide grants for our students, faculty, staff and school, providing support through various committees such as Parent Advocacy, Communications, Parliamentary, Legislative Affairs, and more. Our Parent Association has a Facebook group page, and each area and dorm hall has its own Facebook pages as well to share important announcements, answer questions, etc.

Parent Association Board members are parents and guardians nominated and elected by its members. The Board works closely on projects and committees with all ASMS faculty and staff to provide a successful environment for each student at ASMS. Parent Association members are eligible to participate on any PA committee during the school year and encourage those with knowledge and experience in specified areas to volunteer to be a member of a committee that meets their interest and knowledge.

All Board and committee meetings are held virtually through various tools such as GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc. to allow interaction and discussion since our parents and guardians are located throughout the state. Therefore, parents and guardians can participate in any meeting from wherever they are located from their phone, computer, tablet, and other device.

Parents and guardians can also serve as Area Representatives for their area of the state to provide support and communications and as Hall Parents for their student’s residence hall and provide hall dinners, special events, and gifts for students on their student’s residence hall throughout the year.

Parents and guardians are encouraged to be involved as they are able and willing to ensure that your student and every student has a successful experience at ASMS.

You can visit your student any time as long as it is not during their scheduled classes. If you wish for your student to leave campus to go to dinner, etc., you will be required to show a form of picture ID for identification and will sign that student out under your care. Your student can leave campus for overnight stays and for weekend stays that are not designated as a required weekend by ASMS to visit and stay with you, family members, or other individuals that you provide approval and complete a REACH Boarding request in advance.

There are several breaks throughout the school year where students are required to leave campus to go home or to another location i.e., home with roommate to visit, that is approved in advance by the parent or guardian. The longest period your student will go without a break is around 6 weeks after he/she returns from Winter Break (after New Year’s Day) as the next break is not until Mardi Gras break in February. ASMS provides a charter bus for its students during all breaks for parents and guardians to purchase tickets for their students. The charter bus travels I-65 and makes stops at assigned locations at Evergreen, Montgomery/Hope Hull, Pelham, Cullman and Athens exits. A parent or guardian serves as the bus parent for each location and ensures that all students are picked up at each stop and are present at each stop when students return by bus to campus after a break. The Parent Association has worked closely with some of the Mobile area hotels to provide discounts for parents and guardians of ASMS students that wish to visit ASMS and Mobile to visit and spend time with their student.

ASMS closely monitors tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and uses an abundance of caution when confronted with tropical storms and hurricanes. If ASMS decides to close and evacuate campus due to an approaching storm, Residence Life Staff will make sure all students that have vehicles on campus have fuel in their vehicles if parents and guardians approve for the student to evacuate using his/her personal vehicle and, if possible, ASMS will reserve charter buses to provide service to students who live north of Mobile following the normal school break bus route. Buses will be free of charge for evacuations. Students will stay home and can call ASMS for updated information. ASMS makes every effort to post information to its website and social media platforms and to send out emails when appropriate regarding when school will reopen, and students can return to campus.

ASMS is an independent state agency, which means we are not required to adhere to the state curriculum. This allows ASMS to teach college-level classes, recruit students from every county in Alabama, and hire university instructors to serve as faculty members. Our data sets are not included in the state rankings with other Alabama high schools.

We seek to stand on our own merits with data that exemplifies the prestige of our institution over the last 30 years: ASMS is Cognia STEM-certified with a 100% graduation rate, 100% college attendance, excellent college matriculations, high ACT composite scores, high AP scores, student-led research opportunities, participation in NCSSS, and more.