<p>I was accepted at Ole Miss and I will be (auto admit stats, applied late) at Alabama. I’m a WI resident, so out of state. I plan on majoring in biology or something like that and going on to med or dental school.</p>
<p>I want a place that isn’t too academically difficult because I need a 4.0 for grad school. No honors college or anything like that.</p>
<p>Big school, small school, urban, rural, I’m not really picky.</p>
<p>Which do y’all think is better for me?</p>
<p>You should not skip the honors college at Bama. The classes aren’t harder if that’s what you fear.</p>
<p>However, you seem to be under the wrong impression that attending either school will make it easier to get all As for med school. That thinking is wrong. All good schools have very difficult classes that fulfill the premed prereqs. those are always the weeder classes. If you think that you can take it easy at Bama or Ole Miss, you’ll find yourself with a lot of Cs or worse in those prereqs.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids- Thanks for the advice. </p>
<p>Anyway…back to your question. Alabama draws more students from outside the southern region than Ole Miss does so likely a better fit for you.</p>
<p>I just don’t want you to think that it’s going to be easy to get all A’s at any good school as a premed. My son is in med school. He was a ChemE major. He had to work his fanny off for his A’s. The same would happen at Ole Miss. The purpose of the weeding is to force those who can’t cut it, to move onto something else. Orgo classes are killers everywhere.</p>
<p>The past two weeks have been excruciating (at least to me) as my son weighed going to Alabama or Ole Miss. He loved both schools, received similar merit aid offers, and both schools offered challenging environments expected of any university.</p>
<p>Alabama offered: Honors College, Engineering and Physics degree, beautiful campus, great honors housing, suburban location (I know they say urban, but that was not our impression), and, the ultimate deciding factor, the STEM-to-MBA program.</p>
<p>Ole Miss offered: Provost Scholars Program (he did not want to apply to their Honors College), great Physics program, gorgeous campus, really nice brand new housing (choosing the Provost Scholars Living Learning, though they also offer Residential Colleges, which he would have applied to), unique town of Oxford (he absolutely loved the Square), and a much more affordable price tag (about $9000 cheaper a year for out of state, not considering any scholarships.)</p>
<p>Ole Miss won out on price and location, because it is just so cozy there, and even quirky in some ways, which was great, and the campus is so well laid out, and then the Square. We did not see any similarly charming parts of Tuscaloosa (could be some.) But Alabama squeaked by with that offer to apply to the STEM-to-MBA, and when he was accepted, the decision was finally made. </p>
<p>Interestingly, when we went to the orientation, none of the main student ambassadors were in the Ole Miss Honors College, but just talented students pursuing other paths. And all but two or three of them, were from out of state (Washington, California, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana.) The majority of parents and students there were from out of state, as well. Ole Miss’ generous scholarship program is getting the attention of students from far beyond Mississippi or the immediate states.</p>
<p>My twins, Class of 2016, have already decided that even if they can get the same Alabama scholarships as my oldest, that they plan to go to Ole Miss. They just loved it and preferred it to Alabama. Of course, my checkbook will appreciate that.</p>
<p>Really depends on what kind of campus, and what programs you want. Both schools are going to be challenging. At Ole Miss, you don’t have to be a part of the Honors College to get to be a part of a lot of great programs.</p>
<p>One program that really stood out to me at Ole Miss, that I don’t recall seeing something similar at Alabama, is the Fasttrack Program. If my son had attended Ole Miss, I planned to encourage him to participate, even though he would also be participating in the Provost Scholars. It is a program that helps freshman transition to college, and you get to take some core classes with the same students throughout the first year. Here is a link: <a href=“http://fastrack.olemiss.edu/”>http://fastrack.olemiss.edu/</a></p>
<p>If it truly does not matter to you, then, for financial reasons, Ole Miss could be the better choice. Oxford is really charming, too.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids- I’m not expecting a walk in the park either place, I’ve taken some college Chem and Bio classes in HS and they are certainly not for the feint of heart, I agree with you 100%. The thing with Honors College is I don’t want to do a whole bunch of extra work and add rigor on top of an already difficult schedule just so it says something different on my diploma. </p>
<p>@chesterton- Thank you so much! This was extremely helpful. I will be visiting both schools next week and I will be sure to check out the places you mentioned.</p>
<p>@Mandalorian … have a wonderful trip to both places. By the way, some restaurant suggestions (my son was always thinking about food 
… he highly recommends Bob’s Victory Grille in Tuscaloosa (I did not get to go on that second trip so I missed out on that restaurant.) I am sure there is more to Tuscaloosa than what I got to see - I stayed pretty much either on campus or on McFarland between the school and hotel (did find a lovely Barnes and Noble, though.)</p>
<p>Lucky for me, I did get to go to Oxford, and if you can, try to go to Ajax’s Diner in the Square. At first, I was undone a little bit by how tight they fit the tables - talk about cozy - but once you get in and sit down, it starts to feel more comfortable, and they serve the best Southern food I have ever eaten in my entire life. Go for lunch - the prices are better. Also, as far as the Square, we finally figured out that there is parking on the outskirts so you can easily park and then walk into the center where the restaurants and shops are rather than get frustrated by getting stuck in the Square looking for parking. When I get back to Mississippi, I plan to go hunt for the various hot tamales (who knew that tamales were a state food) and also get to Water Valley where there is a neat grocery store that also sells diner lunch. Anyway, a lot to explore.</p>
<p>Have a great time. Now that spring is in the air, I bet both campuses are starting to bloom and both must be gorgeous (of course, even in winter, with brown grass, both were - not bad places to be for four years.)</p>
<p>Meant to mention that transportation to the airport is easy at both schools. Alabama has shuttles to Birmingham and Ole Miss offers shuttles to Memphis. That was a huge concern for us being out of state.</p>
<p>Quick Update . . .</p>
<p>Just to add after mom2collegekids’ comments (which I appreciate, because I learned a lot from her posts myself about opportunities at Alabama) - and please don’t take this as if a response to get some kind of competition going between the schools - I think both schools are great and am not trying to cheerlead for either, but rather for both.</p>
<p>That said, the point about priority registration is very important, and, in case you do consider Ole Miss over Alabama, if you are invited to be a part of the Provost Scholars program, you will get priority registration similar to Alabama’s Honors College. You can also apply in your junior year to join the Barksdale Honor College, if you want.</p>
<p>Here is their website: <a href=“Provost Scholars Program | Office of the Provost | Ole Miss”>Provost Scholars Program | Office of the Provost | Ole Miss;
<p>If you do decide that being a part of an Honors College is important to you, then Alabama probably wins out, because it offers the opportunity to a larger group of students and it offers Honors courses for all of the core curriculum. The Provost Scholars at Ole Miss is just a cohort of about 300 students who will see each other at special workshops and in certain courses, and some can live together in Minor Hall, but it is not set up like the Honors College at Alabama (since Ole Miss has the Barksdale Honors, it is not intended to be a replacement, but just an extra opportunity for motivated students.)</p>
<p>That’s all from me, I promise. Others whose kids have already gone through Alabama’s programs have a lot more wisdom about those programs than I do, so definitely read everything in this forum to get an idea about Alabama. I did, and my son did, I will know more a year from now. And in three years from now, I expect to know more about Ole Miss.</p>
<p>It is great to have so many opportunities. Best of luck!</p>
<p>You are missing the point about the HC…there isnt a bunch of added reqts, nor is there extra work. You should join so that you will have priority registration. You’ll be annoyed if you cant get the classes you want at the times you want because the honors kids get to choose before you do.</p>
<p>You can take take honors versions of the Core Req’ts…you have to take those courses anyway. Both of my kids did honors and they didn’t have to take any extra classes or do any extra work. </p>
<p>If you are premed, then it is important to know that Bama does write Committee Letters. Also, if you go to Alabama, even tho you’re OOS, you will get special consideration at University of South Alabama’s med school for attending a AL univ. If you attend Ole Miss, YOU WILL NOT get ANY consideration to attend Mississippi’s med school at all. They do not accept OOS students.</p>
<p>Ole Miss has obviously stepped up their recruitment of talented OOS students. MS State has done so for a long time, esp. for good reputation eng. school.</p>
<p>Chesterton I hope it all works out for your son at Ole Miss. As time goes on, still make sure your twins Class of 2016 evaluate what has changed in the college paradigm with Ole Miss, UA, and other schools.</p>
<p>You cannot assume one honor’s program operates the same as others. Read the school info and ask questions.</p>
<p>At UAB, there is a university honor’s program that substitutes courses for regular requirements, but they also have other honor’s programs that do involve more - which makes those programs unique. DD1 is in two honors programs at UAB - one just means she has a guaranteed seat in nursing, the other is experiential learning which she has approved EC experiences (writing up a paper about education and the experience - for example the kind of work she does, her ROTC experiences, marching band experience, etc). UAB has other unique honors programs too. She was initially dual-tracking with pre-med. Organic chemistry was a challenge, but she finally saw that nursing was a better fit for her (she plans to pursue a doctorate in nurse practitioner, and seems to have a good track with Air Force). By the way, this current year (and with gov’t reductions may be different) Air Force was only committing to educating 12 MDs from undergrad (and one slot is for a graduate of the Air Force Academy). The opportunities are greater for nurse practitioners.</p>
<p>As mom2ck said, at UA, you don’t take extra classes, you sign up for honors sections. Honors gives you scheduling priority, and there is honors housing you are eligible to live in. For students interested in research, honors college can help facilitate. UA also does have a few other very select honors programs (CBHP for example). User friendly.</p>
<p>A friend’s son is starting UA in the fall, he will swim for UA and is also pre-med (his older cousin finished at UA and is completing med school at Univ of South AL, USA). Father and uncle are both doctors. Dad and uncle educated OOS but families moved to N AL.</p>
<p>So at each school ask lots of questions. Mom2ck and her DS learned exactly what he needed to do to be a strong med school candidate, and he prepared well - as he is doing great in med school. He had multiple med school acceptances and scholarships. </p>
<p>If you have some good CC sources for Ole Miss, seek them out. There are a lot of CC posters for UA, because UA has been a landing place for many talented OOS students, and OOS families are so pleased with their student and family experience at UA.</p>
<p>My DD2 is starting UA in the fall, and is very excited (civil eng, honors, STEM MBA); has Presidential and Eng Scholarships, concert band scholarship (clarinet) and is auditioning for Million Dollar Band Scholarship (in April is last audition date, and then they notify all students who auditioned the following week). We are thrilled for DD2 at UA and DD1 at UAB.</p>
<p>Chesterton, which school was chosen? In some parts it seems like ole Miss and in other parts UA </p>
<p>@SOSConcern- Thanks for the advice. The U of S Alabama consideration letter thing is looking pretty good. I’m just not interested in an Honors program. </p>
<p>Mandalorian, if you want to keep a high GPA, join the Honors Program.
1°It’s crucial for premeds to be able to choose their classes (times, instructors, topics) in order to maximize GPA and minimize problems and 2° honors students have higher grades in honors classes than in “regular” (they’re not curved… just more interactive: essentially they’re discussion-based version of the lecture).
It’s not like Honors in HS.</p>
<p>Mandalorian med school admission is a process just like admissions for college, but certain standards are more solid - GPA, specific classes, MCAT score, then other things…</p>
<p>And at a particular college, you have to jump certain hoops for priority on classes. At UA, students can drop honors w/o penalty other than no longer living in honors housing and no longer having scheduling priority.</p>
<p>As MYOS1634 said, it is not like HS honors…Alabama has two medical schools (UAB and USA).</p>
<p>@Atlanta68 … sorry about that.</p>
<p>My son chose Alabama, finally making his choice at the end of last week. He has had his admissions offer and scholarship offers since early fall, but it took all this time, and college visits to several locations, and a lot of consideration to commit to Alabama. Getting in to the STEM-to-MBA program was the deciding factor, an opportunity that came up within the last couple of weeks, I think, when he received the invite to apply. He had just recently decided to pursue both a EE/Physics double major along with a business-related major or minor, so when he received that invite, and then got in, that sealed the deal.</p>
<p>It was a neck and neck race, though, because he was very concerned about finances, and though he had full tuition at both, Ole Miss is still significantly less expensive and he really liked Oxford. As he waited to hear back on the STEM program, he looked at his options to create something similar at Ole Miss. He could have done a double major, but he just liked the design of Alabama’s STEM to MBA program. He will be part of the Honors College, but he was not really looking for that when he started this whole process, so never a make-or-break factor. I think he will come to appreciate it, though, once he gets started. His primary goal throughout all of this has been to get out of Florida, and so he definitely gets to do that.</p>
<p>The good news, financially speaking, is that right now my twins think Ole Miss is the place for them, and it will be more affordable, and they will earn some kind of scholarships even if they don’t get super high ACT scores. They might get those high scores - every student is different - but, with Alabama, knowing that they would have to get the very top scores in order to go (only one wants to be an engineer, and the other a teacher, so scores would have to be at least 30 for the engineer, and 32 for the teacher), I was starting to fret (and fret way too early - I have to get the oldest one off to college before I need to start fretting about something else.) But who knows. A lot can happen in a year. We will be going through this whole process again beginning next summer.</p>
<p>As much as your DDs may want out of Florida, they may find a niche there. Interesting that there are AL students wanting to go to FL…</p>
<p>I know twins that have gone to different colleges. Of course some do go to the same college. That is certainly something for them to explore…</p>
<p>Chesterton please join the fb page for parents of ua and also parent of ua class of 2018.</p>
<p>"“Chesterton, which school was chosen? In some parts it seems like ole Miss and in other parts UA”"</p>
<p>lol…I agree. Chesterton’s answer was so ambiguous that I thought he chose Ole Miss…lol. But then he wrote about STEM MBA and I wasn’t sure. </p>
<p>now it’s clear that his son will be going to Bama. roll tide! (he made the right choice!)</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
@SOSConcern
@chesterton
@MYOS1634 </p>
<p>Kind of a bump here. </p>
<p>I just got back from visiting both schools. </p>
<p>Impressions:</p>
<p>Alabama- Loved Tuscaloosa, lots of things to do, shops, restaurants, etc. With a metro area of 230,000-ish it’s bigger than any place I’ve ever lived. Seems like a pretty cosmopolitan place and a college town, reminded me of Madison WI. I loved The Strip near campus, very college-town feel area. The Alabama campus itself was gorgeous. I loved the style of the buildings, it’s what “College” looks like in my mind. I took a quick look around campus before my official tour and “Sweet Home Alabama” started playing, pretty cool. The campus is large and spread out, but getting around seems very easy. Tour was great, they had a full day planned for me, 9:30-4:30, I really got the VIP treatment (golf cart tour). Talked with some students, all of them were VERY nice and helpful, loved UA. While sports are big, there is a definite focus on academics here too. </p>
<p>Ole Miss- I had mixed feelings on Oxford. I loved The Square, amazing stores, restaurants and stuff, but the rest of the town came up short. I know it’s a small town, but no restaurants open after 10:00pm is a problem in a college town. It defiantly had a more “Old South” feel, not a bad thing, just different. There was a “Country Club” atmosphere, I didn’t mind, it reminded almost of Short Hills/Millburn, NJ, where I have some family. The Campus was certainly smaller, as it is a smaller school. The Grove was awesome. I got a real VIP tour from in a Cadillac by the mayor of Oxford, totally awesome. I didn’t think there was as strong a focus on academics here as at Alabama, but with large state schools, one encounters many kinds of students. </p>
<p>Conclusion:</p>
<p>I have to sit down with all of the information in front of me, but as of right now I am leaning towards Alabama. I had a super-positive initial impression and there seems to be a strong focus on academics, but not too strong to wear one out. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the input!!!</p>
<p>@Mandalorian… Thanks so much for sharing your visits. Wow, I love the tours you got at both schools. Isn’t it great to have two compelling choices? I understand your reasons for favoring Alabama and if you choose Alabama, it will be a great choice, no doubt about it. Like I said before, my oldest has chosen Alabama and is very excited about heading to Tuscaloosa in August, and my twins think Ole Miss will be a better fit for them. Best wishes as you make your decision!</p>
<p>Mandalorian I guess I never mentioned my H and I grew up in S WI (not too far from Madison) so I am very familiar with UW-Madison. My brother got a degree there (engineering) and my niece is currently a student there. </p>
<p>As I had said, my younger DD is going to UA in the fall - she has had her sights to go to school there for many years. My older DD is at UAB (her school of choice). I gave details in earlier threads. So I may be biased, but I have worked for two universities (Texas A & M, and UAH), got graduate degrees from these schools in addition to my undergrad in WI - so I can identify quality programs/where a college has great opportunities.</p>
<p>Both my DDs did several summer music sessions at UW-M even though neither are studying music in college as a major/minor. Niece was in a horrid UW dorm situation (due to rodent situation that was not properly addressed by UW; she loves UW and is now in a nearby luxury apt with room-mates paying no more than that dorm situation - the old Sellery which maybe was de-commissioned because now the web site just shows the new Sellery…however UW housing did a poor job for the residents of that large dorm building that year!) For summer music, over the years my DDs stayed at both the old and the new Sellery Hall.</p>
<p>Since we live in AL, I am most familiar with UA and other programs in AL. Something to keep in mind on your career path is that there are two med schools in AL (at UAB and Univ of S AL, USA), and a very fine dental program at UAB (both our family dentists graduated from there so I can attest from a patient standpoint). </p>
<p>I have great confidence that UA will provide everything you are looking for and more. </p>
<p>As you saw from your tour, lots of new buildings, lots of growth, lots of excitement. Administration works great with providing the academic programs and students everything they need. Honors College provides great opportunities for students. </p>
<p>Adding lots of on-campus housing which if you included in your tour is very nice. Most people have said they have not seen nicer dorms elsewhere (maybe some similar - I know like some of the newer things at UW-M although I think UA’s might be a little more spacious).</p>
<p>Notify us via this thread on what you decide. Both schools are great choices…</p>
<p>@SOSConcern- Alabama’s dorms were definitely more like penthouses than “Dormitories”. Full size refrigerator, stove, etc. </p>