<p>hello, I am thinking of transferring to U of Alabama in the fall.
I have one main concern. I am a hispanic female, so I need to know if there is a significant amount of racism throughout the campus and/or Tuscaloosa.
I am used to hanging out with a very diverse group of people, so I don't want to go anywhere where I would be uncomfortable. Thanks!</p>
<p>P.S. Absolutely NO offense intended on anyone from Alabama. My parents just didn't like when i told them i wanted to apply to such a "Southern" school and are worried about me. thanks again</p>
<p>OHH and quick add to that
in light of this question, are there any schools in the SEC that i SHOULD be worried about in terms of racism? Just trying to decide where to apply :D</p>
<p>once again, no offense, but i have never been to the south!</p>
<p>Just be prepared to deal with the circumstance that, if you’re from the northeast or California, Alabama will be a new cultural experience for you. Perhaps not better or worse, just different.</p>
<p>Be aware that at UA-Tuscaloosa, Greek life is substantial. Football worship is extreme, and many of your peers may harbor politically and socially conservative views. By the way, one of my grad school classmates was a Jewish New Yorker whose father was a very loyal UA-T alumnus. This guy was such a ‘Roll Tide’ fanatic that he was featured in a news report during a nationally televised Crimson Tide football game. His claim to fame, besides being a ‘bama’ man from NY, was that in 20 years he had attended nearly every home game. Clearly, the experience he enjoyed as an undergraduate engendered great adoration for the university.</p>
<p>That being said, I’d suspect you would find your niche, if you try, at UA-T despite the school and area’s history of difficult race relations. Universities often tend to be different from their surrounding communities anyway. The University is no backwoods haven harboring ‘out and proud’ white supremacists. Football worshipers, yes. LOL. To it’s credit, UA-T has done much to try to remedy the past. Just because you might see a confederate flag and hear “Dixie” every now and then, don’t get discouraged. So what? Go to a football game and party [after a week of hard studying, of course!]</p>
<p>If you have strong cultural concerns about being in the rural south, then consider U of Alabama at Birmingham, a school that’s on the rise, but has always been very good in the life sciences, for example.</p>
<p>Incidentally, why are you interested in UA-T?</p>
<p>thank you so much for that post! really gives me some insight into the school</p>
<p>I’m not INCREDIBLY interested in the school right now. I was in my senior year, though, as they offered me a full ride. Didn’t even apply though cuz it was too far from home (california).</p>
<p>so, now that im planning on transferring, I’m looking at all the schools I wish I would’ve applied to before (esp. now that I feel I’m ready to go that far).
Also, I’ve always been pretty interested in the South, like the location and culture and what not. I’ve just never thought about the racism there because, honestly, I’ve never experienced any firsthand here! So I don’t know how I’d handle it lol.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t assume that the racism you would experience at a southern school would be materially different from that you would experience at a school located elsewhere in the country.</p>
<p>If you’re used to hanging out with a diverse group, you should know that diversity at Southern schools is considerably lower than in in the northeast or west coast. HBCUs here pull a lot of African-American students away from other schools, and the Asian population in the south is relatively lower. Also, the cultural history of the south has not been so much one of overt hostility among black and white, but very much one of separate, parallel worlds - black and white schools, neighborhoods, churches - even grocery stores. Things have changed over the past generations and those barriers are finally eroding, but if you’ve never been south and diversity is something you value, it’s something about which you’ll want to be aware.</p>
<p>although being southern isn’t the reason, southern schools tend to be less racially tolerant based on other factors.</p>
<p>U of Alabama has a pretty diverse student body. I don’t doubt you won’t experience at least one account of racism in 4 years, but it’s more tolerant than other schools similar to it in the south. If you want to go there, you should.</p>
<p>Off topic of the race card, but you said you were offered a free ride as an entering freshman. Will you receive a full ride as a transfer as well? Or will you have to pay full way? Many schools that offer free rides to freshmen, especially for high ACT/SAT or NMF, do not extend the same offer when the student turns it down freshman year, but decides to come for their sophomore year.</p>
<p>GaDad quote: If you’re used to hanging out with a diverse group, you should know that diversity at Southern schools is considerably lower than in in the northeast or west coast.</p>
<p>LOL…sorry, but that is so not true. All schools - Northeast schools, midwest schools, southern schools, and western schools - lament EVERY YEAR that their students segregate by color on their campuses for eating and socializing (mostly divided by black and white - not Hispanic). There was a recent article (either in Time or USnews or one of those types) that featured this exact issue. The topic was something like: US Schools have long been integrated, but when are the students going to stop segregating when they socialize? </p>
<p>*In a recent study, Anthony Lising Antonio, assistant professor of education at Stanford University, examined the extent to which students perceive racial balkanization at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and whether their perceptions reflect the reality of actual close friendship patterns.1</p>
<p>Compared to many American colleges and universities, UCLA is a very diverse campus. When this study was conducted (between 1994 and 1997), the undergraduate student body was approximately 40% white, 35% Asian American, 16% Latino, 6% African American, and just over 1% Native American.</p>
<p>Antonio found that students at UCLA do, indeed, view their campus as racially balkanized.</p>