@annamom let us know how it goes!
@Meant2B, FWIW, there are some decent concerts in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham is less than an hour away if concerts or other activities are desired. My son recently did a mascot gig at the Birmingham Barons game and I don’t think the drive was too terrible. Of course, you’ll need a car, but lots of kids have them even if yours doesn’t and there’s always Zip Car.
Surprised you didn’t get a free tee shirt. My son got one from Arts & Sciences after we met with them even though he told them he was pretty sure he’d be sticking with engineering! 
As far as travel goes, we just don’t do it a whole lot, but when we do, we spend the money for nonstop flights. Plenty others fly into Atlanta and drive from there. There are worse drives, I gather!
@LucieTheLakie thanks for the additional info!
Too bad about the free t-shirt! Should we be offended? (We bought one anyway!)
Travel from the Northeast doesn’t provide many direct flights, though getting to Birmingham with 1 stops is not a problem. The drive from Atlanta is not bad, but when my son would travel to and from campus on holidays or breaks getting to Atlanta (without a car on campus) would be an issue.
Thanks! I have to say, by far the UA boards are the most informative and friendly! 
Re the tee shirt, @Meant2B, it was three years ago, so things may very well have changed, and was from Arts & Sciences. Engineering spent a lot of time with him but no freebies there. I imagine Culverhouse is a hot ticket too, so they probably don’t have as many laying around.
FWIW, the local recruiting event we attended (even though the kid had already been admitted) had the best swag. My son still wears the free tee he got there. If you’re near a major metropolitan area, I bet there will be one in your backyard. Well worth attending.
Thanks @LucieTheLakie a few others have told me about the local receptions being awesome as well. Will keep an eye out!
@DavidPuddy we also scheduled our tour through the Honors College - it was GREAT! I’ll include the link to my report on that trip, which includes my advice to consider skipping the general official tour if you are at all short on time. It was just ok - mostly riding around on a bus listening to a guy I couldn’t understand very well (acoustic problems on bus) about stuff I didn’t care about (random buildings, their purpose and history). I think it’d be better to do the virtual on-line tour or drive around to get the lay of the land. Then just walk around on your own at your own pace, stop students to talk with. We did that as well, so I felt like we sort of spent double the amount of time seeing all campus. We did have enough time, but we’d scheduled 2 full days on campus, with travel on 3rd day. If you only have a day, would definitely just walk around on your own. It is fun to see the dorm, but if you don’t want to spend the time to walk there you can see it online.
Don’t miss a meeting with the Engineering Co-op office! Definitely higher on the list than official campus tour or seeing the dorm. GREAT info.
My son is also a NMSF (praying for finalist!!), but we decided not to look at Oklahoma even though it is a LOT closer to us. I spent a lot of time comparing the financials from all angles, and I can’t even remember anymore how Alabama won out, but it did by a bit. Not that that would have been the deciding factor since it wasn’t a big difference, but it makes me feel better about Alabama! I have also read that fees at Oklahoma are very high, and those aren’t covered by scholarship. I think their webpage shows over $2,000. Alabama’s estimated fees are $800/year. Really the main reason though is that my son is more interested in going somewhere further away and out of the midwest. Seems more exciting to him. If he’d been interested in Oklahoma we would have checked it out.
And the t-shirt: I guess we weren’t worthy! No t-shirt. No problem - we bought one!
Thanks @collegework
FYI, Oklahoma changed their NMF package for OOS last month. It is not nearly as attractive as before, and not close to Alabama any longer.
@collegework sounds like a successful visit!
And thanks for the update on the tshirt, I feel better now that we didn’t get the free tshirt either lol
We are scheduled for a campus tour , honor college tour and waiting to hear back from a representative from the fashion college. We are doing this all on Monday. We are arriving on Sunday. Is there anything else we should do?
@lisaol Well, it might embarrass your student a bit, but I found it super-helpful to just walk around and talk to the students. For example, while we were waiting for our Study Abroad appointment (which I’d definitely recommend skipping), I just asked several kids in the hallway things like where they had or were planning on studying, their experience, their major, etc. It sounds like I was grilling them! But really it was just a conversation and they were happy to tell us all about it. So we learned a bit about Study Abroad, but also just general things like whether or not the student seemed to like UA, what worked or didn’t about going overseas, how well it worked with their major, etc. So you might do the same at the fashion college.