I would just like to hear other peoples’ opinions on Auburn and Alabama’s engineering programs. I personally feel that Auburn has a better program and my father, a civil engineer and construction business owner, says that Auburn is probably more reputable for getting a job. But I have heard from others that Alabama has better facilities and opportunities. Since Alabama would give me a full ride, I just want to hear other peoples’ opinions; perhaps graduates or parents of students at the schools. Thanks!
Traditionally, Auburn and Alabama were setup much like Purdue and Indiana. Auburn was known as the agriculture and engineering school, while Alabama had a more liberal arts focus. Engineers and STEM students generally went to Auburn, while future lawyers and politicians went to Alabama.
For a long time, engineering was an afterthought at UA. That has changed in the past 15 years as Alabama has built up their engineering college and stocked it with a large percentage of high stat OOS kids due to very generous scholarships. I could not tell you which one is better, but Alabama does have newer facilities and will likely cost less.
Thank you for the response! The Indiana-Purdue analogy helped me understand it better on a historical basis and I have heard and seen what you saw about Alabama putting a lot of money into their engineering program.
The IU and Purdue analogy is somewhat similar, but Alabama’s College of Eng’g is VERY old. It’s one of the 5 first universities in the USA to offer eng’g. However, it’s only been in the last 15+ years that Bama has decided to grow its CoE and has poured a gazillion dollars into its COE…adding over 1 million square feet of new STEM space.
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@mom2collegekids and @diamondking2 - A history of UA engineering school is here:
http://eng.ua.edu/about/tradition/history-of-the-college/
You can see the growth of UA’s engineering college through the ASEE website. Here are the undergraduate figures of Auburn and Alabama:
For Auburn:
http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/6089/screen/20?school_name=Auburn+University
2013: 3,749 full time - 545 part time
1998: 2,966
For Alabama:
http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/700/screen/27?school_name=
2013: 4,006
1998: 1,448
I can certainly see why someone my age would think that Auburn would be the better engineering school. Given the funds that UA has poured into this field, that is not the case today.
@mom2collegekids @Zinhead Thank you for that information. This does make me more interested in Alabama so I will not need to research both of the schools again and maybe visit them again to see if the “bigness” of Alabama wears off and I could tour the engineering facilities of both schools.
You will notice UA’s facilities are spacious and relatively new. AU has a lot of older buildings.
Some students and families have a preference for one school over the other, esp in AL. DD was always interested in UA. We attended Engineering Day at both places. DD just never wanted AU, always wanted UA.
Which school did you decide? We are torn between the two.
@BamaMom1971
Diamondking chose Alabama. Roll Tide!
I would definitely look strongly at UA’s engineering program. My brother went for his masters!!!
Thank you. We have a tour planned in March.
I’m just checking back here, but I am puzzled why you lied and said I chose Alabama, because I am still deciding. Please don’t lie to make Alabama look better. Thank you. @mom2collegekids
@diamondking2 I’m sure she was just mistaken and didn’t lie on purpose (it’s hard to keep track of all of the posters on CC). You should use a bit more judgement before throwing around accusations. Try to give folks the benefit of the doubt.
@diamondking2 Likely it was because you posted elsewhere inquiring about housing at Alabama but not about Auburn. Having read many helpful posts by @mom2collegekids I can’t imagine it was anything other than an honest mistake. Good luck making your decision and please do update the thread when you have settled on a school
@diamondking2 You need to apologize. That was a very rude post.
I wrote what I wrote BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU POSTED in the Alabama forum (and you didn’t post anything like this in the Auburn forum):
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Hi everybody, I am wondering if people have any recommendations for housing for an engineering student (I will also be in the Honors College) with regards to proximity to the Engineering facilities and also being nice residence halls. I very much prefer suite-style, but would be interested in all options if someone has good reasons for a traditional hall. Thanks. <<<
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Keep in mind that you’ll be a very lonely person if you throw around the “lie” word when it’s not warranted.
@mom2collegekids Alright, I see where there was a misunderstanding and I apologize for accusing you of lying. I posted that just inquiring about the housing, not saying I was going there for sure, but I see how you could take it that way.