<p>Well, we’ve finally gotten around to watching our DVD that we got in the mail maybe last year. Now that son has been admitted to Bama, and we won’t get a visit until Capstone Day, thought we’d get a preview of it.</p>
<p>First off, very well done, great tour of campus. </p>
<p>Second, not a lot of rah-rah. Focus on academics. </p>
<p>Scenes of the town of Tuscaloosa were a big selling point for son. He has a picture of Alabama being a hick state, and seeing the “city” of Tuscaloosa, with its shops, restaurants, and hearing the population size, finally made him willing to see it as a good alternative to his “urban” campus.</p>
<p>Looking forward to Capstone in January to see the “real thing”.</p>
<p>Anyone done the DVD-Rom section of the video, which I guess is viewed on a computer? Interested to know if there are any additional scenes in that. If so, will try to hunt up a computer with a DVD player on it to take advantage of those features.</p>
<p>Honestly, Tuscaloosa isn’t that great of a city, but it is definitely a college town. There’s the normal department stores and restaurants and a few bars, but it’s difficult to get around and most of the town outside of the university is pretty shady. Birmingham’s only 45 minutes away though.</p>
<p>Tuscaloosa isn’t a big city. It has about 125,000 population. The area that is about a mile or two west of the campus is the lower-income part of town (this is not unusually for most campuses to have a nearby lower-income area). The other parts are normal. The entire area surrounding the campus is being rebuilt/remodeled, etc. The U and its associates are quietly buying up most of the land and nearby older businesses and remodeling or building to really make the surrounding area very nice.</p>
<p>I’ve watched the DVD so many times that I’ve memorized the words. I don’t remember there being any DVD extras that you need a computer to access. If you check out the extra features and Two-a-Days is listed, they will discuss the bama bangs. There is also a very long series of news reports of Joe Namath’s 2004 graduation from UA.</p>
<p>Tuscaloosa does have some bad parts, but Alabama isn’t the richest state either. You’ll find bad parts in any city of that size or bigger. I find plenty to do, but I’m not big on art galleries, plays, and lots of touristy activities. Birmingham is not a very large city and is a lot of suburbs with the expected chain stores and restaurants, which I enjoy. One of the best things about Birmingham is the lack of major traffic. I was in rush hour and the sign still said that it would take 16 minutes to get through 18 miles of downtown (considering the speed limit is 50-60MPH within this area, this is doubly odd).</p>
<p>I have a CD that we got at a college fair where two students take you on a tour of the school. Is there a different one we should ask for? I just wish we could figure out when we are getting down there to take a first hand look.</p>
<p>PegV20, that’s what mine says. I think your looking at the iTour Bama part of the DVD. Other parts of the DVD include videos about the individual colleges, the college transition, affording UA, and extra features.</p>
<p>My DVD came in a heavy cardboard folder that was given out by the college rep when he came to our high school. We also were mailed a single DVD with the same background design and the You are innovative wording on it. Didn’t watch the single DVD, as we assume the content would be the same. There is an iTour on the video. On the menu, the last thing listed is DVD-ROM, which is the part I was wondering would have more features.</p>