<p>My son will most likely be accepted to all of these schools when he applies this fall for the class of 2013 as his grades, scores are all in the high range for all four schools and has good
EC’s. We will be visiting all of these schools the week of april 2 on a road tour and am thinking he will know where he fits best after the visits. His major is undecided at this point but leaning towards criminal justice or Math. Any thoughts on what each school unique characteristics are? Academics? Welcoming of out of state students? Any thoughts and or suggestions are needed and much appreciated. Thanks</p>
<p>Welcome!</p>
<p>I know that you meant well by using the title that you did, but putting titles like that seems to invite the other schools’ fans to post in each others’ forums and then threads dissolve in bickering.</p>
<p>It’s better just to make threads that say something like: Considering southern schools, please tell me about (this school).</p>
<p>**I hope that the fans of Auburn, Georgia, and FSU do not post here, and I hope that Bama fans do not post on the other schools’ threads. **</p>
<p>Back to your questions about BAMA. :)</p>
<p>Since you mention that your child has strong stats, then it’s very likely that Bama would be the one that gives (by far) the best merit scholarships. A couple of those schools give few/small merit scholarships to OOS students…even for highish stats. And one of those schools has significantly reduced its scholarships for OOS students.</p>
<p>Bama has maintained its scholarships for OOS students 
If you have a budget, Bama will very likely be the most affordable.</p>
<p>What do you expect your child’s test scores for (M+CR) SAT or ACT?</p>
<p>As for welcoming OOS students, Bama is VERY welcoming. Bama has students from all 50 states. This year’s frosh class was over 50% OOS students - highly unusual for a big state school. </p>
<p>Please post in our State Roll Call thread…in that thread you’ll see that Bama draws from all over the country - not just the SE.<br>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1096387-what-state-everybody-roll-call.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1096387-what-state-everybody-roll-call.html</a></p>
<p>My older son was a math major, did very well, and is now a PhD student at a Top 20 university. I don’t know much about the CJ program at Bama, but I’ve heard very good things about it.</p>
<p>When will you be touring Bama? You need to set up a campus tour ASAP. I do NOT recommend touring on a Saturday. Profs aren’t there to meet with and you won’t get a true feeling for the school.</p>
<p>If your son will be in the Honors College, then we can tell you how to also arrange an honors tour (you still need to set up a campus tour online…try for an early morning one on a school day!)</p>
<p>Bama has an amazing Honors College, so please try to include that in your visit.</p>
<p>Bama is GORGEOUS, has strong academics and a very friendly campus.</p>
<p>From the CJ website:</p>
<p>Welcome…
to the Department of Criminal Justice!</p>
<p>We are grateful to be housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest and most diverse College in the state. Our department is over 40 years old and employs award-winning faculty who teach and conduct research on a broad range of social problems. The department fosters intellectual curiosity in all of our students and many are directly involved in faculty research projects.</p>
<p>Please “virtually tour” our faculty profiles, course offerings, student organizations and both our undergraduate and graduate programs. Building on our 40 year tradition, we are making some exciting changes, so check the website often for updates. We also welcome “real world” visits, so drop by and meet us on the top floor of Farrah Hall anytime.</p>
<p><a href=“http://cj.ua.edu/[/url]”>http://cj.ua.edu/</a></p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. My intention with my post is not to start a internet war between rival schools but rather to try and get some honest feedback on the schools mentioned. </p>
<p>We decided to do this trip last weekend so all of the tours are booked but we will try and get in stand by. We will be in Bama on April 2 around 1:00 pm and will stay over night in Tuscaloosa and then visit the campus again on Tuesday until 11:00 so that gives us about 8 to 9 hours on campus. He took the SAT and ACT once so far and scored 1950 and 30. He will be taking both of them again and we are thinking when all is said and done he will have around 2050 and 32 as he is working very hard to prepare for the next tests. His GPA is 3.7 unweighted and 4.4 weighted in a top rated highly competitive public high school in NJ.</p>
<p>This link should be of help in understanding Alabama’s OOS merit scholarship program:</p>
<p>[Out-of-State</a> Scholarships - Undergraduate Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Out-of-State”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html)</p>
<p>:) I know that your intent wasn’t to start anything, but that often happens. My words were more of a pro-active attempt to dissuade others from letting your thread dissolve into a battle of posts (like some others have).</p>
<p>With his ACT 30 and GPA, he now has a 2/3 tuition scholarship (about $14k per year) which is more than he’d get at the other schools with the same stats. If he were to get a 32 or 1400 M+CR, then he’d get free tuition…which again, is MUCH higher than he’d get at the other ones. I highly doubt he’d get much from FSU since the Florida publics rely heavily on Bright Futures to provide merit for their instate kids and they don’t give much to OOS. UGa is the same way…relying on HOPE for instate, not much for OOS.</p>
<p>Since the tours are booked, I suggest that you quickly send emails to the following people in the Honors College. Tell them that the tours are booked, and give them the date of your arrival. tell them stats and career/major interests. </p>
<p>They will arrange your days…be sure to let them know the hours you will be on campus since your days are split.</p>
<p>(If there are more than 2 in your party, the chances of getting seats for everyone on a booked campus tour are iffy. The seats are on a bus, so they’d have to have enough “no shows”…they can’t just squeeze in a few extras. So, the Honors College people will arrange a personalized tour. )</p>
<p>Honors Recruitment
Allison Verhine
Coordinator
269 Nott Hall
205-348-5534
<a href=“mailto:allison.verhine@ua.edu”>allison.verhine@ua.edu</a></p>
<p>Susan Alley
Assistant Coordinator
270 Nott Hall
205-348-5599
<a href=“mailto:susan.alley@ua.edu”>susan.alley@ua.edu</a></p>
<p>send emails to both ladies as soon as you can. Sometimes mail goes to their SPAM folders, so if you don’t hear back within a few business days, please call them.</p>
<p>How many will be in your party?</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Thank you for your help. there are two in our party and I have emailed them to ask for help. thanks again!!</p>
<p>NJ: I’m going to say what m2ck said in a slightly different way. I believe the paradigm is changing, and that the wisest students/parents are now trying to get the best education they can for the least amount of their own money (whether directly out of pocket or through loans). There are certainly differences between these schools, but those differences may be worth a couple thousand a year, max, in my opinion. Any differences between those schools are certainly not worth spending $10k more a year. So, if you’re deciding between them, go where your bill will be the lowest…</p>
<p>My son visited Alabama, Georgia and Auburn but not FSU two summer’s back. </p>
<p>He will be studying business (finance/econ) at Bama in the fall. He never visited FSU due to them not having readily available OOS scholarship $$ since we have many good in state schools here in NC and many other schools were known to have good OOS merit money.</p>
<p>He ended up not applying to Auburn after they removed most of their OOS scholarship $$ for the incoming freshman 2012 class since he liked Auburn during his visit but not enough to pay OOS fees to go there.</p>
<p>He did apply and was accepted to Georgia with a nice scholarship offer. One of the things he disliked about Georgia was that it was 90% (or so) in state kids due to their Hope and Nell ?? (can’t think of the name) scholarships for their in state kids</p>
<p>As the poster above mentioned it was important for my son to go to a school that “fit” him in academic offerings, size, had SEC/ACC/Big Ten sports and that he wouldn’t come out of undergrad school with student loan debt</p>
<p>Check out the each of schools and good luck finding the best one for you!</p>
<p>He did apply and was accepted to Georgia with a nice scholarship offer as well but one of the things he disliked about Georgia was that it was 90% (or so) in state kids due to their Hope and Nell ?? (can’t think of the name) scholarships for their in state kids</p>
<p>Zell Miller :)</p>
<p>And, I agree. Any differences aren’t worth significant cost differences.</p>
<p>Each of these are good schools. We live in a suburb of metro Atlanta. Our D1’s class rank and test scores qualified her for the Zell Miller Scholarship had she stayed in state. It is for valedictorians and salutatorians who also have qualifying test scores. It is a nice scholarship package. She considered the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Emory, and Mercer, and a few out of state which included Auburn. She didn’t like any of the Georgia schools. Auburn had been on her radar until she discovered the UA. In my opinion, the Hope scholarship has hurt Georgia schools and the public school systems too. There is no incentive to recruit in state. She preferred the Honors College at the UA over the one at Georgia even though it is great. My husband graduated from Georgia, so it was an unexpected choice to him for her to go to the UA. Outside of academics, housing, and the community, she fell in love with the feel and felt comfortable and welcome. UGA, Tech, and Emory were too urban for her. As I said, they are all great schools. I would say visit your short list three times if you can and all things equal, go with the feel and the $, which in our case wasn’t much of a difference comparing the Zell Mller to the Presidential at the UA. Best of luck in making such a major decision. Roll Tide!</p>