Bama vs. Ole Miss

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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Hi everyone! I was hoping you could help me with choosing a school.

I was recently accepted to my top choice, the University of Southern California. However, this school is pretty expensive, and I am not entirely sure about what financial aid I will be getting yet. I am from New England, and I am looking to get away. I have narrowed my choices down to two (other than USC), Ole Miss and Bama.

I know I am looking at very different schools here, as USC and these two are not very comparable. I am just drawn to certain things about each. I am majoring Business and minoring in Russian, if that helps…

So, I was hoping to get some insight about what you all think of Bama and Ole Miss. I have visited both, and loved them both. I am looking to rush a sorority, but I have no connections to either school. I can get at least two recs for each sorority, so I won’t be completely at a disadvantage. Finances is not a problem for either of these schools, and AP credit is comparable enough to not be a factor.

I am so lost. I like football, tailgating, and parties. I am very social, but also focused on my studies. I consider myself to be classy, and I think southern life really is for me. I am in the honors colleges for both. I know that Bama has a better honors program (at least that is the impression I have gotten,) and there seems to be a greater population of OOS students, especially from the North. There is still something drawing me to Ole Miss, it just felt right. Again, I am much more concerned about being OOS at Ole Miss than I am when I think about Bama, it just seems as though it is a bigger issue for Ole Miss. I just can’t get Ole Miss out of my head.

On another note, and I hope this doesn’t sound bad, but I really am not a fan of the “XL shirt and Norts” style that I know is prominent down there. If I am being ridiculous for even asking this you can tell me. But I am concerned that I might not fit in as much if I don’t wear those clothes? It’s probably a stupid question… I just wear J. Crew Shorts and a nice top way more than I wear oversized t-shirts. I feel better and more focused when I am dressed up a bit for class, and I like to have my hair and makeup done well all the time. Will this hurt me at all?

Sorry this might be completely all over the place, but what do you think about each school??

Thank you so much!

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nonnnee88…there is still something drawing me to Ole Miss, it just felt right.

I think you just answered your own question. :slight_smile:

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^ This is only my observation, but the norms to dress a certain way on certain days appear to be pretty strong. Looking sharp and put together while attending class should never be discouraged. Good luck with your prep (no pun!)!

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Were you accepted into the Barksdale Honors College? If so, and you love everything about that honors program, then Ole Miss should be your choice. The Honors College at Alabama offers some benefits, but it does not offer what the Barksdale program does. The Honors College at Alabama is more comparable to what Ole Miss calls its Provost Scholars program (which is just an acknowledgement of academic merit, access to specially designated housing, and some special cohort classes), though even those two programs are not the same. By the way, 40% of Ole Miss’ Honors students are OOS (Alabama has a lot of OOS students, too.)

Since you visited both places, you have seen that both campuses are gorgeous, Ole Miss is cozier/smaller, Tuscaloosa offers the Strip and a lot of new shopping while Ole Miss offers the Square. Students at both are friendly and fanatical about football. Do you want to yell out “Roll Tide” or “Hotty Toddy”? You will get a great education at either school, and, while finances are not a concern to you, Ole Miss is a lot less expensive.

Compare your chosen major program at each school. If both are equally good, then, again, compare the Honors programs, and then go where you felt like you were at home.

About the “norts” - ugh. If you intend to get involved in a sorority, I have a feeling you are going to be wearing those awful, unflattering outfits whether you want to or not. I think you should stick to your more polished look, and college is the perfect time to live free of conformity and wear what you want. But if you go Greek, within the already conformist Southern culture, you will conform - the expectation to conform will be to hard to resist. That’s ok as long as you go into this with open eyes. One might think that going to Alabama, where there are many more OOS students, that this pressure to conform would not be so great, but, when it comes to Greek life, no matter where you go, you must follow the rules.

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By what criteria are you claiming that UA’s Honors Program is inferior to Ole Miss’s? I was in UA’s Honors Program, and every one of the Honors classes I took was very small. It was like I went to a liberal arts school.

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http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2015/09/15/public-college-honors-programs-give-students-vip-treatment

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<<<<
It’s probably a stupid question… I just wear J. Crew Shorts and a nice top way more than I wear oversized t-shirts. I feel better and more focused when I am dressed up a bit for class, and I like to have my hair and m
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That is totally fine. The norts and Tshirt thing is not a uniform! lol. Many girls do not wear them. Did you visit on a school day? If you had, you should have seen many girls in other outfits…from very casual to “dressed up”.

However, I have since learned that some girls insist that they don’t like the Tshirt and norts look end up finding the combo to be very comfortable and do adopt it. I’m not a big fan either, but I do recall showing up for some early morning classes (back in the stone age) in clothes that were barely above PJs.

If you’re from the North, then I think the variety of the OOS population at Bama is in your favor. Bama draws more students from the North and both coasts. For example, Bama has over 1000 students from Calif and 1000 students from Illinois. Ole Miss doesn’t have anything close to those numbers.

Both honors programs are excellent.

You should go where you want to go.

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<<<
About the “norts” - ugh. If you intend to get involved in a sorority, I have a feeling you are going to be wearing those awful, unflattering outfits
<<<

lol…If this student purchases any of the greek themed Tshirts, then she probably will decide to occasionally wear that look to class. It can be fun to wear a Tshirt that advertises some fun upcoming greek event. However, it’s not a requirement to wear XL Tshirts and norts.

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About the clothing…who says you can’t be the trend setter if you want?? Wear what makes you happy and comfortable. I do agree that being neat and presentable for class is showing respect for both yourself and your professors. However, if you want to step that up a notch and dress up for class, go ahead.

Just curious…When you visited The University of Alabama, did you do the general tour or did you specifically meet with any of The Honors College Staff??

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OK, I had to look up ‘norts’. :slight_smile:

I’d go where you feel most comfortable, all other things being relatively equal.

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McSweeney’s ran a series written by a girl at Ole Miss. They may be of interest to you.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/its-all-greek-to-me-a-column-on-sororities-in-the-south
I don’t know how accurate they are.

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The heat and humidity are much more bearable in Nike shorts and loose fitting cotton tee shirts.

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OK @2big2babies - why did you have to post that link? Now I’m obsessed with that series. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ole Miss is a smaller school than UA with a smaller campus, buildings are generally closer together. Alabama is bigger both in terms of population and area. Oxford is a nicer town. Less traffic, crime, and more upscale although much smaller. Tuscaloosa isn’t a bad town, but Oxford is just nicer.

Alabama has nicer dorms, although I am not sure if Ole Miss requires students to live on campus first year or not, so one could avoid dorms all together there.

Alabama is more out of state/region than Ole Miss- pros and cons to both sides of that coin.

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With regard to academics, my impression has always been that Ole Miss is a great choice, and possibly a better one for humanities students than Bama. (For STEM, I would think the choice would be between Bama and Mississippi State.)

As someone considering Business and Russian, I think you also have to weigh the better offerings in Russian at Ole Miss to the arguably stronger business programs of Culverhouse.

Re Russian programs:

http://modernlanguages.olemiss.edu/russian-courses/
http://mlc.ua.edu/russian/course-list/

Re business schools:

http://www.olemissbusiness.com/programs/bba/majors.html
http://culverhouse.ua.edu/academics/departments

Aside from that, I think @Mandalorian really points out the differences. It’s not so much that one is better than the other; it’s more about individual fit.

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Repost from Business Insider Magazine:

High-school senior Ronald Nelson had an incredibly hard decision to make this year about college — mainly because he got into all eight Ivy League universities.

In the end, he decided on the University of Alabama and rejected offers from all eight Ivy League schools.

Nelson also rejected offers from Stanford, Johns Hopkins, New York University, Vanderbilt, and Washington University in St. Louis.

He decided to pass on these big names in favor of UA for two big reasons: He got a full ride from Alabama and got into its selective honors program.

“It took a lot of soul searching for me to push that first ‘accept’ button for Alabama,” Nelson said. “Of course there’s a bit of uncertainty.”

It’s easy to see why Nelson got into UA’s honors program and every single Ivy League school. As a student at Houston High School in Memphis, Tennessee, he has a 4.58 weighted GPA, has taken 15 AP courses, and achieved a 2260 out of 2400 on his SAT and a 34 out of 36 on his ACT. He’s the senior-class president of his high school, a National Merit Scholar and National Achievement Scholar, and a state-recognized alto saxophone player.

Despite his achievements, Nelson did not receive a performance-based scholarship from the Ivy League schools. None of them offer merit scholarships, nor do several other prestigious universities, such as Stanford.

Like many top universities, each of the Ivy League schools vows to meet the full financial need of any student who gets admitted. However, this doesn’t mean they’re covering every student’s tuition. Rather, they use factors such as a family’s income, assets, and size to determine “demonstrated” need.

Each school offered Nelson some financial aid, he said, and “some of it could have been manageable for the first year.”

After that first year, though, his aid package would shrink; his older sister graduates from college in 2016 and his parents would then only be supporting one child’s tuition. The change, according to Nelson, would be “pretty drastic.”

“[The schools] told me that I would probably end up paying quite a bit more over the next three years,” he said.

Nelson and his family were faced with a choice — stretch their budget and potentially take on debt for a brand-name school, or save their money for a graduate degree down the line. His father, Ronald Sr., is an engineer who works as a manager at the Federal Aviation Administration and his mother, Sandra, works in management at FedEx headquarters.

“I think it would have been possible, given some sacrifice,” Ronald Sr. told Business Insider about sending his son to an Ivy League school.

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That story has been widely disseminated and discussed on CC, @mtmarmom, but I don’t see how it’s relevant to the OP’s question.

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Ole Miss is a great choice, and possibly a better one for humanities students than Bama.


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I would say that the two are a toss-up, or even give the nod to Bama when you consider how extensive and unique the UA Honors College offerings are and how so many of them are humanities.

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^^ That makes sense, but I’m not sure it’s true for Russian, which is the specific humanities subject the OP is interested in pursuing.

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Hi and thank you. I think it shows that Alabama has a great honors college too. I will never understand the snippiness on these boards.