<p>Welcome to Bama, trailblazers!!! Your children will love it here. </p>
<p>I was in your shoes last year and now I can’t believe my D is finishing her first year at Bama. She had a great year filled with so many diverse opportunities (fun, learning, career, sports, etc.). You have made a great decision to come to Bama. </p>
<p>Roll Tide!!</p>
<p>This is fascinating and encouraging! We are also a highly educated family with Northeastern roots. Until recently, w never in a million years would have considered The University of Alabama for our children. But we keep hearing so many wonderful things, and the National Merit scholarship is so tempting, we are going for a tour in a couple of months! We are expecting to be blown away - can’t wait to get there in person and see what all the fuss is about!</p>
<p>EastCoastGirl - </p>
<p>Expect the ‘bar’ to be set extremely high. Alabama was our son’s first college visit, and every other campus after that was “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope…” </p>
<p>I don’t know why we bothered. We could have saved a lot of mileage and sore tushies.</p>
<p>Chardo and TerryTW: Welcome and Congrats to you and your NY students on their wonderful decision to attend UA! We wish for your students the same happiness our D (an upstate NYer) has found at UA. We have honestly lost count of the times she has said to us, “I would not be having as great of an experience at any of the other colleges I was looking at as I am having at UA.” She also had an impressive list of choices that included selection as an Honors Student in The Carroll School of Management at Boston College, Honors College acceptances at BU, Northeastern, Drexel, UVM, and one of 25 Presidential Scholars (complete full ride) in the Honors College at the University at Buffalo. As like many on this thread UA started off near the bottom of her list but after two visits rose right to the top. UA has been a terrific decision for her and she has never looked back! I hope it will also help to hear that we were with two of her other NY teammates (another upstate and a Long Island) and their parents this past weekend, each of them made comments about how happy they are or their student is at UA. Two California parents also expressed the same of their girls…call it Coast to Coast UA happiness! Today I noticed one of our Ds UFE counterparts posted an invite to their group that this coming weekend is our Ds only home race so lets all go, several have already replied they will attend! It makes us so happy for her; to know that even though we are far away/wont make it down this weekend that she has made such wonderful and supportive friends. UA is indeed a very special place! Roll Tide to your students decisions!</p>
<p>^ teammates?</p>
<p>We are also from up North, the littlest state in the union, Rhode Island. Yes, it is it’s own state and not on Long Island as people have asked! Anyhow, our son has also committed to UA and I am so excited for him. Not only has he made the first big decision in his adult life, but it is a great one. I love the campus and feel it has so much to offer him. Sure, logistics will be annoying, but there are lots of kids from North going, so we can always have them drive together too if someone has a car. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>trvlbug – is your child by any chance a triathlete racing at Collegiate Nationals this weekend? And ditto to all the positive comments from everybody else about UA. Best decision my daughter ever could have made!</p>
<p>WhitLo - No on the triathlete, she’s a rower. </p>
<p>Proudmama3-Last wkends regatta was at the Univ. of R.I. Parents and team enjoyed dinner at Duffy’s Tavern. DH and I enjoyed lunch the day before at Crazy Burger from his watching of Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives. When we had our D for some free time we all had a great time walking the shore at Narragansett Pier and visiting some of the shops. Welcome to UA!</p>
<p>In referencing your top high school in NY, are you referring to Jericho? I have been amazed by the quality of students at this school.</p>
<p>Welcome and Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Nihility: actually it is Jericho. Surprised a teenager in MD has heard of it.</p>
<p>Trvlbug- ah, so you do know where we are. I hope you enjoyed your time here. It is a pretty state.</p>
<p>We visited UA in February 2012, and my son was in awe of the university. I liked the academic offerings, and knew that the “college experience” would be off the charts. During our visit, everything worked perfectly. We met with various administrators, students, and tour guides. In fact, our bus guide was from Grand Rapids, Michigan, our home state.</p>
<p>Whenever we mention to friends that he is considering UA, we get the same polite smile and sometime later, a question as to why would you go there. I have not met one person who “loves” UA, and I can’t count Mark Ingram as he went to our same high school.</p>
<p>My son said to me on the way home to the airport… "Dad, I am 90% sure I want to attend Bama…</p>
<p>After returning home, his friends tell him that only “hillbillys” go there, and all of the other stereotypes start flowing. He is concerned about this, and tells me it is his only concern. </p>
<p>Deposits are paid, and we are deciding between UA and Miami Ohio. I loved your comments in this post, accurate and exactly on point for our family. Roll tide, I hope…</p>
<p>We’re from Michigan, too, and have become somewhat accustomed to the funny looks (and the, ‘it’s a different culture down there, ya know’ line). We couldn’t be happier that S will be attending in the fall. </p>
<p>Roll Tide!</p>
<p>When you step away from the “expected” you will get those looks. BUT I can tell you that I am now the mom at the hs (younger sibling) functions that the other veterans point out as the “you need to talk to her.” WHY? 'her son is at Alabama, he got a great scholarship, he’s in honors, getting classes is not a luxury, having a great personal experience, opportunities …" There are now several of us. </p>
<p>To repeat one of my favorite malanai ‘quotes’ - --“The road less traveled belongs to the trailblazers.”</p>
<p>I hope he has the courage to blaze his own trail - whatever that may be.</p>
<p>Chardo,
Big congrats to you and your family from another new “Bama Dad” and family. Sounds like our boys could have gone to school together; we also did the conventional New Englands campus circuit and then came to Tuscaloosa on a whim. We all knew within half a day on the campus that this was the place. Thanks for posting.
Roll Tide.</p>
<p>@ Chardo
As I was looking at old threads for info on another topic I came upon this one and had to “bump” it up for our new visitors to see…life is pretty good as a Bama fan isn’t it?</p>
<p>^ Let’s see…one semester down, straight A+, UA volleyball team, intramural volleyball champion, new girlfriend, new friends from all over the country, front row seats to every football game, etc. Life is indeed pretty good for him.</p>
<p>I have a friend who went to MIT for CS/EE. It took him 5 years to graduate and the grind burned him out. He worked briefly as an engineer and then went into Christian ministry. Ironically, his dad was a UA grad (marketing exec for a large company).</p>
<p>How does he get front row seats to every game?</p>