<p>First, thanks to Mom2collegekids for the excellent advice on Alabama for a long time. You’ve helped draw us to Alabama. I’ve been a reader, never a poster til now. </p>
<p>Daughter and I went to Capstone Scholars Day this weekend and were, sadly, underwhelmed and disappointed. I really wanted our D (Presidential Scholar etc) to like Alabama and feel somewhat special and ‘wanted’. Instead, for our time, travel and cost (8 hour drive each way) we felt disappoined and taken for granted. </p>
<p>It seemed the football parade was WAY MORE important to the University than our attendance at the Scholars Day. Student information session was dominated by Lunch-time which started at approx 10:30AM and lasted for a LONG TIME. Student sessions were generic (I’m told), nothing you couldn’t get from the AL website, and uninteresting. Parent forum choices were uninteresting, except for the parents forum - (where the focus was on the special caring and individualized attention their students received). Certainly, their experience was at odds with our experience this weekend.</p>
<p>No campus tours were available, neither were guided dorm tours due to the football parade. I enjoy college football and understand the celebration, but certainly felt taken for granted and brushed-off to accomodate the parade.</p>
<p>I really wanted our daughter to like Alabama. I was looking forward to this day too! By the end of the day, we just weren’t feeling it and actually felt let down and taken for granted. Perhaps Alabama IS too large for anything close to personal or individualized attention.</p>
<p>That’s disappointing…glad my son and I decided not to attend this weekend. We are visting Bama this week and have a campus tour, lunch with an honors student, a tour of the Honors Dorm, and individual meetings with reps from the HC and two of the academic departments my son is considering.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you had a disappointing experience. It seems like many colleges have this issue with the “big” visit days, which is why we planned our visits on other days. I can say that on our visit last April, we felt anything but taken for granted - my S felt like a rock star! So much so that he refused to apply anywhere else this year. He is also an extremely high stats well-rounded kid who originally had several top 20 schools on his list. We are thrilled with his choice and believe that Bama will offer him amazing opportunities as well as the full college social experience.</p>
<p>I think this kind of feedback should go to the Honors College. They do so many things right, and I’m sure they want Capstone Scholars Day to be valuable as well.</p>
<p>I would have thought being there for the championship parade would be a huge unexpected bonus, but I can see how it might have been distracting.</p>
<p>IMO the big visit days are always awful, national championship parade or not.</p>
<p>sorry you had a bad experience.</p>
<p>FYI - we went on a generic visit, not a super-awesome-arranged-by-the-honors-college visit. it was better than most other college visit tours, but nothing special. it was, however, enough to give my daughter enough info to decide whether she wanted to go to UA.</p>
<p>I am sure your feedback will be passed to the Honors College, thank you for being honest and posting. There is always room for improvement and change. I could see how the football celebration might be a distraction for some students or a positive for others.</p>
<p>Will you be returning for another visit? We could help you in setting up a more personalized tour and visit… i would hate to see your daughter make her decision based on how she is feeling now. Believe me when i say that the university is a great opportunity to get an excellent educational experience.</p>
<p>I wonder, if going forward, the Honors College might consider changing the date of the Capstone Scholars Day so it would be the only focus for the students that day (in case of additional championship wins). I understand how you feel and am curious how the other parents and students felt.</p>
<p>We haven’t visited yet, but I would say that we’ve gotten more personal attention from UA than from the three other flagship universities my S has applied to.</p>
<p>*No campus tours were available, neither were guided dorm tours due to the football parade. I enjoy college football and understand the celebration, but certainly felt taken for granted and brushed-off to accomodate the parade.</p>
<p>I really wanted our daughter to like Alabama. I was looking forward to this day too! By the end of the day, we just weren’t feeling it and actually felt let down and taken for granted. Perhaps Alabama IS too large for anything close to personal or individualized attention.*</p>
<p>I do NOT think CSDay is the right time to visit for the “only” Bama visit…championship celebration or not. If that must be the “only” visit, then arriving on Thursday and getting personal attention on Friday is the answer.</p>
<p>The fact that there aren’t any campus tours on CSDay is bothersome for many who can only visit THAT single day. It can also be troublesome for those who want to meet a few profs or sit-in on a class. </p>
<p>I went to CSDay a couple of years ago with my nephew (not a parade day…lol). Thankfully, we did the full tour, honors visit, prof meetings on Friday because I knew that the actual CSDay would be too much like cattle-herding. </p>
<p>I think CSDay needs revamping.</p>
<p>Perhaps Alabama IS too large for anything close to personal or individualized attention.</p>
<p>No, that’s not the case. It’s just that that particular day had too much going on. I do think the school needs to avoid having CSDay and celebrations on the same day. </p>
<p>Believe me, it would be similarly crazy if CSDay were held the same day as Graduation or similar.</p>
<p>That said, no one should expect “personal or individual attention” at a half-day event with 1000 people attending.</p>
<p>I’ve posted on here several times before that my D did not have one of those “bowled over, must enroll immediately” visits. She visited as a junior, so not for Capstone Scholars Day, but her visit happened to be the day before CSDay (I didn’t realize that when I scheduled it). There were a lot of CSDay students on campus that Friday and the Honors College was overwhelmed. D did not get the special, personal attention, wonderful visit that others on here have described, and that was her only visit. She DID get more attention than she did on her visits to any other large flagship (UIUC, Wisconsin, Indiana), but it is disappointing because one has high expectations based on the glowing visit reports you read on this forum. She did get a dorm tour, and I think that was a definite positive in the UA column. She did end up choosing Alabama and it has proved to be a very good choice. I don’t think Capstone Scholars Day (or the days surrounding it) are a good time for one’s only visit. We were never on campus for University Days, but I’d guess the same applies to those days.</p>
<p>While we DID have a favorable experience last year at CSD, I wanted my D to visit an additional time to make certain she was happy with the school that was appearing to be her choice. We came back during her spring break, this time to a personalized tour and a meeting with Dr. Morgan of the Honors College. We made a fun trip of it with stops in New Orleans and Orange Beach. Certainly the second trip was more personal and individualized. </p>
<p>If you are considering a second trip or a trip in late February, you might be interested to know that (last year at least) the Honors College offered a Top Scholars Day. I do not know how they decided on who to invite, but D received an invitation for the event which would occur on the Monday after our scheduled visit. If we had known about it further in advance, we might have planned our trip around it. As it was, she just did her individual day and all went well.</p>
<p>Sorry you were disappointed in your visit-- fortunately we had a much different experience this weekend. It was a second visit for my son and my first time seeing campus. The day did start early, but I found the parent sessions very informative and my son got the more detailed info we were looking for from the commerce dept in his sessions. We spent the afternoon watching the parade and enjoying the school spirit and later went on dorm tour and spent time walking around campus. We finished the day at the Collesium for the basketball game. Thanks to all on CC for the great UA info.</p>
<p>OP- Sorry to hear about your visit. My husband and DS went. While they had a good visit I think if I was the one who had gone with DS it wouldn’t have been as benefical. Basically for 2 reasons 1.) My husband has not had the time to keep up with all the college stuff so everything they told him was information he did not know. 2.) He agrees with you the lunch was way too long. However because he is used to going to large conferences and talking to people he was fine while I’m not sure I would have been.</p>
<p>They gave us a map with the dorms available for tour between 1-3 pm. I know Burke and Tutweiler were on there and also suite style (not sure which bldg). We toured Burke and the RA that gave the tour was great! There were many students touring so we did have a bit of a wait but just checked out the dining hall while waiting.</p>
<p>^^^Thanks for that info. Wonder if the OP was not given that info or if they just missed it? Sounds like a Dorm Tour would have been beneficial and informative for them. I feel sad that they missed it.</p>
<p>Sounds like there still was a dorm tour, but maybe after the Parade?</p>
<p>I want to say more about the desire for personal attention at CSDay. I recently went with a cancer friend of mine to a breast cancer presentation put on by her oncology group. There were many, many people there to hear general info from this group of doctors. No one expected personal attention. Personal attention is reserved for appointments, not large group events.</p>
<p>After attending that BC event, I wouldn’t conclude that the physician group is “too big” to provide individual attention.</p>
<p>My husband attended with my son, and while my son did not think that Saturday was that necessary, because we had set up a variety of appointments for Friday, the trip solidified Alabama as his top choice for school. Meeting with a professor from the College of Engineering, viewing dorms, participating in a guided tour of the campus, and meeting with a representative of the Honors College on Friday impressed both of them very much. The Capstone event on Saturday is so large that any serious personal attention is difficult.</p>
<p>^^^I am so glad that the visit was productive for you and your student. It is really important to try and visit the day before a large group event, as personal attention is hard to achieve during those group visits. </p>
<p>I hope that the OP will come back to campus for a second look and visit.</p>
<p>I’ve been to two Capstone Scholars Day (both coupled with a National Championship Celebration!) and this years did not feel the same as the one I attended in 2010. Agree that lunch was too long. I was assuming that part of the different feel was that D1 had been so excited to be there and had already mentally committed to being there in the Fall, while D2…not so much. D2’s feedback on what they did during the student portion sounded underwhelming. And we were both desperate for DayQuil.</p>
<p>MomIL, we feel your disappointment; however, as UA parent, you get more individual attention the other days.<br>
A second visit and an email to Alison Verhine would do you guys more justice…A Mom and her daughter from our hometown which was their only visit had totally opposite opinion and their DD is ready to commit to UA…Roll Tide</p>
<p>MomIL: I agree. If you can make a second trip, do it. My son did not attend Capstone Day in January 2009, because he had an academic team tournament that weekend. But, we went for a visit just prior to Christmas. It was 22 degrees the morning we visited. Even the tour guides did not want to walk the campus! But we did not allow the cold to deter us. We thought it was a good fit for our son, and it has been just that.</p>
He is also an extremely high stats well-rounded kid who originally had several top 20 schools on his list. We are thrilled with his choice and believe that Bama will offer him amazing opportunities as well as the full college social experience.</p>