We are not OOS, but, we live in a very diverse area of North Alabama with lots of diversity and most people who live here aren’t from Alabama. My son is fairly liberal and very LGBTQ friendly and is hoping to go to Auburn.(We will find out next month) There will be all kinds of kids there as it is college, just probably a lot more conservatives than you’d find in other areas of the country, still lots of liberal kids too, though. I went to Auburn and was pretty conservative when I got there, much more liberal when I left and that was in the early 90s!
This was a huge concern of mine and I expressed it many times to my daughter but she was bound and determined to go to Auburn. We are from California and she has only set foot in a church for wedding/funerals/baptisms, etc. She is politically conservative but is also very accepting of all people (races, religions, sexual orientation). Her high school was actually ranked as one of the most diverse high schools in the nation. I asked her recently if she has had any issues with the religion piece or if anyone had asked to her to go to church and she said no it wasn’t an issue at all. Being from OOS the only real negative she ran into was sorority rush, she felt she wasn’t given a chance because no one knew her, but that was partially a COVID issue since rush was all virtual this year. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have, my daughter is a Freshman and so we just went through all of this and I’d be happy to answer any questions.
Congratulations everyone on your acceptances.
War Eagle!
Hi there. We are headed to Auburn in a few weeks to visit and take a tour. Did your daughter feel like everyone going through rush knew people already there? I was hoping it would be easier for OOS girls going through rush as I thought Auburn had quite a few kids from out of state. Did she end up pledging? Has she been able to make friends easily?
Thank you for answering questions.
She did end up pledging, but with all the restrictions due to COVID it has been really hard to meet people in her pledge class, she literally got initiated before she had really clicked with anyone. Around Oct. 1st the University lightened up on groups meeting, I think up to 100 can gather now and they have had a few events and is now making friends. She is now super happy! Just took a lot longer than I think it would have in a normal year. She made friends in her dorm almost immediately and has a nice core group there. @HankE What state are you coming from?
Thanks so much for the information. She is coming from Denver, Colorado.
She wants to rush as well. What sorority did your daughter join? Also, wondering about dorms. Which one do most freshman live in? Are there places that the kids go to hangout? She would like to see some of those places when we go in a few weeks. Thanks so much for your help!
@HankE
I could talk for hours about sorority rush, I’ll sit down and write a longer response about that later.
Dorms: The Village is the super nice one where everyone has their own bedroom and share a common space, small kitchen area and 2 baths with 3 others, it’s considered suite style. This is known as “the best” place to live and is the first chosen, it’s also a little more expensive and a little further walk to the main part of campus. Sororities are also in the Village The Quad is the second most desirable place to live, this is where my daughter lives and she loves it. She wanted the traditional dorm life, so she is in a room with 1 other and they share a bathroom with another 2 person room. It’s older but is right in the center of campus. If you go to Instagram that is the best place to see all of the different dorm buildings, in their saved stories. South Donohue is actual the nicest but I’ve heard it the hardest to meet people because 50% of the building is athletes. There is also The Hill it’s similar to Quad in size and amenities but further away and up a hill. Cambridge has really spacious rooms but it is across the street from campus and quite far from anywhere to eat on campus. No matter what if she wants to live on campus, sign up the first day you are able to. I even signed up before my daughter had decided for sure she wanted to go there, I kew I would lose my deposit but I knew it was in her top 3 so I went ahead and did it.
Places kids go to hang out… Mellow Mushroom for pizza, Taco Mama or Moe’s BBQ (not Moes Southwestern) or the Irritable Bao. Everyone visits Toomer’s for Lemonade. If you stay at The Hotel at Auburn University all of these places are walking distance. J&M Bookstore is a great place to pick up souvenirs, tshirts, etc. and it’s right there too.
Also there are lots of Facebook groups to join with lots of parents giving lots of advise 
Just curios how travel has been from CA to Auburn. We are also in CA and wondered about shuttles and airports, we flew into ATL for the tour, but wasn’t sure about better options?
We generally fly in and out of ATL and rent a car. Groome is the only shuttle service if you don’t want to rent a car but they want to schedule you to arrive at airport at least 3 hours before your flight times so they are liable for you missing your flight. Groome has also cut down their number of daily trips.
My last visit I flew in and out of Birmingham which is a nice small airport, but the drive is about 20 minutes longer, but you save time due to the size of the airport. Montgomery is another option. Neither Birmingham or Montgomery have shuttle options.
I’ve flown mostly Southwest except for move in weekend. If in southern calif American is starting up their daily non-stop again soon.
My son just submitted his application on Oct 25. Transcripts and SAT are in. I’m guessing he’ll hear in mid-Nov?
He has a 3.98 GPA and a 1310 SAT (though he’s taking it a second time in early Nov with the hope he can raise it to 1360 for Honors College entry.
We live in ATL and I love that it’s a short drive to campus (exactly 2 hours and we live in North ATL, the ATL airport should be a good 20 minutes closer to Aub for those traveling by air.) We toured the Ginn Engineering college two weeks ago - very impressive. The whole campus is beautiful. It’s not spread out too far and I think that’s great. There were tons of kids in the common spaces playing spikeball, sitting in eno’s tied to trees or just sitting on benches talking.
With regard to religious or political leanings - he also comes from a diverse school. He’s Jewish (his Mother is and I’m Catholic.) but he’s fairly secular. He has cousins across the political and religious spectrum and he loves them all - so not too concerned about him with regard to diversity of thought on campus.
He’s also looking at Bama (their engineering facilities are breathtaking - though Auburns are pretty amazing too) and UGA. Problem with UGA is their engineering school is fairly new. UGA has an amazing academic rep, but their engineering school is still developing. However, in-state tuition would be nice.
I think I lean towards Auburn, but for sure the OOS merit based scholarship opportunities are more generous at Bama.
Best wishes to everyone in the coming weeks and months.
War Eagle (never thought as a Florida Gator I would say that)
The Auburn site stated applications received by Oct. 15 would receive a response by mid-Nov. If you did not get yours in until last week, you may not hear until Dec. Or even maybe January.
This is just what I have read from Auburn and on many sites.
Does anyone know when the next round of Auburn decisions are gonna be released. Today is Nov 15 so should be soon.
Toured Auburn last week, they said the November round should be announced by Thursday this week, the 19th
OOS daughter got a message today asking for a deposit but no acceptance letter yet. Odd!
It means your student got accepted.
My son got the same thing, so I called admissions to verify!
Congratulations!!!
Was it an email? Or text message? We are anxiously waiting for a decision.
Check your portal. You will see it there.
We saw a link to pay enrollment deposit on the portal earlier today, but now it is gone. Hoping decision is posted tomorrow!
1 Like
I take it back. Decision was just posted!!
Did you check? Looks like decisions were posted right after your comment!
D was accepted today. Congratulations to all!