Crimson Tide vs Gator Nation

College Search & Selection
1

School A vs. School B comparisons seem to generate good discussions here on CC so here goes:

Option A:
University of Alabama
College of Engineering
Admitted to CS, not 100% certain about major
Randall Research Scholars
Honors College
NMF Scholarship
OOS student

Option B:
University of Florida
College of Engineering
Admitted for Industrial Engineering, not 100% certain about major
Honors College
Benaquisto Scholarship
OOS Student

Interested in internship opportunities, & study abroad. Curious how social scenes compare.

Long term goals might include grad school, working in DC area or NYC.

Both of these options seem terrific. How to decide?

2

What is your annual COA for each school?

3

Both are terrific options due to zero COA & fun, vibrant campus life.

This is really a personal decision since you are undecided about your major.

4

What is the likelihood these scholarship programs will lose funding?

5

Great question. I do not know the answer. My best guess is that it is verl low.

6

The Randall Research Scholars program at UA is very nice. Also, with AP credits and the 10 semesters of paid tuition, you could finish a MS very cheaply.

7

Still wondering a bit about this decision.

Will Covid affect the state of Florida any differently than the state of Alabama? Will these schools see a surge of high stats students accepting scholarships this year(instead of more expensive options)? Will Alabama see fewer students overall making the trip from out of state this year due to financial uncertainty?

8

The Covid19 issue will not be known for at least a couple of months as far as how it will impact each State going forward. UF has a better chance of keeping their In-State Students due to the cheap tuition and the higher overall ranking. They are also not known to offer great scholarships to OOS students. On the other hand, Alabama tends to attract a very high number of OOS Students and they are much much generous with their scholarships. I would think that both of these schools will be fine as far as enrollment and quite attractive due to cost.

9

@collegeisago we’ve been thinking the same way re: in-state/OOS populations at each school.

So far it seems like both campuses are closed through the summer. No word yet on fall.

10

As a software development manager in Alabama, I have to say I’ve been very impressed with the skills the UA College of Engineering CS students which we’ve brought in as interns. Based on your situation, you could easily use your 5 years of tuition to obtain an Engineering degree there, and go on to follow the STEM path to MBA or the AMP program to get your MS. I would truly recommend doing that as there are opportunities which come easier with those skills (CIO level roles, etc.) and it is hard once you’ve moved on from college to find the time to go back and pick them up.

11

That STEM-MBA program seems to be popular.

We were under the impression that it is good to gain work experience before going for an MBA ? The idea of compressing the schedule and reducing the cost is appealing.

12

I’ve seen it be a criteria to quite a few MBA programs. I will say it won’t do you a lot of good initially. Neither would an MS. However, after you have some experience and are in a management/product manager role, it will be a very good add on as you look to continue moving up. Especially if you are changing companies at the same time. If a job is Master’s Degree preferred, they won’t be picky if you got it before much work experience. Also, you’ll want to pick up some paid internships for some experience before you graduate, anyway. I today’s environment, if you want to go into security, I’d say an MS in Computer Science would open a few doors if you focused on that. If that is your thing.

Good luck, it seems you have some great choices available to you.