We are planning on visiting Alabama this spring, and Easter weekend would be good so my son doesn’t have to take off school or miss any other activities. The weather will be good, and it’s probably a good time for grandmother to stay with other kids. We originally thought we’d go on Monday (since it seems like a better day for visiting than a Friday), but we realized we’d be pretty rushed trying to get back home that evening (flying out, probably out of Atlanta since it’s a direct flight, and going the Birmingham route would take several more hours of time due to layovers, etc.). We can’t stay until Tuesday and need to leave Monday night. So would Good Friday before Easter be a bad time to try to visit? I realize it probably isn’t ideal, but will it be ok? Better than visiting during the summer? I see they have a visit slot on the calendar for that day, so it must not be too much of a dud day!
He’s probably interested in the Honors College and maybe Engineering. Should we set up our visit with Honors? What will a day typically look like? I’d love for him to sit in on a small honors class. (He has good ACT score and his PSAT looks very promising for NMF). Thanks so much for any advice! I am SO excited about Alabama after reading about it here. Thanks so much to all of you who have shared information. It sounds wonderful.
Good Friday is April 14 in 2017, which is the Friday before ‘dead week’ and will be a pretty typical class day on campus. ‘Dead week’ is the week before finals and instructors are not supposed to give assignments and exams that week so students have time to prepare for finals, but that varies depending on the instructor. But many classes will be wrapping up on April 14 and using the next week to review for finals, so if he does sit in on a class it may not be a typical lecture. Keeping that in mind it should be fine to visit that day. And yes it would be better than waiting until the summer when most students will be gone and you won’t get as good a feel for what campus is like during the school year.
A typical visit usually begins with the campus tour, then yes, set up the rest of your visit through the honors college. They will assign an honors student to take you to tour the honors dorm and generally have lunch with you so that you can talk with them and ask any questions and other than that they will customize the visit to what you request. If you want to tour the engineering buildings, meet with an engineering professor, or sit in on a class just mention that and they’ll arrange it. If you want to meet with any other areas of interest - the career center or co-op office, someone in the Greek system, or are interested in any of the special honors programs like CBH, just ask and they will arrange for you to meet with someone who can provide information and answer questions.
Thank you. Isn’t dead week the week of April 24th? It looks like finals begin May 1, and the calendar says that Friday, April 21st is the last day for exams and and extended assignments