<p>Last yr this time ds was weeding through his college decisions weighing the pros and cons of the different schools. Earlier in the fall, I did not think UA would ever move to the top of his list.</p>
<p>A yr later, he LOVES Bama. Everything about it. He has made a great group of friends. He enjoys his classes. He wants to continue living on campus. He has absolutely zero regrets about choosing UA over all the other great schools he had to choose from.</p>
<p>I hope all the other freshman finally home for a visit are sharing similar happy reports. :)</p>
<p>I want to report that my current sophomore son from the West Coast LOVES Bama and everything about the school. He has gotten wonderful opportunities for involvement, is part ot the Million Dollar Band, is able to travel with the band to places like Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, has made great friends and roomates and feels academically challenged as an engineering major. My daughter is looking forward to attending next year! As always, we are so thankful for all the info we received here on the UA CC forum. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>My Northeasterner son had a great first semester too. Hard to believe a little over a year ago he was picking himself up after a painful rejection from his ED school. So grateful, in retrospect, that he didn’t get into that SLAC because he’d being doing the whole “3+2” thing, and he’s SO happy being a straight-up engineering student. Moving across the country and learning to “survive” on a big, flagship campus has been a wonderful growing experience. He has a terrific group of friends from several different states, plans to live off campus next year, and is THRILLED to not be taking out any loans (as are Mom & Dad!), thanks to the unbelievably generous scholarships. </p>
<p>The fantastic football season has been icing on the cake–he really didn’t care that much about football one way or the other before he got to Bama, but he’s LOVED the experience of going to the games and supporting such a terrific program. </p>
<p>One semester down for my freshman, 7 more to go. Good start though. He seems to like UA, has made friends, has done well in his classes, and has learned a few lessons along the way. Now lets hope we get the “icing” with a national title. Roll Tide.</p>
<p>From what I can gather from my 2 children’s high school, there are far more happy reports after 1st semester than unhappy ones. It’s a great school! </p>
<p>This is S’s 3rd Christmas home to IL for the break. Whenever I Skype him at UA, he is in shorts and a t-shirt and wearing sandals. His major complaint about home is how cold it is. You just cannot beat the warmer weather and sunshine hours at UA - it’s our icing on our college cake. (And, the cake’s great, too!) ;)</p>
<p>My DD had a wonderful first semester at Bama. It started out with a fun week of activities for Outdoor Action. She would highly recommend signing up for this as a quick way to meet people and help to ease homesickness. She enjoyed her classes and found them thought provoking as well as challenging. She joined several clubs and has done some intermural activities. I think her favorite part has been hanging out with the other CBH kids. There are some truly amazing kids involved in CBH. I could not have asked for a better fit for my DD.</p>
<p>Our ds is living in a suite style honors dorm. He entered with credits and jumped into upper level classes with the exception of English 103 (he took a sci-fi class) and intro to EE (ECE 121). He really enjoyed all of the classes he took.</p>
<p>My son is in his second year at Ridgecrest Honors dorm. He and his four roommates decided to stay on campus for the convenience-they are really happy with the honors dorm/suites style living :)</p>
<p>DS had a great first semester. He intentionally chose a lighter load for fall due to football season, adjusting to life at college, etc. He will pay for it next semester, but it was nice to have loads of free time during his first semester. He has been home less than 2 weeks and he is already missing his friends. He calls Alabama home and our house is now his “vacation home”. </p>
<p>Earlier today he was laughing out loud at a group message with other members of RCE. Based on the amount of time he has spent looking at his phone, I think they are all missing each other. I was a little concerned that the Honors dorms would be isolating, but I that has not been the case and a large part of his friend group is made up of people from his hall. </p>
<p>He tells us all the time that choosing Bama was “the best decision he ever made”. That makes me a very happy Mom! </p>
<p>I’m a current freshman majoring in aerospace and mechanical engineering. Unlike most freshman it was not all fun and happy for me. I struggled a lot. Having roommates that I didn’t get a long with was a huge problem for me. Your roommates are supposed to be your first friends. I took classes I didn’t like. I changed my major. I dropped my sorority. It was rough. However towards the end of the semester I switched into a new room with amazing roommates! And now I really enjoying bama. I can not stress enough how important it is to find good roommates that you get along with. But what I learned is college is what you make it. So for any struggling freshman or parents of struggling freshman feel free to message me. It gets better!!</p>
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