Indeed Alabama may have excellent Chemical Engineering, but I think CS at Alabama is rather weak compared to UMASS which has a world class department.
You should also consider the University Scholars Program at UA. If you were accepted you could complete your BS and MS in five years. http://cs.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholars-program/
The STEM path to the MBA is another possibility https://culverhouse.ua.edu/stemmba
@ClassicRockerDad it’s hard to find numbers for undergrad, but the graduate ranking of CS at Umass is 23, and at UA it’s 102. Calling UMass’ CS department “world class” is kind of silly, in my opinion, because CS is one of the more prestige-proof degrees.
http://www.happyschools.com/nrc-computer-science-rankings/
I’m going to guess that given the overall number of universities offering graduate degrees in the US is fairly large, to me that difference in ranking does not appear to be that significant.
The other thing that I’m having D do is look at the actual core curriculum and major requirements for CS for each school. There is a lot of overlap between all of them (except Olin, which doesn’t actually have a CS major and is outside the parameters of what the OP is considering for this thread).
- UMASS CS is 50-100 worldwide and Alabama is not ranked.
- UMASS has a much bigger department and covers more hot research areas like machine learning.
I heard there were 450 people registered in the graduate machine learning class at MIT this past fall. That’s unbelievable! Machine learning is sizzling hot right now. It’s not really an active research area at Alabama.
If one is just taking courses, it might not matter, but if one wants to get into the hottest areas, going to a school with a research culture in those areas makes sense.
^^Yes, but we’re talking undergraduate. And I see CS at UA ranked at 102. What, anything beyond 100 is no good?
And your word choice just drives me crazy. “Hottest”, “World Class”. It’s like you’re a used car salesman. This is undergraduate education, not a Range Rover.
Sorry about my word choice. I mean no disrespect. My opinion has less to do with rank than with perusing the websites of the two departments. I know a thing or two about CS. To me it isn’t a close choice, and I agree for the average undergraduate who is just going to take courses, get a 3.0, and get a job, it might not make any difference. I’m really thinking about the opportunity to become a computer scientist rather than a software engineer for someone who can excel. The former is considerably more lucrative, and personally I think is a lot more fun.
@wolfwing123 - I would recommend UMass over UA as a fellow desi 
You will probably have more internship opportunities, find more desi kids Also rank/school reputation does matter if you are planning to go back. BTW, most people who comment here are parents (like me and STEM2017), so don’t address us dudes 
@wolfwing123 - For CS I would also recommend UMass over UA. As recommended by other member, UT Dallas is also very good option if you get AES scholarship. My son is planning to go to UTD for CS, if he don’t get in to UT Austin
My son graduated from UA a year ago. He was involved in the University Scholars program and graduated with a bachelors and masters in CS. He interned at facebook, and is now working at Google. There are several other students that he is friends with who also have great jobs and opportunities. The department is small though so you tend to have the same teachers, some who are loved and some who are not. I wouldn’t hesitate to go to UA if you are a strong student to begin with; I have heard some students who were not very strong changed their major to MIS. For my son, Alabama was an excellent choice.
Thanks, everybody.
Does anybody know how University of Alabama gives out so much scholarships? I mean how come all the other universities refuse to give a dollar to the students who get unbelievable scholarships from UA. Even international students.
It’s almost too good to be true. What’s the catch?
Well, I’ve heard they’re good at football 
and that brings in a few pennies.
Seriously, though, you can read this NY Times article about them and why they’re doing what they’re doing:
Success begets more success. That’s the formula.
“where legends are made” is UAs new motto:-) My DS is aerospace there and I believe had to take one CS class. It was a weed out class for sure. You can’t imagine the # of kids who changed majors after failing out or not being able to hack it…I’m hoping you have some experience already. That seemed to be an important factor.
@Rdtsmith Yeah, I’ve heard about some professor called Dr. Borie failing everybody unreasonably.
I’ve been programming since 12 and won national level coding contests, coded in several languages and frameworks over the years. So I’m hoping I’m ready for those weed out classes.
And yeah, I’ve decided to attend the University of Alabama. No college is worth an extra $100000 over UA, especially when it gives me the freedom to do grad school or whatever I want later.
Excellent! Sounds like you will have very little problem with CS. It’s the kids who look at careers and see potential salaries and then randomly pick CS without a clue or any exposure at all. If you don’t already eat, sleep and sh*t code, the odds are stacked against you. Congrats!