Just now got time to check in. Alabama tour was very informative and the campus is very clean. As large as it is, the buildings and individual colleges seem to be set up nicely so it does not appear so overwhelming. Honors dorms are amazing. Don’t think it’s the right fit for me but I have good information to make a decision if I decide to apply.
Thanks for the update, @ssjr16. Just make sure you have some affordable safeties and best of luck!
I’ve not read this entire thread, but I want to chime in here. This fall, my son will become the 3rd member of my nuclear family of 4 to attend Alabama. My wife is an alum and my daughter is a rising junior. We are OOS - though my wife was not when she went.
Each of my children had excellent choices, Alabama included. As noted in some of posts I did read, Alabama is among the most aggressive schools we saw over the past 3-4years in terms of going after OOS students with strong credentials. They are extremely generous with scholarship money to attract bright and motivated students.
When decision time came for my son, he didn’t bat an eye. He accepted his full-tuition Presidential scholarship to Alabama and was able to supplement that with a stipend from the University and outside scholarships that would not have been usable at some of his options. That decision banked almost $150,000 toward his graduate school plans.
You make of college what you want. Alabama is a good school raising its academic profile. It’s also a beautiful campus and lots of fun. Prestige is in the eye of the beholder.
ROLL TIDE!!!
Well said, TideHeel. Similar experience here.
It was disappointing to see the school drop 10 spots in rankings in the US News Best College rankings 2016 that was just released.
As others have said elsewhere, there’s a “lag” to a lot of that criteria that goes into those type of rankings. UA is and has been doing a great number of things right…and has made lots of progress on various fronts…it’s just going to take a while I guess to show up in certain kinds of rankings. As most UA parents know, UA is a gem and I guess it’s “our little secret”! I really think people are, overall, way too hung up on “prestige”. ROLL TIDE
It’s pointless to get hung up about the vicissitudes of the USNWR rankings. They compare schools of many different sizes, both public and private, to one another, which makes very little sense, given the widely disparate missions of private and public institutions.
If you look at just public universities, there are six schools tied for #37, followed by 2 (Florida State & UA) tied for #43. Last year UA was tied with at least one of the ones ranked #37, now it’s “six places” lower. It means virtually nothing in the long run. Seriously, if it suddenly shot up to say #33, would that really make a qualitative difference to your student?
UA is not a school one chooses for “prestige,” so if you truly need that, look elsewhere, because you’re likely to be disappointed. If you’re seeking a great value and terrific opportunities for a hard-working student, on the other hand, then don’t lose a wink of sleep over USNWR rankings.
If Goldman Sachs is recruiting at UA they are obviously not hung up on the “prestige” issue. I think they can see there are some very smart students to hire.
With over 25% of the freshman class having an ACT of 32 or higher, in a class of over 7000 students, that is a lot of really smart kids finding UA prestigious enough.
Sounds maybe like you may be unable to get past the prestige issue. I hope my daughter does not feel the same way, although there still may be a ‘fit’ issue. I was selfishly heartened by the slight drop, hopeful they will continue to offer the full tuition awards for a bit longer, since my D is a junior.
Still better than Auburn
See post #14.
I don’t get hung up on USNWR ratings, because I don’t think they’re worth a whole lot. There are ways to “game” the system, weight is given to the opinions of people who have little knowledge of many of the schools, the rankings often lag behind reality, etc. My daughter chose Alabama over schools rated way higher in the USNWR rankings, but she wasn’t choosing her school based on anything USNWR has to say. She chose it for the beautiful campus, the generous scholarships, the special programs such as CBH, the Honors College, the top notch facilities, the southern hospitality, and the dorms (which, to quote her, “make the dorms at [our state flagship] look like cardboard boxes on the side of the highway.”) Neither my daughter nor her parents care about prestige, so little thought was given to that. Her father and I have been very successful in spite of (or perhaps due to) being educated at non-prestigious undergraduate schools that still provided an excellent education.
BTW, my daughter is now a senior at Alabama, and she has no regrets about her choice.
Emperor’s New Clothes syndrome. That’s all prestige boils down to.
It’s interesting because I have visited a large number of schools. On my trip last week to the NY and PA area I visited highly ranked as well as not so very high ranked schools for safeties. The lower ranked schools did not have the facilities or caliber of teachers that the higher ranked did. Higher ranked does not necessarily only mean more prestigious. Many higher ranked schools have more to offer. They are higher ranked for a reason. I realize this does not apply to all schools but has been my experience in the many schools I have visited.
SSjr16 The higher ranking on USN&WR is driven a lot by the 6 year graduation rate and incoming Freshman stats.
See the commentary on this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1809387-alabama-96th-in-latest-usnwr-rankings.html#latest
That is the driver. UA has been increasing these metrics but it takes time, especially the 6 year graduation rate because you need 4 years of good recruiting to effect a significant change.
I will bet UA ranking increases significantly over the next few years as the 6 year grad rate increases.
My son recently received a personal email from a Google recruiter who had seen his LinkedIn profile which clearly lists UA - doesn’t appear to be an issue even with the most prestigious companies.
AT LEAST one UA grad is working at Google: http://events.ua.edu/event/21610 (Event from last year)
Then stop being so indecisive. Just pick whatever school you get in that has higher rank
“I really think that the rubrics have been tweaked to get the results that THEY want. Do I suspect that a bunch of elite-minded journalists don’t want a “deep-south public” rising in their ranks? Yes, I do. They want Bama on the plantation and not stepping off.”
had to laugh at that one.