<p>Yesterday late afternoon I was at the checkout line at Wal-Mart. The couple behind me were talking about Bama’s Fall enrollment. </p>
<p>The H mentioned that the OOS frosh will be 60% (roughly) and that the class size will be larger than last year’s class. He also commented on the large number of students coming from Illinois (which we CC folks already know…lol).</p>
<p>I asked if he was a prof at Bama and yes, he is…and from his accent, I could tell he was from NY, which he confirmed. His wife is from LI. She was happy to hear that their are LI students at Bama! :)</p>
<p>His wife (not a Bama employee), was concerned that Montgomery might legislate something next year to prevent the OOS numbers being so high. My response was that unless they can show that qualified AL residents are being denied admission, what could their complaint be? The OOS students bring in money, and unless Montgomery is going to fork over extra cash to compensate, what can they expect? And, the point of growing the school was to avoid denying admission to AL students…which the school seems to be doing. Obviously, if AL students are applying and they don’t have the necessary pre-reqs (years of math, science, English, etc), denials would happen regardless of the OOS numbers. </p>
<p>But…the most exciting thing happened at Bento’s Japanese last night…</p>
<p>As we were walking to our table, I glanced at a TV on a sports channel and it reminded me to ask my son if he knew that Bama Softball had won the Championship. Just then, a young lady at the table next to us turned around an smiled. Oh my, it was Jackie Traina. Of course we congratulated her many times. She was delightful. </p>
<p>m2ck … I agree with your assessment on OOS kids coming to UA. While the “spin” in local AL media reporting high % of OOS enrollment may have the effect of introducing an undercurrent of concern for AL residents, I agree that many of these OOS kids are bringing big $$$ to the school, not just the high stats kids that are getting scholarships. From my D’s high school, I know of 2 non-scholarship qualifying students that are attending in the fall. They’re attending because they want to, its affordable or at least comparable to the IL in-state tuition mess, and they are not being attracted by the generous scholarship packages that UA offers. Dr. Witt’s vision of making UA the U of Michigan of the South is taking hold. If you think of institutions such as UofM, they are attracting students GLOBALLY … the University is better for it … the $$$ and prestige of the entire institution and the state benefits because of it. Qualified local students will always be admitted. I hope that AL does not go the way of Virginia, North Carolina and other states that mandate a certain percentage of in-state admission for every class. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>The game was still available on ESPN3 last night. It was good to get to see it all. Sounds like you had a wonderful (well-deserved) dinner M2CK.</p>
<p>^^^ I believe the actual goal is to have UA break into the Top 20 Public Research Universities. However, the anecdotal reference of that goal has been discussed as making UA the UofM of the South. It’s been mentioned here on CC many times, but I’m sure someone here can find the original reference.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, S was the first to apply from his private prep school. This year out of a class of 75, 2 are attending Bama & they aren’t receiving scholarships. These are kids who would have normally gone to one of the small, private, NE LAC’s. I</p>
<p>While I acknowledge Michigan’s high rank in academics, I will be furious if we ever become the bastion of liberalism and general asshatedness that they are. Their quotas on admissions is as disgraceful as their sense of superiority. I have not had the displeasure to meet a more arrogant, obnoxious, elitist fan base in my life. </p>
<p>I don’t hate them as much as I do the cow molesters from Bovine U in East Alabama but they aren’t too far behind.</p>
<p>Agreed, but what else can we expect from a group whose mascot is a big weasel? They can have their delusions of grandeur. I’ll take my alma mater’s results:</p>
<p>2011 Michigan State Spartans 28, University of Michigan Weasels 14
2010 Michigan State Spartans 34, University of Michigan Weasels 17
2009 Michigan State Spartans 26, University of Michigan Weasels 20
2008 Michigan State Spartans 35, University of Michigan Weasels 21</p>
<p>And there you have it. From elitist to defeatist. Roll Tide, Go Green! :)</p>
She was delightful. </p>
