Hi! I’m an senior girl and I find everything about Alabama to be great for me – the biology program, the student culture (football wow!), and I could get a great scholarship – it suits my 3 factors perfectly! My only concern is discrimination and I would like an honest, student perspective on this.
I am an Indian girl and I’m just concerned about the mentality of the students there. I know that there is certainly some racism there, possibly enhanced with the pride of being a school in the south. I want to know if the students would discriminate against me or subconsciously leave me out or something because I am Indian?
I also want to join a sorority, so how will that affect my chances of being in Greek life? Will I get a normal typical amount of bids?
I don’t want college to be ruined by my environment/the people not liking me there and I really want to be in a sorority. Please give me an honest answer! Thank you so much!
PS: I have told other people this and they say that I’m hot/pretty so no one would say anything bad to me - if that helps any? haha
I actually know a girl who is indian here at UA. She rushed but didn’t end up finding that a sorority was a good fit for her. She did get a bid though. Sororities are becoming more open to minorities every year. I would not say there is an overwhelming indian population here or anything but they always have cultural events.
I know there is a South Asian society at UA. They put on a Diwali Festival last year that my son went to and really enjoyed. Here’s a link to the page http://events.ua.edu/event/21506 it has some useful email and web address links that you might want to follow up on to get further information.
If Colonel Reb is inappropriate, then why is "Rebels’ appropriate? I don’t think honoring Southern defense against Northern aggression inappropriate. It wasn’t the South that had as its head general, a man who owned slaves, during the war! Yes, Grant, not Lee, owned slaves, during the war. Five Northern states had slaves, during the war. Lincoln did not attack the South to free one slave.
@Atlanta68 By arguing some pretty trivial points about the Civil War (even if your facts are correct) I don’t think you are bolstering the message that Alabama welcomes minorities and embraces diversity. Like it or not, many people in the rest of the country do not know about Alabama’s racial progress. After all, George Wallace did not stand in the schoolhouse door at the University of Michigan (currently 4.1% African-American); it was the University of Alabama (currently 11.2% African-American).
I am a Pakistani girl who got accepted to UA today. It is my first choice by far. There are going to be racist people everywhere you go but I find that the amount of people willing to accept you and even take an interest in other cultures far outnumbers those who may not be as tolerant.
@healthandmusic No, I am a parent of three college age sons. We live in Arizona and my sons all attended BASIS Scottsdale. We are white and hardly minorities (although BASIS Scottsdale is 47% Asian, mostly Indian-Americans, and just 43% Caucasian). Son number one is studying engineering at Texas A&M and son number two just started at Miami (Ohio), also in engineering. Son number three is leaning toward Arizona State/Barrett Honors College and Michigan State Honors College for engineering, although he has not yet been admitted. With three in college at the same time, cost is definitely a factor. We have just started looking at Alabama and have not visited yet. Concerning whether Alabama would be a good fit, one thought. Texas A&M is (I am not exaggerating) 95% Texans. Alabama’s freshman class is 65% out of state, so almost everyone will be trying to fit in. High School cliques will not the barriers to meeting new people that they are at some schools like TAMU. My oldest is pretty outgoing, so this has not been a problem for him. It would likely have been an issue for son number two.
I see from your threads that you are considering a lot of colleges and are interested in Biology. I hesitate (for about five seconds) in discussing another college on the Alabama forum, but have you looked at ASU/Barrett? It’s the number-one public honors program. ASU is 6.9% Asian and Barrett’s percentage is higher. I think you’d qualify for some merit money. Check here: https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator One of our BASIS friends who is Indian-American just graduated from ASU/Barrett summa cum laude with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. He studied abroad in Hong Kong and has had some great research opportunities. He is going to intern for a year at the Scottsdale Mayo Clinic (which partners with Barrett) and then intends to be part of the first class at the new Scottsdale Mayo Medical School, which opens in 2017.
Please, let’s NOT debate the U.S. Civil War here! That was ONE foreign professor’s experience while visiting UA. If you have an issue with him, shoot him an email. Or, better yet, hunt down the dad who made the actual comment!
@healthandmusic, I am a parent of a sophomore mechanical engineer at UA. He was born in CA, raised in the Northeast, and educated at Quaker schools. He is a liberal, agnostic Jew, so he is very much in the minority at UA, but he has had a wonderful experience so far. He lived in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative LLC last year, where he made a terrific group of friends comprised of students from many different states and of a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, and he has a couple of gay friends too.
There is no question the majority of students at UA are white and Christian, but there is also a sizable percentage of African American students. The majority of students are Christian (and many are regular churchgoers), but there is also a very nice Hillel, and I’m sure there are other religious groups on campus (although I’m not sure how active they are).
Only you can decide whether or not UA is the right fit for you, but I would highly encourage you to visit and find out for yourself. Make sure you arrange to visit the honors college and get in contact with them ahead of time so they can plan a schedule for you that addresses your interests. And do look at other schools like ASU to see how UA compares, both in terms of its academic and social fit and overall financial value. No school is the right one for every student. One of my son’s best friends from home (an Indian-American) attends Temple University in Philadelphia, which has scholarships comparable to Alabama’s if cost is a huge factor for you.
@healthandmusic No getting 1 bid is all you can get. The friday before bid day is preference day and that day its optimal to have 3 options. But saturday is when you get a bid. I know a lot of girls who only had 1 pref but still got a bid. If you have 3 on pref day then you are almost guaranteed a bid. As long as you have a decent GPA and a good personality you should be fine. Also keep your options open. I know a lot of girls have their heart set of certain houses and get a bid from another. In the end they were very happy with their house and glad they didn’t get the one they originally loved. Also if you don’t get a bid during rush which is pretty rare, I think 95% of girls who don’t withdraw or limit their options get bids, you can always do spring rush which a lot more casual.
@LucieTheLakie My kids are Jewish but non-practicing. How is it for Jewish kids at UA? Will they feel out of place, i.e. lots of crstianity everywhere?
They do not practice but are used to an environment here in Chicago where religion is not in the public schools.
Have you been to the Hillel? Do you happen to know the size of the Jewish population at UA?
@CyclonesGrad, my son is non-observant, but I made a point of checking out the Hillel when we visited because it was important to me that there be some active Jewish life on campus, just for the sake of diversity. It’s a beautiful new building and pretty active from what I can tell. I know several families whose kids are active there and very happy.
Many of my son’s close friends are from Chicago, BTW!
Re whether or not your kids will feel out of place, only they can decide that. It will NOT be like Chicago or Philadelphia or NYC, but IMHO it’s good to see what it’s like to live in area where the Jewish population is not sizable.
If your kids will will freak out when they’re invited to church, which they WILL be–it’s just part of Southern hospitality and not necessarily an attempt to convert (although it could be)–it may not be the best fit for them. People want to make sure you’re part of a religious community of some sort because students who get “plugged in” somewhere tend to be happier at a lot of schools. In that sense, it might be harder for the agnostic or the atheist than an observant Jew, but my son is not easily offended.
If you PM me, I can try to put you in touch with some Jewish families.
@CyclonesGrad Back when the undergrad population was about 24K (2012 or so) it was estimated at 600. I would expect that number is much higher now, with the increase in OOS students.
My son is 1/4 Indonesian by ancestry (his paternal great-grandparents fled Indonesian for political reasons). He self-identifies as Caucasian because that’s how he was raised and how he thinks of himself, but those looking at him, especially those wishing to discriminate can definitely identify that he has a mixed ancestry. Many times in his life he has gotten the question ‘what are you?’ from people trying to determine his ethnic heritage who didn’t put much thought into their phrasing. The response he has learned to go with is ‘I’m an American, the same as you.’
Although he doesn’t have any experience with the Greek system because it was not something he was interested in getting involved with, I can’t think of a single instance in which he has felt any discrimination in his time at UA (this is now his 4th year on campus).
There are 30,000 students at UA and yes, there will be some that are closed-minded, but that’s not the norm. In a group of 30,000 anyone who makes an effort will be able to find others who are like minded, share interests, and are accepting of whatever differences the others may have.
I live in Indiana which is a very conservative and not very diverse state and what is true here is that the more rural areas have more closed minded people primarily because they have not been exposed to many different cultures. However, Indiana University (where I attended) is viewed as very liberal and the university attracts people from many different cultural backgrounds. I assume the same is true of Alabama and that if you travel far from campus into the more rural regions of the state you will encounter more people that simply haven’t been exposed to racial diversity in their lifetimes. However that is not true of the university which draws people from many different areas and backgrounds.
And by the way my son is extremely liberal and a very proud atheist, who in his time at Bama has had 1 Jewish roommate and 2 different homosexual roommates and although I don’t know of all of their experiences have not heard from my son that any of them experienced any strong discrimination or felt out of place.
@LucieTheLakie Thanks for the response. My kids are 2 out of about 10 Jewish kids in a HS of 2200. There is no issue of being in a diverse culture as they have Muslims in the school also.
They have been asked and gone to Christian events because we have one of the biggest Christian churches in the US by us. I am sure they will not be freaked out by being asked to church. They have friends that wear their religion on their sleeve.
@bamagirl18 Thank you that helps! However, in your honest opinion do you think that I, being Indian (not very Indian looking but you can tell. some people say I look Greek or Mediterranean), have a fair chance at getting a bid?
Also, how do you like Alabama? Are you in a sorority? If so what do you think of it?
