<p>So I’ve been accepted to UA and I know everything about the academics but not much about the social life on campus. I guess there are two things I’m wondering about:</p>
<ol>
<li>How close is the campus to Tuscaloosa? Is the town a big part of night life?</li>
<li>What would a typical Saturday night be like? Or any light life?</li>
</ol>
<p>Also, is there a big separation in night life from kids in sororities and fraternities?</p>
<p>I’d appreciate anyone’s thoughts!
Thanks so much!</p>
<p>The campus is IN Tuscaloosa! 
Right near everything.</p>
<p>I was in T-Town last Wednesday night for an event. There was fun night life going on downtown and on The Strip (where a lot of restaurants, coffee places, ice cream, etc) are (on University Blvd). After our event was over (about 9:30 pm), we drove past The Strip towards downtown to eat (where Mellow Mushroom, DePalmas, etc, are). Both whole areas were crawling with kids. Both my H and I commented that this whole area seems like a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I have also been in T-Town on weekends in the new open-air mall on McFarland Blvd. That is also a very popular place to go and hang out. Lots of stores, Barnes & Noble, restaurants, frozen yoghurt, etc places there. The regular mall is across the street, but the outdoor mall seems to attract a lot of kids.</p>
<p>The university is near the center of the city. Downtown and the Strip are adjacent to the UA campus. Those are the biggest centers of nightlife. That sort of nightlife is referring to going to bars, restaraunts, clubs, etc. Loitering at the mall, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Target is another facet of nightlife here. Plus the University hosts concerts, lectures, art showings, comedy nights in the dorms, etc. </p>
<p>There is plenty do here, you just have to seize the opportunities provided.</p>
<p>To help you get an idea…</p>
<p><a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama;
<p>See where the stadium is…look above and find University Blvd. Right there is The Strip - where many off-campus hangouts are. The Crimson Ride goes to this area.</p>
<p>If you were to go farther left (more west) on University, you’d quickly get to Downtown where more off-campus hangouts are. </p>
<p>Now, to give you an idea as to where the outdoor mall is…</p>
<p>Look to the far right of the map and find McFarland Blvd. Going south, the outdoor mall is right out of range of this map. Not far at all. :)</p>
<p>Oh and congratulations on your acceptance! Where are you from???</p>
<p>Don’t forget that the Rec Center is a very popular place to go to play pickup games of basketball, swim in the outdoor pool (when it’s warm), get some exercise, go to classes in yoga, ballroom dancing, hip-hop (had a friend who went to the hip-hop classes - he’s a white guy from Huntsville lol), and so much more.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Very true… the Rec Center is a fun hang-out place, too.</p>
<p>Generally, there will be more Greeks at the frat parties than GDI’s, but that’s expected. Assuming you’re female, you could probably get into most of them as a GDI. There are non-Greek parties too, but they really depend on who you know. Get a bunch of friends and you will have something to every night, be it going to the strip, a concert, party, whatever.</p>
<p>Great thread! Hope to spend a day after Capstone exploring the area and more of the campus. Will check out these areas!</p>
<p>You mention an outdoor pool. Is there an indoor pool where one can swim laps in inclement weather?</p>
<p>Is there a movie theater nearby?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Well, the campus IS in Tuscaloosa, but it literally borders the Strip, which has a lot of restaurants, bars, and Bama stores. If you go out to eat over there, I personally recommend the Mellow Mushroom(which I just recently found out is a chain). You’ll need a car though to get to the places on McFarland though. If you’re from a big city(like I am), Tuscaloosa is a downgrade for sure, tough.</p></li>
<li><p>That depends on which Saturday it’s on and what you’re into. If it’s a gameday Saturday, then the place is buzzing with people and parties. If it’s an away game/Spring, the place is pretty much dead on the weekends. Thursdays seem to be the party nights around here because of that. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>As for the Greeks and non-Greeks, there is some separation. The Greeks all go to fraternity houses to party, but you’re a non-greek you can get in too if you know someone, and that usually costs about $5. If you’re not into parties, there honestly isn’t much more to do other than eat, go to the mall or watch a movie.</p>
<p>Yes, there is an indoor pool at the Rec Center. There is also an Olympic-sized swimming pool at the Aquatic Center, and that is open for lap swimming year-round.</p>
<p>There is a movie theater in the Ferguson Center that shows second-run movies for free year-round.</p>
<p>I think most college kids at UA do what they do at any college on weekends…they hang out with friends, they go on dates, they work at part-time jobs, they go to parties, they go to on-campus sporting events, they go to on-campus music and theatre offerings, they go to movies, they go bowling, they go out to eat, they do things with their clubs, they study, etc.</p>
<p>What a coincidence. While looking up English scholarships for another student, I found the following info on the English Department’s website…</p>
<p>**Tuscaloosa : Night Life **
And what to do when you’re not in class? As a college town, Tuscaloosa presents both University students and town residents with a large number of venues for gathering with old friends and meeting new ones. The Strip, just off campus in the shadow of the football stadium, is rife with vibrant dance clubs and bars, including the Houndstooth, recently voted the best sports bar in America. Further off campus, in Tuscaloosa’s downtown commercial district, a number of bars such as Catch-22, Innisfree, the Downtown Pub, and Boo Radley’s provide a great mix of undergraduates, graduate students and town residents. And of course there’s 4th and 23rd for the post-MFA reading gathering every other Friday. Many of the bars offer free weekly card tournaments for students who need to play some poker to temporarily escape from their studies. Live music can be found at any number of bars each night of the week, and many of these shows are by regional or national acts. If you’re looking to meet new people, get together with some folks after class, or just relax with a drink and a game of pool, Tuscaloosa has plenty of venues with which to accomodate you.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the University offers a large number of intermural and extra-curricular activities and classes for students to participate in. Students in the department enjoy taking salsa dancing lessons, yoga, a Spanish club and going to free movies at the Ferguson Center throughout the week. And the department’s unofficial intermural soccer team, the Metrical Feet, is always looking for new sleepers to join their team in the fall. </p>
<p>Tuscaloosa
The University of Alabama is situated on 1000 acres beside the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa; the city and its environs are home to a population of 125,000, including 18,775 university students. The mountains of northern Alabama, the beaches of the Gulf Coast, the New South cities of Atlanta and Birmingham, are all within a few hours’ drive, and the Southern Crescent passenger train runs from Washington through Atlanta and Tuscaloosa to Old World New Orleans. The state of Alabama is rife with waterways, dense with forests of pine, and drenched in a subtropical climate that makes for a nearly year-round display of flowering plants and trees. To read more about the South as a region, click here. </p>
<p>Tuscaloosa County is home to artists of many stripes: potters, blues & jazz musicians, woodworkers, blacksmiths, college bands, painters, photographers, glassblowers, sculptors in fabric and steel. Each year in mid-October, the city of Northport, across the river, hosts the invitational Kentuck Festival, one of the first-and most influential-venues for the display and sale of so-called “outsider” art. You can hear great music there too, as you can in any of The Strip’s lively bars. The Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa, recently refurbished, shows classic films beneath the twinkling stars of its cathedral ceiling, and the acoustics in UA’s Moody Music Auditorium are world-class. Too, there’s that grand ol’ gridiron tradition, and a host of other intercollegiate sports: UA’s rec center and natatorium are both accessible and well-equipped. Local cuisine is distinguished—particularly the BBQ and venerable “meat and three” with the recent addition of Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean fare. The Tuscaloosa Community Agriculture Project provides its members with organic vegetables, including pink-eyed purple-hulled peas, okra, and other regional favorites.</p>
<p>**Tuscaloosa : Restaurants **
Tuscaloosa and the surrounding area feature a strongly diverse set of culinary traditions. Traditional ethnic choices such as Pan-Asian, Indian, Vietnamese, Italian and Mediterranean are all available. There are also a number of very friendly cafes featuring homestyle cooking and the famous Meat-and-3 combo. Fine dining options include the Globe restaurant in Northport, themed after all things Shakespearean, and the Cypress Inn, nestled on the north bank of the Black Warrior River. For excellent catfish, you can also visit Catfish Heaven.</p>
<p>And then there’s the grand Southern tradition of barbeque. Who’s got the best in town? Any graduate student who knows his or her stuff will argue the merits of Dreamland, Archibald’s, T’s or Woodrow’s, depending on their individual taste. Of course, the only way to be sure which you prefer is to sample them all yourself.</p>
<p>Of course, Tuscaloosa has many national and regional chain restaurants, too…Surin, Olive Garden, Chilis, Applebees, Panera Bread, Longhorn Steakhouse, Mellow Mushroom, etc.</p>
<p>Is it dead on the weekends because students go home? If you’re not in a frat, do you just have to know one of the guys in it or bring a couple good looking girls to get in? Or do they not really like having non-Greek kids at their parties?</p>
<p>Alabama is not a suitcase school. 40% of the students are OOS therefore the campus couldn’t possibly be dead on non-game weekends. We live in Alabama, and my kids don’t go home on weekends. </p>
<p>I was on campus this last Thursday and last weekend (no home game) and the campus was very much alive during the day and at night. At night, the frat row, The Strip, and Downtown were crawling with kids. </p>
<p>I was in the campus library on Saturday around noon, and that was full of kids (now that surprised me, but it was the weekend before finals…LOL)</p>
<p>You don’t have to bring gorgeous girls to frat parties. Guys tend to have to know a frat bro to get in. That’s not difficult - usually you’ll know frat guys in your res hall.</p>
<p>Well, from my personal experience as a student I’d beg to differ. Most kids don’t commute, of course, but it does seem dead on the non-football weekends. Just because there’s a huge amount of OOS doesn’t mean they don’t go home. The highest percentage states are nearby Georgia and Tennessee with alot of others from Mississippi and Florida. Thursdays are the party nights around here so that’s probably why you saw alot of people around. But who knows, I could just be seeing things differently :D</p>
<p>Most kids do not go home on weekends - even when there aren’t any games. It takes too much time to drive to and from the closer states or the northern or southern AL counties. We live only 2 1/2 hours away, yet my kids don’t come home often at all. Plus, many kids have part-time jobs in T-town, so they can’t leave the area. Besides, who wants to come home to the folks when the parties, girlfriends, boyfriends, and other friends aren’t at home?</p>
<p>Oooppssss…I wasn’t there on a Thursday night, I was there on Wednesday night (for Phi Beta Kappa initiation), and the Strip and Downtown were very busy. I was also on campus (during the day) on Saturday, and at the outdoor mall on Saturday night (which obviously wasn’t a home game day). The area was very busy. </p>
<p>I think it’s up to the student. A student must take some responsibility for how much fun he/she has. :)</p>
<p>Surprised to see people in the library? I think it’d be hard to be studying a lot when everyone else is having fun and not studying. Do people not need to study hours and hours everyday to get As or do most people just not care?</p>
<p>LOL…</p>
<p>The reason why I was surprised to see the library full before noon on Saturday is because SO MANY college students on MANY campuses sleep in til noon on Saturdays. LOL. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the library full at - say - 2 pm. Of course kids care about their grades. :)</p>
<p>I have nearly 50 nieces and nephews - many who are in college now or have gone thru college on various campuses across this country. All were strong students. I doubt any of them study (studied) on Friday nights or early Saturday mornings…unless, finals are/were imminent. A kid who studies all the time will burn out or go crazy. :)</p>
<p>The library is usually open limited hours on Saturday, so I’ll bet many people were there because of finals. It is possible to get A’s without studying a lot, just study smartly. It also depends on your major.</p>
<p>It is possible to get A’s without studying a lot, just study smartly.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of truth to that. When I was younger, I had a teacher from Japan, and she gave us the best studying advice. She told us to never wait until a few days before a test to start studying because you’ll be so nervous that you won’t retain much. Instead, she said start reviewing a week or more in advance, then lightly review during the few days leading up to the test. The do a full review the day before. The info will stick. And, it does.</p>
<p>It also depends on your major.</p>
<p>Of course, this is true, too. The harder sciences, math, and engineering classes can be very demanding.</p>