Bama is a beautiful campus. I was very impressed when I visited with my D21. She was not quite as impressed but did acknowledge it was a very nice campus
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We are on the same boat.
It is a lot of $$ to pass up. Plus, my DS23 gets another $2500 per year for engineering. There is a reason why they have 300+ National Merit finalists and 300+ CBNRP awardees on campus.
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This is correct. My DDās BF is at UNC/Kenan Flagler. He had multiple offers before selecting a bulge bracket IB firm. All his friends have secured positions at Wall Street or as management consultants. Things have definitely shifted since I went school but with all of that, there is still a big advantage with target schools for some professions as @citivas pointed out.
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I have a doctorate in business, my advice for you is to go to the school where you will have the easiest access and most opportunities for internships, at the lowest cost. Dallas/Austin are up and coming in the financial world, and many new grads from any school, even schools like Virginia Tech are getting hired in the mid-100s. I canāt argue the opportunities being in New York will bring. but remember even at Fordham, it is full tuition for National merit, but living and attending school in Lincoln Center will be about $20000/yr still, Rose Hill is slightly less.
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and Less than 50% of all students graduate in 5 year adding to the costs. I work with Professors in their 50s still struggling with 6-digit student loan debt between them and their children, who are in successful careers. I canāt even imagine.
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We did a drive-by (sans child) last March during our vacay.
Very big campus, almost all buildings very new and impressive.
The Greek housing - sorority row etc - gave me a creepy vibe I canāt quite explain. All these white mansions in a rowā¦
It was Bamaās spring break also, so the campus was fairly empty, which is never going to be appealing.
Thereās a river (?) next to campus and a nice-looking waterfront park area. Tuscaloose itself seems kind of generic, but we did not explore, so I could be wrong.
Yes the fraternity sorority row is āinterestingā. Those are some huge houses. Being a sports nut I liked that the football stadium is right on campus.
Fordham with a full ride would be very tempting because its in the city and with a strong network in the finance world.
FWIW, Duke, Northwestern and Chicago all do very well in investment bank recruiting.
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My D17 qualified at Alabama for what was then still the full tuition waiver (and is now very nearly so), and they really did try to get her to come there with all sorts of other sweetenersābut even aside from her preference for a smaller college (which would have been ameliorated by her acceptance into the Blount Scholars program), there were two things that really turned her off from the place: (1) the physical centrality of Greek life, and (2) the centrality of the football program to the point that there were repeated subtext directed to her and the other applicants that it was football profits that funded their schooling, and so they needed to acknowledge the importance of the team.
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That sounds like my D. She called U Alabama a āfootball college with an academic programā, and didnāt want to apply.
She enjoys football, but wanted schools where academics and research were the central focus.
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I am in group with go to the cheaper school unless you want to get into IB. IB is a lot about relationships.
College loans adds pressure to your life. My D19 will graduate debt free from MiamiOH. When it all shook out she got about 99% of her tuition & fees paid for. We were able to cover the rest. She is a bit murky on what she will do after college, but she has some freedom in that she doesnāt have to cover a loan.
I have my D23 on the hunt for merit$. She wants to be a teacher so she the ranking isnāt all or nothing.
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I am also in the made my kid apply to Alabama because free tuition would be awesome camp, but no way she will choose it.
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hahah, at the end of all this we should start a facebook group: Parents of Accepted Alabama Kids Who Went Elsewhere.
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Iām feeling proud of myself because I directed one of my sonās friends to Alabama. My son canāt handle heat so I never told him about it for himself.
We donāt know anyone locally who has ever applied there, but his friend is NMF, so I sent my son the link to the Bama scholarship page. I told him āFrank should apply here, they have X and Y majors heās interested in and heād get automatic full rideā. He said Frank wouldnāt be interested but heād pass on the info. I said āsure, but itās hard to pass up FREE.ā Well, guess whoās interested in Alabama after all LOL.
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My friendās S22 also was admitted to Bamaā, full ride. He also said it was hard to give up free, but in the end, S22 didnāt go there either (he went to Rice). Bamaās yield rate must be tiny. 
D21 also has a very good scholarship at Miami of Ohio. Basically full tuition plus a couple grand more. She will come out debt free plus the balance of her 529. The funny thing is she always said she would never go to school in Ohio (we are in PA). And yet all things considered that is where she ended up and is very happy and thriving there.
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Found some interesting stats here:
Bamaās yield has plummeted in the last 10 years, from 46% in 2012 to 23% in 2021
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Anyone not apply to Bama except my kid? 
S23 to an esports coach today. I would make fun of this but they are offering essentially half off tuition to join the team. Not sure if they stack this with other merit though.
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23% is still pretty good, and Iām sure their aggressive honors college recruiting is working for them. But theyāre turning into a Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon shop, since everyone seems to know someone or at least someone who knows someone, who had a full ride to Bama and went somewhere else!
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@burghdad my son said the same thing about going to school in OH but he ended up nearby at Xavier. 
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