My S has been admitted to several Honors programs (UGA, ASU, FSU, USC, SMU and UA). Most of these schools admit approximately 10% of the incoming Freshman class to honors. If I remember correctly, UA admits 25% of incoming Freshman to honors. If that number is correct, are they able to provide the individual attention that schools with a 10% admission rate would? Does it feel “too large”? If 25% of the incoming class has early registration, is it difficult to get certain classes/professors? Is it considered “special” with the large number admitted?
Congratulations to your son for all of the acceptances!
UA does admit more students to the Honors College than other schools. I don’t think this is a negative, just a different philosophy.
Here is a list of the Fall 2015 honors class choices. http://honors.ua.edu/academics/honors-courses/all-courses/
The early class registration is also a plus.
It is special, you can get your classes, and it is whatever you make of it! Roll Tide!!
OP - yours is a really great question that I had not thought of before! Some Honors College courses are ‘capped’ at a certain # of students, so if there are more students, in some cases, they just add more sections of the class. (English 103 comes to mind in that regard.) I will say that in hindsight (son is junior), it was a bit tight for him to get some of those Honors seminars as a freshman, despite having early reg. As each year passes, and you have more credit hours, you are ahead of more and more students in the reg process, so it does get easier. Despite 25% honors, even as a freshman, you should have very little problem (if any) getting into any class that is required. Overrides are given frequently (if/as warranted), and the whole process is relatively hassle-free.
Keep in mind that there is the Honors College, and then there is ‘graduating with honors’ within your major/department. In some cases, this is substantially more difficult to achieve, and this is something you might want to explore. Here is a link to a list of current departments that offer this: http://honors.ua.edu/programs/campus-programs/
Oh, and yes, it is special! 
The overall percentage of honors students is higher due to the nature of UA’s Honors College. The University Honors Program is unlike many honors programs in that students have many different courses to choose from to satisfy program requirements (18 honors credits, 6 of which must be in a smaller subset of courses). This is very different from programs where a small group of students take a specific sequence of lower division courses.
UA’s Honors College aims to be more of a facilitating organization for top students. Instead of taking just a few honors classes, students can have an honors experience for their entire time at UA.
I think it’s great that Bama has such a large honors college. It allows the HC to offer such an amazingly large number of different and unique offerings.
My kids didn’t find that having a large HC hurt them for priority registration. They always got the classes they wanted. HC kids don’t register all on the same date or time…it is by credits earned.
This schedule will show you how your honors student will be able to register before the general population beginning with their Spring classes of their freshman year. My DS is a freshman and will be able to sign up for classes on April 2nd, the 3rd day of registration (27 AP hours plus 16 Fall 2014 hours = 43 hours), instead of April 13th. That, to me, is the main advantage of being an honors student at Alabama!
Of course, another advantage is being in a smaller class with like-minded students.