I’m driving my junior son and two of his friends over spring break ( late March coming from Illinois) to tour the campus. All are interested in engineering. I have a few questions 1. Where would you recommend staying? Is there a bad area we should stay away from? It’s hard to tell in online searches. 2. Any must sees? I love the campus (and the low cost as he qualifies for full tuition) so I’m hoping my son will as well. We will take the campus tour but what else would give them an insiders look at Alabama? 3 His number one choice now is university of Pittsburgh or university of Illinois. Any thoughts or information regarding how Alabama compares for chemical engineering would be helpful. Thanks for your help. From reading all your posts on this site, I already love 'bama
Hi, sent you a PM. My son was ChemE and did very well. Although he went onto med school, his ChemE friends went right into high paying jobs after graduation.
Do the students like sports? If so, then a visit to the Paul Bryant Museum will be interesting to them.
I’m PM’ing you the campus visit info and honors college info.
Many students are coming from Illinois. You should check out the deans list (just google one) to see how many students are from your area (we are from southern WI). Glad you are coming when the school is in session (UAs spring break is from 3/11-3/20) as its always best to see the school with students. The bus tour of the campus does give you a good idea, but make sure you visit the stadium on your own for pictures. (The Paul Bryan museum is fun if you have time.) Hopefully the weather will be nicer in Tuscaloosa than in Illinois as this was a definite “selling” point for my kids. Roll Tide!
If looking for the full-tuition OOS scholarship, students in all majors will have to have ACT 32 (SAT 1400-1600 CR + M) in addition to GPA 3.5 for fall 2017 admit. Engineering was sweetening things for OOS students with ACT 30/SAT equiv. for some years, but that is ending after fall 2016 admits.Still will have some scholarship for OOS beginning with ACT 27 (SAT CR + M 1210-1240) and 3.5 GPA. National Merit Scholars have a sweeter deal too at UA.
The advantage with junior students is there are opportunities to work on ACT/SAT scores. My DD got her best score at the last test sitting UA would take (Dec of senior year).
If UA SITE is not totally booked (one week engineering experiences at UA, three different sessions, can find it on UA engineering program web site), you can register - it helped DD determine her area of engineering (she went to SITE before her HS senior year). Purdue and other colleges offer similar programs, but it really has a student get a good look at UA. UA doesn’t advertise SITE because it fills up so fast.
When he sees UA’s campus, the new STEM buildings, the campus vibe, the great weather, etc I believe his friends and he will be excited. Hopefully you can arrange for them to sit in a class in engineering field of interest.
And hope for UA to add another football National Championship by the time you visit too. UA is flying the entire marching band (including DD) to the National Championship game in AZ. Living in IL, you may have heard how U-WI went to their bowl game w/o the freshman marching band students - administration didn’t even allow the band an opportunity to raise the money, they had already only allocated 225 marching band members (so band director had to re-work the half time show).
There is a sizable pool of high stat kids at UA - and there are some fairly large honors programs (Emerging Scholars where they can get into research as a freshman, and the STEM MBA program which my DD is in as an eng major).
If you don’t get any recommendations on places to stay, PM me. There are a lot of great places.
Being from IL, my son had been to U of I several times for events, etc. Had the stats to get in. Didn’t even want to apply once he learned about UA’s Presidential Scholarship and Engineering Scholarship…and had read up on UA’s engineering programs/complex, the campus, campus life, etc. The visit to UA totally sealed the deal! Fall 2014 UA freshman class included about 290 students from IL; Fall 2015 freshman class included about 383 students from IL.
http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2015/f18.html
Roll Tide!
Capstone Inn is very nice, and is on campus - although not near the engineering side of campus. Hampton Inn East is not on campus but the closest hotel. Embassy and Home2 Suites are new. Microtel on 15th Street has very good reports and is budget friendly. I have had good experiences with Best Western Park Plaza - not fancy but clean and reasonable.
Here’s something from early this school year…compiled by another parent before Home2 Suites opened: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1E-jCLyK_s-3AXmhB9eHjnw_pvyYpVII8khxDo2fXF9c/viewanalytics?usp=form_confirm
Home2 is very comfortable, and fairly close to campus, with nice people running it. It might be a little on the pricey side if you’re bringing a crew.
Thanks everyone! Very interesting amy9998. The majority of the freshman class is out of state:-)
Don’t forget to consider the local VRBO short-term rentals for your campus visit. When traveling with family in tow, it can be nice for the parents to have their own bedroom, a full kitchen, and more than one bathroom to use! I own 3 VRBO condos and many UA CC and UA Facebook families have happily stayed. I try to give UA visitors an extra discount to make their visits more affordable. 
8 You're welcome, perch1024! Yes, about 62% of Fall 2015 freshmen came to UA from out of state. Yes, some of those are from FL, TN, and other SE states. However, there are large contingents from TX, CA, IL ... freshmen from nearly every state. The secret is out, and word is spreading about UA! :)
@Southlander
Hampton Inn East is not the closest to campus. That Hampton is out in Cottondale.
The closest Hampton Inn is the one on Harper Lee Dr, the Hampton Inn University
Oops! Sorry, you are correct! Nothing wrong with the Cottondale Hampton Inn, but the one on Harper Lee Drive is lots closer.
Visitors need to remember that hotel rates triple or more for football weekends and for other high-demand times - graduation, move-in, and move-out dates, end of sorority recruitment weekend. There’s a cluster of hotels in Bessemer, just up I-59 about 30-45 minutes, that will have normal rates. Another possibility is Jasper, due north of Tuscaloosa about a 45 minutes to an hour’s drive. Or on into Birmingham, look for hotels in the Hoover and US 280 areas. South, you will find hotels in Meridian MS, but that’s about a 75-90 minute drive.
<<<<
Visitors need to remember that hotel rates triple or more for football weekends and for other high-demand times - graduation, move-in, and move-out dates, end of sorority recruitment weekend.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
This is very true. High demand times have high premium rates.
Out of curiosity why are rates up for end of sorority recruitment weekend?
Lots of parents come for bid day, but more importantly, it’s move-in day for the rest of students.
Yes there are several high rate/premium rate periods in Tuscaloosa…7 home football game weekends, winter graduation, A-Day Weekend, Move-out in May which coincides with spring graduation, the first weekend in Aug, and the second weekend in Aug (both are Move in weekends).
These time periods are high demand, but they also help pay for the periods where the lodging venues have vacancies. In other words, they keep the venues in the black, otherwise they wouldn’t exist.
The out of state enrollment for last Fall’s Freshman class was actually over 65%, including international students. http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/glance/2015-glance-new-freshmen-enrollment