<p>The only real similarity between Alabama and Ohio State is that both are huge on football. Otherwise very different. Different cultures, different campuses, very different cities…</p>
<p>For what it is worth, I live in Columbus, Ohio but grew up in Alabama.</p>
<p>The OP appears to have regretted allowing family pressure to overwhelm personal preference. No surprise that this resulted in remorse.</p>
<p>“What exactly was the “short-sighted adolescent overstatement””</p>
<p>It was “I couldn’t see myself enjoying being a student there.” If your dream school was Mt. Holyoke, sure, you might be right. If your dream school is Alabama, you should be able to enjoy Ohio State if you bring a positive attitude.</p>
<p>We can all have different opinions about any pair of schools we’ve visited or attended. I think these schools have a whole lot in common – the most important commonality being a tremendous diversity of student subcultures of every stripe. What type of student community exists at Alabama and not at OSU?</p>
<p>“The OP visited both these schools and felt more at home at Bama . . . why not give her gut reaction the credit it’s due?”</p>
<p>That gut reaction is fine, and I didn’t criticize it at all. I have no issue with preferring Alabama. I have no issue with preferring ANY college. I am simply skeptical that a huge fan of Alabama <em>could not enjoy</em> OSU.</p>
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To me it’s more like someone saying they hate Yale and love Harvard or vice versa. And in this example especially if the family lived in the south vs, the northeast. In retrospect I think Yale would have been a better fit for me, but I had a fine time at Harvard. As far as OP is concerned, I had the sense that maybe she’d like to be further away from her family and trying a new part of the US on for size - and that, I totally get. So even though the universities are probably quite similar in many ways, I think if she/he wants to see if the switch could be made at this late date - why not.</p>
<p>I do think it’s possible she just met a bad subset of OSU students. I know my younger son felt like ultimately school visits and especially overnights probably were less reflective of the school culture than he had thought.</p>
<p>^^^ Agreed.</p>
<p>I emailed my regional recruiter from Alabama, and I can still recieve my scholarship. I was never really excited about attending OSU and only chose it because it is stronger in what I intend to study and due to my family’s urging. I fell in love with Alabama the moment I set foot on campus, and I enjoyed the company of every single person I met there significantly more than I anyone I met at my OSU orientation. I’m presuming the orientation was fine, considering everyone besides me seemed super into everything and very happy, and that I was the odd one out because of either my inability to let go of Alabama or because everyone that I met was disrepresentative of the general student body at OSU. Also, I am a guy and apologize for the whiny tone I had in my intro post.</p>
<p>so, does that mean, Roll Tide? </p>
<p>Perhaps you need to go to your dream school. If you later decide it just doesn’t suit your academic needs, especially for your chosen major, you can transfer for the courses you want that you can’t get at the dream school. You are more likely to do well if you are happy with your school.</p>
<p>I need to email Ohio State and unenroll, but I will be attending Alabama as long as I can unenroll. Thank you to everyone for your advice and roll tide!</p>
<p>ROLL TIDE, you will thank yourself in December when you are still wearing shorts to class and OSU has snow, lol…</p>
<p>Weather, affinity with other students, a chance to experience another part of the country–all these things are valid reasons to choose one school over another, even if on paper they seem virtually the same. </p>
<p>Roll Tide!</p>
<p>“I decided to attend Ohio State instead of Alabama because my family wished for me to remain close by”-OP</p>
<p>I am glad you parents are in agreement with you now. Many students want to leave the area they grew up in. My kids grew up in a college town that is home to one of the best public flagships in the country. Both turned it down and went to schools that were not ivies, probably not ranked much higher but very were different (and small) and in different parts of the country. Our rule was “make it comparable in cost”.</p>
<p>Even though both of OPs schools are similar in terms of structure,size, sports, etc there is a difference in student population. Both schools are state schools who have hugely instate populations: Alabama (94% instate), Ohio State (88% instate). Perhaps there was something about the southern feel the OP liked. I attended UNC as a out-of-state student (it is 82% instate) many years ago. It was a huge cultural adjustment for me. 30+ years later, I am still in NC. Something about the population felt right to me at the time and still does.</p>
<p>It comes down to the question of when one decides to back out a decision, commitment a go to the other choice. It’s impossible to say because the ends really justify the “rightness” of the decision. OP could back out of OSU and go to Alabama or where ever and feel exactly the same way there. There comes a point when backing out is more trouble and risk than it’s worth. Frankly, I don’t think that OSU is so terrible, there is so much there that anything one doesn’t like about it, one can find something else. It’s not like being shut into a tiny school in a tiny town where there aren’t a lot of choices. </p>
<p>Friend of mine’s oldest really hit the family hard. Went to Bucknell, was his clear first choice and told family he wasn’t going back at winter break. Had cleared out his dorm room and withdrawn. Decided he hated it there and was so determined he went through with it without telling family, because he did not want to hear any arguments; he was that sure that it was over for him there Went to a local school for the next term and worked, and then went onto Emory the next year graduated and went to med school and is now a doctor. Guess he did the right thing. But there are kids who do back out and then regret it I know a woman whose homesickness made her leave UNC-CH along with a lot of things that struck her the wrong way and she came back home to reclaim a local college scholarship where she stayed for her masters, marriage, motherhood, but regrets that she did not give UNC a go. One of her big regrets, now that she is my age. </p>
<p>Which situation the OP is in, who knows? I guess if s/he has the tenacity and feels strong enough to do something about it, it’s the right move despite later regrets that’s the way I’d look at it. . </p>
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<p>Not sure where those statistics cited above are coming from (maybe UAB or UAH?), but out-of-staters represent a MUCH larger proportion of the student body at Alabama (Tuscaloosa)–something close to 50%, I believe–and it’s been steadily increasing over the past several years. </p>
<p>In fact, the Class of 2013 class actually saw MORE out-of-staters enroll than Alabamans–nearly 60%!</p>
<p><a href=“http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/glance/2013-glance-total-enrollment”>http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/glance/2013-glance-total-enrollment</a>
<a href=“http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/reports/2013-2014-common-data-set”>http://oira.ua.edu/d/content/reports/2013-2014-common-data-set</a></p>
<p>ETA: </p>
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<p><a href=“University of Alabama enrollment reaches record high, 60 percent of freshmen not Alabama residents [updated] - al.com”>University of Alabama enrollment reaches record high, 60 percent of freshmen not Alabama residents [updated] - al.com;
<p>Lucie: The stats were from Birmingham. I had the wrong school. Thanks for the correction.I did get the stats right for Ohio (87.12% instate for this past year). Ohio does have less diversity in a state of residence sense <a href=“http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php”>http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php</a> (roughly 30% less than Alabama) Since the economic recession many state schools are seeking out of state students for the higher tuition. NC has been debating raising the cap on OOS students in order to build revenue.</p>
<p>Captain: I almost left at the end of my freshman year. I felt very out of place and found the small town lacking in variety (I grew up in a metro area much more active than the RTP area of long ago) The only thing that kept me there was a young man. By the time we broke up, I was in grad school. I am sorry about your friend who regrets leaving UNC. Sounds like her life went well. One of the challenges we have as we age is working through regrets and cherishing what did work out. I work on this one a lot!</p>
<p>Here are the latest stats for OSU if anybody is interested: <a href=“Quick facts - The Ohio State University”>http://undergrad.osu.edu/admissions/quick-facts.html</a></p>
<p>“Ohio does have less diversity in a state of residence sense”</p>
<p>Right, though it is a very diverse state culturally, ethnically, economically, politically, etc. 90% in-state means something different in Ohio than it does in states that aren’t as large and varied (or even than it does in Illinois, where our flagship is really dominated by kids from the Chicago suburbs).</p>
<p>And the other thing to keep in mind is that out-of-staters generally disproportionately represent the adjacent states. Penn State, for instance, has a lot of kids attending from New York and NJ.</p>
<p>Does anybody on CC have pull with The Chronicle of HIgher Education? It would be so awesome if they updated their terrific feature, “Where Does Your Freshman Class Come From?” </p>
<p>Back in 2011, when it was created, they cited the following statistics from 2010 for the “chance that any two U.S. freshmen at this college came from different states”: </p>
<p>Ohio State: 29%
Alabama: 65%</p>
<p><a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/Where-Does-Your-Freshman-Class/129547/#id=214777”>http://chronicle.com/article/Where-Does-Your-Freshman-Class/129547/#id=214777</a></p>
<p>Love the interactive link. </p>
<p>Cool link, but note that some schools have changed a lot. For example, the University of Maine is now close to 40% out of state.</p>