<p>I think you’re being a bit humble with Spelman. Sure, Spelman may be a ‘mid-ranked LAC.’ But along with Moorehouse and Howard, Spelman is easily one of the top three HBCUs.</p>
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<li><p>No.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>The university of Alabama is a fine state school and you’d get a great education there. I think at this age in your life the prestige difference is quite overblown. You won’t be denied opportunities due to attending Alabama instead of UWashington. Sure, certain employers don’t hire students who went to Alabama. But the ones that do probably don’t hire at UWashington either.</p></li>
<li><p>Unfortunately I wasn’t in your situation since the best university I was admitted to (of the top ones) was also the cheapest one for me to attend. (I’ll let you guess which one that was.) When I see people in this situation, I almost always advise them to go with the cheaper university. People often have very unrealistic expectations of much money they’ll be making after graduation, and the job opportunities that they’ll have. Sure, you may love your experience there. But that doesn’t mean you’ll love the debt that you’ll graduate with.</p></li>
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<p>Every state flagship university has an excellent education available for anyone who chooses to pursue it. Since your choice comes down to two large public universities, you are not sacrificing small classes or a more intimate environment. You are sacrificing a somewhat more cosmopolitan community, but the savings will give you more flexibility in considering travel and internship opportunities. Most public universities participate in exchange programs with other state universities, allowing you a chance to study elsewhere for a semester if you get sick of AL. If money weren’t an object, I wouldn’t consider AL over WA for a nanosecond, but I have a son who is also facing a decision and realized that the less expensive school will allow him all sorts of options that he wouldn’thave if he had to work in paying jobs through the year, incur huge debts, and blow through all of his savings (and a lot of his parents’).</p>
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My main concern with Alabama is the fact that I might not like being surrounded by people who aren’t going to college for the education per say. I just don’t want to go to a college where I don’t fit in.
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<p>You aren’t going to find many big partiers in STEM majors…too little time for that. I’m NOT saying that there wont be any partiers in STEM…my own ChemE son did some partying and had a beer pong table…lol. But everything in moderation to keep one’s grades.</p>
<p>That was exactly my point. I was responding to this comment from the OP:</p>
<p>“not so prestigious” college that parties all the time that is easy to get in to</p>
<p>OP didn’t refer to the competitiveness of her peers - she referred to how difficult the school is to get into. My point was that acceptance rates (or how easy or difficult it is to get into a school) don’t mean much in terms of how competitive your classmates will be.</p>
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<p>I appreciate this! But I do it on purpose at CC because the students here tend to have different ideas about prestige/rankings than I do. Spelman is in the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the country - it’s a fantastic place - but here it seems like if you’re in the top 30 or so you’re nothing, so I try to use the language the HS seniors here understand.</p>
<p>I actually think this thread is a perfectly example of that, because reputationally UW-Seattle is not really that different from UA.</p>
<p>Hi everyone. Just wanted to post that I have chosen Alabama over Washington and look forward to attending in the fall. I loved my visit and I am confident in my decision. Thank you all for your opinions, they helped me out a lot. </p>
<p>I lived up there for about a year after college (first job). I was surprised by how little actual rain fell during winter. There were a few storms that dumped a bit of rain, but most of the time it was just WEEKS of cloudy and cold. And the clouds weren’t particularly appealing either… they’re just flat grey. Blah.</p>
<p>Needless to say I got the out of there pretty quick! Lol.</p>