<p>First, thanks so much for reading this; UAB is one of my top choices as an OOS student and any additional info to make my choice easier is much appreciated 
To start, my dad has a friend that is from the Birmingham area that frequently returns there. He told my dad that the city and the area around the campus is unsafe, and while I consider myself street-smart (as a concert band kid I do lots of trips to big cities every year), my dad has become skeptical. Can any UAB students or parents let me know about any experience they have with the safety of the campus? Thanks again guys!!!</p>
<p>SuperCC, you may have noticed that this is the University of Alabama forum, not the UAB forum…but there is no UAB forum, so I’ll try to answer your question. I am not a student and my kids didn’t go to school there, but I did work with my sorority chapter there for a few years. Your dad’s friend probably hasn’t spent much time in downtown Birmingham in a long time. This area is “southside,” meaning it’s south of the railroad tracks. The area that UAB is in used to be the location of some truly horrible slums. Those slums were cleared out in the 1970s. Your dad’s friend would probably be astonished by that area now. I would consider UAB to be fairly safe on the campus itself. And campus is expanding.
Like anywhere, you will need to be aware of your surroundings and who’s in them. There are few certain areas just off campus where you might not want to go alone after dark.
If you haven’t visited, I would definitely bring up this topic during a visit. You might also want to talk to a few students about their experiences.</p>
<p>Why is there no UAB forum of its own? How would someone start one?</p>
<p>Probably not enough demand. I guess you could e-mail the moderators and request it.</p>
<p>Parent56 has requested one, but there’s a minimum threshold to make the cut (have no idea what that is.) Most colleges don’t have a presence on CCs, but I’m glad that the UA forum makes room for the infrequent questions about UAB and UAH. </p>
<p>SuperCC: you may want to send a private message to Parent56; she has a son who is a junior at UAB and he’s been very successful here. I’ll see if I can contact her to post here.</p>
<p>Supercc… as with any city, common sense applies. the area around the campus is safe…there is campus police, blue phones, city police and as the campus is surrounded by about 7 hospitals you also have hospital security. Southlander is correct. You dont want to be walking around after dark in areas blocks away from campus…but certainly from uab and southside into 5 points is safe. my son lives off campus about 15 minutes…and walks home very often after midnight. no problems at all… not that i think that is a great idea 
This was in the UA crimson white last year and you can see that uab is safe. (compares all alabama schools) perhaps show your dad these stats
[Campus</a> crime not new | The Crimson White](<a href=“YouA moves from Youtube - The Crimson White”>YouA moves from Youtube - The Crimson White)</p>
<p>feel free to pm me about uab, life there, courses, honors programs, dorms etc…as RobD said i have a son there chemistry and molecular biology, and in honors program. </p>
<p>and thanks robd for the support :)</p>
<p>to update those asking why no uab board…i went ahead and asked again :)… response again was “not enough threads with uab in the title”. i had mentioned possibly removing forums in college section that had not seen activity in a year or more…but they dont remove forums. so hopefully people will recognize that students wanting info on uab or uah, probably will ask here… afterall they are part of the ua system, and just ignore the “intrusion”</p>