<p>Admittedly a First World problem, but a sincere question nonetheless: </p>
<p>DS and a few friends are planning to go to Europe after HS graduation in June (part school-related, part visiting old friends, and part just touring around). School gets out late this year (June 24th, ugh), so they aren’t leaving until June 26th. I saw that Alabama Action started on August 11th in 2013. Assuming that the time frame is similar for 2014, I told DS he should try to be back home by July 31st to have time to wrap things up here before heading to Tuscaloosa, but he really wants to stay in Europe for an extra week.</p>
<p>From everything I’ve read here, Alabama Action is a very worthwhile experience, but is it worth skipping a week in Europe for? We need to firm up the trip dates by mid-January because the flights are being arranged through the school program, and that is the deadline they gave us.</p>
<p>My son participated in AA, and for what its worth… he says it is not worth missing a week in Europe for. Yes, he enjoyed AA, but once your son gets to Bama, he will have many opportunites to participate in community service and to make friends. </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision! :)</p>
<p>It depends on your son and how he is at making friends easily. </p>
<p>I would have him go to AA since he’s OOS and doesn’t know anyone. </p>
<p>Maybe compromise and have him get stuff ready for school BEFORE he leaves for Europe.</p>
<p>I think 11 days is too much time “to wrap things up”. We usually always traveled before the kids returned to school. Usually just a few days is needed…as long as purchases, etc, were done before.</p>
<p>My D did OA, and said that her decision to do it was one of the best decisions she made relative to freshman year. She’s not real outgoing, so having the opportunity to meet people at OA before school started was very helpful to her in acclimating to UA. If it was my D, I’d have her do both - spend the extra week in Europe AND do AA - and just cut back on the amount of time to tie things up. Heck, I’d pack and get everything ready if need be to enable my child to do OA or AA - I think it was that valuable to my D. But if you have a very outgoing son who makes friends easily or already knows a lot of people at UA, AA might not be as necessary for him.</p>
<p>I was going to post to do both, too, until I looked at the calendar. If by staying an extra week he is coming home Thursday August 7, that might be cutting it too close to move in that Saturday and start AA on Sunday, unless there is no jet lag and no travel time to get from home to Alabama (which I’m assuming is not the case, given the name westcoastmom). </p>
<p>Another week is Europe is great but he’ll be there 4 or 5 already. Possibly forming a close bond with a group of kids to get him through 4 years of college is not to be disregarded lightly. Tough call.</p>
<p>It’s going to be tough getting things done before his trip since he will be busy with graduation activities, and is leaving for Europe 2 days after graduation, with Grad Nite and a party thrown into those days. Maybe we can compromise and split the difference, and he can stay an extra few days vs. a whole week. I am going to strongly encourage him to do AA. Five weeks in Europe is still pretty awesome; I didn’t get to do a trip of that caliber until I was 27!</p>
<p>DS did Outdoor Action. He is OOS and did not know anyone. He didn’t communicate with suitemates during the summer.</p>
<p>For him, it really helped to get over the anxiety before classes kicked off.</p>
<p>If your kid is very outgoing, planning to rush or has a specific club in mind, then I would spend the extra time in Europe. </p>
<p>Remember, between OA and AA, only about 200 kids take part. Plenty of other OOS kids will be starting at the “normal” move-in.</p>
<p>Thanks for this info on AA and OA… helpful.</p>
<p>Alabama and Outdoor Action are great ways to meet other Honors College students, though they are by no means required to meet people on campus.</p>
<p>Remember also that most honors students have a large number of friends who aren’t in the Honors College, but share similar interests or are in the same non-honors classes. Come senior year, it’s hard for many people to remember which of their friends is in the honors college and who isn’t. UA’s Honors College has always been organized as a facilitating organization for top students rather than a lock-step program where students spend much of their day in Honors College facilities. </p>
<p>I think the compromise of staying in Europe is a good idea. Keep in mind that open jaw tickets where one flies into and out of different cities are rarely that much more expensive than a simple roundtrip ticket into and out of the same city and are sometimes cheaper. For example, I’ve flown into London and out of Vienna, though I could’ve just as easily flown out of Budapest or Bratislava. </p>
<p>If your son isn’t overly picky about what he brings for his dorm room, you can purchase and organize most of his items. If he forgets to pack something, he can always buy it in Tuscaloosa, on Amazon, or have you mail it to him. </p>
<p>When more upperclassmen lived in the dorms, those from far away states would often ship/mail items in advance, fly to Birmingham by themselves, take a shuttle down to campus, and immediately move in to their dorm rooms. As your son will be a freshman, you’ll likely want a couple days to tour the surrounding area with him, purchase supplies, and take him out to dinner. Flying to Alabama on Wednesday or Thursday night would give you lots of time to accomplish all of these activities.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, we’re from the west coast too and I had all these plans for preparing/packing my son to go to Alabama…in reality, my DS packed 2 suitcases 2 days before we left. We stopped at the Target in Hoover on our way to Tuscaloosa and bought everything we thought he’d need. Over the next 2 days we made several more stops at the Tuscaloosa Target to pick up extras. I thought preparing for his move was going to be much more involved than it was! Good luck!</p>
<p>The Bed Bath and Beyond may be open by August. Would be very easy to have shipped to store.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. Whether DS goes to AA or not, I am going to push for him to be home by August 3rd at the latest, just because I’d like to see him a little bit before he heads all the way across the country for college, and I know he’ll want a few days to bid farewell to friends and family. Since we will be flying to Tuscaloosa (Birmingham), we will end up buying almost all his dorm needs once we are in Alabama, so I’m sure I’ll be back on the UA forum for shopping advice :).</p>