I have not been on this site for months, busy like everyone else with a million things, but I wanted to take a moment to write a couple of things since I realize seniors and their parents are waiting to hear from schools, making visits, making decisions and are faced with many questions. I thought I would offer my two cents with regard to our son’s experience so far at the University of Alabama.
As I am pretty sure I conveyed on another post, sending our son to a big state university was not the original plan. We were considering many options including several small highly competitive liberal arts colleges in the northeast. The extremely generous scholarships (that I read about on College Confidential) were the impetus for researching this school. After convincing my husband and son to go down to Tuscaloosa for the Capstone Day (weekend) last January our son was committed to this school (which was not even on his college list until I put it there). We are from New York, our son had never been down there, did not know anyone who would be attending (or who had even applied) and here we were sending him to this huge football school, far away from home with no clue as to how this would go. I have to include in this post that the people from the honors college, our New York regional recruiter, their hospitality and others who we met on this site made the decision a no-brainer for us and we were excited. But nervous…
Well, I am happy to report that he LOVES it! The people who he has been involved with from program administrators, mentors, professors, students and many others have been wonderful! He is now a huge Alabama football fan (how can you not be?), did extremely well academically, has great friends and has become involved in several activities where he has also met great friends and has had amazing opportunities. I decided to write this after he called me to tell me that an administrator who he reached out to for help with something (at the advice of an older student there - who has also been wonderful) replied to him within minutes. This is the kind of thing that you always wonder about when you are deciding on a school and in particular at a large university. Our son has had many similar experiences since getting down there. Its unbelievable.
The “bigness” of this school is all positive; Unlimited opportunity, vast academic and extracurricular offerings and experiences that a student might not find at a smaller university. However, in spite of the size, the attention he has received, the help, the guidance, the genuine interest is just beyond anything we ever could have imagined. Perspective students and their families go down to Tuscaloosa to visit and often ask in this forum upon their return “Do they continue to be this interested once the student is down there as a student?” I am happy to report that in our experience the answer is a resounding YES and even more so. I wish I could just give a big thanks to everyone there! I wanted to post this for anyone who has questions. This has been a great experience. The Southern Hospitality and the genuine interest in the students at the University of Alabama has exceeded this family’s expectations. I apologize that this is long and my thoughts are jumbled but I am rushing. I really wanted to post and if I don’t do it now… (you know how that goes, haha). Please feel free to message me if you have any questions.
At UA, the “fun” is alive and kickin’…