<p>I would like to hear the strengths of U of Ark as compared to U of Oklahoma, U of Alabama, and U of Mississippi. Strengths that apply to the whole student body and business school strengths.</p>
<p>Hi Lovestheheat- Nice to see you in this thread- hopefully some others and maybe even someone from the college will be able to chime in as well over here.</p>
<p>Arkansas is a bit smaller overall than Oklahoma or Alabama (they are both around 30,000), and a bit larger than Ole Miss (19,500 or so), and located in the great college town of Fayetteville Arkansas. Fayetteville’s been ranked as the 7th Best Place to Live, Work, and Play by Kiplinger’s, the 4th Best Place for Business and Careers by Forbes, and the 6th Top College Sports Towns by Forbes. The student body is about 27% out of state, 6% international (over 1,100 students from countries other than the US) and the rest is in-state. The UofA has been named one of the 50 best values in public education and has some very appealing scholarships for out of state students living in states that border Arkansas. </p>
<p>On the business front, I think the UofA shines. The Walton College of Business is ranked by US News as the 24th amongst public business schools (undergrad) and has the 25th ranked public MBA program in the nation as well. The undergraduate Accounting program was ranked 9th in its group by Public Accounting Report, and the graduate program ranked 10th. The U of Arkansas is the highest ranked business college (by US News) of the ones you’re asking about overall- and only Oklahoma and Arkansas were also ranked as top 100 programs by Business Week. </p>
<p>As far as other things that might be important- Arkansas is home to the only Honors College in the nation supported by a $200 million endowment. Honors students have opportunities for early registration, additional scholarships, specialized Honors classes in every program offered on campus, special study abroad trips, Honors housing, and of course the opportunity to do hands-on individualized research with a faculty member in their college. </p>
<p>I think you mentioned something about English as well- your son may be interested in double majoring or minoring, and an academic advisor with each of his programs of interest can help him plan for that. We have the 5th ranked Creative Writing program in the country and there should be something in that department that piques his interest.</p>
<p>I know most of that reads like a stat sheet, but I hope it helps with your research. If there are any other questions I can answer as a recent alum, let me know. I’m sure someone else on here will chime in with their own opinions too.
-Matt</p>
<p>My daughter has been accepted and will begin attending in Fall 2011. We visited 8 SEC schools and TCU. The final decision came down to South Carolina and Arkansas. We did not visit nor do I know much about Oklahoma. We did not visit Mississippi as we did not have a high opinion of the academics and knew some people from our area that did not like the atmosphere there. We liked Alabama quite a bit, but my daughter was concerned about being from Missouri and not feeling welcomed in Tuscaloosa. The campus is beautiful, the academics are good and the football in unmatched. I was not crazy about the town of Tuscaloosa. The whole family loved South Carolina and probably liked it slightly more than Arkansas but it was farther away and she couldn’t quite get her ACT up to the point of getting an out of state tuition waiver scholarship. Academics, city, sports were all wonderful in Columbia. The sorority houses were unbelievable and my daughter can’t wait to be in a sorority.</p>
<p>The reasons she ended up choosing Arkansas: </p>
<p>She felt very comfortable in the Northwest Arkansas area. Fayetteville, Rogers and Bentonville felt safe with plenty of shopping and recreation areas. </p>
<p>The business school is highly ranked as Matt mentioned and since my daughter is majoring in Marketing, it can’t hurt that Wal Mart headquarters (and the numerous Fortune 500 companies in the area to be near Wal Mart) certainly will help with internship, donations and learning opportunities.</p>
<p>She had the grades and test scores to get the in state tuition waiver for border state students. That was a bigger deal for me than her.</p>
<p>The campus is very nice and is easy to walk to get around. They offer free transportation to malls, etc. but my daughter plans on taking her car.</p>
<p>She loves sports and the people there are rabid about the Hogs. Coach Petrino has the football team going in the right direction and all the athletic facilities are very nice. The baseball stadium is very impressive.</p>
<p>She is close enough to home yet far enough away to be independent. It is a 5 hour drive to St Louis and we have family in the area. This was a big factor for my daughter who started getting nervous about being so far away in Columbia, SC and not knowing anyone there. It is also nice for the parents so we can attend football games and visit easily. </p>
<p>With Wal Mart, Tyson, JB Hunt, etc in the area, I feel there will be plenty of money pouring into the University. The Walton family alone put millions of dollars into the university to keep it moving forward and competitive.</p>
<p>Everyone we interacted with at the university via email, tours, etc were very helpful. The students we’ve met were very welcoming and there have been a few students from her high school that have attended the last three years and all have favorable opinions of the school and area.</p>
<p>She liked the greek offerings at the University as well. Not up to the standard of houses at South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia, but still very nice and she feels she’ll fit in better in Fayetteville.</p>
<p>Thank you horsesrus. That was very helpful.</p>
<p>I second that remark - extremely thoughtful post. I am curious about one point (“I was not crazy about the town of Tuscaloosa”). What did you not like about the town of Tuscaloosa?</p>
<p>The actual campus at the University of Alabama was beautiful. We also like to drive around the towns to various shopping and entertainment areas and one of the malls we went to in Tuscaloosa looked very run down and not someplace I would want my daughter going to at night. I did a check on crime rate comparisons and Tuscaloosa did not fare as well as the Northwest Arkansas area, which isn’t surprising. Tuscaloosa was similar to Knoxville and Columbia, SC though. I’m sure there are many nice areas in Tuscaloosa as there are probably sketchy areas near Fayetteville. These were just our impressions from research and the few days we spent in each of the college towns. The strike that ruled out Alabama for her was more about fitting in with the southern girls and my wife was concerned after hearing about “The Machine” in the greek system. I actually had Alabama in my top three for her with Arkansas and South Carolina. Georgia was probably fourth. I liked Florida but my daughter did not. We just gave a quick look at Kentucky and TCU and we liked both but were not wowed by them. TCU was too small for my daughter’s preferences. Two that we all agreed we did not like at all were Auburn and Tennessee, but it’s more a case of what is important to you and what you’re looking for. Arkansas ticked all the boxes for us including the financial considerations.</p>
<p>One other thing I should comment on. I’m sure universities consider this, but they should screen their tour guides and do exhaustive searches to get the brightest and best. The first impression of the schools we visited were very important to my daughter. Many of the schools she felt just ok about had average or terrible (Auburn) tour guides. Her top three choices had excellent tour guides with the girl at Alabama being phenomenal and the South Carolina and Arkansas guides top notch. You have a lot of parents making visits looking to spend $60 - $200k for an education. I would think you would want your first point of contact to be a very positive experience. Arkansas excelled at first point of contact plus all other contacts we’ve had since.</p>
<p>Once again, extremely helpful information and thank you! I was wondering if you could elaborate more on “The Machine” in the Alabama greek system as this is not something with which I am familiar. Is this more of an issue for girls than boys?</p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>
<p>How much to believe is hard to say regarding the Machine, but I think it has affects on both boys and girls in and out of the Greek system at Alabama. I don’t know if links are allowed on this site so just google The Machine + University of Alabama and you will see many stories to read. The documentary film that we saw is called Bama Girl. As with all things, there is probably some degree of truth about the existence and actions of the Machine, but the extremes of doesn’t exist at all on one side to controls the entire university and state government of Alabama on the other is up for personal interpretation. </p>
<p>My personal opinion was it wasn’t anything to be concerned about. My wife had concerns that if my daughter wasn’t on the “inside”, she would have been unhappy being ostracized, but I feel that is way too extreme. If you loved Alabama and it was a good fit, I certainly wouldn’t change your mind based on these stories.</p>
<p>The “machine” has lost a lot of power in recent years as Bama has grown so much. It’s very hard for a group to have a lot of power now with 25k undergrads on campus.</p>
<p>Tuscaloosa has a beautiful new mall…Midtown Village…which will surely encourage the other mall to update its look (which is outdated). </p>
<p>Much of the city of Tuscaloosa is undergoing renovation. “Downtown” has been completely renovated. It really is quite attractive. The Riverwalk is very attractive and has a new outdoor amphitheater opening within a few months.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids are Greek, and they have no problems having a full social life at Bama. They have never been made to feel “excluded.” They’ve never felt the urge to pledge. I was in a sorority, so if they had wanted to rush, that would have been ok.</p>
<p>So does anyone know what the greek life is like at Arkansas?</p>
<p>Hi Mckinneymomma - we’re from Plano. My daughter is a freshman this year and went through formal fall recruitment. It was a great experience for her and she ended up in a sorority that appears to be a perfect fit for her. I went through “rush” years ago at a small school so my experiences were very different from the organized recruitment process.</p>
<p>I would encourage you to review the Greek Link on the Arkansas website - we found it very helpful. We also attended information forums locally during the spring of her senior year in HS so that she was familiar with the process to obtain letters of recommendation, etc.</p>
<p>Greek life on campus appears to be a nice community with opportunity for as much involvement as your student wants.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Thanks! My son really wants to join a frat. My husband and I were both greek at our respective universities. I’m just praying he gets in. He’s the last one and has been the least motivated!</p>