<p>Hi! I am very interested in attending Alabama and i’m also considering some other big southern schools. My only concern is the size of the schools…I attend a small private catholic high school and I’ve been used to small classes ever since I was in kindergarten. I want to attend a school that has great school spirit, football games/tailgating, a big greek system, along with great academics. If I attended Alabama I would most likely be in the Honors College, which I hope would help with smaller class sizes. Does anyone have any insight or experience on whether or not I would feel like a small fish in a big pond? Thank you for your help!!</p>
<p>We had the same concern. My kids went to a small Catholic high school as well. </p>
<p>For them, going to Bama was not a big adjustment. They did take some honors classes, which are small. However, a number of your classes won’t be honors. Students don’t take all honors classes.</p>
<p>What will your major be?</p>
<p>A lot of kids from our small Catholic high school (150 students) in our small town (18,000 population) go to the state flagship university (42,000 students) and they all seem to do fine.</p>
<p>Being in the honors college should certainly help “shrink” things, imo, but I have no personal experience as I graduated from a small Jesuit college.</p>
<p>My D is freshman at a medium size state university (11,000 students) and in the big lecture classes she is distracted by kids talking, playing video games, texting, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter was wanting a small school. Her top choice was Pepperdine and loved it when we visited last year. To me, it was way too introverted. She flat out refused large schools. She has been a life long Bama fan (dads influence). Her high school is about 2600 students with very long traditions (over 100 years) and a VERY strong alum and community support with packed football stands no matter the weather. We took her to Bama this past Falll to a game and she fell in love!!! By the time she did her tour 2 days later on Monday she was sold and had received her acceptance while there. She was SOLD! Said it did not feel as big and overwhelming as Stanford and UCLA. She liked the community feel and was used to the strong support from her high school that she saw at Bama. </p>
<p>Go visit! </p>
<p>RTR</p>
<p>My S has visited two large flagships. He loved one and hated the other. Like TNCM says, you will have to visit.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your help so far!! I have visited Alabama and I loved it. In reply to mom2collegekids, I’m still deciding whether or not I want to study nursing or major in communications/public relations and minor in political science and go onto law school.</p>
<p>Those are two very different career paths. Have you done any job shadowing or volunteer work in either field?</p>
<p>My D got her CNA and started in nursing, but through two volunteer experiences she has realized that her real passion is working with the disabled so she will be switching to occupational therapy.</p>
<p>There are so many students interested in nursing it has become quite competitive to get into nursing programs.</p>
<p>There are some classes that have 50, 100, 150 students, but most classes have far, far less. And the farther along you get in your major, the smaller the classes become. Otherwise, it’s kind of like living in a big city. You have your neighborhood (dorm/apartment complex/Greek group) where you develop most of your friends, your clubs/activities, your usual shopping places that builds your section of campus.</p>
<p>You cannot go wrong with either nursing or communications at 'Bama. I have heard that both are excellent there. The Nursing program will have very different reqs to get into, and you don’t really know if you get into it until you have completed your 2nd year, and a new application is required. Most nursing programs have a very set # of students. UA admits 96 each of Fall and Summer semesters (no admits in Spring), for a total of 192 students in a calendar year. When you visited, did you tour the nursing program specifically? If so, you should have a good idea of what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>Because of the nature of that program, your 1st and 2nd year will be filled with some basic humanities and science classes, which could be huge (unless an honors section is offered). As others have said, you will probably never feel lost at UA because of its size. If you like the school, spread your wings there.</p>
<p>Regarding class sizes my son had smaller classes last semester (his first) at Bama than many of his HS classes…largest class was Cal 3 with 48 students…other classes had 15, 28, etc…this semester (which starts today) his class sizes are 15, 32, 35, 48 and 106 (Honors Accounting)…hope that helps :)</p>
<p>My S went to a SMALL HS. His graduating class was < 75 and there were only 10 students in his calculus class. He was with the same kids and teachers for over 10 years (we moved to the town when he was in 2nd grade) and everyone knew everyone very well. My son was one of the top students and was accustomed to being the best student in every one of his classes.</p>
<p>When he started at Bama last semester he definitely had an adjustment and had to learn that in a bigger pond he was not always the best and brightest. But it was an adjustment he was able to make and unless he was never going to leave our small town one he was eventually going to have to make.</p>
<p>When we were looking at colleges, I definitely pushed him toward mid-large schools since very small schools seem to have so fewer resources and opportunities. </p>
<p>If you are concerned about the class sizes, if you revisit the school, you can request to sit in on a class to see what it’s like.</p>
<p>For nursing, they accept 192 students each year out of how many applicants? That seems like quite a few seats compared to the schools in my state.</p>
<p>106 students in Honors Accounting? Yikes…I assume this is the principles course level but still seems too big for an honors course?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Honors course sizes in departments aren’t controlled like honors courses in the Honors College are. Courses in the Honors College are limited to 15 students each.</p>
<p>It is certainly possible a big school is not for some students. Hard to say, whether that is the case, though. I’ve known parents and kids adament that the big school scene is just not where certain students will thrive, and lo, and behold, some of those kids who did end up at big schools ended up excelling there and loving it. Good friends of ours really sweat it out, paying private tuition for their two girls to go to small LACs as it was agreed that the girls absolutely wanted a small environment. The younger one transferred to their massive state flagship midway through , and just loved, loved, loved the experience and regrets the two years she spent at the tiny schools that she did not like. </p>
<p>I’m an LAC fan, and I would have preferred that all of my kids been able to go that route. My one graduate loved every second of his life at his LAC and did as well as any kid could have at college there. But that is not always the case. His best friend hated it at the same school, and dropped out and is doing better at a large school. So who know? Some times the preconcetpions are not accurate. </p>
<p>I do have some qualms about some kids going off to OOS flagships where many if not most kids have some degree of familiarity with each other and the school. My one college son is having a bit of tough time with that, as he is a quiet sort that finds it difficult even in the best scenarios to find an active social scene and make friends. In my heart of hearts, I think he would be happier if he had picked a school where some of his classmates and more kids like him are attending, but I am also glad that he took the chance and went hours away from home in a whole other environment too. There are draw backs to every and any school, and when they hit a crisis point with any given student, that is when problems occur. Can’t always predict if that will happen as there is a large element of chance involved.</p>
<p>I think it can be hard for high school students to really imagine. A big university is like many smaller schools clustered together on one campus. </p>
<p>Bama is laid out very thoughfully. Buildings are clustered together by type. If this student decides on nursing, then after taking the pre-reqs for two years, she’d be doing clinicals in the new nursing bldg by the medical center.</p>
<p>Riporin…192 nursing students admitted to the upper division program each year. That’s about 400 in the program at a time. I don’t think that’s small. </p>
<p>I don’t know how many apply, but there is a “weeding process” that naturally occurs as students take the pre-nursing pre-reqs during frosh/soph years. Usually, a very high GPA is needed for acceptance. When students take the bio, chem, ochem pre-reqs, some won’t do well, and they’ll decide another career route.</p>
<p>“Honors course sizes in departments aren’t controlled like honors courses in the Honors College are. Courses in the Honors College are limited to 15 students each.”</p>
<p>Aha - thank you for the clarification!</p>
<p>Just to clarify further… the University Honors courses (UH XXX) are capped at 15 students but the departmental honors courses ( Honors English, Honors Math, Honors Econ, etc) class sizes vary for each class…</p>
<p>A portion of the University Honors requirements…
Minimum of 18 hours of honors courses:
a) 6 out of the 18 hours MUST be in graded UH courses at the 100, 200, or 300 level
UH 400+ and Pass/Fail UH courses DO NOT count toward the 6 hour UH requirement
i) IHP 105 or IHP 155 can be applied towards 3 out of the 6 hours of UH courses
ii) Most UH courses are limited to 6 hours provided the course content differs
(1) Courses taken for more than 6 hours will not count towards graduation</p>
<p>b) The remaining 12 out of the 18 hours may be completed by taking:
i) Any combination of UH, Departmental Honors, Honors by Contract, Graduate
level, or CBH courses
(1) Departmental Honors courses generally have “Honors” in the title
and always carry an attribute indicating “University Honors”</p>
<p>My S is a Business student but his Honors Econ courses have been capped at 32 and Honors English was limited to 28…yes the Honors Acctg class with 106 students is Intro to Acctg (AC210) that all Business majors have to take…</p>
<p>Riprorin, good for your daughter! I am an elementary special Ed teacher, and our OT’s are so important!</p>
<p>There are generally 600+ declared nursing majors who begin lower division. As M2CK said, there are weeder courses in lower division and some change their mind when they face those classes and select another major. Promotion to upper division is very competitive with an average gpa of 3.98. Summer promotion is the most competitive and has the highest average gpa. Lower division students will begin the application process in the next few days. 96 lower division students will be selected and notified this spring based solely on gpa. Science gap counts twice within the formula for promotion. Of the 96 slots, usually there are about 4 transfer students accepted. The 96 students who gain promotion for summer will take 10 required hours of upper division credits over the summer. Nursing at Bama is a nine semester program, so either way the students have one semester not covered by the Presidential Scholarship. Those students will begin clinicals in the fall and continue until they’ve completed the five semesters of upper division. The second application is for students to begin upper division next fall. Those students will need to pick up 2 additional credits above the required 10 for upper division to be full time students. Bama’s nursing program is excellent!</p>