Tuscaloosa Culture Shock?!

<p>My local recruiter is going to a college fair near me so I plan on going to that and taking them with me. I’ve decided that im going to apply to all of my other schools and then ask again if we can go visit. I’m actually going on a cruise out of NOLA this spring break. does anyone know how far that is from UA?</p>

<p>NOLA is a pretty good hike from Tuscaloosa, more than 200 miles. But since you’d be flying out there, perhaps you could figure out a way to fly to Birmingham from NOLA (or vice versa), and have your college visit at UA at the same time. P.S. Been following this thread and you sound like a very nice young lady who will fit in and do very well wherever you go.</p>

<p>We are from the bay area and have a freshman daughter at UA and a junior daughter at Tulane in NOLA. It is a 4 hour pleasant drive, there is also an inexpensive amtrak train that takes about 6.5 hours. Look at Tulane while you are in NOLA, they have amazing merit scholarships as well. Both excellent schools. The biggest shock for my UA daughter has been, as others have mentioned, the heat (humidity) and how nice everyone is. She is having the time of her life. She is white, but has two black and one white suite mates, they are all from different states - none Alabama - and they are all loving it. Message me if you want to get in touch with my daughter. I may also be able to put you in touch with a current freshman girl involved with speech/debate at UA.</p>

<p>I have lived in WY, WI and CO. Tuscaloosa was not a culture shock. To me it doesn’t feel so much like the “Old South”, it’s first and foremost a college town like Madison, Boulder, etc. There is lots to do, but for off campus things it is pretty much necessary to have a car, so bring one if you come.</p>

<p>I feel like if I bring my car it will just be extra, unneeded expenses with gas and shipping it out there and things like that. </p>

<p>You won’t need a car for just getting around to the shopping in town. UA runs shuttles to the Target, and more than likely you will make friends with kids that have cars so you can get rides from them.</p>

<p>Yes, a car is a luxury and plenty of kids don’t have them!</p>

<p><a href=“Alabamians now a minority at UA - The Crimson White”>http://cw.ua.edu/article/2014/09/alabamians-now-a-minority-at-ua&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>California has the 5th largest OOS enrollment at UA.</p>

<p>update: I just checked my myBama portal and I have been accepted!!!
next step is figuring out how to make a visit! </p>

<p>I am so happy for you! Your enthusiasm is infectious, and I hope others considering UA are following your journey of discovery! ;)</p>

<p>We would love to have you in the UA family!</p>

<p>That’s awesome news! For those of us who are a couple of generations older, we had to wait until April usually to find out whether we had gotten into a school we liked. I love how quickly my son got his acceptance… it takes a lot of pressure off. Congratulations to speechprincess! And, of course… ROLL TIDE!</p>

<p>So now that I have recieved my acceptance I am asking my parents to let me visit and I am hitting a lot of resistance. I guess they didn’t think i would actually get in or something and they don’t really want me to visit. Im not sure what to do because I know that if I go visit I could do an audition for the forensics team and possibly lock down a scholarship and confirm me attending there. and I think they know as soon as I visit I will fall in love and I guess they’re scared of that. I know the flight from SFO to Bama is expensive but I also know that if I was asking to go visit Howard or Spellman they would have no objection to letting me fly out so I just don’t really know how exactly im supposed to go about this. </p>

<p>Are you parents afraid that UA is not diverse enough? Have them take a look at these students who did such a great job at the orientations:</p>

<p><a href=“http://orientation.ua.edu/avanti/team.php”>http://orientation.ua.edu/avanti/team.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This is a very diverse and talented group of young people who come from all over the US. If they have no problems with Spellman or Howard, they should have an open mind about UA and all the opportunities it offers.</p>

<p>If your parents will allow you to visit Spellman, book a trip flying to Atlanta and out of BHM or vice versa, and visit both Spellman and UA. </p>

<p>I think the issue is me even wanting to go out of state </p>

<p>It’s common for parents to not want their children to go to college in another state. However, when one lives in a large state like California, in-state can still be very far away. For many students, universities in other states or even other countries might be closer. </p>

<p>They might want you to be able to come home at a moment’s notice, but the truth is that you might not do that even if you were just living on the other side of town, let alone 2+ hours away, especially if you don’t have a car. Being more than 4 hours of non-stop driving away from somewhere means that one won’t be coming home on weekends unless they want to spend their weekends in a car. You can still come home for long breaks, but you probably won’t come home for a two hour event on a Tuesday night. This will be true regardless if you’re in LA, Eugene, Birmingham, Boston, or even the other side of the San Francisco Bay. You’ll have an active social life at school.</p>

<p>As for taking a trip to Alabama, the main things you need are plane tickets and a rental car as well as event and hotel reservations. There is advice on this board on what to do such as booking a connection in a warmer area, such as Texas, when flying during the winter, booking a nice hotel in a good area, and knowing how to navigate such that all your parents really need to do is follow you with their driver’s license and credit card and figure out what they want for dinner. </p>

<p>@speechprincess‌ you are UA. You are exactly the type of person we want at Bama. </p>

<p>thank all of you so much. my parents have decided that going to UA should not even be discussed anymore but I am not giving up
im goin to start applying for a bunch of scholarships and begin to prepare my audition tape for the forensics council and then maybe after all of that they will see that UA is the place for me. does anyone know what date you have to confirm your attendance? It would be good to know how long I have to warm them up to the idea. </p>

<p>May 1st is the National date for all colleges.</p>