@IlliniDad18 thanks for the info, that’s very interesting info. My son is actually applying to four B1G schools: Wisconsin, Minnesota, OSU and Iowa.
The football academic rankings confirm what I had suspected that B1G and ACC are the best conferences across the board academically. I’m a UT-Austin alum and I’m ashamed to see the Big 12 is the laggard. Texas comes in at 20 on the Academic Power Football rankings but the next Big 12 school is Baylor at #36.
@fatherof2boys It is up to the law school to permit specific students to take law school courses without being enrolled in the law school. Very few students inquire about the possibility, let alone actually request overrides into the classes.
Someone in this thread said that UA may be as selective as UMich…but won’t that mean raising bars to in state kids?
Also, based on several other people, I wouldn’t recommend UNL for international kids…seems like racism is significantly blatant in that school
Thanks @SEA_tide for the info.
@paul2752, I don’t think Michigan is a proper comparison. Michigan is on everyone’s list of the top 5 public universities and respecting its in-state population, it benefits from the fact that Michigan State University has the larger undergraduate population of 38,786 compared to Michigan’s 28,283. I think a more realistic goal for Bama is to raise its academic reputation to the level to the likes of Georgia, possibly a Florida or Texas A&M. Those are all SEC schools with well-respected academic credentials.
If UA is making the same investment in improving its faculty and graduate programs as it has been making in enlarging its undergraduate student population and accompanying facilities, then I have no doubt that it will reach the level of the other top tier public universities in the Deep South. I truly believe that which is why Bama is on our short list of the five-six schools that my son will be applying to.
This is a good place to post this Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/25/u-of-alabama-is-fastest-growing-flagship-many-others-are-standing-still/
Going back through this thread, I want to point out that UAB has restored its football program. So it was absent this year but returning next year. Terrible hiccup with overall UG, and UG athletics/band programs.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20150919/news/150929992 you may have to click a few times to be able to see this article. Dr Ball and his administration at UA are developing a new strategic plan, moving forward graduate programs.
UAH is continuing with new buildings on campus, as I know UAB has some buildings underway.
For anyone following this thread, admission for fall 2017, OOS students in all degree plans at UA will need a ACT equiv of 32 for full tuition scholarship. All indications are that in-state full tuition scholarship will remain at ACT 30 (just as it is at AU). Those OOS eng/cs students coming in to UA fall 2016 with ACT 30-31, glad you made the cut-off. A friend’s daughter was in the last class at Cooper Union in NYC to have the full tuition scholarship for 4 years (however they do deal with Manhattan rent which is understandably high).
Another comment to note - some states have another large university that is not the flagship. An example is UT and TAMU. TAMU has grown to larger UG school for various reasons including having lots of land around the campus to expand versus UT constrained in built up city (and expensive property to absorb) Austin.
Boy, did anyone read the comments below that WaPost article? So much disinformation. One person claims that UA is growing its out of state enrollment to pay off enormous debt. Well, the problem with that is that the growth in enrollment and out of state enrollment preceded the growth in debt by many years. Seems to me that the growth in debt is a natural consequence of spending to accomodate the number of new students. And notice that if UA spends it is criticized for racking up debt, but if it doesn’t spend fast enough, it is critiqued for overcrowded classes, Saturday and evening classes.
Prof. Knox (of the commentary posted in the OP) posted a link to his blog in the comments section of that WaPo article: http://weldbham.com/blog/2015/09/18/myview-taking-the-alabama-out-of-ua/
What exactly is his story? He appears to be a well-regarded professor of geography at UGA, but he has a serious ax to grind with UA that borders on the unhinged. And he sure doesn’t care for “Yankees”!
I can understand how a native Alabamian could be concerned that the percentage of in-state students has been shrinking over the course of the past decade, but why does he favor southern students from outside Alabama over students from the north? (Not sure how he feels about students from the Midwest and west.) Maybe I’m missing something, but that qualitative distinction is pretty strange in this day and age. And a kid from New York or Massachusetts pays the same OOS rate as a kid from Tennessee or Georgia, so it’s not about replacing revenues.
I love his faux concern about UA’s ranking for research programs. There are many liberal arts schools with virtually no research programs, yet few undergrads would complain that their education was inferior at these schools. What Knox leaves out is that UA does not have a large medical school, Vet or Agriculture school, or NASA Space and Rocket Center, unlike other Alabama schools. So of course the total spent on research at UA will be less than at UAB, and Auburn. And of course, when UA tries to compete with UAH, people complain about that, so it doesn’t seem UA can please these people.
Lucie the Lake: “I can understand how a native Alabamian could be concerned that the percentage of in-state students has been shrinking over the course of the past decade, but why does he favor southern students from outside Alabama over students from the north? (Not sure how he feels about students from the Midwest and west.) Maybe I’m missing something, but that qualitative distinction is pretty strange in this day and age. And a kid from New York or Massachusetts pays the same OOS rate as a kid from Tennessee or Georgia, so it’s not about replacing revenues.”
Well you know I am an unapologetically proud Southerner, however, I agree fully with you on Dr. Knox ( an alum of UAB). I love that UA is attracting so many “Yankees.” Seems Knox also has a faux concern for the increase in the number of Yankees at UA. I guarantee you that if Auburn or UAB were attracting so many high paying and/or high achieving out of state students, their alumni and supporters would not be complaining. In fact, Auburn used to get about 60 per cent of its students from out of state, namely Georgia. Now that UA is getting those students, it is suddenly a problem! Go figure.
He doesn’t have a problem with OOS students, from outside the SREB. But seeing that more OOS students come from outside the SREB, than inside is surprising. The SREB includes Georgia, Florida and Texas. It’s not just OOS students, it’s way, way OOS students!
In the past he hasn’t agreed with the current strategy of significant expansion through recruiting OOS and using a significant (in his opinion) amount of debt to support the construction of new facilities. Nothing wrong with that, everyone doesn’t have to agree with the expansion strategy (which is now being reworked by UA).
Edit: Note how he stated more OOS students from outside the SREB than from states that border Alabama, this was done to not include the Texas students. Including Texas likely push the SREB pass the non-SREB students. Still, it’s a surprising number.
UAB = U Ain’t Bama! UAB folks definitely have little sibling syndrome. They rightfully take enormous pride in the Med school there, but conflate it with the entire school. If UA had that Med School, UAB would be far down on the totem pole.
I bet the folks at the Birmingham Airport are very happy about the huge jump in out of state students at UA.
Just curious, what would happen if UA raises admission bar?
The problem with raising the admission bar, is that it will hurt more in-state students than OOS students…I’m sure UA wants to raise it’s standards, but it’s dependent on the population of Alabama students that apply.
Is it because of the average stats of Alabama high school students?
I can tell you that overall IMHO the higher stat kids already are applying to the top tier AL public universities. For example, UAH has had record freshman enrollment and with highest avg ACT score a little above 27. I think more commuter students are coming to UAH and they are recruiting high stat OOS kids that want the smaller college but like that UAH is really solid in STEM. UA is a bit more for incoming in-state freshman than UAB and UAH. Surprisingly, even though housing in a big city is usually higher, housing is less in B’ham than close to UA campus.
It is very telling from the Washington Post flagship listing on growth - UA is #1 at 92% growth, and U of GA at #40 at 9% growth. Envy, envy.
The best I can say, beside BAMA envy, is that hopefully BAMA will also take down U GA Saturday. GA is currently rated higher on the polls than BAMA, so BAMA will be coming with something to prove.
Lol…and UF is 48th on the list with only 1%. UGA and UF have very different admission strategies than UA, and neither has issues recruiting. It’s an interesting list, but not all schools are looking to grow their undergraduate populations. I expect UA is close to making the same call. It’s either that or follow ASU/UCF’s lead.
Is Bigger Better? 54,000 students and growing, University of Central Florida Storms Higher Ed.
It’s is interesting that 5 out of the top 6 programs are SEC schools. I wonder if SEC competiveness played a role. 
@SOSConcern As the proud parent of a second-year engineering student at TAMU, I differ with your conclusion that TAMU is not a flagship university. Texas is big enough for two flagship universities, just as California is big enough for Cal Berkeley and UCLA. TAMU’s entering freshman statistics are very close to Texas’s, despite TAMU taking a larger class and including Blinn Team (community college) conditional enrollments. Both have formidable engineering schools, ranked in the top-ten world-wide by the Shanghai metrics. TAMU’s engineering research budget is second only to MIT’s (Now I’d agree that Texas sets the bar for law and medical schools in the state. Both have pretty good business schools.)
TAMU and Texas are very different than Alabama for OOS attendance. Alabama’s new freshman class is 65% OOS, while Texas’s OOS percentage is 5%, and TAMU"s is just 3%. Texas and TAMU also have enormous endowments. The Texas system’s endowment is over $25 billion and TAMU"s is over $11 billion.
@paul2752 Yes, and UA want’s to enroll at least the same number of in-state students, as it had in the past. If not, it opens itself to complaints that Alabama residents are “losing out” to OOS students.
I wonder if the state of Alabama did much better job funding K-12 public school system, therefore helps improving overall stats of Alabama high school students, then BAMA have a good reason to raise the bar?
@Beaudreau, as a Texan and a UT graduate (undergrad and law school) I concede that A&M does qualify as a “flagship” school and it is seen as such by many Texans. As you correctly note, A&M is in fact now larger than Texas. I would however note that UT’s engineering and business programs are ranked higher than A&M.
According to US News, Texas’ undergraduate business school ranks #7 nationally and its undergraduate engineering program is tied at #11 nationally with Princeton University. In comparison, A&M’s undergraduate business program comes in at #29 nationally and its engineering program is #15. I don’t think there is much of a distinction between UT’s and A&M’s engineering programs. In fact, within the state A&M engineers are as highly sought as UT engineering students. However, the gap between the #7 business school and the #29 business school is significant. Moreover, UT’s graduate programs in fields such as law (#15 nationally) generally exceed those of A&M.
On the whole Texans are fortunate to have two public institutions with such stellar academic credentials. The competition for seats in the UT/A&M engineering and business schools has led many qualified Texas high school students to search for OOS alternatives, which is one of the leading reason why there are so many Texans at Bama. Given the generous amount of merit aid offered by Bama, many Texas students who are unable to gain admission to UT’s or A&M’s business or engineering programs have the opportunity to attend a flagship school, at an affordable price, with their preferred major. It would be interesting to see what would occur if Bama cuts back on the merit aid, which I anticipate they would do at some point.