<p>Astronomy at Bama is a graduate school program. Bama does offer 7 undergrad astronomy classes that you could take for interest.</p>
<p><a href=“http://astr.ua.edu”>http://astr.ua.edu</a></p>
<p>Chris, I know nothng about Penn State, so I can’t help there, but I do know quite a bit about the physics field (though not much physics! 
) Astronomy is definitely mostly grad school material. The field itself is actually very specialized and so are the employment the opportunities.</p>
<p>Do you love math? If you love physics and you love math, an undergrad degree in physics might be for you. But,a grad degree is really necessary for the best jobs in physics. It doesn’t really matter until grad level what specialized field you want to focus on. </p>
<p>If you have questions about the physics dept, my ds will be finishing up his finals Fri and will be coming home for Christmas break. i’m sure he would be happy to answer any questions. He is technically only a freshman, but he entered with so many physics and math credits that he is taking classes with jrs and srs. also, Dr. LeClair is a fabulous undergrad advisor and definitely should be contacted with any questions. Of all the depts we met with last yr, our meeting with Dr. LeClair was by far the best. Ds met with him prior to making his decision as to where to attend and LeClair spent an hour with him answering all of his questions, gave great advice, and shared info about additional scholarship opportunities.</p>
<p>If I don’t get accepted into my first choice of school, this is the dilemma I will face:UA or Penn State. I live in Alabama and that is the primary reason I don’t want to got there (I’d like to get away). I really like the dorms at Alabama (really the best), the food, the incredible school spirit and just many really good programs. The Dean of the Honors College gives many presentations at my school to encourage us to go there and constantly claims the Honors College is better than Northwestern, Harvard, etc. There are many incentives to being in the Honors College so if you decide to attend, definitely apply for that. I will say this about Alabama: they will do everything in their power to make sure you get a job or get into grad school after college. They make a lot of good relationships with many companies, send you out to internships and write many letters on your behalf. The Marketing program (the one I am interested in) has 100% job placement and thats the goal for every program at the university. Over the weeks I’ve spent there participating in various programs, I’ve talked to many people starting their senior year and already have a firm job offer from companies they’ve interned with. We skyped with people who got tremendous help in getting jobs in New York, California, Chicago, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Penn State to cpnvincd you, however the school really intrigues me and if I get accepted, I will definitely visit and do way more research. </p>
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<p>What are your parents saying about paying the high OOS costs of PSU? PSU gives lousy aid and rarely gives merit, so your parents could be on the hook for nearly all costs. Are they ok with that?</p>
<p>Sounds like UA would be quite inexpensive for you. Sounds like you’d at least qualify for free tuition. What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay each year?</p>
<p>@yolanda1996 </p>
<p>My main aversion of UA is the amount of people at my school who never look elsewhere and try to find other opportunities or another college that could be a fit also. I I never want to close myself off to other opportunities and I also fear running into someone I know at every corner of the campus. I personally would like to live somewhere else for the next four years of my live, but not at the expense of lifelong debt. I am very practical and when it comes down to it, I will suck it up and bleed Crimson to save myself and my family money. I do know Alabama is a great school and a job will be waiting for me at the end of the four years.</p>
<p>Lousy aid is one of the main reasons I can’t look at NYU or the UCs anymore. If I don’t get into my first choice (that meets 100% of demonstrated need), I’ll have to sit down and look at both cost along with any outside scholarships I may get and see. But the chances are that I will end up at Alabama. My parents simply don’t make enough money to foot the bill for my entire college so between UA and PSU, they definitely lean towards UA. As does everything else in my family that loves football!</p>
<p>In-state students tend to consider in-state universities. That fact is true in every state. Even if 100 students from your graduating class attended UA, what is the chance that you will have to interact with them very much when there are over 30,000 students on campus? Seeing someone in a 100+ person class is very different from having to take every class with them and then living in the same residence hall aka neighborhood as you did in high school.That said, people do change once they get to college. A person you didn’t get to know much in high school might end up becoming your best friend.</p>
<p>Just because one can name a number of high schools in Alabama, New Orleans, and Dallas which send a lot of students to UA doesn’t mean that students care beyond simple curiosity where their classmate went to high school. </p>
<p>@yolanda1996 </p>
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<p>There are always going to be several schools that can be a “fit” for a student. HOWEVER, more often than not, those other “fit” schools simply aren’t affordable. Many/most OOS publics or privates simply don’t give enough aid or merit to bring costs down to what a student can have instate.</p>
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<p>Certainly! Look around and see what else is out there! But, as you know, most of us don’t have bottomless wallets so in the end affordability tends to eliminate a number of choices.</p>
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<p>You really do not have to worry about that. College is NOT high school. Your high school probably had a few thousand kids on a campus that is a tiny fraction of Bama. And, in high school, nearly everyone is on campus between the hours of 8am - 2pm. </p>
<p>Not so at Bama. First of all, Bama is on 1300 acres and there are 30,000 undergrads spread out over many, many, many buildings in over 100 different majors. My two sons were at Bama at the same time for two years, and they were both STEM majors (which means that their classes were pretty much in buildings on the NE section of campus…YET…they rarely ever ran into each other. In fact, they had to SCHEDULE a regular Tuesday lunch just so that they WOULD see each other. It is doubtful that you would be frequently running into old classmates. </p>
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<p>Just to clarify…YOU can’t borrow much anyway. YOU can only borrow $5,500 for frosh year. That won’t pay for much. How much will your parents pay each year? Do you qualify for any Bama scholarships? If so, which one?</p>
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<p>Lousy aid is one of the main reasons I can’t look at NYU or the UCs anymore. If I don’t get into my first choice (that meets 100% of demonstrated need), I’ll have to sit down and look at both cost along with any outside scholarships I may get and see. But the chances are that I will end up at Alabama. My parents simply don’t make enough money to foot the bill for my entire college so between UA and PSU, they definitely lean towards UA. As does everything else in my family that loves football!</p>
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<p>Even if you get into your 1st choice school, you don’t yet know if it will be affordable. When a school says it “meets need,” then it means that it will meet need as THEY define it…NOT how your family defines it. Your family may say, “We can only pay $10k per year,” but that school may say, “we expect your family to pay $28k per year.” Then what? </p>
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along with any outside scholarships I may get and see.</p>
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<p>Be aware that most outside scholarships are for FRESHMAN year only. They disappear after that. You need to look at college as a 4 year plan. A few outside scholarships cobbled together to make frosh year affordable will only work the first year. We see this mistake every year. Kids affording the first year of their college, but then when those outside awards “disappear,” the students realize that their school is no longer affordable. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that outside scholarships get applied to “need” first. If a school gives you need-based aid, and then tells you that your family has to pay $20k, but then you get a $4k scholarship, the school is not going to let you apply that $4k towards the $20k you owe. NO, the school will take away $4k from your FA award and still expect your family to pay.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys. I’ll be sure to keep all of this in mind.</p>
<p>yolanda1996: I’m sure you’ve heard it before…but you are lucky to live in-state and would be able attend UA at a low cost. Many of us parents could not even consider our kids attending our own state flagship universities, due to unbelievably high costs for a public school. (But I do understand about you wanting to “get away”…) Good luck!</p>
<p>@yolanda1996, keep in mind that 60% of undergrads at UA are now from out of state, so you may get the best of both worlds at Bama: In-state tuition with the opportunity to meets lots of students from other parts of the country. Win-win!</p>
<p>^^
Good point…and that means it’s less likely @yolanda1996 would be running into old high school classmates.</p>
<p>And, I don’t know where @yolanda1996 goes to high school, but the chances that many will attend Bama isn’t likely. The state has so many univs that students have a lot of choices.</p>
Just wanted to say that Penn State won. Overall better school, much closer to home (though neither school is close), and they have more of what I want in terms of science. Only downside I see is the cold.
Thanks for the update and best wishes to you, @ChrisF.
Good luck!