<p>D has a friend whose older brother is a freshman at Alabama. When I talked to his mother last spring, before he’d decided where to go, she rattled off the impressive list of schools to which this kid had been accepted (including MIT, Yale, Cal Tech and others - he was NMF). She ended the list with Alabama and, being familiar with Alabama from CC, I said that with the free ride and many honors opportunities at Alabama, that’s what I would choose. She looked very surprised and said I was the ONLY person out of dozens they had spoken to who said that (of course, I was probably the only person they had spoken to who had any real knowledge of Alabama). BTW, after his first semester her son LOVES Alabama and has zero regrets about his choice.</p>
<p>Love this thread!! I get plenty of Bama-hatin’ at my school, but you guys always manage to make me feel better.</p>
<p>Risking treachery here by discussing another college I’m considering, but on a somewhat related note: I received an acceptance a few days ago to University of Wisconsin-Madison, and even a pretty highly ranked public isn’t very respected at my school, so I got a few, “Oh…Wisconsin…cool…” attitudes. I respond by informing them that, “Yeah, Mr. X went there for grad school, you know, after he graduated from Princeton.” (Mr. X being highly regarded as the most intelligent teacher at my school.) I’ve noticed that a lot of my teachers who attended top, top colleges for undergrad ended up at public schools for grad schools – makes me realize how smart I am to skip the expensive undergrad education and go straight to the public. ;)</p>
<p>Academic snobbery might lessen if people realized that Harvard Business School is the source for much of the economic dysfunction in our economy today. People like Larry Summers, who was President at Harvard, had an agenda in the late 90s that damaged the regulatory system for American finance. Of course, if I could have gone to Harvard, I would have gone in a second, but sometimes the worst ideas come from Harvard people. That should help to bring some perspective.</p>
<p>“A [snob] is a person educated beyond his intelligence.”</p>
<p>–Brander Matthews</p>
<p>LOL! I don’t encounter too much of that snobbery here in NC. Instead, people wonder why DS would go out of state, since we have such great publics here in-state. </p>
<p>And there’s a bit of an ACC-vs.-SEC thing going on, too, I think.</p>
<p>My advice is to chose a college where YOU will be happy. For me, that’s a school that respects students and treats them as unique individuals, offers a wide range of opportunities, is affordable, and is constantly striving for improvement. The University of Alabama is obviously located in Alabama. That alone keeps many students from applying. If UA were located in New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, or California, people wouldn’t think twice about attending. I realize that there are a lot of excellent schools out there and that UA is not the best choice for everyone; such is the case with every school. When people ask where I go to school, I proudly say the University of Alabama. While I often get blank stares and people who inquire as to why I would attend such a school, I also get people who are genuinely proud of me for choosing such a great school. When it comes down to it, I’m happy, my family is happy, and my friends are happy with my college choice.</p>
<p>As for Alabama being a long distance from home, there comes a point when the distance is only important in terms of how many frequent flier miles one will earn flying to school. It’s just as easy to make a phone call from 2,000 miles away as it is from 0.2 miles away. Tuscaloosa has just about anything a college student would need and then some. </p>
<p>Roll Tide!</p>
<p>We have 4 children, all of whom have attended a different higher level learning institution. D #1 graduated with an engineering degree from an Ivy on the East Coast. We live in a suburb of a large Midwest city and most of her friends and parents could not believe we were sending our D to the “big city”. She loved her experience there and still resides in the “city”, where by the way she works in film and has iced the engineering degree for now. She will tell you that the education was superb but the networking was phenomenal!
D #2 decided to go to a state school about 2 1/2 hours away. She had a totally different yet very satisfying experience, graduated on the Deans List with honors and was employed with in a month of graduation and resides in DC doing marketing.
DS was an all state football player that was in the top of his class academically. He turned down football scholarships from colleges coast to coast to pursue a degree from a Jesuit University in Chicago. He loves the city, the University and yet another child with another experience. He is currently a junior and is looking at graduate schools now.
D #3 is a freshman at Bama. Believe it or not we looked at more schools with her than the other 3 combined. She was committed to Iowa and and then happened to see a picture of the business library on line. We took a tour and fell in love with the school, the campus, the professors, the students and Tuscaloosa! She is Greek (so was D #2) and I can’t say enough about the Greek system. She is very involved in a number of activities and clubs. The professors have been wonderful!
So…my point is, that only you and your children can make the decision of where is the best place for them to attend and what works for one may not work for the other.
Embrace the experience! I wouldn’t trade the experiences of choosing a school with our 4 children for anything! And…i am sure if you asked each one of them they would tell you that they each made a great choice for them.</p>
<p>^^^Now it’s my turn to say amen. Beautifully stated. (You too, Sea_tide).</p>