Visited the UAH campus recently with a child who is interested in CS/engineering. There aren’t a lot of threads for this campus, so maybe one more won’t hurt.
This was our first visit, so I don’t have a lot of comparison data points.
The campus was clean and well kept, with several newer buildings. It’s basically a north (business, arts, health) half and a south (science & engineering) half with the student center bridging the two. It’s an easy walk from one side to the other, and from much of campus you can see NASA’s Saturn V rocket if you need some inspiration (“they did that with slide rules while chain smoking, surely I can pass calc or whatever”).
Even though I half expected it to show a lot of signs of being a commuter campus, there were student activities going on both days we visited. I was actually a little surprised by that.
There are dorms, and they seemed really nice, but maybe my standards are too last-century.
We were able to meet with some faculty, who graciously made time and seemed generally and genuinely enthused about both their department and university.
A couple of the campus buildings are across a 4 - 5 lane road with a sketchy crosswalk, but that’s probably not unique to this campus.
The area immediately off campus doesn’t have a strong college “feel” to it, but maybe that’s OK.
Overall, it seems like a solid place to study, especially for engineering or science. They seem committed to making it (UAH) a fully recognized university, and are doing so with good support of the state, community, and local industry (if Lockheed and Boeing are local). We’d be OOS, and if the money works out and DD wants to go here, I’ll be just fine with that.
As others have said, their programs are ABET accredited, and that is pretty standard.
I said “fully recognized,” which wasn’t well thought out. I meant that UAH seems to be carving out its own unique identity. I don’t think that dismissing it as a commuter campus is terribly accurate. No offense intended.
UAH is pretty reputable in engineering especially in this area. There are a lot of commuters at UAH, but there is a good on-campus community that they are working to expand even more. All freshman and sophomores that live outside of a 30 mile radius have to live on campus. Most commuter students I know are still involved on campus through various student organizations so they aren’t isolated completely from on-campus students. The dorms are great and Frank Franz has been recently renovated to be a Honors hub. Honors offices are now in the same building as honors dorms and they’ve added new lounge areas. UAH also has good scholarship programs, which is why its pretty high on my list. 
50N40W: Glad you liked UAH. The campus is very nice. The biggest complaint my son, who is currently a freshman there, hears is that there is not enough parking for students living on campus. But, we have never had that issue when he moved in or we visited from OOS. While engineering is the big thing at UAH, the nursing and business programs are excellent. My son is an econ/finance major, and he already has interviewed with some companies for internships.
50N40W: What other schools is your child interested in? I am glad you are getting “feet on the ground” with campus visits. That is the best way to figure out which school will be the best fit for your child. And, from a mom’s perspective, college road trips are a great way to bond with your child before they head off to college!
She’s also looking at Purdue, Indiana, Case, Miami, and we might visit one or two more before we’re done.
Hello @50N40W !
Thank you so much for the post about your visit here at The University of Alabama in Huntsville! We are so happy to hear that you and your family enjoyed it. Please let us know if we can do anything further to assist you or your student during the college decision process!
We just visited the campus a couple of days ago. We didn’t have a formal tour arranged, however, we ran into a few people who work on campus who showed us around. The people there are so friendly!
We are from out of state and had 5 colleges on our trip to visit. We have seen 3 so far. Two more to go this weekend. So far UAH seems to be a good fit for our son. My daughter liked the big campus feel of UA in Tuscaloosa.
DD applied to UAH, so the visit must have impressed her favorably.
Looking like she’ll end up with an unweighted GPA nearly 3.9 and a 33 ACT …
Her list evolved. Purdue dropped off the list, mostly due to class size issues, the number of TA’s teaching classes, and the general impression she got of the place. Purdue’s net price calculator was showing some disturbingly large numbers so I was OK with that…
One other university dropped off the list. I suspect the accumulating number of female undergrads getting murdered was a factor.
Case, Miami, Michigan Tech, Bradley, and a couple others are still in the running, with MI Tech visited and applied to. Rose is on the fence. Case took a hit after the visit. It seemed very impressed with itself, which didn’t go over well. MI Tech and UAH have some similar vibes academically, similar middle 50’s, similar sizes (sorta), so it doesn’t surprise me that if she liked one, she’d like the other. Campus life is considerably more active at Tech, but UAH didn’t seem much different from Case … Hard to tell from one visit, though.
Talked with a guy at work today who went to UAH who spoke very highly of it.
For me, I’m really happy that it’s an option and that she likes it.
50N40W, any chance your daughter will retake the ACT this fall? I believe if she lands a 34, she will receive a housing scholarship at UAH. One of my son’s former roommates got one, and he had a 34.
This fall will be calculus and physics, and candidly I think she’ll be better off in the long term getting to know those things really well and looking for outside scholarships and filling out the competitive apps … My sense is that a 34 is a fairly low probability event, and the variability is probably within a point or so. So weigh $50 and several tens of hours trying to garner a $5500 scholarship that way vs “search and apply” for outside scholarships totaling $5500/year probably ends with the outside search having a higher expected value. It’s kind of a risk assessment exercise at that point, no?
UAH at the visit did say any scores submitted before the start of classes will work. So we’ll see what things look like in the Spring make a decision there. If she’s firm on UAH at that point, we may encourage her to take a Spring ACT.
Thanks for the reminder though!
Actually, nevermind. Our district does not weight GPA’s at all, and the housing allowance at UAH needs a 4.0 or greater (weighted or unweighted). She’d be fine with weighted, but unweighted …
I’ll probably bring this up next time the district tries to float a levy 
An update, if you will indulge me. DD moved into her dorm at UAH on Friday, and the last we saw was walking around campus with new friends.
40S50E and I were talking about it tonight and while it ain’t over till it’s over, we’re very pleased with what we’ve seen of it and with our experience with UAH. … and just as importantly, it’s always going to be weird having your oldest move away, but we’re pretty comfortable with -and appreciative of - both the college and the town. Thanks, Alabama.
50N40W, glad you had a good move-in. Hopefully some of the student organizations were there to help out.
Now that classes have begun, is her daughter still happy with her decision? My son just started Year 3 (although he has had senior status for a while). He remains pleased with his choice, but does look forward to the day he will graduate.
@momreads … a little over 2 weeks in and she’s busy enough with school and friends that we’ve only had a couple of phone calls and texts once every 3 -4 days. So far so good, but still a ways to go.
… And last week UAH posted something about this years student body. Average ACT for freshmen is up to 27.6, retention is up to 82%, and the student body is growing.
@50N40W: That is great to hear that your daughter is happy and busy. UAH offers plenty to do so there is no reason to spend 24/7 in your room! I did see the ACT score and retention post.
What the school needs to do, however, is come up with a better plan for growing the school. It has freshmen living in the Bevill Center all year because it does not have enough housing. I know they plan to open another dorm soon. They also need more on campus restaurant locations. My son called a couple of times saying that the lines to get food are very long, and that could be an issue for a student tight on time between classes. In my son’s case, he has one day where he does not have a break more more than 15 minutes for more than six hours, Fortunately, he does have a car, so he goes off campus to pick up dinner.
One more follow up. The first semester went very well, and DD’s on track to graduate in 8 semesters and retain the scholarship.
Candidly, what I’m really liking is the utter lack of surprises. Things are essentially as presented in our first visit in March of 15. The only real deviations being tne new building that has gone up since then, and a new dorm that is under construction as I type this.
Just got back from a visit. Feeling reall good about her decision.
We also feel good about our daughter’s decision to attend UAH, aside from the fact that she’ll be moving 3.5 hours away from home (could be worse, I know)! She zeroed in on UAH a year ago, liking its smaller size, plentiful job opportunities, and great scholarships. Our campus tour last June confirmed that UAH is where she wants to go, and our visit recently to Admitted Students Day reinforced that. We are impressed that each student gets her own dorm room within a four-bedroom suite. And even the least nice dorms on campus (Freshmen CCRH) are pretty nice as far as dorms go…much more space that the usual dorm set-up. Not that there couldn’t be improvements, but we were all pleased. D is excited about making her room a cheerful haven.
D is pleased that she can have a George Foreman, rice steamer, and hot plate (anything that does not have an open coil) in the small kitchen within the suite. She has gotten quite good at cooking all manner of food in the Foreman, including fried rice and waffles. She does have some dietary restrictions, so she knows that she’ll need to do some of her own cooking to avoid getting too bored with the dining options on campus.
We met with her advisor, who was extremely helpful and reassuring. This is in contrast to our older daughter’s advisor at another college, who just seemed too young and busy to really do a good job.
The campus itself really is quite nice. There’s lots of space for spreading out and not feeling crowded. Some of the buildings are older, but the new ones are really beautiful! D is not bothered by the older buildings.
Between our two visits, we enjoyed a Thai, German, and Mexican restaurant not very far away, and all were quite good.
We attended a session about research, and D is excited about that prospect.