The one thing that attracts so many OOS to Bama is the cost for top stat kids.
Is that your situation ?
I mean it’s a fine school but if it weren’t for saving $$ it’d not have the draw it does, especially for engineering.
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Ridgecrest = 4 people in 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom. I think UAH was similar if he wants a smaller campus.
That’s what got mine. The dorm.
Each kid is different. Mine wasn’t out there socially but if we had suggested another style, he would have pushed back. In the end it has to be for the kid.
Same with regular Honors. It’s the largest in the country. Many don’t finish - don’t even try. They do it for the dorm and earlier class registration. They don’t do anything to keep kids on pace or kick them out, which is a shame. This was my kid - has zero intent and he says that’s half of them. It’s a shame for those that care. But I’m glad he got the degree, great internships and a fantastic job. But when we said you should take advantage of the offerings he was like nope. So it’s more the kids than what us parents want.
But we get to keep more $$ in the bank.
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Definitely interested in best value. Also, with an undecided kid, we have fewer criteria to work with honestly.
Well you have to love large. There are smaller schools and in different parts of the country that are also inexpensive. A lot depends on the students stats. And parent budget.
But you should always find the right school, not just the cheap school.
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We haven’t heard back from UAH yet even though he submitted the apps the same day. We’ll visit.
That is really interesting about the Honors program. It is a shame for those kids that care. My kid is likely to be in the don’t care group. That touches on what worries us about big schools, getting lost in the mix. Our kid is so laid back. Well maybe that’s another plus for Alabama, he gets 10 semesters to get it done.
Many do. They happened to have the largest in the country. My son’s gf took advantage. But there’s no guardrails or checks and balances. If you want to take advantage you can. My daughters school is more tight.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/these-public-schools-offer-an-honors-college
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Yes, we’re hoping our son will have more opinions as we go on. When we looked at Clemson and Furman last spring, he had a clear preference for Clemson. We had about 8 schools on the list before NMSF, all in our region, typical schools kids apply to for our area. Now with NMSF, we’re doing research, and might add a few more schools. Hopefully we have a good list to consider come decision time.
We had thought about schools outside the southeast that might be good for a STEM kid, but he’s not showing any interest. I’m probably overcomplicating things for a kid like him.
ahhhh - if you have NMSF and NMF, and you want to take advantage, then your list will be one thing.
It won’t necessarily be good cost wise, but if you liked Clemson, I’d look at UGA and Va Tech too and maybe Penn State.
I think lots of schools are really great for STEM kids - and others that might come in ok that are large are Arizona (but not as rural as Clemson) - you need a good UW GPA for money but national merit gets another $1500 and they’re aggressive to begin with and you might check Florida State.
I think there are few “wrong” schools for STEM.
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For what it is worth, we absolutely loved Clemson but despised UGA. UGA was our least favorite school we visited. The campus is huge and spread out. The engineering buildings are 1.8 miles from the honors college. And some of the freshman classes have 350+students in them! Everything about UGA felt impersonal to us. Side note - the bus system at UGA seems to operate very efficiently!
With that said, we know several students at UGA, and they all seem to love it! It just wasn’t what we were looking for.
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[quote=“Gatormama, post:33, topic:3643902, full:true”] There’s no comparison between those tours and the generic tours at every other college. Which is also a reason to make Bama the last tour on the list.
(Also, as other parents told me, if you do NOT want your kid to go to Bama, don’t let them visit. 
)
Fast-forward to a month into the school year, and he texted me: “I love this school mom. I’m very happy.”
[/quote]
This is so true about the Alabama tours. There really is no comparison between the personalized Alabama tour and the generalized ones offered at other schools. We toured Alabama first (namely to cross it off our list - LOL), and we came away very pleasantly surprised. However, it was only after visiting all the other schools that we realized how special the Alabama tour was. We went back one more time, and then when my daughter was there for an interview weekend for RRS, she knew! And she has not looked back!
I also think that the personalized tours are reflective of the attitudes toward the students. Alabama is extremely responsive to questions from students. For a big school, the response times are practically immediate! Everyone at the school is so helpful.
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The personalized tour my son received sealed the deal. I can go on and on about it, but look, we were asked up front when we booked it if we could stay an extra day. We said sure. It turned out that President Bell was busy the day we were touring and wanted to meet S22. So, we were invited to the President’s tailgate for the Bama/Ole Miss game. The President of the University made a point (between meeting donors pulling up in limos) to meet with S22 and me (yes, it was only for a few minutes, but where else does this happen). I have the pictures (sent by his office) to prove it. Hell, they even offered us box seats to the game. Name me another university that would offer that to a POTENTIAL student?
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So funny, we are the exact opposite. S24 loved UGA and strongly disliked Clemson. I love that everyone gets their vibe on a campus and feels strongly one way or the other.
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I thought the schools shared a “similarity” but I could be off on that. Clearly, based on your comments, I am. I was at Clemson for a football game and walked the campus but perhaps that wasn’t enough to warrant a good opinion.
Yes, UGA is huge. When we had to start culling from 17 to one acceptance, it was the second school that came off the list, even with its great Honors program - because when I noted to my daughter how large it was vs. Emory which she loved - she’s like - yeah - gone. It was massive but she loved it had an Urban Outfitter (priorities, priorities). I loved where they placed the football stadium. Just wedged it right in.
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I was at two recent Bama in Atlanta events. President Bell was in attendance for both events, and he spent a significant amount of time talking to prospective students (on an individual level) during the mingling time. That’s unheard of, but I feel that commitment is reflected in the student experience.
@coastal2024, we did not get a similar vibe at UGA and Clemson either. There’s not a right or wrong choice. Every student will have a preference, and I hope that each student ends up at the school that is a perfect fit for him! As I said, my DD has several friends at UGA who absolutely love it there! It just wasn’t for us.
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Thanks for letting me know . Still not sure if that means she’s deferred or if that’s the update message everyone receives once application is complete and under review.
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I would think it’s the latter.
I watched a video from Holy Cross that showed how an AO reads an app, and they did a ton of work on the transcripts – making observations and notes. I can see how that would take a while.
For me the last piece was waiting to get an official score report for the SAT, whereas they’d had everything else, including transcripts, for almost a month, so there’d probably already been plenty of time to go through them and make whatever notes. Once they got the scores we got the email within a couple of days.
We also don’t know how often they are meeting to make decisions, and how they are batching applications for consideration. Sometimes it’s quite random.
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Amazing!! I wish S24 could go during football season to experience all of that but he plays football and can’t miss practices at all. He visited in April and really liked it but def was not a vip personalized tour.
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My daughter applied to UA on on 09/07 and we received her acceptance email on the 14th. I was shocked at how fast the process was and we were not expecting anything for weeks. UA is #4 on her list we wont find out about her Top 3 until October and December.
Reading the comments about the tour has made me realize Im glad I haven’t booked our tour there unless I am certain that’s where I want her to go! Clemson is her #1 pick and she refuses to tour anywhere until she gets a discussion from them because she says that she feels like she will not give any other campus a fair chance when her heart is at Clemson.
Thanks for all the info!
Also, wondering if you have heard of UA offering any merit for those that do not submit their scores? My D24 did TO however she had a 4.0 uw and a 4.3 weighted.
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Our admissions person told us you have to submit scores for merit BUT you can indicate on your application that you do not want scores used/considered for admission. Interestingly, they DO superscore for admission but NOT for merit.
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Good Information. I am just not happy with my daughters scores. She is super smart she just doesnt test well. So thats why we didnt do the SAT more than 3 times but for some of the other schools I may have her continue to test to hopefully be able to be offered merit.
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