University of Alabama vs Pittsburgh vs Ohio State?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

With my 29 ACT score and PA resident, all three schools will be approximately the same price. Parents are willing to pay the difference after my loans and any grants for each of the three colleges.

Which one would you recommend? What are the biggest differences? How will my employment prospects/internships/co-ops be affected with Pittsburgh ranked 62 vs Alabama ranked 96 (USNews)?

I have been accepted to U of Pittsburgh already and will apply to Alabama before the December deadline. I did apply to Ohio State EA before the November 1st deadline.

Major undecided, but I prefer the science non-engineering fields.

2

Employers don’t care about rankings…they typically don’t even know what the rankings are. lol Truly. They don’t pay attention to those things.

Employers look at GPA, courses taken, major, and who you are, what you’ve done, etc.

Alabama has a true campus. It’s not an urban campus like Pitt has.

How would Ohio State be about the same price since you’re OOS for it?

With your ACT 29, if you apply before the Dec deadline, you’ll get a half tuition merit award from Alabama. I think Ohio State would cost you a lot more.

Have you visited these schools?

3

I have visited both Pittsburgh and Ohio State.

Like both and have no problem with going to either. Have not visited Alabama, so trying to get all the information possible.

I expect the price to be similar for Ohio State because I qualify for both the National Buckeye Scholarship for out of state students and the provost scholarship with my 29 ACT score. These add up to 14250 per year. I was told that they are almost automatic IF accepted.

4

My D is also looking at the Pitt vs UA comparison.

We are out of state for Pitt so it is more $ than UA for her, but still within the budget we set. She loves Pitt. She visited and loved the urban setting and loves the majors they have available. She has already mapped out how to do a double major there. She also likes that all students that commit before May 1 are given equal standing for housing selection - no first some first serve like UA. On the downside, she really wanted to go somewhere with warmer weather for college and Pitt does not fit that. And for her, Pitt is more $.

UA on the other hand is quite a bit cheaper and has warmer weather. She is in the honors college so should have access to smaller, more rigorous classes. These are the main upsides for her right now. Downsides - its harder to get to and from home, housing selection system is a negative for late deciding kids, and she isn’t sure about the suburban campus setting. Finally the majors just don’t seem as interesting for someone interested in humanities, (Pitt has four English majors and subtracks within those, UA has just a single plain English major). She is interested in the Blount Initiative and feels that could help compensate for that. We are visiting in a few weeks so we’ll get a better idea after the visit. I personally am hoping that she is sold on UA by the visit.

I don’t think there will be a difference in employment prospects between any of the schools you are looking at and agree that no employers look at ratings. The only people that really take them seriously are high school kids. On the other hand, if you want employment in PA, it will probably be easier to get if you go to Pitt because many companies recruit locally. If you have no preference for where you eventually work or live then I think they all would be equal.

5

@me29034 Has your daughter considered New College at The University of Alabama? She could design her own interdisciplinary major. It features a “Depth Study” which might be of interest to your student, perhaps she could design her depth study based on her particular interests. I only know the information posted online but it might be of interest to your daughter.

See here for more info:
http://nc.as.ua.edu/

Have you arranged your visit through the Honors College or through your recruiter? Have you asked to sit in on a Blount Class or another English Major"s Class? If you want to have the best experience during your visit, try to make it as personal for your daughter’s interests as possible.

6

My son did not apply, but as an PA resident, we researched Pitt quite a bit and have many friends and neighbors with students there or graduated within the last 10 years.

There are 2 big difference difference to me between Pitt and UA.

Honors College - UA offers much more flexibility in class choices. For my Engineering student, this made Honors possible.

AP/CLEP credit is more generous at UA. This may have an impact if you want to dual major or graduate in less than 8 semesters.

Job Prospects - We only researched Engineering. We find the job prospects better in Alabama (due to the auto industry and Huntsville research facilities). The Pitt grads we know in the last 10 years - most were offered their initial jobs in Ohio. Either way, we did not expect my son to easily find work in our Trenton - Philly corridor.

7

@Longhaul - Are you from the Philadelphia area? How was the adjustment to UA for your son? My D is accepted into Pitt (honors) and waiting to hear from Georgia Tech. She applied to other engineering schools as well, all within cities. We live in Philadelphia and she is concerned about attending a rural school but the reputation of UA engineering combined with the allure of merit aid keeps it in consideration. I appreciate hearing your experience.

8

Maybe @LucieTheLakie will chime in about UA students from the Philly area.

9

I want to address the issue of urban versus rural. ( FYI, I don’t consider The University of Alabama to be a rural setting.)

First, I would venture to say that many students are not really coming directly from urban centers, but are more often coming from suburban areas of their respective cities. So, to them, Tuscaloosa will not seem so very different than their hometown. Second, Tuscaloosa is not really small, it has a population of almost 100,000 people and that does not include the university population of over 37,000 students. Tuscaloosa has a total of 70 square miles (Wikipedia supplied facts). Therefore, it is not really small. Compare that to my home suburban town of almost 28,000 residents crammed into less than 4 square miles of land. Although, New York City is about a one hour drive from my suburb, Birmingham (a good size city) is also only about a fifty minute drive from UA. I mention this just to give you some comparisons. I am not comparing Birmingham to New York City, I am just saying that a good size city isn’t too far away. I would also venture to say that except for the occasion foray, most students in my area do not travel into NYC very often, because it is expensive and students are generally on tight budgets. Therefore, I would say that college life here is comparable to UA, because students will probably not go to Birmingham very often either, because of the cost and the time factor.

In addition, UA and Tuscaloosa affords its students lots of cultural and leisure activities both on and off campus.There are lectures, musical concerts & recitals, dance recitals, plays, sporting events and recreational facilities that are all almost free. There is a new Tuscaloosa Amphitheatre nearby (paid tickets required) and an interesting eclectic downtown that features lots of seasonal activity. For the outdoor enthusiasts, there are biking and hiking clubs that take advantage of the beautiful areas surrounding campus. There are also volunteer activities and over 500 clubs on campus to choose from.

Let’s face it, most students are or should be extremely busy with their classes and their “on campus” activities. Add in study time, food shopping, laundry, general housekeeping and socializing and you can see that they wont have much extra time for traveling off campus anyway. It seems to me that for the students college years, the locale isn’t really that big of an issue, since most students will spend the majority of their time directly on campus.

In addition I would say, that you could probably not pick a more lush, green, pristine campus than that of The University of Alabama, which really is one of the best university campuses I have ever visited.

10

@me29034 Just wanted to mention re: your housing concerns… I didn’t put down my deposit until May 1st. However, especially if they’ll be in Honors suite housing, there’s a good chance one of their chosen roommates will have an earlier housing selection time. For example, I had one of the latest slots, but a roommate I found had the earliest time and we got our preferred room in Ridgecrest. They can “pull you in” so to speak.

11

6 PhilaSkiMom: UA is definitely not a "rural" campus. It's not an "urban" campus, although technically it is inside the boundaries of Tuscaloosa (or Tuscaloosa/Northport)...but it's at all not like being crammed in the middle of a huge city. Definitely in between...... and a very nice "in between"...at least that's what a lot of people think! Hopefully your family will visit very soon if you haven't already. Good luck!

12

I like college towns that are also in county seats - that generally means they have more resources. Tuscaloosa County has a pop of nearly 200,000. Tuscaloosa with ~100,000 is the 5th largest city in AL. It is not rural by any means.

13

Being from the Phila suburbs, I am interested in hearing the differences.

I plan on visiting in the spring after accepted and confirmed with the possible scholarship.

14

I am the parent of two college students, one a jr at UA in Civil Engineering and one a freshman at Pitt in Engineering (they declare their major in the Spring). Both schools have a lot to offer. PM me with questions, I will be happy to help and happy to share our impressions so far.

15

We live in suburban Philadelphia, and I’m afraid I’ve never visited Pitt or Ohio State, so I can’t really comment on them. I know happy students and graduates of both. I really wanted my son to visit Pitt, as several of his close friends had applied there and ended up going there after getting rejected or wait-listed from Ivies, but once he had his Bama and Penn State admissions, he didn’t want to apply to another big state school.

I, too, would not characterize Tuscaloosa as rural. It’s nothing like where Penn State (which has a beautiful campus) is located, for instance. Both my son and I preferred Bama’s campus to PSU’s, because it was flatter and easier to walk. We were primarily looking at the engineering program, but it was also important to him that there be a strong liberal arts vibe, and we felt UA had more of that than PSU. The Blount Initiative is a very cool program that adds to that too.

I really think you’d need to visit all of these schools to really figure out where you feel most comfortable. They’re all great schools, and large, but the vibes are very different IMHO. Cost and travel are things you have to take into consideration, as well. And I do think in terms of future employment, it’s good to go to college in an area where you’d be willing to work fresh out of school as that is often the area where you’ll have the greatest opportunities.

16

We are between Trenton and Philly corridor.

Agree that Bama is far from rural. However, they definitely aren’t the 24/7 society of area. Many things are closed on weekends (doctors, family businesses, even some restaurants). Takes some planning for kids used to the 24/7 life. But, rest assured, there are multiple Walmarts, Target, CVS. Far more built up then we expect.
My son applied to rural schools, and Bama is far from it.

17

I was checking out flights to visit Alabama and find it is much cheaper for my family to fly in to Atlanta and drive to Tuscaloosa.

Does Alabama have any shuttles or direct busses for students to travel the Atlanta airport for returning home?

Also, @mom2collegekids could you say your thoughts on Alabama employment opportunities, and how you would classify the atmosphere of college town in Tuscaloosa?

18

Yes, Atlanta has significantly cheaper flights, and more options, but there is not a shuttle to that airport from UA.

If you are renting a car, just drive back to Atlanta and fly from there.

19

Thank you for all of the input. We live within the city limits of Philadelphia, not a suburb, so I apologize for characterizing UA as “rural” but to us, green = rural. Sounds like we need to visit!

20

@PhilaSkiMom, definitely visit when you can. We didn’t visit until just after spring break of senior year (April 1, I think), and it was really the perfect time for my son.

Re travel from Philly, so much depends upon personal needs. We travel to Tuscaloosa much less often than many families, so when we do, we take advantage, whenever possible, of that fantastic nonstop American (formerly US Airways) flight from PHL to BHM. Two-hour “commuter” flight, easy car rental in BHM, and you can be to T-Town an hour later. It’s probably not the cheapest way to do it (although we always get reasonable fares), but it’s definitely a “best value” IMHO.