@mom2collegekids I’m interested in a pre-law route or marketing/management, but that can always change haha!
@LucieTheLakie Thanks for your advice on titling, I did not mean to imply Alabama had a bad reputation, merely that its reputation is not as strong as a school like USC for example.
@Chardo I too would be interested to see how football could make peace in the Middle East, thanks for the story!
Most people don’t read the rankings. Most people going to college decide based on cost, geography, what grandma said, and what the guidance counselor said before reading rankings.
Most people aren’t on CC.
We had a long time poster whose son was NMF and chose UA over USC. His son had a great experience. Perhaps if you read his comments it might help you with your decision?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17001033/#Comment_17001033
Of course there are plenty of very academically minded, intellectual students at UA. UA has hundreds of National Merit Scholars in every class . . . and thousands of kids earning those Presidential Scholarships . . .
If you seek out intellectual peers, you will find them, for sure. It’s a huge campus with “niches” for every taste.
My dd has great friends, great peers, great academics, and loves UA . . . and she never watches football, never goes to big college/frat/etc parties . . . She does school, cooks with friends, goes rock climbing, gardens in her yard with friends, etc. She found HER people . . . You will find YOUR people, wherever you go (within reason), if you look for them. 
@AlbionGirl Thanks, those comments were really helpful!
@mmom99 Thanks!
^ #24, Hail Malanai!
We live in SoCal. Son just committed to Bama yesterday after our 2nd visit. It came down to UCLA, Cal Poly SLO and Bama for him. Bama was the cheapest for him because of the scholarship, but ultimately, I believe he would’ve chosen it anyways. We had lunch with two honors college students and they both passed up Ivies to attend and have no regrets. We were so impressed with every student we encountered and we can’t say the same for some of the students we met at the other schools.
I have no doubt he made the right choice. Especially considering graduation in 4 years is a lot harder to make happen in CA because of all the impacted majors and classes.
Just want to note that in Alabama (and many other Southern states), they guy driving the beat-up, two-decade old pickup truck is often the richest guy in town…and not necessarily with even a bachelor’s degree. Remember, the German scientists may have designed the rockets that put man on the moon, but it was the redneck Alabama farmers’ sons and daughters who built the rockets and got them to work right.
My ds is finishing his jr yr at Bama. It is not the school we thought he would attend when he started the application process. He is an incredibly strong student and graduated from high school with numerous 300 level math and physics courses completed. He was accepted to much higher ranked schools, but the difference in costs was huge. Bama was by far our cheapest option and costs matter for our family.
That said, he has absolutely zero regrets. He loves Bama. He has had a fabulous experience there. He has been active in research since his freshman yr. He started taking grad level classes this yr’s as a jr. (Bama has a University Scholars program where students can grad level courses:
My ds has been surrounded by academic peers. He has wonderful professors who act as mentors. He has received numerous top REU offers (both last yr and this yr). He is part of CBH which has thankfully been renamed the Randall Scholars or something like that. CBH is research based honors. He will be applying to grad schools next yr, so hopefully a yr from now he will be getting ready to pursue his dream school via a funded grad program. (He has Bama friends at top grad schools, so he is not concerned about his Bama degree being “not well reputed.” Seriously, he has been accepted to top REU programs in the country and has been there alongside top school UGs. His attending Bama has not been an albatross.)
My older son is a Bama grad. When he started looking at schools, Bama was not on his list. In fact, he thought I was crazy when I suggested that he look there. He was a National Merit kid from Virginia, and he got lots of offers across the country and from some foreign universities. We told him he needed a financial safety – just in case those Ivy admissions do not work out. He chose Bama because it was the closest school to home that offered a big merit scholarship (we are 12 hours from the campus). We visited just before Christmas in 2008. Our younger son loved it (he was just 11 at the time). The older son was sort of impressed, but said little. It would be the backup if the Ivies did not work out. Well, things did not go the way the older son hoped, and he went to Bama. He called a few days into his freshman year and said that he could not imagine himself any place else.
He had two majors and two minors, including computer-based honors. Won a prestigious scholarship while at Bama and interned in American Samoa for a summer.
He will graduated from UVA Law in a month. Already has a job lined up in DC. Wishes he could have been at A Day this year, but had too much school work to do. But, he said, he plans to visit Ttown for a game, if he can, in the fall.
BTW, his kid brother attends Alabama Huntsville. He has Bama on his list of possible grad schools.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Thanks! I think I worded my title wrongly, but I’m glad to hear your son is so successful!
@momreads Thanks!
Read thru the stickied thread about Bama Brags to see how Bama students are doing.