<p>Hi I am a newbie on CC. My daughter has been accepted by UA and got the Presidential scholarship. </p>
<p>When she applied she had a hard time deciding on a major because she has several interests and eventually put down Microbiology. Now already she is not sure if that’s what she really wants to study in college. There are 2 main reasons: 1. she is quite clear that she does not want to pursue a graduate degree in science beyond her undergraduate years; 2. she has read that now it is really hard to get a decent job with a BS degree in basic science.</p>
<p>She does not think she can do engineering (no visual-spatial ability, according to her).</p>
<p>So that basically eliminates the STEM fields.</p>
<p>She is smart and hard working and has high stats (ACT 35, SAT 2300+, 3.95 unweighted GPA, lots of APs, NMSF) but does not seem to know what she wants to major in at college. </p>
<p>UA started out as our safety school and we did not know much about the school. But the more we look into it, the more we are liking this school. </p>
<p>Which departments are considered to be strong at UA?</p>
<p>There really are a number of strong outside of STEM, I don’t know where to start. The Classics, Poly Sci, History, Public Relations, MIS, the B school, Accounting, Stats, Music, Education, Spanish, Musical theater, English, Nursing (which may be STEM), Communications, and many more.</p>
<p>What does your D like? Is she the type who’d like The Classics? Is she outgoing and would like PR? Would she want to become a college prof?</p>
<p>She has been doing a lot of debate in high school so she definitely is interested in Poly Sci, political philosophy, perhaps econ. Also very social. Not sure about eventually working as an academic, but is quite interested in law school.</p>
<p>Had a similar question to Jule620’s but about the psychology department. Is the department strong? My D is interested in majoring in psychology (social/behavioral) with thoughts of pursuing a career in national intelligence or law enforcement.</p>
<p>I should have included Psych in my list above. I’m sure I neglected many strong depts. A well-ranked National Univ is going to have many strong depts.</p>
<p>Well Bama has a highly ranked law school which is considered a bargain even with the OOS rates.</p>
<p>Were all familiar with the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings and their clout with<em>prospective</em>law schoolstudents who value prestige. But what if youre a bargain hunter? Turns out theres a list for you too.</p>
<p>The National Jurist<em>has published Best Value Law Schools rankings in its September 2012 issue, and placing first is the University of Alabama, which has tuition of $18,030, a bar passage rate of 95.95% and a weighted employment rate of 90%, according to</em>JD Journal.</p>
<p>The Honors College has some kind of easy admit process for the law school. I don’t know the details. </p>
<p>Our dear Jami Gates (formerly the recruiter for the HC) is now a recruiter for the law school, so she’d know the answers to that. </p>
<p>Frankly, virtually any univ that has a well-ranked law school is usually going to be strong in depts like history, poly sci, philosophy, English, etc. There just seemed to be a correlation.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: you are a great source of information. D met with the UA rep at her school recently and really liked what she learned about the school. The 55% OOS data is a nice surprise. In our neck of the woods, there are a lot of ranking and prestige obsessed people. I am glad D will seriously consider choices based not just on ranking but also on cost and quality of education. A friend’s son gave up big merit aid at George Washington so he can go to NYU, by borrowing insane amount of student loans. So we have a good example of what not to do.</p>
<p>As far as the major is concerned, she will have to go through some more thinking and planning. The UA rep told her it is easy to change her major choice at this point. She also received an invite to apply for the Fellows so we will need to do some research and figure out what that program is about.</p>
<p>Accounting was mentioned: U.S. News and World Report ranks UAs undergraduate program in the top three to four percent of public business programs in the nation. Forbes ranks UAs Manderson Graduate School of Business 31st among the top public MBA programs.</p>
<p>My DD is a junior in CD. As we were told at several schools we toured, since you need MS for Speech Pathology or Audiology the main point is going to an accredited school because then you’re basically guaranteed to have what you need for grad school. They are more interested in your terminal degree than your BS. That said, she’s been very pleased with her classes and especially professors w/in the department. The opportunities within the Honor’s college sealed the deal for her.</p>