What do you know about the University of Arizona?

Parents Forum
21

<p>I’m a high school senior in Arizona, and a lot of my friends go to U of A! They’ve shared some of their thoughts with me. Disclaimer: These are just the words of 18 yr old freshman, please don’t be offended by their opinions.</p>

<p>The Good

  • Beautiful, secure campus
  • Nice weather
  • Good honors college with great perks and new dorms (admittedly, rival ASU’s Barrett has garnered more national attention)
  • Awesome med programs
  • Off campus housing options are great, lots of good apartments close to campus
  • The locals are friendly with the college kids, not really any hostility.
  • Lots to do around Tuscon! It’s very scenic, there’s great hiking, and prime Mexican vacation spots are just an hour or two away. (Could be a parent’s worst nightmare though)</p>

<p>The Bad

  • It’s Tuscon, they call it “The Dirty T” for a reason. It’s a border city (my car’s been broken into two times I’ve been down there) My friends say despite the shady surroundings, the campus feels very secure and isolated.
  • BIG party school! That’s all I ever hear about from my friends. Greek life is big too, they say there’s a lot of pressure to join a fraternity or sorority.
  • Bike theft is really bad, even more so than other large public universities. They suggest using multiple locks of different varieties to secure bikes.
  • Parking is god awful with limited space and strict enforcement. Tickets are handed out left and right.
  • Very homogeneous student population of in state kids from AZ and OOS Californians. </p>

<p>To answer some of the questions posed above, most people stay on campus during the weekends. In state kids go home for three day weekends or extended holidays. There is an airport in Tuscon (Tuscon International) but most kids use Sky Harbor in Phoenix. From what my friends have told me, the atmosphere is similar to most other publics. There are very dedicated scholars and there are very dedicated partiers, you just have to surround yourself with the right people. Unfortunately, I think U of A’s penchant for partying has overshadowed their quality academics. </p>

<p>Best of luck to you and your daughter in the college search! Feel free to shoot me any more questions.</p>

22

<p>Thanks both of you for your in depth answers to my questions! My daughter is tempted to go to Arizona for the beautiful weather and to be out of state. You’ve given me lots to think about. Naturally we want her to go to a university with a well regarded academic reputation, but don’t want her to be freezing somewhere in a remote location closer to home if that will make her miserable. I think the only way to get a true feel for the campus is for us to visit. For practical reasons, I needed to know if you can “get there from here”. So many people end up at schools that are difficult to reach by any form of commercial transportation and need to get rides there and back by car. If she goes out of state, we’d like there to be a train station or airport nearby to make it easier. Obviously it would be a long way from home to go to UofA from Massachusetts. One more question: Does UofA give any merit scholarship? My daughter has a 3.8gpa, we had hoped an out of state school might offer her some money to offset the additional cost of an out of state tuition. I guess we’ll find all this out between now and next fall if she decides to apply.</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

23

<p>Unfortunately, the bulk of merit aid scholarships are for Arizona residents. To my knowledge, however, the Arizona Excellence Award offers a very sizable scholarship for out of state students,. It awards anywhere from $2,000 to $14,000 a year. As a resident I’m not entirely aware of the other merit scholarships that are out there, so you’ll have to poke around a bit for more information. The general UofA application will put students in the running for most big scholarships though.</p>

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<p>If your daughter would like great weather, big school experience and good academics with merit, has she considered Alabama? I think she may have missed the cut off for scholarships though, but check out the Bama page on CC, folks there are very helpful and knowledgable…</p>

25

<p>Hi again,
Thanks. Someone else mentioned University of Alabama to me. I guess we’ll be researching these things in the months ahead. Stay tuned!</p>