I have lived in Milwaukee for 4 years (south side, quiet suburb, but commute into downtown was not bad), Houston for 2 years. Have lived in AL since 1983.
Atlanta is a metro area, and due to corporate HQRs and major baseball/football teams. Lots of population spread outside Atlanta city limits but considered ‘Atlanta’. For example getting a new stadium built. But is not one of 10 largest US cities (and Philly is 5, right behind Houston). San Diego is #8 so you are right @LucieTheLakie between H and you, you are in big city USA, for sure.
The city of Houston is so big (by square miles) that even though they have major medical and large in so many ways, they are not on the plan for Google Fiber - Austin and Atlanta (among others) are current fiber city, upcoming fiber cities are Nashville, Huntsville AL (will be #10 for Google Fiber) Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham in the south and SE US.
DD in B’ham is so near all the banking and downtown corporate, that her internet speed is super fast.
H and I got out of Houston as quick as we could. Hated the crime, traffic, hot and humid long summers, etc. We were in College Station/Bryan, lived in College Station but I did work in Bryan - which College Station is totally a college town, and may be different now but IMHO Tuscaloosa offers more off campus for students than what is there for TAMU. Everything is ‘far’ in TX, so Waco and Houston (60 and 90 miles away from College Station) for Texans is considered not far. I did attend one semester of classes at U of Houston (while working FT nearer our home in NW Houston) and got a master’s degree at TAMU.
There is a HUGE difference between a flagship in a mid-sized town and one in a ‘rural’ setting (like MS State - which isn’t the state flagship but is a major univ for MS with their vet school there and major engineering programs of study, some through PhD). There is no Macy’s in MS - they have to travel to B’ham.
Until one visits various schools, and determines between what they want to study and what is the best match…
One can get a feel for various schools in their geographic area, and then when they do visit schools of interest outside their geo area, they can often make some associations. For example, nephew was at LSU, and in many ways I saw that campus as somewhat similar to AU. And some commonalities between AU and TAMU - with the ag programs, vet school, etc.
UA is a fun campus, but also offers excellent academic opportunities. Many students get plenty of their ‘necessities’ in the Tuscaloosa area for shopping, but B’ham one hour away offers more for the shopping ‘fix.’
I do understand ‘national standard’ and all, but I am a bit ‘brainwashed’ by the media in AL - April headline “Census: Huntsville state’s fastest growing large metro”. In national standards, the only metro area of size in AL is B’ham. In AL, if your area population is over 400,000, you are considered a large metro area (like Mobile and Huntsville).
It is also like talking about climate…and it depends where you have lived and what you like. Does one eliminate a school due to the climate?
My nephew wasn’t keen on Baton Rouge, but LSU was a great match for his doctoral program. We tolerated Houston until we were able to move on to something better. Some students may dream of certain OOS places, but if you know the various schools in your geographic region first (that are easier to visit and sort out what you like/don’t like). We did campus visits over some years just to gain the experiences and sort out like/don’t like. We as parents have had a lot of experiences in colleges (I have two graduate degrees, and degrees from 3 non-contiguous states and have worked for two universities). We live in a place where people are from all over the country and have gone to a wide diversity of schools - and some of their college-aged students do go to a diversity of colleges.