We will be visiting UA at the end of March. I want DD to get a good feel for the school and the town … the whole university experience. We’ll be arriving the evening before our visit day, and we have flexibility on when we depart the evening after our visit concludes. So what things do we need to be sure to do/see while we are there to really have taken in a “slice of Bama life”? Places to eat also … since eating is an important part of a college town… I should say she has already contacted the College of Engineering to arrange a tour; their form asked specifically what other aspects of the school she wanted to visit so they could arrange it, so she put down Honors College and College of Arts/Sciences. Anything else she should try to arrange officially?
Does she want to see the honors dorms…like Ridgecrest?
Lots of places to eat…what do y’all like? and dislike eating?
The campus tour plus the other things that the CoE will arrange will take most of the day (morning and afternoon), what time will you be leaving Tuscaloosa? or will you be spending the night again?
You might want to look at the events calendars before you go to see if there’s anything going on on-campus that might interest your daughter - concerts, plays, sporting events, etc.
http://www.rolltide.com/calendar/events/
http://events.ua.edu/
what branch of engineering?
is your tour being officially arranged through the Honors College (many other posts/threads about how to do this, if not)…or are you only going through College of Eng’g?
I would try and get an student ambassador of engineering/honors college to tour with you instead of the bus tour. Go in depth as much as you can for engineering ( see facilities, work being done, visit with faculty member, possibly sit in on a class or an honors class). We also got an opportunity to talk to Assistant Dean of HC - Dr. Ross ( Dr. Sharpe was out) and Dr. P and Dr. B for ME and the EcoCar. And talk to students. We had an engineering major/honors college freshman take her time and visit with us about UA. It was really good. She was OOS from .Maryland. Take time to soak up the campus and just walk and watch students go about their day. Look at both a traditional dorm ( Burke) and a suite ( Ridgecrest) - you do not need a guide for this as they are open from 8:00 - 4:30 and students are at the desk to answer any questions.
The Strip is fun to walk around and just observe students/people, Full Moon bbq is really good, Northport has a little historic area, the walk along the Black River.