"Chem. E. by the way I am already here. It’s my first semester though " - so how do you like it so far? Feedback please. I got Alabama in my cross hairs for graduate school.
Being in a school in 34k, it is VERY possible to find people who can be your friends. However it really depends on what classes you take. The campus is very beautiful and the buildings are nice too.
However, one of UA’s big pro is that the school has many research opportunities. For example, I heard from my friens in other schools that researches are for older students like sophomore or Juniors, but I, a freshman, am going to be in research about electrochemical cell with my CHE 125(Intro to ChemE) professor. (His name is John Van Zee)
Also, UA has a program called Emerging Scholar(probably 100 students chosen for this class) and it helps you find current researches that fits your interest(it is also possible to find researches outside the class though).
^paul, my son will be a ChemE also…good luck with the rest of your semester.
My son was looking at AE and applied to Virg. Tech, Ga Tech. Alburn, Uof I, Uof Michigan, Rensselaer, Case Western, Clemson and Alabama. Waited for the award letters, and with the scholarships offered plus loving the campus and the more we found out about what was offered at Alabama and the opportunities for freshman and sophmores not just juniors and seniors, the decision was made and he has loved this past year.
As of today DD turned down UVA for 'Bama! Roll Tide! -except for when they play PSU 
Wow, wasn’t expecting that, @TV4caster! Congrats and welcome!!!
@LucieTheLakie Me either! Especially after last night when she called me crying because people were telling her “don’t go to Alabama. You don’t want to be thought of as a joke do you?”. She said her “mind” said to go to 'Bama; her “heart” told her to go to UVA; her “gut” told her to UA.
Good for her. I’m sure she’ll forget all that once she attends.
WELCOME!! Roll Tide!!
My son just passed on 3 top 30 schools, Vanderbilt, Emory, and UNC. Scholarship money was too good to turn down. Roll Tide! He also ditched Miami (OH), Kentucky and Oklahoma which offered large merit awards. On to Bama for pre-med, biology major.
My oldest has been Bama Bound ever since we visited in the summer. I’m so excited she’ll be joining a program with two Hollings Scholars, fourteen Fulbright Scholars, and four Goldwater Scholars just this year alone. We couldn’t be more excited about her choice and her opportunities about the future. We appreciate the the other top choice of the University of Florida, but the Honors College was a better fit. Good luck to all.
Oops, sorry about the “the”, my eyes are failing me.
DS passed on Georgia Tech for Alabama. Was an especially tough decision since we are GA residents and he qualified for the Zell Miller Hope Scholarship which covers full tuition. He is going for Engineering (CS) and has been accepted into the Stem MBA program. Early fall in his mind he was sure he was going to GT then a campus visit to Alabama changed everything. He feels UA better fits his personality (high-stats kid / Presidential Scholarship but extroverted, played HS varsity sports etc.) and I would tend to agree. Unlike many others on this board it was going to be a wash financially, although the change announced this year to allow the 4th year of the Presidential to apply to grad school clinched the deal since he has a good shot of graduating in 3 years with his AP and DE credits. As great as the Hope Scholarship is for GA residents it cannot be applied to grad school. I will admit after looking at the GT board recently on CC and reading about kids who turned down the Presidential at UA to pay full OOS tuition at GT it did make me think twice, but it is his choice and I fully support his decision. Many thinks to all on this board who have provided so much valuable info and made me feel real confident that if he applies himself he will thrive and have great opportunities. Any Georgia parents / students who passed on GT for UA and can validate that is was a good decision for them? After reading many threads here it does appear that he may have to be more aggressive in pursuing coops / internships (GT has a great coop program) but my take is getting high grades and making a good effort to go after opportunities, he will be fine. I will say that I have worked with many GT grads in my career and it seems to be a mixed bag on their feelings toward the school. All agree on the worth of a GT degree in the marketplace, but many say it was a grind and not the best experience but the pain was worth the gain. I have never met a Bama grad or current student who didn’t exude absolute love for their school. He is Bama Bound May 26th and couldn’t be more excited. Roll Tide!
We’ll be there for BB same timeframe @ProudPapaBear. If it makes you feel any better son was accepted GT EA and it would’ve been cheap with GI Bill for us. S chose UA instead. Also high stats kid Presidential Scholar wanting to go into Engineering. His rationale is that he can stand out and succeed regardless where he goes and didn’t want cookie cutter GT and to be like everyone else. He wanted something more and everyone we’ve spoken to says you can do that at UA. see you there!
people were telling her “don’t go to Alabama. You don’t want to be thought of as a joke do you?”. - I’m curious where the people that said that are attending or have attended.
My DD will be at Alabama this fall. She was accepted at UNC , was accepted and invited to Reilly Weekend at Notre Dame and was accepted into Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois with a decent scholarship. She felt the most comfortable at Alabama and to be honest it is refreshing to see my daughter get college money based on merit rather than how much we earn as a family. We are from the Midwest and the buzz that Alabama has here is incredible. We visited twice and after the second visit my daughter remarked that of all the colleges she had toured Alabama was the only one that appealed to all of her checkpoints she desired in college… Our fingers are crossed that her instincts are correct.
@franko5150 She only mentioned 1 specifically and that one will be going to UVA. I am not sure about the others.
It’s all kind of silly. Once you get to a certain level in terms of a university they are all pretty good. It’s a matter of what you make out of it for the most part, unless a university is just deficient in a certain area.
Since I’m definitely going to Bama now, I might as well post my list…
The University of Michigan
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Case Western Reserve University
University of Idaho
Purdue University
Cost was probably the biggest factor in my decision, all of those but the University of Idaho offered pretty insignificant scholarships
My son passed on the following to attend Alabama:
- Georgia Tech
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- University of Tulsa
- SMU
- Tulane