What schools did your child pass on in order to attend Alabama

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>I have come to believe that unless you are attending a top 10-15 school, it really doesn’t matter where you go. Jobs are hard to come by. Much depends on where you want to live, what you want to do, etc. “Prestige” is starting to make less and less difference when you consider the massive debt necessary to obtain it. My son really wanted to go to Fordham. He had a scholarship, but I would still have been paying 45-50k per year, and one or both of us would have gone into serious debt. Nobody alive will ever be able to convince me that a degree from Fordham (a fine school) would be worth more than his UA degree, especially if he wants to stay in the South (which he does).</p>

<p>The college bubble is going to burst soon, you people. Just watch.</p>

22

<p>My son wasn’t looking at any elite schools, he only applied to a couple of instate publics (both on par with UA.) Initially he said (and I quote), “I am NOT going to school in Alabama”. I think it primarily had to do with the heat since at that time he knew nothing about the school. </p>

<p>We spent a little time on the website and decided it was worth the trip to visit. By noon of our visit - he knew he was attending UA. It didn’t hurt that it was a perfect October day (compared to our Michigan weather.)</p>

<p>He is in his second year and couldn’t wait to return this fall! No regrets…he loves it at UA and is getting an awesome education (on full tuition scholarship) in a glorious setting.</p>

23

<p>My DH rolled his eyes when I suggested attending the local UA Recruitment Open House, but attended anyway. Was intrigued enough to add UA to the week long sweep through southern schools he took with DD over Spring Break her Jr Yr. Came home from the trip loving UA - even above his alma mater Ga Tech, Duke, NC-CH and Vanderbilt. </p>

<p>DD was accepted to Vandy, CMU, GT, UMinn-TC, UW Madison and several prestigious LAC’s. She had UA at the top of her list after that trip, applied and was accepted to UA, and had to revisit her decision each time an acceptance came from a more prestigious school. Each time she chose UA (BTW, DD is a NMF too and received some really good merit offers from all these schools except UW Madison - our flagship!). </p>

<p>It really depends on what your KIDDO wants out of the college experience and the environment they want to be in for 4 or more years. Our kids all picked UA for a variety of reasons and many took a leap of faith (and many many miles) to attend. </p>

<p>We parents (and some awesome students and grads) continue to stay on CC and join with the community of great folks we found here to offer up help, advice, counselling and care. </p>

<p>I often wonder why there aren’t stronger CC communities posting regularly for other great schools.</p>

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<p>My S (Civ-E major) was accepted by Rose-Hulman (currently top ranked engineering school without a PhD program), Georgia Tech, and Purdue.</p>

<p>He didn’t get any merit aid from GA Tech and frankly didn’t like the feel of being so close to downtown Atlanta.</p>

<p>He received a mix of merit and need based aid from Rose, but as it is only about 40 miles from our house, really wanted to spread his wings and it was never a serious option.</p>

<p>He received absolutely no offer of merit from Purdue, which left me pretty bitter since only 2 years ago when they offered automatic awards he would have qualified for their top award and he had classmates with lower stats that did receive merit offers. </p>

<p>It came down to a choice between staying IS and attending Purdue with no merit or going to Bama and getting full tuition + the engineering award. I left the decision to my S who chose Bama over Purdue. I am a firm believer that for most courses there is not going to be a significant difference in rigor - calculus is calculus is calculus. For other courses the quality is going to depend on the professor and there are good instructors and there are bad instructors at any large school. </p>

<p>My S was able to start at Bama with sophomore status, got a 4.0 GPA his first semester, ended his year with a trip to Ecuador with Alabama Action Abroad, and was able to get an internship in his field after his first year of classes and didn’t borrow a penny. I don’t think any of the other schools he was accepted to could have offered him any more.</p>

<p>He did also apply to MIT - it is an AWESOME school! He was deferred EA, then rejected. If he’d been accepted that would have been our top choice, but since they meet 100% need the cost for us would have been very comprable to what we’re paying for Bama. I couldn’t imagine paying full freight to attend anywhere but a state flagship, I would have felt GUILTY leaving my son with significant debt without seeing the value in it - he is just as employable with a BS from one school as he is from another. The only way I would have considered sending him to an OOS option without significant merit or a private would have been if I had the money at hand, but I’m pretty frugal and I think even then I would have believed there were better uses for the money.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I do understand the feeling of wanting the BEST for your child and you don’t want to feel like you’re selling them short. I don’t want to feel like my child ‘settled’, I want him to feel like his hard work in HS paid off and opened doors for him. That’s why I left the final decision in his hands and told him NOT to make it based on the money (of course we were comparing Bama to an IS public). </p>

<p>I agree with visiting the honor’s college. I wasn’t as sold on the campus as many here, but the honor’s college does go ABOVE AND BEYOND to make these kids feel wanted by the school. I think that’s ultimately what sold my son - the personalized attention. When comparing Bama to Purdue, reputation of the schools aside, no one at Purdue even knew his name and they didn’t value him enough to offer him any merit aid. But at Bama my son felt valued and that may prove far more important that anything any of the higher ranked schools could have offered him.</p>

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<p>OP, my D is a thriving 2nd year student. I put it that way because she is technically a senior with credits. That is an important reason to consider UA in my opinion…the generous AP credits. She was accepted into WashU, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and Northeastern (I think I’m forgetting one but what was so important senior year of HS quickly becomes unimportant later). She was waitlisted at Northwestern, Tufts and Wash&Lee. She chose Alabama though will likely still end up somewhere cold for grad school. All we did was ask her to apply and visit UA due to the scholarships (she is Presidential). UA did the rest. </p>

<p>Regarding the CC UA community, it is real. I’ve met many of them in real life. My daughter found roommates through these connections. We help each other out, answer questions, give encouragement, and sometimes even an occasional scolding. :)</p>

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<p>Quoting sschickens: “…it’s just something I’ve noticed on CC over time - that UA has an inordinate # of threads.”</p>

<p>Relative to the observation above… Most people don’t know that UA has a large percentage of out of state students. I believe the freshman class last year was 55% OOS (I’m too lazy to cite the source). What this means is this forum provides a means for parents/students from around the country to ask questions, share information, and get advice, etc. </p>

<p>Contrast that with our flagship in-state schools (Univ of Georgia, Georgia Tech)… if I wanted information about those schools I simply talked with my neighbors, colleagues, and other parents in our community.</p>

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<p>I didn’t mean to offend anyone</p>

<p>Sure you didn’t.</p>

<p>Silly me.</p>

<p>:rolleyes:</p>

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<p>Thanks, ThorEric, that makes sense.</p>

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<p>My guess is that in future years, Bama is going to be known as a school who graduates many students heading to med school, engineering positions, as well as many other careers.</p>

<p>Premeds are “doing the math”. Med school at a private runs about $75k per year COA…and that’s going up every year. Med school at an OOS public runs about $50k-70k or so. Med school at an instate public can run between about $20k-40k per year. </p>

<p>Of course, no one knows where they’ll VERY luckily get accepted. The only acceptance may be to a private SOM, and then they’re facing $300k+ of debt if parents aren’t affluent enough to pay for undergrad and med school. </p>

<p>So, a possible alternative is to save the college fund or parent contribution to put towards med school, and grab a low cost good alternative for undergrad.</p>

<p>Med schools do not care where you went to undergrad (unless maybe it’s some unknown Podunk ridiculous school). Med schools know that the courses, the BCMP GPA, the cum GPA, MCAT score, and the other details tell them whether a student is ready for med school. There is nothing that HYPSM does that “better prepares” kids for med school…nothing. The kid either has it or he doesn’t. Period.</p>

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<p>To the OP: My H and I tried very hard to take our own opinions out of play during college selection season. Of course, we felt free to voice concerns, but did not want to appear to be “rooting” for one particular school. Our reasoning was that there would be good and bad with any choice, and figured she would cope better knowing it was her own.</p>

<p>We started out by giving her a budget similar to what we spent on her older brother that would be enough to cover any of the schools she was interested in. We have promised that amount as hers to spend whether she needs it all for undergrad or not. </p>

<p>Ultimately, she loved UA just a teeny bit less than Virginia Tech, but decided the cost difference was too great to justify. Most kids will bloom where they are planted, and that has been the case with my DD. We marvel at the opportunities she’s had so far (she’s a junior now) and are thankful for the prerogatives she’ll have graduating debt free with money left over for grad school. We Roll Tide!</p>

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<p>I think it’s inevitable that we all bring our own experiences to the table. Both DH and I put ourselves through school with neither financial aid nor parental support (back in the day when it was possible to do so with only hard work and federal loans). We did not attend prestigious undergraduate schools, but our inexpensive colleges launched us into top rated professional schools and gave us the backgrounds to do very well there. As a result, we don’t think top rated undergraduate schools are a necessity and we never pushed them with our kids even though we can afford them. </p>

<p>D1 didn’t have a “dream” school, applied only to state flagships that were matches and safeties (her choice), and chose Alabama and the Presidential scholarship. She’s having a great experience. She has close friends at some top schools (including MIT), and they’re having great experiences too. </p>

<p>And as a UA parent, I’m having a good experience. I’ve met many great parents of UA students on this forum, and I’ve met a good number of them in person. I’m looking forward to September 14 to hang out with several of them while we watch A&M go down!</p>

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<p>Welcome, Theretheygo. Many of us here have gone through a similar process to yours. </p>

<p>What is your calculation regarding the opportunity cost and comparative returns on investment between graduating debt-free from UA vs debt-saddled/2nd mortgaged/IRA-liquidated from Prestige U? Forbes calls the latter option The Great College Hoax (i.e. the notion that spending a fortune on a prestige undergraduate degree actually gets you ahead).</p>

<p>Add to that empirical research from a Princeton professor that found Ivy-caliber students have comparable professional success irrespective of the undergraduate education they receive.</p>

<p>Our son received substantial scholarships from USC and Boston U that still left a big nut on the table. He turned those down for the big UA NMF package and has thrived academically, socially, and culturally beyond our best expectations. </p>

<p>The caring and personal attention he has received has been unbelievable. The opportunity to double major (business and film) without stress (by virtue of UA’s generous AP credit recognition) has been a tangible perk (as has priority registration for classes). The opportunity to do a well-paid internship this past summer (after which he was offered a postgraduate job by the firm, should he desire) was a foot in the door facilitated by the business school. The gorgeous campus and state-of-the-art infrastructure is part and parcel of the UA renaissance and commitment to excellence. And the “hidden curriculum” of living in a culture quite different from the familiar has been a wondrous, enriching, mind-expanding bonus.</p>

<p>UA is not for everyone. No school is. But I’ll leave you with something my son shared with me a few weeks ago. I asked him what’s the best thing about UA that I could share with my CC peeps. He thought long and hard, then said, “If there’s something you want to do, 'Bama will do whatever it can to help you get it done.”</p>

<p>We have no regrets, only blessings. And I say this as a graduate of U.C. Berkeley (where I received an education no better than the one my son is receiving).</p>

<p>Good luck with your decision. And Roll Tide. :)</p>

1 Like
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<p>^^^, Theretheygo, Malanai’s son said it best about UA, “Bama will do whatever it can to help you get it done.” The U of Alabama is very nurturing university. Whatever interests your son may want to pursue, his professors and the schools will help him achieve it. </p>

<p>Please, please, please Visit the school with your son and husband, it’s the only way to make a decision…</p>

<p>ROLL TIDE Y’ALL</p>

34

<p>DS passed on UNC Chapel Hill. (Also UNC Asheville, Appalachian State, Belmont Abbey, and Ave Maria.) UNC Chapel Hill was about the most prestigious place where he applied, besides Washington & Lee, where he was wait-listed (after they eagerly recruited him based on his National Merit status; go figure).</p>

<p>No regrets whatsoever. You can’t eat prestige.</p>

<p>BTW: Hubby got his PhD at Harvard, but he doesn’t have a school-snob bone in his body. As he often reminds me, the Intro Greek class he took at the University of Louisville was a heck of a lot more demanding than the Greek classes he subsequently took at Harvard. (His primary field was Byzantine history; hence all the Greek.)</p>

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<p>In a strange twist on this topic of prestige … my DH graduated from Alabama and now works for MIT …</p>

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<p>I know that Alabama consistently sends kids to both the Yale and Harvard law schools.</p>

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<p>sschickens: What is your in-state flagship? Ours is UNC Chapel Hill, and there is NO way DS (who did get into Chapel Hill) would have received a superior education there. The UNC system is contracting – budget cuts out the yin-yang – while Alabama is thriving and expanding. </p>

<p>Moreover, at Bama, you can actually get a reasonably impartial non-tendentious education, not just a bunch of propaganda. (DS is double-majoring in History and Classics. UNC’s history department…well, let’s just say that, if it leaned any further left, it would fall off the map. E.g., one CC mom with whom I had a PM chat a few years ago told me that her son had been flunked by a UNC professor, despite all As on tests, because he [the student] would not agree with the prof that America is the root and source of all the evils on the planet and throughout the neighboring galaxies. I don’t think something that crazy would happen at Bama. It certainly hasn’t so far. And no, I’m not saying professors shouldn’t be liberals – or conservatives or anything else their little hearts desire. I’m just saying they should keep their political polemics out of the classroom and especially out of their grading.) </p>

<p>Bottom line: Quite often the prestigious schools are not all they’re cracked up to be. “Overrated” is the mot juste, methinks. And that nonsense about “Public Ivies” – don’t get me started. :p</p>

<p>The reason for all the CC pages re Alabama? Bama provides an awesome opportunity for bright, motivated people. And, in the Real World most of us inhabit, “debt free” is an important factor. One semester a few years ago, DS had both his National Merit Scholarship (ongoing) and a Byrd Scholarship (leftover monies from the now defunct Byrd program). Do you know what Bama charged us that semester? $144. I had to print that out and show it to my colleagues…they could not believe it. You couldn’t attend the local community college for $144! </p>

<p>Are we thrilled that DS is getting an excellent education for so little money? Yup. No regrets whatsoever.</p>

<p>— Diane (born and bred in Massachusetts; now living in NC)</p>

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<p>my mom, dad, aunt, and uncle are all MIT alumni. i didn’t apply because i wouldn’t have gotten any aid, but the best school i turned down for bama was probably WUSTL</p>

<p>just don’t be one of those parents who blows a quarter-million on the highest ranked UG school your child can get into because you think that that the school’s prestige will guarantee him/her a spot in medical school</p>

<p>with that said, if you qualify for a large amount of financial aid, then by all means shoot for the best schools you can get into.</p>

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<p>Since you asked, DS turned down admissions from Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, and Lehigh’s elite IBE program. All would have been full pay, but thankfully we’ve been saving up since before he was born. He was able to make his own choice without regard to money. The visit sold him. One friendly stranger after another, very different from NY. And of course, the campus, especially the new engineering complex and the honors dorms, by far the nicest dorms we have ever seen.</p>

<p>He entered freshman year loaded with AP credits, allowing him to take a lighter course load while adapting. That certainty helped him earn the 4.0 gpa he still maintains. He also played club volleyball, traveling across the South to represent Bama. Besides the priceless road trips, he’s now co-president of the team. Think job recruiters will like a 4.0 engineering student with leadership skills? Would he have been able to stand out so much at those other schools? </p>

<p>Let’s not forget sports. He’s had honors front row seats to every game of a football championship, hoping for another. Also front row seats to every basketball game. We have seen him on TV several times, always with a big smile. By coaches invite, he practices with the women’s volleyball team (tall female friends). He has made friends with people from several teams, and from many states. Bottom line, he’s a standout student having the time of his life. The ultimate test will come at job time, but for now, he has no regrets at all passing on those other schools.</p>

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<p>LadyD, I’m a graduate of UMD-CP and we live in Maryland. My D will apply there as a safety, but will most likely not attend. I honestly can say it won’t be a good fit for her, and neither would an OOS flagship. I enjoyed your perspective on the ‘propaganda’ issue, and can relate, as we are looking at several upper tier LACs which are known as very left-leaning. Diversity of thought is important to our family, so it’s definitely a concern. Again, I applaud all the UA backers on CC. Part of me is jealous that so many of your high-achieving kids fell in love with such an affordable college option. And so many of them seem to love it there. Alas, that did not happen in our case, so our price tag will more than likely be much higher. That’s our choice and we will be able to afford it without carrying unreasonable debt, so finding the best fit is our goal. My 12-year-old (public university might fit him MUCH better) and I watched the replay of the Tide/Hokie game last night. I don’t normally root for them (I’m an underdog type of guy), but I love good football, and they are GOOD. I will be rooting for you folks this weekend, however, as I’m not a big fan of Johnny Football.</p>