<p>what is the university of alabama like? like, does anyone know the racial diversity(black/white). is it a good school? what are the people like?</p>
<p>I went down and visited it a few weeks ago and was thouroughly impressed by their honors programs and their commitment to improving the campus for the future. Every single person I talked to was nice and helpful beyond that call of duty and the admissions office really had its act together. Racially, it seemed heavily white...more so than most schools I've seen, and in the cafeteria people seemed divided by ethnicity. Overall it had some excellent academic oppertunities that you can take advantage of as well as extreme school spirit. But if you're applying this year, the scholarship deadline is Dec. 1st so speed is necessary.</p>
<p>Just sent out my application today.</p>
<p>It attracts alot of the South's top students. It's not unheard of for kids to turn down Vanderbilt and Duke to attend Alabama's well-regarded honors college.</p>
<p>Yay Alabama!</p>
<p>Hehe, sorry. I'm from NYC, but my grandpa is from Alabama and I can remember football games... pretty intense!</p>
<p>Roll Tide Roll</p>
<p>Actally UA is upper teens black (16-17%), which for a flagship state uni in the South is pretty high (many AfAM kids down here go to the HBUCs, or local regional unis), not sure about other minorities, althoug the Hispanic population down here is growing rapidly. I do think there is a lot of de facto segregation though - blacks stay with blacks (and the numbers are large enough for individuals to not feel isolated) and whites stay with whites. This is compunded by the fact that the campus is predominantly commuter, so that the residential groups are frats, frosh and honor college - there aren't a lot of opportunities for mixing to occur, because on campus social life is mainly these cliques, everyone else does most of the socializing at home.</p>
<p>Pockets of academics are actually quite good, especially business, science and engineering (the Mercedes plant you know), music department is not bad.</p>
<p>If I recall correctly from an article two years ago, the Greek system is still segregated.</p>
<p>Frats and country clubs and Mardi gras societies - the last major bastions of segregation in the South - used to be churches,too, but that's changing.</p>
<p>Really? i didn't kno U of A had a reputation that good. they sent me a letter offering a full scholarship plus a laptop...i wonder if i can still get that..hmmm....</p>
<p>It attracts alot of the South's top students. It's not unheard of for kids to turn down Vanderbilt and Duke to attend Alabama's well-regarded honors college.</p>
<p>That's news to me and I lived in Tuscaloosa for 12 years before I decided I wanted to go to college somewhere else (that place being Vanderbilt).</p>
<p>Yeah,
UA is a really good school, but the campus is pretty huge so sometimes it may feel as though you're just a number. Football is king at UA so is the Greek scene, so keep that in mind. Usually though, at such a large school you can find your niche, even if it doesn't have anything to do with football. As everyone else says check out the honor program. They built a new honor college dorm on campus that is supposed to be extremely nice. Good luck!
--Susan</p>