@musicgirl131 We went and saw the Bryant Museum. Is your Dad a college football fan? If so, tell him the Keith Jackson does the narration of the movie (he will know what I mean).
We ate at DePalma’s (Italian) during Bama Bound. If you like Italian, it is awesome! Highly recommend going there and I have eaten at some good Italian places here in Chicago.
Mellow Mushroom is also a good eatery. Same area as DePalma, downtown Tuscaloosa.
What are you doing on your visit on campus Monday?
@Musicgirl131 Have a great visit! I’d also like to hear about your trip. When we went in March, we had a nice meal at the Avenue Pub. They had live music around lunch/brunch time on Sunday. We also played disc golf at Bowers Park. Granted, I had a 13 year old boy to entertain as well, but we all enjoyed the walk through the woods after traveling. We just stopped by Academy and picked up a disc and headed to the park! Enjoy your trip!
@CyclonesGrad none of my family really knows college football. I’ll have to check that Italian place out! I have a visit with the honors college, like the info session, lunch with the student, and a visit with Culverhouse.
@Momof2TX that sounds awesome! Thank you!
The car thing is very much a personal decision. Nobody can make it for you. Weigh the options, and the costs, and then decide. Administration definitely discourages freshmen bringing cars to campus, and they fine punitively to discourage rule-breakers and those who don’t really need to have one there.
That being said, if you’re planning on doing a co-op, you will likely need a car.
Rising hs senior applying as engr major. His brother just completed freshman year at UA and did not have a car. If you have a car and want to bring it not a problem. If you don’t have a car you will be fine without one. Living in a dorm my son didn’t need a car but did go with friends in their cars to restaurants and stores on weekends. If you don’t have a car consider registering with Zip Car before freshman year as it takes a week for the member card to arrive by mail! A lot of students bring a bike or skateboard. Son took Atlanta airport shuttle (also one to Birmingham) and flew home for breaks so he never needed to drive home.
Question regarding to go Greek or not there are many social clubs, academic groups and intramural sports to join instead where students find a group of friends with mutual interests. Check out Greek life in person and search online here but you won’t be left out if you don’t join.
@LucieTheLakie @Claire3 thanks for your input! I’m on campus right now, and I decided that if I were to attend, a bike would be the best for me. I also checked out the Greek houses, and holy cow! They’re huge! My parents strongly suggest that I rush, but make the decision after recruitment.
Late to this thread but my D is applying this fall and UA is her #1 choice. She toured it in April and she felt it was a great fit. We are from PA - suburban Philadelphia and I am having trouble wrapping my head around her going so far away. She is eager for the application to open and really doesn’t want to apply anywhere else. No one from her school has ever attended Alabama. She is actually really scared that they will do away with the scholarships this year. She currently has the stats for the scholarship but took the ACT this weekend to try for a higher score as insurance if they increase the cutoff.
@novicemom23kids my daughter feels the same way! We do have a couple of kids fro our school at Alabama.
@musicgirl131 what do you think? Did you love it? What are your impressions of the students that are on campus?
@novicemom23kids, I too am from suburban Philadelphia (as is @Longhaul), so if I can answer any specific questions, please feel free to PM me.
Depending upon how close you are to PHL (we’re just 20 minutes away), I’ve actually found the logistics of getting back and forth to UA a lot less stressful than many of the schools my son looked at much closer to home. I hate long-distance driving, so four hours to Penn State (or six to Pitt) holds little appeal to me. One thing to consider is your finances and your flexibility and/or need to have your student home on short notice. We’re on a fairly tight budget, but for our family the cost of flying from PHL to BHM on US Airways (now American) was a much better value than driving, since my son could take the school-provided shuttle back and forth to the airport and only comes home on the larger breaks. Thanksgiving was pricey, but he only did that freshman year. Regardless, we felt the extra $2500 from Engineering more than covered any travel expenses. (Our total cost at UA is literally half what what we would have been paying in-state at Penn State and many of the need-based FA privates my son was considering. It’s actually a third of the cost of a few of them.)
We did end up having to get him a car on very short notice when he accepted a summer co-op offer at the 11th hour at the end of freshman year. Given our time constraints and desire to place him in a safe, reliable car, we opted to have him fly home so we could buy him a car from our local Subaru dealer here. (We could afford that unexpected, large purchase because we’d budgeted all along for Penn State, and the cost of a nearly new car was the equivalent of one year’s tuition there.) He and my husband drove the car back to Alabama a week later and made an adventure of it. My son still flew home at the end of the summer and at Xmas, although he did drive the car home for the summer this year and will be driving back down in mid-August to complete his co-op. We’ve asked him to fly home for Xmas this year so we don’t have to worry about him and since the break is much shorter than summer.
Many students are traveling back north on breaks, so it’s entirely possible your student can hitch a ride too. There is a great Facebook group for ridesharing. Whatever you decide, in many ways, I find air travel a lot less stressful than long-distance driving, The other benefit is that it discourages over-packing for freshman year! 
Further to this ^, Southwest is currently scheduling flights through Wed Jan 4 2017, which allows families to at least look into flights home for both Thanksgiving and/or for Winter break, if that airline suits them. SWA will open up flights beyond Jan 4th in a few months. Always clear your internet cookies/cache each time you re-search for flights to ensure the best deals.
So many of you on this thread have done the tour or are planning to. Unfortunately, we will not be able to unless son is admitted - then we will find a way.
It would be really helpful and fantastic if you folks could take a minute and write about your visit in the “Recent Visits Report” section of the Alabama forum. There are a few write-ups there now, but more would be better. I’d love a chance to read about your visit and I’m sure many others would as well.
Thanks!
@STEM2017 , can you post the actual URL for that series of visit posts here in this thread? That way people can look it up directly. Thanks! 
Excellent advice @aeromom. Wish I thought of that in my original post.
Here is the link to UA’s “Recent Visits Reports” section…
http://www.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/the-university-of-alabama#visitreports
There’s one report from 2015, one from 2014, and a few from 2013. In this thread alone there are 3 or 4 people who have toured this year.
@novicemom23kids, FYI: I just got a text from a neighbor who works at an elite Catholic prep school here in the Delaware Valley letting me know that 7 kids from this year’s graduating class are headed to Bama this fall. That’s out of around 240 students, I believe.
@STEM2017 …we visited a month ago. UA wasn’t even on our radar and we were not planning on the visit. We are 15 hours away, so cost was a big factor. We bit the bullet and are so glad that we did. This was our 10th school tour. The trip was worth every penny. My daughter said she felt at home as soon as we got to campus. Every person was so nice that we met. If there is any way to visit I highly recommend it.
@Musicgirl131 How was your tour?! I’m specifically interested in your impressions of Honors College, since that was part of what we missed. Also, was there any mention of the OOS scholarships changing for Fall '17? There was talk of that on another thread, and it has me concerned, although our local rep was pretty sure all would stay the same. I hope your day was full of great info to help you make your choice!
@Momof2TX @STEM2017 @jeepgirl I loved it! Campus was beautiful, honors was great, it was all amazing! I’ll write a visit report when I get home tomorrow.
@novicemom23kids they discussed scholarships today. They’re having a meeting in late June or early July to discuss it.
@LucieTheLakie - Thanks for the offer to talk – as we get closer I will be taking you up on it! Very interesting about so many kids from one prep school headed down - our GC confirmed that there is at least one upperclassman from our town that she knows about attending Bama, but no one from D’s high school - so I am assuming a private school. There are so many around here. Judging by the reaction of other parents I don’t think many people know kids headed down there – I have received many “Why Alabama?” inquiries and thanks to CC I have had a wealth of information and statistics.
I have been trying not to think about the scholarship much since it is out of our control if they raise the minimums or not. D was on board with taking the ACT to try for a score above the 32 to act as an insurance policy in case they raise the cutoff - she just made it with the old SAT and is not willing to take the new SAT.
@STEM2017 I will try to write up our UA visit in the next few days and post in the visit thread. I can say that we were beyond impressed from start to finish - with administration, tour guides, general students, professors, etc… D was worried that it would be “too big” and H and I were REALLY worried it would be “too big”. We were all pleasantly surprised that it did not look or feel overwhelmingly large and with the Honors College we felt that it would be a smaller school in a large school.
The kids who we encountered were so helpful and friendly. We also saw all kinds of students - and they all seemed to be walking/socializing/involved with other students and very active, engaged, and happy. It seems silly but there were several other campuses that we visited (both in the South and here in the Northeast) where we saw the same “type” of kids everywhere we looked, or we saw overly stressed kids, or many solitary students working and walking head down and alone. At Bama the community feeling was overwhelming - we all commented on the inclusive “vibe” that we felt and that there was a place for everyone. There was no one “look” or “type” and we felt our D would have no problem finding her tribe. This was not just during “social” times (the lawn or cafeterias) we also saw in as students were entering the large lecture that we were in and as they were in study groups and lounges - working/studying but collaboratively and so friendly.
@STEM2017 - DS and I visited last week. He thought the campus was nice and could see himself going there. One thing that I was surprised about though was what he thought about the honors dorms. I really liked that fact they each had their own room and that the room seemed to be a good size. However when I asked him what he thought the first word he said was “depressing”. When I questioned him further he said that he thought it could isolating and people could end up staying in their rooms instead of meeting people. So based on,that at least for my son he may be better off in one of the regular dorms.
^^ Well, that would save you a lot of money right there, @MichiganGeorgia.