Why the University of Alabama?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>Bouncing off the comments from the banking questions thread: </p>

<p>Handling the…Why Alabama??? </p>

<p>When we got the questions and side glances, beyond the usual responses (scholarship and academic opportunies, beautiful campus, fantastic school spirit, etc.) we liked to overwhelm our questioners w/a few choice facts and stats. D was like many of your students considering or planning to attend UA, a student with 4.0 GPA, top 1% nation ACT, etc., who had several scholarship opportunities at other well thought of universities. We/she expected the why Alabama from fellow students; in the end many of her peers told her they were envious that she was confident enough to go far from home, have a unique experience, and come out of undergrad debt free. What annoyed us most was the hoity uninformed parents… However some choice bullet points (see below) and hearing of her full ride (academic/athletic) Honors College, IHP and UFE opportunities they typically walked away w/their mouths hanging wondering why they hadn’t done a little more research and been more open minded themselves. </p>

<p>A nice reference to pull from: [Quick</a> Facts: Did You Know? - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>http://quickfacts.ua.edu/know.html)
Our top choice bullets:
The University of Alabama ranked 6th in the nation among public universities in the enrollment of National Merit Scholars in the 2010 freshman class.</p>

<p>The University of Alabama led the nation with a record 10 students named to USA Today’s 2010 All-USA College Academic Team. (This list is inclusive of the Ivy’s, we liked to mention AL outranked a couple key names for effect…Harvard, Princeton etc…) </p>

<p>The University of Alabama’s graduates and students include 15 Rhodes Scholars, 34 Goldwater Scholars, 12 Truman Scholars, 21 Hollings Scholars, two Javits Fellows, one Udall Scholar and one Portz Scholar.</p>

<p>The Honors College enrolls 1300 freshman/year. (Larger than many incoming classes at colleges our questioners were considering.).</p>

<p>A personal favorite : In 2010 Alabama led the nation (tying with Brown University) in Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar Athlete Awards. </p>

<p>The UA School of Law is ranked 35th in the nation in U.S. News and World Report’s 2012 edition of the annual “Best Graduate Schools” publication. The Manderson Graduate School of Business ranks 32nd among public universities and 63rd among all universities, in the same publication.</p>

<p>University of Alabama students are committed to community service: In the 2009-2010 academic year, some 15,100 UA students completed more than 710,000 hours of community service with more than 120 community partners. Additional, 120 UA faculty members offered service-learning courses, and an estimated 5,300 students participated in them. The University of Alabama has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.</p>

<p>Think UA is only about sports/athletes and/or that those athletes aren’t focused on academics…think again!
[ALABAMA</a> CRIMSON TIDE - University of Alabama Official Athletic Site - Search](<a href=“http://www.rolltide.com/search/alab-search.html?cx=013013334115952783228%3Abdkynwfi0ei&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&client=cbs-collegesports&channel=rolltide-search&q=academic&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Submit&siteurl=www.rolltide.com%2Fsports%2Fm-xc%2Fspec-rel%2F062111aaa.html]ALABAMA”>http://www.rolltide.com/search/alab-search.html?cx=013013334115952783228%3Abdkynwfi0ei&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&client=cbs-collegesports&channel=rolltide-search&q=academic&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Submit&siteurl=www.rolltide.com%2Fsports%2Fm-xc%2Fspec-rel%2F062111aaa.html)</p>

2

<p>Can I “borrow/steal this post” to put on another social media website to sshhh the naysayers from my daughter’s hoity toity private high school?</p>

<p>p.s.I think I’ll forward to the the College Guidance Counselors at the above mentioned school ;)</p>

3

<p>Excellent reasons for Tide Pride! I think UA Admissions or the Supe Store should have some yard signs available for graduating seniors declaring their pride for being</p>

<p>BAMA BOUND!</p>

4

<p>Even we do get asked that question “Why Alabama” a lot. Since our daughter has good GPA and good SAT/ACT scores, by asking the above question they are basically implying “Couldn’t you do better?” How do you answer it? We visited a couple of weeks ago and were quite impressed by the facilities. People seem to be generally nice as well.</p>

<p>While I like football a lot I wanted to ensure that our D had sufficient number of friends who are keen about studies and not too crazy about only sports or Greek life. I hope she can find such a group if she does end up matriculating here.</p>

5

<p>^^^Although there are many students who thoroughly enjoy football, there are certainly some students who are not into football at all. Then there are the students who just go to the major games, and sell their tickets to the other games. However, I will say that the football season can be fun, even for those students who have never been exposed to “football culture”. The tailgating on the quad is energetic, and the various events like homecoming, pep rally, and the elephant stomp can really build up your enthusiasm for the sport. We hear a lot of stories of students who didn’t like football becoming avid Crimson Tide fans.</p>

6

<p>Actually our daughter likes football too. She can throw a good spiral a good distance. Since she would be doing a premed/prePharm degree at Alabama we want her to focus on studies like a laser to keep her grades up.</p>

7

<p>Bama has over 25,000 undergrads. At any given football game, only a small fraction have tickets. It may seem like “everyone” goes to the games, but in truth, most kids do not.</p>

<p>Actually our daughter likes football too. She can throw a good spiral a good distance. Since she would be doing a premed/prePharm degree at Alabama we want her to focus on studies like a laser to keep her grades up.</p>

<p>I understand the concern, but all work and no play is not the answer and should not be expected. My son is pre-med (a senior) and has TOP grades in Chemical Engineering. He still has attended nearly every home football game.</p>

8

<p>DD is a Nutrition/RD major with early entrance into Grad School (Spring 2013) with BS and RD in Nutrition in May 2014 and Masters as a Pediatric Clinician Dec 2014. She is EVP of her sorority and involved in a variety of clubs and groups on campus as well as keeping. a 3.9. Just my opinion but part of the college experience and growing as an individual is juggling and learning from a variety of college experiences as well as academics.</p>

9

<p>The way we’re looking at it, my S can get into “better” schools, but they aren’t $10K to $35K/yr better and he likely won’t have the same opportunities. We also view going to a UA as an “adventure” and an opportunity to a have a different experience versus going to a regional state university.</p>

10

<p>In this fall’s freshman class, there were about 240 National Merit Scholars, up greatly from 2010, so UA is likely ranked even higher than 6th now.</p>