<p>Thanks to Kayla Fields with the Honor"s College me, my DH, and my DS had a wonderful visit. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express off 15th Avenue and McFarland. It was a nice place, helpful staff, and a great breakfast. We started our tour at 8:00 by meeting Kayla at Mott Hall. She had a full day planned. We met with the ME and AE Dept, who handed us to Mason and Mark who showed us around the engineering halls. My DS loved every minute of it. The campus was beautiful and the dorms are even better in person. In the beginning the only downfall was the 9-10 hour drive, by the end that didn’t even matter.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. ROLL TIDE!</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your experience! Roll Tide!</p>
<p>I’m glad you had a great visit. The actual experience lives up to the visit and more.</p>
<p>Most people say that, “The visit seals the deal.” Seems like that was the case for your family, glad to hear that!</p>
<p>^DS says he is done, no need to look any further. However we had already booked hotel for two other visits. We had one of the visits today. He kept an open mind but by the end he said he felt like he fit at UA and felt wanted there. ROLL TIDE!</p>
<p>^^^that’s great!</p>
<p>I know Kayla; she’s a love! So glad you had a great time. Since you are a band mom, will he be joining the MDB?</p>
<p>@Southlander that is the only group we didn’t get to meet with while we were down there. He would love to join the MDB but is unsure if he could balance it and engineering. We were hoping to get some answers to questions about the band while we were down. Kayla did get an email for us to contact the director. S wants to go back though and talk directly to someone in the MDB.</p>
<p>From the Faculty Staff Newsletter, “Dialog” – “Ten Things to Know About the Million Dollar Band”</p>
<p>“More than 80 percent of the band’s students are not music majors. The band represents just about every major on campus, with the largest block being engineering.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://dialog.ua.edu/2013/09/10-things-to-know-about-the-million-dollar-band/”>http://dialog.ua.edu/2013/09/10-things-to-know-about-the-million-dollar-band/</a></p>
<p>Wow. Thanks for the link. Interesting how a large block are engineering majors.</p>
<p>Maybe he could manage the MDB for freshman year at least. Freshmen do not get quite the same privileges as upperclassmen - no guarantee for a bowl trip or out of town trips, among other things. Yes, a chat with a current band member would be very helpful. If you’re on the Facebook page, I think there are at least a couple of band parents on that.</p>
<p>Well 20 per cent of this Fall’s freshman class are Engineering majors, so, its not a surprise. That is such a change from the past. Kinda hard to believe. </p>
<p>@Southlander can you PM the Facebook link. His current band director would love for him to continue with a marching band at least his Freshman year. We have talked about going again in the spring vs next fall. I do love T-town and would love to go in the spring. </p>
<p>This is my son’s fourth year with the band. He is also an engineering student. It requires a lot of work and time management but in his opinion quite doable. He loves it and would not consider it any other way. If you look on the band website it has a lot of info. While the entire band does not travel to all the away games (they usually take a 50 member pep band), the entire band has traveled to all bowl games and of course the championship games. The entire band usually travels to two away games,this year it is Tenn. and LSU. Last year it was Auburn and Texas A & M. There are also commitments for concerts, homecoming etc. So it is not just weekly practice and a Saturday game.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, my son would not have traded all his experiences the last four years for anything. When my son was thinking about coming to Bama, he contacted Dr. Ozello and talked with him at great length about the band. He handled it no differently then his conversation with the head of the aerospace group. Band was really important to him and he wanted to get as much correct information as possible. Good luck.</p>
<p>Did you go on a special honors college “tour” or was that part of the regular campus tour?</p>
<p>PM’ing you.</p>
<p>No, it was not part of an ‘honors’ tour. My son just did the regular tour. But before we came to visit Bama, he contacted our area recruiter who arranged for him to spend some time with someone in the engineering dept. and he spent some time with Dr. Ozzello. This was in the spring of his junior year of high school. Now that I realize how busy the band is, it was probably a down time for the dept. Dr. O is also heavily involved in other aspects of the music school. As with everyone you meet at Alabama, Dr. Ozzello was gracious and helpful. </p>
<p>My son is also involved in pep band. Not nearly the time commitment as matching band, but also very rewarding.</p>
<p>@Southlander I did not get the PM.
Thanks all for information and your experiences on the band. </p>