re: Why does University of Alabama have so many out of state students?

The circumstances in the states of Georgia and Texas help explain the recent surge in out of state students attending Ole Miss, UA and Ala. The Hope program, combined with Georgia/Atlanta's vast increase in population, have raised the standards for UGA. This denies many, many qualified students from attending a major state university. The other in state option GaTech is off limits to most students so they look to other attractive state universities.

Texas instituted the Automatic Top 10 per cent acceptance rule for Texas and A&M, meaning a lot of Dallas and Houston kids, as well as private school kids are frozen out of those schools. Thus, Ole Miss is now teaming with well qualified Texas and Georgia kids. The schools love it since it brings in revenue and raises their academic standards.