re: Alabama academics

I know I’m not from Alabama but I do k ow that a lot of major universities are pricing themselves out of students. If I can go to a small school and pay less than half the tuition for the same degree why would I not do that. Honestly unless you are getting a medical degree, engineering degree, law degree where the benefits outweigh the cost of tuition why go to a major in state college?

My daughter graduated from HS in Georgia ten years ago. She knew that she wanted to be an RN. Had good grades but not 4.0 or higher.

Got accepted at Alabama, Miami, Arizona State and University of West Georgia (There really is UWG, NOT Auburn). We could pay a lot of the out of state tuition but she would be stuck with at least some student loan debt.

She chose West Georgia in order to avoid any debt (she got the Hope Scholarship which paid most of her costs) and lived at home. She graduated debt free and is a nurse at a hospital in Columbia, SC.

If I had a kid that was in HS now, I would frankly go where you can get by with little or no debt. Or go to junior college for two years and then transfer to a four year school. The student load debt some of these kids are carrying is insane.

Many employers don’t give a crap where you went to school as long as you have the degree. The exception are those made up schools like Walden University.

Now, if you want to get your PhD and teach, then yes, it does matter where you got your degree.

This! Or do it with DE classes. My youngest just graduated high school with a 4.67 GPA and her AA from Gulf Coast State College. She’s walking into Bama as a rising junior and can probably get her degree in 2 years. This is an area where Bama shines IMHO. She has a full ride for tuition for 4 years. Most schools will honor that for the 2 years it takes to get her degree then shut it off. Bama will allow her to put those final two years of full tuition towards grad school. She didn’t want to go to Bama, tried very hard to find an alternative more to her liking. But she’s not stupid and she realizes what a great deal she’s getting in Tuscaloosa that nobody else has come close to. She’s warming up to UA rather quickly now, bought her football ticket package this morning. I think we can make a Bama girl out of her yet. And there sits my oldest daughter who is going to cry as we drag her kicking and screaming out of Tuscaloosa when she gets her JD.

Great to hear Tw1std! Congrats!

quote:

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My daughter was deciding between Alabama and UNA. She decided on UNA

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My daughter is at UNA because they gave her the best scholarship.

I am an Alabama alum. I don't know if I like the trend for 67% of the student body being from out of state. And out of region. Auburn is winning the battle for in state students. The university at 30% OOS would be a more reasonable number. We don't need tons of kids from Chicago and Philadelphia.

Good point. Most of the kids from Chicago, Philly etc come to Bama to party etc. Do any of them contribute to the universities endowment fund. The university is addicted to the OOS money and will neglect in state students to get them. LIke I said, 30 percent OOS would be a more reasonable number.

It's unsustainable long term.

I moved to AL a few years ago once we started having kids but we're still a LONG ways off from them going to college. One question I have after reading this thread is how the hell do all these HS grads have 4.2+ GPAs? Like I assume they have straight As in every class but where does the extra come from?

And are we thinking that ~15 years from now, anyone with less than a 4.0 will basically be relegated to community college or trade school? It just blows my mind that when I was applying for college (20 years ago...yeesh) if you had in the mid-3s GPA that was pretty solid and would get you in the door at damn near anywhere that wasn't an upper upper tier university. Crazy how things change.