Alabama enrollment surpasses 42,000 students. Largest ever.

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18,652 in state students

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This is not a good look at all. As the capstone university to the state, it needs to be 50%+ in state. Obviously 2011 changed a lot of Tuscaloosa but it has changed so much since I was there 06-10 that it feels like a shell of its former self.

Don't need to lower the standards, just be more generous with qualifed students and scholarships. They've been going after out of staters because they have higher tuition and greater impact to university income so I get why they do it. In general though, campus and the surrounding areas is busting out of the seams. I really dont know how much longer the university can exponentially grow without a major infastructure haul around Tuscaloosa.

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Why are the in state numbers so low? Is it because in state kids don't want to go there or is the university just accepting less and less in state kids and putting a higher priority on out of state kids?

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It’s not low comparatively speaking. A lot of Alabama residents cannot afford college tuition. So the kids go to community colleges and some transfer to 4 year schools after a year or two. We’ve increased in state kids every year for the past 4 or 5 years.

The Birmingham metro is turning heavily into Barner country. No idea what the reason why but there has certainly been a swing. Of course that in acedotal but I trust my gut without doing the research. Alabama should be making it a point to educate and train people to go work at and lead in the biggest companies in the biggest metro area.

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The Birmingham metro is turning heavily into Barner country. No idea what the reason why but there has certainly been a swing.

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This is unfortunately true and seems to be getting worse. I don’t know what we are doing in Birmingham to be honest. Is it lazy recruiting? I’m surprised by that too since Tuscaloosa is closer. We seem to be doing better in the rural areas but the margin of error is slim because if they get bad grades for even one semester they have to drop out since they can’t afford to pay full tuition. Any way you look at it, I agree that we need to do better especially in the metro areas of the state

That makes sense. We’re zoned for Oak Mountain in 35242 and it definitely feels 50/50ish at best.

I understand the strategy on OOS recruiting...but I also think 50%+1 of the student body should be in-state as the state's flagship university. College applicants in general nationally are going down. Schools might need to start rethinking paying six figures to professors to teach 2 classes...and at least hire professors students can understand in class.

UA's campus absolutely blows away Auburn's. au has Samford Hall that everyone takes pics in front of, but the rest of the campus is nothing special.

Someone mentioned safety of the city...while I think Tuscaloosa is fine, the fact is most publications would rank auburn as the better place to live. The reality is that there's not really a huge difference.

I live in south AL. auburn is "easier" to get to. Mobile to Tuscaloosa is mainly 2 lane, dangerous roads...to auburn it's interstate the whole way. They're 4 laning segments of 45...but it'll be decades before there's a straight 4 lane highway from Mobile to Tuscaloosa.

I wish they'd at least have 4 laned hwy 82 all the way to I-65 in Prattville.

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I think part of the Barn appeal (my in-laws are Barn alums) is they (Barners) try and sell that Auburn is a much safer town/campus. A lot of parents with HS kids buy into that BS.

What the city of Auburn and AU do is down play and try to cover up any crime there. There IS crime there. You just don’t hear much about it.

So, when hear that Barner line about “safety”, take it with a grain of salt.

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This is legit true. We went to an Iron Bowl a few years ago and saw two people get arrested for fighting outside of the stadium and one drunk guy was taken down and cuffed because he shoved a cop. We stayed in Columbus and watched the news the next morning and they boasted "the city of Auburn said there were no arrests" this weekend. I was like wtf.

Auburn's growth spurt has attracted a lot of trash so the town isn't Mayberry anymore where the biggest crime committed is a kid forgetting to turn in a library book. I went with a girl I was dating to some bullshite conference last summer (2025) down there and we decided to hit up Skybar one night and holy frick, we turned right back around and walked out. Ended up just spending the evening in this lame arse over priced bar at the hotel we were staying at.

I don't know how true this is, but all of my Auburn friends keep telling me Opelika is turning into what Auburn once was while Auburn is starting to look more like Opelika.

We're everywhere in Atlanta. It's part of the long term plan to deny UGA their annual home game in the SECCG.