College review for UAB, Samford & Birmingham Southern

[Michelle in AL]

I don't see too many southern colleges here so I thought I'd post my thoughts on the 3 campuses we toured this week:

 

First up is the University of Alabama at Birmingham, better known as UAB. This school is best know for medicine and research and seems to attract a fair amt of engineering students. I went into this tour not expecting much, as it is known to be somewhat of a commuter college. They have been trying to change this reputation for yrs and I think they've succeeded. It's located in the center of Birmingham which has a good variety of concert venues, restaurants, cafes and clubs. There is also crime and traffic.

 

What we liked most about this school was their honors program. They had 5 different honors programs! One was the Global Scholars program which had students address an issue their passionate about such as childhood poverty. They would investigatge childhood poverty in Brimingham through internships, interviews, visiting various foundations etc and then carry it out on a global scale by focusing on that issue in another country.

 

They had an experiential learning honors program, which allowed students to design their own classes with the aid of an instructor. These could be internships, traditional style classes, research etc.

 

There was a science research honors program where student conducted their own research or worked with another faculty on their research.

 

There was a traditional honors program with honors seminars and courses.

 

Last, there was a medical honors program which allowed early admittance to UAB medical school. An ACT of 33 was required (I believe). Candidates were selected by essay and interview.

 

Classrooms were comfortable, clean and high tech.

 

The campus consisted of a 4 x 4 block with a green quad in the center. It was well laid out in that you could park you car and never have to use it unless you wanted to leave campus. There were at least 3 different food areas located in close proximity to the dorms which were the nicest of all of our visits. Freshman dorms consisted of suites. Each suite held 4 girls, 2 in each room with it's own bathroom and large closet connected by a kitchen with an almost normal size refrigerator/freezer, counter and cabinets. Dorms also had comfortable living areas on each floor as well as study areas. All dorms were coed.

 

Freshman are divided into Freshman learning communities which tie 25 freshman of similar majors into 3 foundational courses. So, a business major for example may take Business 101, math and english with the same 25 students, fostering relationships and belonging. Faculty work together to try to integrate topics of study amongst the 3 classes when possible.

 

To further help students, there is free tutoring given by student volunteers. Students who attend SI have an average of a letter grade better than non SI students. Help with writing is also available. Their desire for students to succeed was obvious.

 

The students and faculty looked happy and well adjusted.

 

Samford University was our next stop. This gated, private campus was located in a very nice area of Birmingham, close to popular restaurants and shopping. The campus was beautiful and felt very safe. There is a very "private school" feel here. The atmosphere was calm. Their are reputed to have excellent academics, and the classrooms are clean, beautiful, comfortable and modern. They are known for their pharmacy and law school.

 

Samford is known for serious, disciplined students. We saw no evidence to think otherwise. It is a dry campus with firm dorm visitation rules. We had no reason to feel that these weren't adhered to.

 

The campus was a little too quiet for my dd. She decided she preferred something a little more diverse and larger, but still less than 10,000 students.

 

The next day we toured Birmingham Southern. This campus was beautiful too, but somehow less formal than Samford. As you enter you see a row of beautiful Greek houses. 50% of the students are Greek, but our tour guide, who was not Greek, assured us you could easily feel part of B'ham Southern without pledging. The classrooms were once again comfortable, modern and clean. The instructors seemed very involved with their students. Classes encourage open discussion and all science rooms have windows to the outside so others can see "science in action."

 

There was a diverse group of students here: a few hippie types, a good amount of greek students, a fair amount of preppy kids and many t-shirts and shorts types. Racial diversity was greater here than we expected. Students seemed to be enjoying themselves. The campus was quiet and well laid out. Dorm rooms were men or women only for freshman and left a little to be desired.

 

Activism seemed alive and well on campus. Students could work on a Habitat build this weekend or volunteer to help clean up Turkey Creek. The week we visited there was a guest speaker on liberty during the age of terrorism as well as a talk about poverty.

 

Courses were diverse and interesting. A unique option that B'ham Southern offers is Interim courses each January. These courses were required and were tailored to the student's interests. Students could choose to study abroad, research a topic of their choice, attend a course on campus on topics of interest, complete an internship or conduct research. Our tour guide had been to Englan on his last interim. The most infamous interim project was a group of boys who toured the South to study BBQ. These boys reviewed BBQ joints throughout the South, journaling their experiences and reviews.

 

After our tour was complete we met with an admissions counselor. I asked her what they wanted to see in their top scholarship candidates besides high ACT/SAT scores. Her response was, "Besides high scores, we want to see students that care, students that are aware of issues in our world today and are able to form opinions about these issues. It doesn't matter if the student is correct or not, just that they are able to show that they can think. We don't want to see a jumble of volunteer hours of various places. We want to see students who are passionate in one area." This was a refreshing answer as opposed to the usual we want to see lots of extra-curriculars, volunteer hours and high AP scores. I love a school that puts thinking 1st.

 

So that is my review. I was very surprised to like the unexpected. UAB is ranked as a 3rd tier school (how I don't know since it has a great medical school and research facilities) :001_huh: but it seemed a good fit for my dd who could easily get into a 1st tier school. Not Ivy league, but she's a competitive student.

[Jane in NC]

Nice reviews, Michelle. Thank you for taking the time to write these up.

 

I must confess that I find the idea of a gated campus to be a bit unnerving. This strikes me as highly unusual but perhaps I am just unaware??

 

Jane

[Michelle in AL]

Hi Jane, I think it's a southern thing, as in a symbol of status.

[K-FL]

Hi Jane, I think it's a southern thing, as in a symbol of status.

 

I agree. Like the "gated community" idea.