Auburn - what’s it like for OOS

[Anonymous]

Is it hard socially if OOS ?
Are the kids pretty academic?

[Anonymous]

My bosses daughter went there. She was from out of state. Expect a lot of out of state students from Florida and Georgia.

She liked her time there. I don't think she thought there was any difference being out of state vs. in state.

The biggest surprise was that women and men dress to attend the football games. The girls will wear skirts to attend football games and fix themselves up. Auburn, like the rest of the SEC colleges has very strong school spirit.

Both womens and mens sports are popular. Women sports gets large attendance numbers.

My bosses daughter attended private high school but I wouldn't call her exceptionally academic in college. She is a teacher now and loves teaching.

[Anonymous]

I'm the 16:08 poster

There are a lot of southern students at Auburn but I find kids from the south are pretty welcoming vs. other parts of the US.

[Anonymous]

I graduated 20 years ago and grew up in McLean -- I loved my time there and am still very close with several college friends. There will be certain situations where they notice they are not from there but that is not all together a bad thing. Learning that the DMV bubble is not normal is a positive for any young adult growing up.

All of my friends were serious about our studies and I am sure that aspect has only improved as admission rates have drastically dropped in recent years.

Has your child visited and spent time on campus? Have they taken the time to walk through town and eat at local restaurants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I graduated 20 years ago and grew up in McLean -- I loved my time there and am still very close with several college friends. There will be certain situations where they notice they are not from there but that is not all together a bad thing. Learning that the DMV bubble is not normal is a positive for any young adult growing up.

All of my friends were serious about our studies. I am sure that aspect has only improved as admission rates have drastically dropped in recent years.

Has your child visited and spent time on campus? Have they taken the time to walk through town and eat at local restaurants?

I also mean to ask what your child is hoping to study?

[Anonymous]

Girls will notice a bigger culture difference. Especially if they want Greek life. Rush for girls is a week of emotional abuse if you’re from the South. If you’re not Southern and have zero expectations or wishes about a house, it’s probably fine and maybe even fun.

But it’s a nice place in general and the kids seem to be happy. You can find like-minded peers by getting involved with academically-oriented activities. The professors are involved and will know your academically ambitious kid by name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Girls will notice a bigger culture difference. Especially if they want Greek life. Rush for girls is a week of emotional abuse if you’re from the South. If you’re not Southern and have zero expectations or wishes about a house, it’s probably fine and maybe even fun.

But it’s a nice place in general and the kids seem to be happy. You can find like-minded peers by getting involved with academically-oriented activities. The professors are involved and will know your academically ambitious kid by name.

I am the poster that graduated a long time ago and I am sorry you and someone close to you struggled during rush. I know a few kids from this area that have attended recently and they did not find that to be the case. However, you do need to go in knowing that there a few sororities that will be nice to you during the process but will pass since you are OOS. That is not true for every sorority AND most Auburn students are not in a Greek organization (only 37 percent are).

[Anonymous]

*you OR not and* -- I am clearly typing too quickly!

[Anonymous]

DS heading to Auburn and looks like a classmate too! Some boys from his school there now and love it. They say they get called yankee but all in good fun. I see lots of kids from northeast and mid Atlantic on Instagram class site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls will notice a bigger culture difference. Especially if they want Greek life. Rush for girls is a week of emotional abuse if you’re from the South. If you’re not Southern and have zero expectations or wishes about a house, it’s probably fine and maybe even fun.

But it’s a nice place in general and the kids seem to be happy. You can find like-minded peers by getting involved with academically-oriented activities. The professors are involved and will know your academically ambitious kid by name.

I am the poster that graduated a long time ago and I am sorry you and someone close to you struggled during rush. I know a few kids from this area that have attended recently and they did not find that to be the case. However, you do need to go in knowing that there a few sororities that will be nice to you during the process but will pass since you are OOS. That is not true for every sorority AND most Auburn students are not in a Greek organization (only 37 percent are).

It’s just a VERY different experience for girls who were raised in the south because there’s enormous peer and sometimes even family pressure to get a certain handful of houses. Auburn made some recruitment changes in the recent past that made it a much more discouraging and miserable process. So much so that Alabama mothers (who take this very seriously) were telling their girls to go to UAlabama instead of Auburn for this single reason. Seriously.

An OOS girl who doesn’t have this pressure or doesn’t care about which house she gets will be fine.

[Anonymous]

They have a significant number of OOS students now, like Alabama and other SEC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it hard socially if OOS ?
Are the kids pretty academic?

I attended AU for grad school more recently and as an TA/RA, I was able to gain some insights. Overall, kids are academic but not uber-competitive (this creates many opportunities for ambitious students and a main reason why I chose Auburn over Georgia Tech / full funding and less elite competition but still plenty of opportunities).

Auburn is mostly a STEM school and investment is mostly channeled into STEM. Currently, two new academic building are u/c (including a massive STEM research center) and it also just completed a new massive science education building. Non-STEM is probably (somewhat) underfunded.
Overall, it’s an Engineering school (Tim Cook is actively involved as an advisor, and some AU engineers/researchers are heavily involved in high-profile NASA projects). Architecture ranks very high nationally.
The Business school is pretty solid (relatively new buildings and facilities). Veterinary medicine is world class, and the Nursery school is very popular. Physics and Chemistry are also very solid and researchers and PhD students are involved in many government and industry-funded projects. The Computer Science program is decent but mostly lacks Silicon Valley connections (internships). However, the Auburn Cyber Research Center makes it a national leader in cybersecurity.

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[Anonymous]

PP thank you? Impressive.

[Anonymous]

Also adding that doesn’t Auburn have a huge connection to military research?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have a significant number of OOS students now, like Alabama and other SEC schools.

Not quite. Bama is 65% OUT of state. Auburn is 65% IN state