Auburn vs Alabama

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Auburn is a preppy classy vibe with most girls dressed up for game days. Alabama is get drunk, party and skip class vibe where the girls will more likely be in jerseys boots and look like they are headed to a zach ryan concert.

Have you been to an Alabama game? What are you basing this on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

I wonder if it's not because Alabama has Alabama in the title. Auburn is in Alabama, but it doesn't have Alabama in the title, isn't too far from Georgia (which has more of a "New South" reputation than Alabama), and has a stronger reputation for engineering.

For some reason, one of our kids was interested in Auburn but not Alabama. We visited one spring and people were very friendly. The campus is walkable and the town is small but cute. I joked a bit because the football stadium was so centrally located, and I think my kid took it as my disapproval of Auburn (ended up going elsewhere). But it seemed like it might have been a nice place to spend four years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Now that Alabama is essentially free for good out of state stunts, I think that will shift. Coming from Virginia, it's hard to Auburn when Alabama comes with 28k of merit guaranteed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

Because it's the engineering school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

Because it's the engineering school.

So VT has a better reputation than UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

Auburn is ranked much higher than Alabama in the USNWR and WSJ rankings. In fact, Alabama is ranked behind Auburn and UAB in AL.

Auburn’s acceptance rate is 39% while Alabama’s acceptance rate is 80%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

Auburn is ranked much higher than Alabama in the USNWR and WSJ rankings. In fact, Alabama is ranked behind Auburn and UAB in AL.

Auburn’s acceptance rate is 39% while Alabama’s acceptance rate is 80%.

What specific metric in the ranking formula matters?

[Anonymous]

Auburn stats higher. And it is “test preferred” which means you better submit. I think only 10 percent or so accepted this year didn’t submit. (Please compare this stat to your fancy schools)

[Anonymous]

I think DCUM posters will feel totally at home at Alabama, which has seen fit to include Black players on their football team every year all the way back to 1971. Or as Shane Gillis has pointed out, only two years AFTER the U.S. had landed on the moon.

[Anonymous]

DS is going to Auburn. Visited both in the same week. Very different vibes- Alabama is a huge, pristine campus, greek architecture , lots of green space. Students look 'happy" and are friendly. He had a great visit there. But hated Tuscaloosa- like really hated it. He really thought about spending four years there and just couldn't imagine.

Auburn campus is really pretty and really compact. Very different style than Bama. Students go out of their way to be friendly and are really happy to engage. We noticed that on Auburn's campus, many students wear Auburn gear- not nearly as many at Bama. The surrounding town is really cute- small southern charm. Target right on campus. Really nice off campus housing- a lot of the off campus housing we saw in Tuscaloosa is dumpy.

Auburn is about 65% IN State, Bama is 65% OUT of state.

He is really excited to be heading to Auburn! Turned down Bama, UTK, South Carolina, UKY, CU Boulder, NC State, UMD, and Ole Miss- Auburn's campus and charm beat all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Auburn is a preppy classy vibe with most girls dressed up for game days. Alabama is get drunk, party and skip class vibe where the girls will more likely be in jerseys boots and look like they are headed to a zach ryan concert.

Funny, I grew up in Alabama, and my experience was just the opposite. (I went out of state) The relaxed, less stuffy people I knew went to Auburn, and the cotillion types tended toward Bama. But both places certainly had plenty of both.

Today, all things being equal—unless your kid is looking at a major that’s much stronger at Alabama—I’d go with Auburn. It’s much different from the days when there was nothing to do but football and cow-tipping. And the academic reputation is strong, especially in STEM fields.

[Anonymous]

I have written this on other threads, but Auburn reminded me a lot of a smaller UVA and Charlottesville. It was charming and the students were happy. Lots of attractive and friendly students. We weren’t expecting to love it so much, but we did. We didn’t visit Alabama, so can’t really compare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is going to Auburn. Visited both in the same week. Very different vibes- Alabama is a huge, pristine campus, greek architecture , lots of green space. Students look 'happy" and are friendly. He had a great visit there. But hated Tuscaloosa- like really hated it. He really thought about spending four years there and just couldn't imagine.

Auburn campus is really pretty and really compact. Very different style than Bama. Students go out of their way to be friendly and are really happy to engage. We noticed that on Auburn's campus, many students wear Auburn gear- not nearly as many at Bama. The surrounding town is really cute- small southern charm. Target right on campus. Really nice off campus housing- a lot of the off campus housing we saw in Tuscaloosa is dumpy.

Auburn is about 65% IN State, Bama is 65% OUT of state.

He is really excited to be heading to Auburn! Turned down Bama, UTK, South Carolina, UKY, CU Boulder, NC State, UMD, and Ole Miss- Auburn's campus and charm beat all of them.

Why did he hate Tuscaloosa? Did you visit any of the others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, base you kid's college decision on a couple of wackos you don't like. We can find similar wackos at all schools. E.g. Trump and Penn/Wharton.

But ok....

I visited both last year. Alabama has a lot to offer. Beautiful campus with new buildings and old traditional buildings. A good student would do well. I was impressed, and I previously was a northern school SLAC snob.

Alabama much more sprawling. Only campus where our tour was by bus.

Alabama gives very generous merit aid, if you need that.

Auburn much more compact and walkable. Felt more like a community. But less diverse.

Auburn has a better reputation.

DS chose Auburn.

You can visit both in same day. So go visit.

Why does Auburn have a better reputation?

I wonder if it's not because Alabama has Alabama in the title. Auburn is in Alabama, but it doesn't have Alabama in the title, isn't too far from Georgia (which has more of a "New South" reputation than Alabama), and has a stronger reputation for engineering.

This is interesting. Many big state schools (U of X, X State) are naturally being associated with their respective states. Therefore, there are certain things that these universities can’t control.
However, this is different for schools like Auburn, Clemson, Purdue, etc. These schools have more control over their respective brands. Sometimes people even assume that these universities are private schools.