Reply to Why Bama ? It is ranked 170 and keeps dropping

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hadn't looked at US News in years. Seems like Bama is ranked around the same as JMU, which makes sense. I would probably have seen similar rankings 30 years ago. I don't think the low ranking is as indicative of anything you might be thinking, OP. The difference in schools in these rankings are so marginal and meaningless and the magazine is infamous for rigging the rankings to make it look like schools are moving up and down in order to sell more editions.

Bama does have a certain culture attractive to certain students. Does it bother me? No. [/quote]

Me neither, to each his own, but I would hope this would shut up the ridiculous troll who keeps insisting that high stats kids are ditching the Ivy + and applying to 'Bama [/quote]

I am an actual parent of a Bama NMF and I can tell you that my child and most, if not all of their friends were accepted into T10s-T25s at the lowest (for those who are ranking obsessed). Bama offers an excellent education and tons of opportunity - very small class sizes, research for undergrads, job placement. They routinely beat T25s in robotics competitions, model UN, etc... out of all the schools we visited ... Bama was the ONLY school that seemed to be hyper focused on the student experience/opportunities and job placement (vs. fancy buildings, chairs in this and that, etc. -- ie. they are not chasing prestige, or rankings).

Best example I can share is that one program head told us that they had been given a several hundred thousand dollar grant from the university to do with as they pleased...and do you know what they did with the money? Divided by the number of students in the program and gave everyone a scholarship towards the cost of the program.

Granted, it's not for everyone. For the student who plans to coast on the "name brand" of their college and not take advantage of or seek out opportunities, Alabama might not be the right fit. But for bright go-getters it's a no brainer. Bonus - the campus is beautiful and the people are friendly.
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So where do all these kids eventually land?  If you go to NYC for any number of finance jobs or SV, you still aren’t running into many Alabama grads…and in NYC they are likely back office type workers.  It’s not a target school for many of these employers.

I just can’t see the logic to passing up say Brown if you intend to work for the top coastal employers.

It doesn’t actually seem like a “no brainer” to me…but makes sense for certain paths.[/quote]

The NMF kids who take the full ride and the other kids there on big scholarships are super smart kids who take advantage of being big fish.

This Bama senior is a Rhodes Scholar
https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/scholar-community/rhodes-scholar-bios/rhodes-scholars-class-of-2025/kate-herndon/

One of Alabama’s top programs is the Randall Research Scholars Program and they produce competitive graduates who go on to elite schools.

https://rrsp.ua.edu/about-rrs/external-awards

Yes, these kids are the minority at Alabama but they maximize the opportunities and value of a free education at an R1 university 
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So…grad school is the answer?  BTW I think the Ivy+ produced 80% of the Rhodes Scholars just eyeballing the full list.

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Most of these kids (NMF & high stats) already have grad school in mind. So they take the free ride for undergrad and move on. Again these are not the majority of the undergrads paying $$$ to go to Bama.

Bama isn’t Harvard or T50 and doesn’t pretend to be. But it does offer an enticing package for a certain type of student with financial needs.

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I’m the poster with the kid at Bama on full ride. Kid knows they want law school. Strategy is free undergrad and full pay at top law school — and graduate with no loans. The alternative was paying north of 700k for the top undergrad kid was admitted to plus top law school. That’s outrageous. Frankly, the opportunities at Bama have been amazing and it was exactly the right decision. [/quote]

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