@aeromom @MotherOfDragons
In spite of my tone, I’m don’t believe I’ve ever said anything inaccurate on CC as a whole. I again apologize for my tone. What I wanted to say is that engineering recruiting outside of the top 20 is largely regional and that Alabama one of the few guaranteed merit schools that doesn’t seriously limit your options in the future. It is probably not the best choice for an MIT caliber student, but there is something valuable to be said about freedom from debt (given sufficient stats).
As always, I suggest comparing your options. If you are independently wealthy or can get into and afford a engineering school like RPI, MIT, Stanford, Michigan, Purdue, Cornell, Northwestern, UTexas, or Penn State without much debt (I would say < 30,000 for Engineering), then these options are worth considering over Alabama. These schools attract more national recruiters and nationally known researchers and are more rigorous. Academia is fairly prestige conscious, but not even MIT will turn their nose down on someone who excelled at Alabama and took advantage of all the opportunities offered to them. Of course, the expected trajectory at Alabama is lower than MIT and over a 40 year long career, this may matter more than marginal debt you are taking on.
While engineers are paid well and can pay off their loans with relative ease (relative to other majors), lots of kids wash out of engineering and are stuck with a lot of debt. Of course, this is a potential issue at Alabama too, as the Engineering scholarships don’t carry over to other programs.
Alabama is a school that genuinely intrigued me because of various dimensions
(1) high 75th percentile ACT (31), indicating strong students
(2) nationally ranked research university
(3) lots of academic merit scholarships
(4) a unique football culture (this may be a pro or a con depending on your preference)