I have two NMF daughters - one at Alabama and one at UTDallas. The cultures are very different, and each of my daughters feel that they are at the school that is right for them. I agree with most of what has been posted about each of those schools in this thread so far. I guess I would add.
In regards to OOS students making friends at Alabama - given that 60% of the students are OOS, this is not an issue. And, it’s not like some schools where all the OOS students are from adjacent states; there really are kids from ALL OVER the country. My daughter also isn’t in Greek life, and she hasn’t felt that it is an issue socially at all. She has some friends that are in Greek life, but the majority of her friends are not. Most of her friends are in one or more of the selective honors cohorts (Randall, Fellows, Blount, McCollough, EPIC).
In some ways the larger student body of Alabama does fit the party school stereotypes. But, as a result of Bama’s aggressive NMF recruiting efforts, there is what I would describe as a subculture of very smart, academically-motivated, highly-driven students who are able to take advantage of the incredible opportunities available to them as a large research university. My daughter and every one of her friends who wanted to were able to start participating in research starting at the beginning of freshman year.
The scholarship stacking at Alabama is also great. My daughter came in with a few smaller outside scholarships that made her first year free for us except for her plane tickets home. During her first year, she applied for departmental scholarships, and she was awarded a generous scholarship from her major department that is renewable and will cover the additional expenses for her remaining years at Alabama. She will graduate college with zero debt and zero cost to us - it’s actually cheaper for us than when she lived at home.
For UTD, there is definitely a campus culture that is nerdy and mostly introverted. Most of the students are comp sci/engineering or premed. While the NMF cohort on campus includes students from all over, a significant portion of the overall student body is from the DFW area. One difference that my daughters noticed in their respective colleges is the focus on politics within the student body. My daughter at UTD says that discussions regarding local, state, national, and international politics are common, as is political activism. My daughter at Alabama says that people just don’t talk about those topics very much, if at all, and the Bama campus isn’t very politically active in general.
The Honors College at UTD has been one of my daughters favorite things there. She loves doing the “Honors Night Out” events where students can go to dinner and symphony or opera performance free with faculty. She’s developed some great relationships with faculty members outside of class (and even a few in departments that she never would have met otherwise).
The culture at UTD isn’t a good fit for students wanting the traditional college campus experience as far as big sports and college as it is depicted in popular media. But, for students who aren’t looking for that and appreciate the good academics and quieter social opportunities, it’s a great fit. Like Alabama, they allow scholarship stacking, and there are plenty of options for research and student organizations in which to engage. They are also very flexible about major changes and taking classes outside the major.
Both my daughters have found that the faculty have been very friendly, accessible, and receptive to meeting with them to discuss research or career options within their fields, even professors whose classes they aren’t taking.
If anyone has questions about our experience with either school, I’m happy to answer in this thread or a PM.