Florida State vs University of Alabama

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Hi CollegeConfidential, I’m a current senior about to wrap up the school year! I’m from the Chicagoland area. Right now, these two colleges are by far my top choices and I need some opinions/insight on both that I might not be aware of. I have been admitted to both schools as a Biology major, and I’m looking to go to postgraduate school, most likely as a physician assistant. I have not visited both campuses yet, because I want to make an unbiased opinion before I visit their campuses as they may cloud on which school I’d believe is better, though from what I’ve seen in pictures both are gorgeous and I probably wouldn’t complain about going to either. I made a list of pros and cons. (Note, the prices right now are after scholarships I was given and my current AP credits. I’m taking a couple of AP tests this year, and if I do well in them both prices listed would be lower. I’m also looking to take a few classes in community college, which will further lower the costs of both schools.)

Alabama Pros

-Cheaper (About 16,500/year.)

-I got admitted into the honors college.

-Location: Generally, I heard the town of Tuscaloosa is a lot cleaner and has more to do than Tallahassee.

-Kinder people: This may not be that significant but I’ve been to the state of Alabama before and it seems to be generally very friendly.

-Study abroad: From my understanding my automatic merit scholarship transfers to study abroad programs as well.

-Higher OOS population.

-Actively pumping money into the school to improve facilities and programs, numerous ongoing projects right now to improve the campus.

Alabama Cons

-Ranking (Way out of the T100.) I know this is usually a “null” point by I feel like such a large discrepancy needs to at least be considered.

-Reputation: At least from where I live UAlabama is regarded as a safety school for kids who only want to party. The state of Alabama itself is generally looked down upon as well. While I don’t personally agree with this reputation, this is a common sentiment between my peers, family, and my area in general.

-Location: According to a couple of students I talked to, there aren’t many opportunities to get medical volunteering/experience in the area.

Florida State University Pros

-Significantly better ranking: (53 vs 170.)

-Better reputation: A lot of people have spoken very highly of the university in my area, and generally has a good reputation.

-Location: Since Tallahassee is the state capital and is larger, it generally has more things regarding internships/experiences than Tuscaloosa.

-Admission: Generally has higher standards of admission, which may be a better academic environment as you are surrounded by largely intelligent peers.

-Gaining prestige: This school has recently been jumping in rankings lately, and is definitely gaining a reputation in the United States. (Though, UAlabama is doing as well, just not as significant.)

-Other colleges in the area: FAMU being so close allows the opportunity to regularly connect with other students within the city who don’t go to FSU.

-More walkable campus.

Florida State University Cons

-More expensive (About 20,000/year.)

-FYA: For me to achieve this affordable tuition rate, I would have to study the first year abroad. I put this in cons because I truthfully would rather have traditional freshman experiences, however, I have heard many excellent things about the program, and the students excel in the remaining three years. I have looked into the program, and it is an idea I’m definitely warming up top. I’m unsure where to put this, and if I read more about the program it may be moved to pros.

-Location: While Tallahassee is bigger than Tuscaloosa and has more opportunities, it
also has a reputation of being fairly run down (refer to the nickname “Tallanasty.”)

These are both amazing schools though, and whether I become a Nole’, part of the Crimson Tide, or maybe even somewhere else, I’m so thankful that I am fortunate for the opportunity to attend both schools at such a reasonable cost for my family! Additionally, if anyone has things they would suggest to look at during both visits feel free to give me some recommendations as well! I appreciate everyone’s help!

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Great choices. I know people who love both places. Congrats.

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Honors college at Alabama is its own environnement, ie., great dorms+personal advising system+super smart peers+perks.
While Alabama the state may have a bad rep (like today with the "frozen embryos are people"thing) the Honors College has a national reputation too, attracts students from all over, and generally will make sure you succeed.
So I’d say, go with Alabama Honors.

Wrt FSU, I think studying abroad is really cool but perhaps not ideal freshman year. Which programs are you considering? Do you speak a foreign language (that’d be a great benefit for you).
Also, without Honors it’ll be more impersonal and less conducive to supporting your prePA goals.

PA requires hundreds of clinical hours so email both pre health committees about where their students go.

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The study abroad program is Valencia, and I am familiar with Spanish as I took it through high school but I definitely would need to touch up on it if I went.

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Valencia is cool and if you want to be abroad it would be a learning experience with a group discovering a city, country, and culture - but I assume you could study abroad Spring sophomore year at UA too, without the downsides of having to accustom to campus as a Sophomore. Some students are really enthusiastic about the concept (USC, NEU, Middlebury, Colby do it too…) whereby you need to show you can behave (key) and learn in a new environment before you move back to the US campus. The small cohort makes it a closer knit comunity and the new culture+trips are exciting.
In your description you don’t sound too enthusiastic about it and it’s a key difference (beside the honors college). Is it something you’re looking forward to?

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Yeah, that’s a fair point. Though, the more positive reviews and benefits that I read about the more excited I would become to participate in it. I heard there was some benefits like smaller class sizes and learning akin to a SLAC. You are right about UAlabama though, but I couldn’t find a program similar to the one offered at FSU (this might be on me because I find their study abroad website convoluted.)

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This may help:

https://www.hotels.com/go/spain/best-beaches-valencia

(Still doing a google search for best beaches in Tuscaloosa.)

Tough choice as i understand your desire to enter college on the main campus at the same time as your class. But, you should develop close friendships with the other students studying in Spain. Do you know how many other FSU freshmen will be in Spain ?

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Valencia is an awesome city and excellent Spanish will be a major plus for Health professions.
The questions you need to have answers to
1° will you be able to take General Biology, Anatomy&Physiology, and some form of college Chem, at Valencia ? Or are the science classes purely gen eds -ie., science classes for non science majors ? (Genuine question you need to ask bc gen ed science will NOT count for PA school. )
2° How many will be part of your cohort? How many from a typical Valencia cohort make it to 2nd year on campus ? How many STEM majors in your cohort?
Remember that while in Valencia you’re basically on behavioral probation. I know they don’t say so but from experience I’d say classes will be relatively easy but everything else will be the real test - you’ll have legal access to alcohol (which for some students leads to unfortunate choices, dumb actions, and police involvement, any of which may mean being sent home), you’ll be able to visit many places in Europe, skipping class will be tempting, and among your cohort (30 to 50 students) quite a few will NOT make it to sophomore year on campus.
OTOH it is fabulous to be living abroad if you’re interested in other cultures, in seeing all the monuments and places you heard about in AP Euro (* ), in visiting all the museums and cultural centers, in seeing soccer games in legendary stadiums, etc. Plus excellent weather.

(* if you haven’t taken that class, definitely watch the Crash Course European History videos on YT. Otherwise you’ll miss out on a lot of things.)

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My son chose Alabama over schools that were ranked much higher for engineering including NC State, which arguably is one of the better schools in engineering. Facilities and opportunities were comparable. Rankings dont make sense. Last year Bama was 110, this year 170. Do you honestly think the school changed that much in a year? Of course not! It is how USN manipulates these rankings so that they can get clicks.

I suggest you visit both campuses and see where you fit in. No one is going to fall off a chair when you tell them you went to FSU over Bama or vice versa. Also, I am sure you are looking forward to having a good time in college socially. Both FSU and Bama have a strong “party” culture but have very distinct population of students that choose to focus on academics. There are plenty of medical volunteering opportunities in Tuscaloosa. The major hospital is about a mile from campus. Honors kids typically stay in Ridgecrest, which means you get your own room.

One last thing, gen ed requirements are lighter at Bama meaning it is easier to double major etc. You can get certified as an EMT through formal coursework at Bama too. I think you will require approval but it is not hard. The nursing school is top notch.

Both great choices, see where you fit best.

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I have a pre-med sophomore daughter at Alabama. She chose it because of the honors college programs, scholarship, and OOS student population. As 1dadinNC said, there is definitely a group of students there within the honors college who are very driven and academically inclined and not partiers.

I’m not sure why someone told you there weren’t many opportunities to get medical volunteering. There is a hospital right next to campus with a robust volunteer program. There is also a hospice in town that takes volunteers, and there are several student organizations that volunteer locally in health-related ways. There are also rural hospitals about an hour away that love volunteers if you have a car and the time in your schedule to go that far.There is a shadowing class through the school as well. I also know students who have gotten scribing, phlebotomy, CNA, or EMT jobs. Overall, no shortage of opportunities to get clinical hours.

Hopefully visiting both schools will give you clarity as to which feels like the right choice for you. You can be successful in achieving your goals at either.

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Thank you everyone for your feedback, I learned some things I didn’t know before.

To the people who have kids enrolled in the honors college at Alabama, is the stereotype true that students don’t really go to the classes. From some students I connected with, (and a little bit of reddit reading), I saw that a majority of the students don’t do anything with their honors status and just simply drop it senior year, only using it for class registration. Likewise, with the proportion of students who are in the honors college, do they feel that participating in it is a distinction that provides benefits past the early registration?

I’m not making any assumptions what-so-ever, I am just asking because it’s just what I heard from a couple current students, and is something that would be important to my ultimate decision.

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  1. I have looked through the curriculum, and they offer important ones (Chemistry/Biologic Science/Microbiology) and their respective laboratory, though they don’t offer others like anatomy and physiology, I have to research it more and see how far it would push me back if I was unable to take those.

  2. From my understanding so far, the program is fairly large, (iirc in the range of 40-60 students), and a lot of them are doing the program as well. I have no clue on the percentage of STEM majors there.

  3. That is another point that I have to seriously consider. I don’t really consider myself that type of person at all, I definitely would rather simply walk through the historic city. Though, this is at home, and I’m not sure if I would act differently in college. The skipping though is probably the bigger problem, I’m a huge history nerd and I’m not sure how that would interfere with my studies.

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Does the hospital have an agreement of sorts with UAlabama? Also, I know that their medical school is in Birmingham, does she ever find herself going to the city and working with it?

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If they offer the 1st year science classes with lab (equivalent to BSC 2010/2010L and 2011/L, CHM 1045/L and 1046/L) + STA2122/2171 and/or an intro to calculus course, you’re good wrt 1st year pre-reqs since I assume they offer Freshman English and Psychology, plus you’ll be becoming fluent in Spanish (speaking a language other than English is a big deal in the Health sciences).

Anatomy seems to be more of a 2nd year course at FSU so that’d be why they don’t offer it.

Another thing to email about: opportunities for clinical hours. You cannot be shadowing.
From the FSU website, but applies generally:
" Direct care is defined as “hands on” patient contact that involves interaction with patients.
Examples of experience that qualify: nursing assistant, EMT, paramedic, nurse (LPN, RN, BSN, NP, CRNA), patient care attendant, athletic trainer, physical therapist, respiratory therapist, x-ray technician, medical assistant, military medical technician/corpsman, international medical graduates, chiropractor, licensed massage therapist, optometrist and pharmacist."

Out of those the ONLY option available PERHAPS is athletic trainer.
You can also work toward your CNA right now and start on hours over the summer, consider the year in Valencia purely linguistic training (perhaps some shadowing to see how medical services work in Spain and learn specific expressions), and upon your return volunteer where Spanish is needed - there ahould be much demand. EMTs and Paramedics get a lot of hours as part of their training&job.

If you’re not the party type and don’t immediately think “bars” then you’re less likely to be those in the cohort either dismissed or not asked back to the FL campus, and if you love history etc. you’ll love being there (lots of breaks and holidays). Btw, going to the bar with friends for a glass of wine/beer and tapas is perfectly fine, just as spending Sunday at the beach is okay :sparkles:. The issue people in Spain have is young people (singularly, young Americans) getting drunk and causing a nuisance on the street or at the beach.

Wrt Alabama Honors, you always have students who say they don’t do the reading, don’t go to class, threw their paper together in like 2 hours. They’re poseurs and enjoy others feeling inadequate. Because IRL you do have to go to class and do the work. That being said, many students, all over, drop the Honors College Jr or Sr year, especially if they don’t want to do a thesis. When you’re admitted to Honors, the committee know full well not all will remain. You can check the website Public Honors for details.

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I cannot speak for everyone but my son has to attend classes and take labs seriously as an engineering student. If you are seriously considering pre-med, you will do the same.

A lot of kids do not want to do honors and drop. That part is true. The reality is that STEM honors kids more than often come in with all their basic weed out classes taken care of. For those kids, early registration privileges are not important. Yes, honors can be a lot of work and named scholars are required to maintain higher GPA. My son is an EPIC scholar and he has to maintain 3.5. As a pre-med major, you want to distinguish yourself in as many ways as possible. Being selected as a named scholar and being able to complete that goes a long way towards achieving that goal. There are other small benefits too. My son got $500 thrown at him this spring. All he had to do was write a short essay. He has a dedicated study hall only available to EPIC scholars and there is special programming such as seminars, meet and greets etc. For some, it is worth it. For others, it is not.

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Thank you, I will reach out to them more.

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Sorry I should have clarified I meant people skip the honors classes a lot, there’s no way I’m skipping STEM classes haha my parents would kill me. But thank you for talking about your experiences with the HC.

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Another question to ask: do students who start abroad have space in the dorms and, if there is a transfer LLC can they join? If not what assistance is provided with housing since it can’t be sorted our from Valencia? What sort of “transition” programming/orientation is there when you get to Florida?

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My son was rejected to FSU’s FYA program and didn’t apply to Alabama due to reputation, which is more similar to Ole Miss and Arkansas. The FYA cohort is tight knit and you’ll learn another language really well.

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