OOS Auburn University--looking for input

WDE1994
Wed, 05 Feb 2020 04:43:03 +0000

Thanks for reaching out. Not to categorize, but the campus and the people exhibit small town, community, Conservative, sports-centric, friendly, southern and humble attributes.

Our son is planning on attending in the Fall and his reasons for choosing AU vs the others…

1. Good solid academic reputation for engineering (Civil)

2. Sports/Tradition/Football/Baseball/Family (SEC)

3. Southern/conservative

4. Close to home (~ 2 hours to ATL).

5. Town size/quaintness

6. Engineering Co-op program

7. Attending alongside cousins

8. Aubie; seriously.

9. Navy and Orange

10. Safe place to spend his next 4 years.

He has grown up attending football weekends since he was 2, spending time with his older cousins while there and hearing about AU from his old dad.

As a challenge, he spent a mini-semester @ UA in Tuscaloosa for Early College. The campus there is beautiful to say the least. Ultimately, he said he couldn’t go to school that hated “his” school so much. I would expect this be similar to having your child spend a month in Lawrence when his favorite place is Manhattan, or vice versa.

As Charles Barkley once put it, Auburn has had an inferiority complex to big Brother UA for some time, specifically mentioning the mid-20th century of sports. That has changed a lot since Bo over the top, winning multiple SEC championships, winning a NC and contending most years.

Take the last year in Basketball and Baseball (trip to the Final 4 and CWS), and add in Swimming and Diving, Equestrian, Softball and Gymnastics…being an Auburn student and fan has been a great ride the last 40+ years ( it will you give you a heart-attack most days when pulling for those Tigers).

To answer your question about atmosphere…

1. Students are extremely casual (shorts and t shirts) simply because it could be 95 degrees the day school starts and remain warm until Halloween.

2. Greek life is upheld as positive and represents ~37%.

3. With Auburn’s renowned vet school and agriculture history, there will be an ample amount of cowboy boots, trucks and rural students attending that give the campus a slight bit of country cool and salt of the earth persona.

4. Most, not all seem to enjoy nature with hunting, fishing, camping being very popular lifestyles to emerge into as a student.

5. Auburn does embrace the “cow college” stigma that was given to us many years ago, so much, that my graduating son’s t shirt given to him by his older cousins when he was 12… needs to be replaced from wearing it with pride over the last 6 years.

Lastly, sports are a big deal. Add in Family, friends, tradition and southern hospitality, I couldn’t expect too many folks would have a bad time.

This is just my two cents, but it truly is a special place, especially if you happen to visit in February. You might get lucky and have it be 74 degrees, like it was today!!!

Good luck. WDE