This discussion was created from comments split from: What’s the campus like?.
<p>I put in a request on the Community & Forum Issues forum requesting new threads be made for UAH and UAB. So far no response, but maybe @fallenchemist can help us?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/1668545-creating-new-forums-or-sub-forums-for-uab-and-uah-alabama-huntsville-birmingham.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/1668545-creating-new-forums-or-sub-forums-for-uab-and-uah-alabama-huntsville-birmingham.html</a></p>
<p>The first thing they’ll do is a search to see how much those terms were used. There may not be enough traffic to justify. Just a thought.</p>
<p>You are right @Southlander, but there is also a factor of a judgement as to how much traffic would be generated if the schools had a place for discussion. UAB, after all, is a fairly large school with D1 sports. Not that sports is a factor in and of itself, but it is an indicator that the school is large enough and involved with national discussion enough to “matter”. Poor word, I just couldn’t think of another at the moment.</p>
<p>So for those of you that post in the UA forum all the time, what is your thinking? Being as objective as possible, is there enough discussion about either or both of those schools to warrant having separate discussion areas? Because in one sense putting up a discussion area is easy and costs basically nothing, but on the other if that were to happen for a lot more state branches things get cluttered. For example if I pinned a couple of threads onto the UA board, (which I can do but I cannot create new forums), it would push active discussion threads down the page. Of course, I could unpin the ones that are featured anyway, but then they might disappear eventually if the features got replaced with newer ones. You see the issues.</p>
<p>So give me your best judgement as to the amount of traffic UAB and UAH would generate. We can do both, one, or neither.</p>
<p>Well, I’ll chime in, since I’m the person who made the request. </p>
<p>My thought is to do the easiest thing possible for you and CC, @fallenchemist. Maybe a pinned thread at the top for questions regarding the “other” UAs–UAB and UAH? If they get a lot of traffic, you could create sub-forums here, and if it “explodes” with activity, you could make separate pages for them.</p>
<p>I’m really just throwing ideas out there. I’m sure other folks here have better ones!</p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie - Which thread would you unpin so that there are not too many pinned threads clogging up the page?</p>
<p>I’ll give this a couple weeks for discussion so that others can comment.</p>
<p>I’ve seen a lot more questions for UAB than for UAH. I’d say yes for UAB. I haven’t seen the traffic to warrant one for UAH as of yet.</p>
<p>Does a featured thread have to be pinned as well? If not, unpin the two featured threads.</p>
<p>Also, can you switch the 2018 thread with the 2019 thread?</p>
<p>Why not have a combined thread for UAB and UAH? If and when one of them needs its own space, that can be handled then.</p>
<p>I think there really should be a separate thread for those two schools. When I first joined this forum - ages ago - I was specifically looking for info about UAB and UAH, and I really felt out of place posting them here. Those few CC’ers who were advocates for those two schools felt rather unwelcome here as well. There’s no reason those two schools should be treated like unwanted orphans - give them their own forum!</p>
<p>Thanks, by the way, @fallenchemist. This isn’t the first time someone interested in UAH or UAB has made a request to split this forum, but, up until now, the requests have fallen on deaf ears.</p>
<p>@Class2012Mom, could that be because people don’t realize they are three discrete schools? I think there’s at least one family who regularly posts here whose son is going to UAH and another with a child at UAB, but maybe I’m the one who’s confused! I know some kids applied to more than one of the three this past year. Again, the idea is to help clarify for the uninitiated (for lack of a better word). If you’re just starting the search, might it not be helpful to be made aware that each of the three has unique offerings?</p>
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<p>No, and that is exactly what I was thinking was best but wanted to hear from you guys that “own” this forum. I mean that in a good way.</p>
<p>Admin will have to switch 2018 with 2019. I will tell them.</p>
<p>@dodgersmom - I understand what you are saying about a combined thread. And as a thread I think that would be fine. As a separate forum, though, which you state later, that I don’t think will happen. I think that a forum is either devoted to a school or to a category (Ivy League, for example) and then each school gets it’s own subforum. I think for good reason there wouldn’t be a forum for two schools. Maybe a better setup from the start would have been to put each state as a parent forum and then put each branch as a subforum, with the flagships always in the lead. But that isn’t what happened, and to be fair some states have a lot of branches that would get very little attention on here. Anyway, let’s continue to see what people think, if there is anyone else that wants to speak up.</p>
<p>Ah, well, @fallenchemist, my reference to a combined thread was me misspeaking. I meant forum, not thread, and I do think the two schools should have a combined sub-forum.</p>
<p>One of the problems is that the UA forum is so active - references to UAB and UAH simply get lost in the deluge of posts. I don’t know why UAB and UAH couldn’t have a combined sub-forum . . . but if you’re determined that that’s not an option, then a pinned thread for each of them would seem to be appropriate.</p>
<p>It’s not me, it is how CC does it. I cannot create fora. I can only suggest, and I will definitely pass on your thoughts about one subforum for both schools.</p>
<p>@Lucie - in the past 3 years or so, I have seen very few posters asking about UAH. It’s not that it’s not a fine school, I just don’t see the number of people asking about UAH that I have about UAB. It was my understanding that forums for specific schools are created when the demand is there. I just don’t see it for UAH as I have for UAB. There have been quite a number of requests for a UAB forum in the past. I do not remember ever seeing one for UAH.</p>
<p>@Class2012Mom, you could be entirely right. I might just notice the UAH conversations more because my son is in engineering, which UAH is also known for. I’ve mainly observing references to UAB for the medical school, but I might not be reading the relevant threads.</p>
<p>Here’s a quick search on the forum for UAH references, FWIW: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search?cat=505&adv=1&search=UAH”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search?cat=505&adv=1&search=UAH</a></p>
<p>And apparently I was confused too–the School of Medicine is not part of UAB, it’s just located in Birmingham! So many schools . . . so much confusion! :-D</p>
<p>And I love this quote from @SEA_tide, because I was thinking the same exact thing when I requested the new forums!</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/14876667/#Comment_14876667”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/14876667/#Comment_14876667</a></p>
<p>^^^
Right…The University of Alabama system is not like the Penn State system. It is more like the UC system…each school is completely separate.</p>
<p>Maybe this thread should be pinned at the top as a placeholder for the proposed new thread? It could serve as an introduction/explanation of the various schools in the UA system.</p>
<p>Bumping in the hope that others will chime in.</p>