I will be honest. In Illinois the only families that seem to consider Alabama was for their merit packages to attract OOS students. I talk to a lot of families and they all say the same thing… “my child is only going there since they got a full ride or 3/4”. Like their making excuses for it… Lol.
But then I hear of the great time they had there and the great internships and opportunities and job offers.
So I think Alabama is “backing” up their offers with great opportunities. It’s obvious they want their rank in engineering etc to rise and they want their overall type of student profile to change.
I followed them for about 5 years now and never heard anyone going there really say anything negative about their experience. I just think it might be one of those unique opportunities that might not be around 5 years from now.
Definitely go visit and report back