<p>Even though it isn’t particularly easy or cheap, I really think you need to visit Auburn before you commit. Alabama is a very, very different place from Chicago. You might like it. You might not. I’d bet you $100 you’re not going to say, “Yeah, it’s fine. Whatever.”</p>
<p>Spend as much time there as you can afford to before you decide.</p>
<p>I went from high school in the square states to college in Boston to graduate school in the South (and not nearly as deep into the South as Auburn). Both of those moves were major adjustments.</p>
<p>(Illinois, I assume, no such issue. You must know dozens of people who’ve gone there, right?)</p>