Which college should I attend?? (Rutgers, Univ of Alabama, Texas A&M)

International Students
1

I’m an Asian female and am currently a senior in high school, about to start the second semester. I want to major in computer science and I’m not sure which college I want to attend.
As of now, I’ve been accepted to Rutgers in New Brunswick, University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and Texas A&M, all for the computer science major.
I mainly want to attend Rutgers because of ranking and location, since I grew up in Texas and I am sick of the heat, but I’ve heard many mixed reviews about Rutgers. I only consider Alabama because of my full scholarship, and A&M because of the in-state tuition and good ranking.

Which one of these should I really consider going to? I want to know the pros and cons of each college and I really need help in deciding whether a full tuition is big enough to overpower the rankings/status and location of the other schools.

2

Hi. I’m an Asian male and a computer science major freshman at the University of Alabama. FWIW, I’m an international student first time going to school in the US. I cannot speak about the other school, but I can talk about UA all day.

Like a lot of others, UA got my attention thanks to its very generous scholarship. However, I found out there are more to UA than just football and scholarship, and I have really enjoyed my time here.

What I really like about UA is that with its scholarship, it attracts a very large and diverse group of people. There are 53% out-of-state students (just a quick comparison, 17% at Rutgers and very very small percentage at Texas A&M), so you’re able to make a lot of friends from everywhere in the US here. Also, with its large population, you’re sure to find your niche somewhere at school.

And football. When I first came here, I knew nothing about football. I didn’t even know our school is so great at it. But after just one semester, Alabama football is definitely my pride. It is a lot of fun regardless of how much you care about sport.

And lastly, I’ld talk about academics. Yes, UA is not the highest ranked, but it is not a bad school by any means. At first I was very concerned about prestige being an Asian kid directly from Asia. However, I realized that the ranking really does not bear a lot of importance in the future. Yes, a CS degree from MIT or Stanford may raise a pair of eyebrow or two, but what really matters is what you can create. And in preparation for that, I think our CS department is doing a very good job. An upperclassmen told me that his friend who transferred from UA CS to Georgia Tech CS claimed that UA prepared him more than enough for his classes at Georgia Tech. After experiencing first hand, I can say that our CS program is quite rigorous, and you should not be afraid to go to here.

IMHO, UA is a bigger name school than Rutgers and Texas A&M (thanks to football), even though the other two have great engineering programs.

In the end, it all comes down to how much prestige means to you, and how much you are willing to pay for that.

3

Hi there,
I am currently a second sen freshman at The University of Alabama. This response to your question will be very detailed one and hence long. I am from India myself and I too had sent numerous hours on sites like college confidential to gain an inside view on college systems around the country: it was a great help. I’ll try a dmake sure that my rsponse to your question is free from any bias.

Lets talk about how it is like to live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama first before academics and reputation and the things that follow. Since you have already mentioned that you’re from texas I believe the summer temperatures in Alabama wont be too much of a worry for you. If anything at all its gonna be less hot than some areas in Texas. The University of Alabama has one of the most beautiful campuses in the countries. Its huge with trees, big promenades, luscious lawns and greenery all around, the architecture of the campus is imly amazing. One of the best things is that the campus is increasing its size at a tremendous pace and UA is the fastest growing flagship in the country. I came to Alabama in August’16 and during that time alone I have seen two brand new academic facility bieng opened and in one of which I attended classes, it is therefore no small university. Tuscaloosa as a city is very community based and you’ll love the people here, the southern charm is inescapable. I’ve travelled quite a but during my breaks and that is something that I have always found true. It is pretty easy to get around the town if you have a car and even if you don’t the university has a shuttle that runs to the malls on sundays. on the other hand, the university has gazillions of buses running inside the campus (not exaggerating) and a special night service should you feel the need for one. Once again I cannot emphasize how beautiful the campus is especilly the many quads that we have, some days you’d just want walk around the campus and do little else. If you are interested in greek life, UA has the biggest greek system in the country and you’ll be able to witness it as soon as you enter campus, however it is obviously a personal choice should you want to join or otherwise. The campus is also very safe with university police being very visisble at every part of the campus and there are emergency response booths located all over the place. Lastly, I’d say that for someone who is from the tropics, the campus at tuscaloosa has been nothing short of a paradise ( atleast for me), I suggest honors housing assuming that you’ll join the honors college, its the best. Also, the University has a sizable nepalese population of students should that be of any consideration for you.

Now coming to Academics, choosing a college and opportnuties at that said college: I didn’t apply to Rutgers but I had applied to A&M and Alabama and got into both. I made the descision to come to Alabama keeping in mind tuition assistance, academics and what life in Tuscaloosa, Alabama would look like. The fisrt that I want to absolutely convey to you is that there are no shortage of opportunities in Alabama, if anything there are so many that it actually overwhelmes during your initial days. Academically there are numerous programs that you can choose from and also the new college where you can customise your degree. I am majoring in chemical engineering myself but I also have a minor in the Blount Scholars Program( a very prestigious liberal arts program: something which you may want to consider and which I’ll be glad to talk to you about in later posts) and the STEM to MBA program, an accelerated Masters in Business program. Since you’ll be in comouter science you can check out the University Fellows Experinece and the Computers Based Honors Program, wherein you can engage in research with a professor or your own research from your fisrt year itself, not to mention the scholarships that accompany these programs. About engineering, it matters less where you graduate from and more what you graduate with. Believe me when I say this I have spent countless hours in US News Report Rankings of universities myself, but it didnt turn out to be any help. Companies these days value work experince above anthing else, a mercedes plant would rather hire a 3.0 from a university with whom it has a affiiate program than a 3.5 from MIT because they want people who can contribute immediately as soon as they are employed. Alabama has a very robust co-op program that does just thatand the university focuses greatly on it. I really believe that rankings have little to do in what you make of yourself, not to say that alabama is poorly ranked. It is rather ranked really good considering the number of national universities we have in this country. So far as cons of Alabama is concerned, the only qualms that I have maybe with the food but that is because I am really fond of Indian food and therefore have set my standards very very high, also the public transportation system in albama can do better. Besides that I cannot think of any major obstacles preventing me from reaching my goals here at UA. A lot has been said about football. All I can say is this: we are the best in it and you’ll love it in alabama and the school pride will set in very soon. In my short stay here at Alabama I can feel a great sense of belongingness already. I am more than sure you’ll too. There is a charm in the air that pervades everything. As for Rutgers, not a big fan of cluttered buildings in city that seems to suck the soul out of you, A&M: I am more of a focus on the possitives guy, I am sure it has its merits.
Forgive me for any typos should there be any.

Roll Tide

Feel free to reach out to me on my personal message feature or here on this post should yoy have any questions. If you decide to come to Alabama, hit me up. Always happy to meet people.

4

I’m a junior at the University of Alabama majoring in Biology on the pre-med track. I grew up in Birmingham, and as a senior I applied to schools all over the country. I got into some great schools (Rice, Yale, Berkeley, Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill, and others) but ended up at Alabama mainly because of the full tuition, plus stipend and free housing. I had apprehensions going to a school close to home that was not as highly ranked as the other schools I was considering, but I knew when I was applying that I would continue to either grad school or medical school. The lure of free tuition was extremely attractive–at $60,000/+ per year, going to Yale and going to Alabama was ultimately the difference in a quarter of a million dollars in student loans.

I have found from my experience that when you go to a larger school, opportunities less frequently fall into your lap, but the process of learning to seek out opportunities and create my own has made me a more engaged student and participant in the classroom and on campus. Truthfully, it doesn’t matter necessarily where you end up but the attitude you carry with you where you go. I’ve found plenty of opportunity here in the areas that interest me–I research in a biology lab on campus, volunteer to organize community outreach programs on campus, and work with a mentoring program in a local elementary school. Because of my scholarship, I also had the opportunity to study and travel abroad. Academically, I feel very prepared to apply to medical school and continue with my education and can say from personal experience that Alabama’s courses (at least in the Biology and Chemistry departments) prepare you well for life after college.

Also, as a small plug for my school–in the last decade or so Alabama has been doing a great job of enticing students like you from out of state with amazing scholarship offers and of helping to prevent the “brain drain” of students like me leaving the state to study and live elsewhere. UA is not the same school it was even 5 years ago, and the student body reflects that. I have met some amazing, motivated, and brilliant people here, and I think you would at any of those three schools.