Campus visit to the University of Alabama

 Well, I somewhat had to talk Sam into this tour, but he was definitely in for another day off school.   Alabama just has a stigma of non-engineering and greek-life that I remember thinking as a biased Auburn fan, but that same stigma seems to still persist as NONE of Sam's friends would even think about going to Alabama.   Strange to me, as age has told me a diploma is a diploma.   And after this tour, the engineering program seemed very top notch.   Altho our tour guide did not say the word engineering the whole day, which can be a good indicator.  

Another amazing thing was the number of out-of-state students.   Out of all 20 kids on our tour bus, Sam was the only one from the state of Alabama.  I asked some of the parents what is the deal?   One said his daughter has always just wanted to come to Alabama...no real reason, just saw them on TV and fell in love.   Another wanted his daughter out of California and away from them liberals.   And one plump little gal with tassles on her boots, high pitched voice, and three layers of make-up, just screamed Crimsonette stalker.  

After all of our scouting games, we know the campus well, and enjoyed the tour of this College Football powerhouse.   Took our time looking at all the MVPs of over the years that have their prints cemented near Denny Chimes.  We also ran into the national champion robotics team, which was really cool, and while potentially not swaying Sam UA, we both walked away pumped for robotics.  The mechanical engineer that worked for the campus tour was also an extremely awesome advocate for her school.   I have really enjoyed these days with Sam.  Good time to just hang out and chat.   We hit Chick-Fil-A and then Auntie Annies before heading back to the house.  

They also had a discussion with faculty set up for later that afternoon, but we were ready to get back home, so we cancelled that meeting.   So, I guess we will wait and see.  They already have offered about a 40% tuition scholarship, we just got to see what comes back from the general application.  But I don't think Sam would be upset to be a part of the tide.