Alabama is overrated

100% agree. i got into all those big midwest schools but none of them really wowed me the way alabama did. all my friends at uiuc are jealous & impressed by all the greek events i have and ask to visit all the time, so no, i highly doubt anybody thinks uiuc has the superior greek life, pls go troll another school that’s actually not proven to have the best greek life in the nation.

Y’all are so full of it lol. No way you are from UIUC

i attended a high school in naperville where plenty of my high school friends stayed in state and most attended uiuc. so yes i actually do know a lot ab how sororities and stuff works there and i have friends that constantly say i’m so lucky to get all of the experiences that i do because of the sorority life at bama and how they get none of that

who the hell is downvoting this?? this girl speaks facts

Yes you are. I know you are joking, but you couldn’t be more right lol

UA has the highest research classification from the Carnegie Foundation... so much for not being a highly funded research institution with impactful professors. Also, who uses US News rankings for anything? They also have virtually nothing to do with the quality of education that we receive at UA. UIUC is a great school, but saying Bama is a "safety school" in order to imply that it has inferior academics is simply misguided.

Yeah, after Carnegie changed the standard for qualification. A lot of other schools suddenly qualified too, doesn't mean that the research quality suddenly improved. The funding just isn't there. Alabama's only true Top Tier research institution was and remains UAB.

US News is a decent metric for academic quality because things like funding, class sizes, professor retention, and publication are included. Forbes scores UA even lower, in the 200s.

Bama is a safety school. You'll get in. You'll probably get a scholarship. And you'll get a totally adequate degree, it just won't be anything special or particularly top tier. It's good for Alabama, it's decent for the South, it's below average for state flagships, and it's nationally in the middle of the pack.

The person was close, this past fall Alabama panhellenic had an average GPA of 3.45. That’s all public information on the grade reports. So no, they aren’t full of it lmao. Someone sounds jealous

^ also, the past 3 semesters before that, the average was 3.48, 3.44, 3.45 so sororities consistently have high average GPAs, higher than nongreek students. Many girls in each sorority get deans list or presidents list every semester. You clearly don’t know anything about Greek life at Alabama.

That person said “nearly 3.5” and then one of you turned it into “3.5+” putting words into their mouth. For someone apartment so smart, you seem to have trouble reading :)

Average Panhellenic GPA at UIUC was 3.49 in Fall 2019. Bama's was a 3.45. That's not a huge difference at all, and it may be worth noting that Bama has over 7,000 sorority members compared to under 3,500 for UIUC.

I’ve been commenting on the post myself because it is funny seeing you guys try to defend your massive egos. UIUC is smarter than UA overall, and not far behind in Greek life. My mistake saying 3.5+. Learn how to spell though you absolute chimp

Let's not pretend that a high GPA in sororities indicates academic quality. UA is a below-average (for state flagships) school in terms of academic quality. The professors are stretched thin and we don't draw in a truly high caliber of national academic talent in the first place.

Having NMFs doesn't mean it's equal to an Ivy League school, it just means it's a cheaper or better value than the Ivy League loans.

Just because there is grade inflation doesn't mean Bama lacks academic quality. It doesn't have much to do with research or teaching, which are far more telling of whether we get a quality education or not.

Nobody is saying there isn't any academic value at UA, just that it's significantly lower than some like to say it is. UA is not an Ivy League school, UA is not a highly funded top tier research institution with global leaders as professors. As much as I love my professors, I know that Dr. Jim who was an executive at Alabama Tire Corporation isn't going to provide the same quality of education of Dr. Mark, former executive of Goldman Sachs, would at a U-Michigan. Companies do know this, and the academic standing of your institution will matter in certain spheres of the real world.

To use US News as a metric, UIUC is a top 50 school, and UA isn't even top 150. UA is widely regarded as a safety school with great scholarships, but the opportunity cost is lower academic prestige.

Someone please show me where anyone claimed UA was an Ivy League school? I’ll wait. The argument being made is that people don’t come to UA ONLY for football or Greek life. For a public school, they have a well-respected engineering program (along with other programs too). No it’s not cal tech or an Ivy League school, but most students do care about their academics and are getting the same degree as anyone else at any other state school

Buddy someone literally commented on the next page that your engineering program is better than UIUC’s. Y’all think because you get presidential scholarship your school is great in academics, but that just shows how desperate your school is to increase your academic prestige. Y’all are still just known for a Greek life and football school, get over it lol

That's literally it. I'm a Presidential Scholar. UA was a safety school because it was easy to get into and cheap. Once I got here and went through the system, I realized that the Presidential Scholarship is just a system they use to rapidly pump up the quality of the students without actually improving the academic quality. They've made efforts, but it seriously lags behind other schools and doesn't deserve the prestige of being a choice someone made over an Ivy for any reason other than finances.

"why don't you just leave!!!" because it's free. That's literally it. If UIUC was free, I'd have gone there. If Florida was free, I'd have gone there. Only UA was free.

Also, "our Engineering program is great!" Yeah, for the Deep South. Woo.

And if you haven't noticed, the minute anyone, literally anyone, who has ever set foot on UAs campus, does something with above-average prestige, UA will try to utilize their success for marketing or media.

NMFs attend UA? Biggest thing ever!

UA Alumni (and Harvard Business School alumni) becomes a major CEO? Buy some billboards!

UA student wins a minor award with zero competition, but a good title? Write an article for the newsletter!

Spent a couple million on a decent research building? We'll be talking about that for decades!

Top tier, or even upper middle tier, schools don't do that to the extent of UA. It's a weird, internally defeatist mentality that UA is never good enough, and the minute someone shows otherwise they obsess over it.

Clemsons greeklife is a joke