u/WestLime3646

I’m on track to graduate in three years, starting year two in the Fall, and I’ve only taken one Honors class in accounting since none of the regular sections fit in my schedule, so I’d need to take an extra 11 credits to complete the program.

I only applied for Honors in the first place to get into Ridgecrest and for priority registration, but I’m not sure I even get that. In both the Fall and Spring, my registration time was on the very last couple days, and I knew multiple non-Honors students whose registration times were before mine.

There’s some classes that only Honors offers that I think would be interesting, but I’d still have to take at least UH 110 and maybe even UH 200/205 just to be able to register for them.

All things considered, I’d just appreciate anyone else’s perspective on Honors and whether it would be worth staying in it or not.

Edit: I should also say that I would have to take UH 110 over this Summer semester (starting May 26, I believe). The course is only four weeks long, but it starts while I’ll be out of the country doing study abroad work.

I apologize in advance for the length, I just thought this warranted context:

I never even considered applying to Alabama until they sent me a free waiver, so I figured, “Why not? My application’s already finished, all I have to do is hit send.” Then the scholarship came in, and I suddenly thought, “Maybe I could go here!” So I go for a campus tour with low expectations, and I’m blown away by how beautiful it actually is. On top of that, I really love college sports (especially football), so I thought it was a good decision. I end up taking the money and apply to the Honors College for the nicer dorms and priority registration (although I’ve since learned that “priority registration” doesn’t particularly mean much of anything), and I start off my first semester extremely excited for what college life will bring.

During my first couple months, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try all kinds of new “college” things. I went to a frat house to watch UFC, I was invited to a couple sorority date parties, and I even hit the strip a few times. I was never a partier in high school, and I really don’t like being around drugs and alcohol, so I determine those things just aren’t for me. I also learned that while there are some in Greek life that do care about the education side of school, the vast majority are only at UA for the party scene. As a finance major, I soon realized that Greek life was something unavoidable since about 90% of students in all of my classes were in some kind of Greek organization. What I learned is that the stereotypes are almost always accurate and most frat guys and sorority girls are pretty much copy-and-paste from one another, so if you don’t mesh with that crowd, especially as a business major, then you’re pretty much out of luck.

I genuinely enjoy learning and wanted to come to college for the education, so I tried getting involved in more technical, business-related extracurriculars to compensate for the Greek-dominated culture. What I didn’t realize is that each organization that I wanted to get involved in was restricted to either only freshman, only freshman and sophomores, or required you to have a minimum of X semesters left in your degree. Since I came in with a year’s worth of credits, I only had one year to compete for spots in these organizations, namely CIMG and CAMS, both of which I seriously pursued during my second semester. When I made it to the second round interview of the CAMS application, my interviewer got on our call hungover, and when he asked me if I had any questions, I asked him why he chose CAMS instead of other organizations. His response was almost word-for-word, “Well, I had some fraternity brothers in it and it’s just the only one I got into.” I was a little shocked that was his answer, and I quickly realized that organization probably wouldn’t be a good fit for me. Alternatively, I made it to the final round of CIMG where I had about a week to complete an equity research project and present it to some of the current members with minimal guidance. This is where I really started to see that I might’ve actually put myself at a huge disadvantage coming into college with a year already done. I’m very familiar with in-depth research projects and quick turnarounds since I went to a magnet high school, but I still didn’t know a lot of the stuff they were asking me to do because I hadn’t had the chance to take the more advanced finance courses yet, so I pretty much had a week to learn as much as I could blindly with no direction. Surprisingly, during my presentation, each of the members complimented me on my public speaking skills and presentation as a whole, but when I asked them what I could improve on for the future, I was told I seemed “nervous”. Seeing as this was essentially still an interview, I stayed cordial, took their feedback humbly, thanked them for their time, and left when we finished, but on my walk back home, I kept thinking, “Of course I was nervous. I’m giving a presentation to a group of experienced strangers on something I’ve only been given a handful of days to prepare for.” Weeks went by, and I didn’t get an offer from CIMG or CAMS. Since I was technically a sophomore at this point, I was no longer eligible to apply in any future semesters, meaning I was essentially out of luck for joining a professional organization of my interest. Luckily, I was able to lock down a part-time accounting job in Bryant-Denny, so I at least have some professional experience under my belt, but a job is different from an extracurricular community I can relate with. Most of my coworkers are late 30s to middle age, not exactly people I can hang out with off the clock.

Honestly, I really don’t like it here. I haven’t been able to find a group of people that I fit in with and actually enjoy hanging around outside of my two roommates who I got really lucky with. I wanted to go to college to meet all kinds of new people from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, but frankly Alabama mainly attracts one kind of person, at least for business school. From my experience, it’s been either the “my dad owns the biggest lawn care company east of the Mississippi, so I’m better than you” frat bro type, or the standard princess, “Why are you talking to me? Your not in a top frat or an athlete,” sorority girl. Each of those is usually sprinkled in with a dose of Old South racism, that ironically I only experience from Californians, New Jerseyans, and other non-Southerners. All the Alabama natives I’ve encountered (outside of Greek life) have been the nicest, most genuine people I’ve ever met. I’m sorry about the rant, and I don’t mean to put anyone down that really enjoys it here. I sincerely wish I could too, and I’ve tried my best, but it’s just not for me. Even something as simple as there not being a lot of Asians here, at least not in the business school, and I really just don’t know what else to do.

I’ve decided I’m going to stick it out for the two years I have left simply because I already have an apartment and no other school will give me anything close to what Bama did in scholarship money, especially as a transfer, but I definitely regret my decision considering the various other college options I had. If anyone has any suggestions for literally anything I can do to try and find more of a fitting community in the Fall (I’ll be a second-year junior), I’d love to hear them.