University of Arkansas / Fayetteville? (not baseball)

I am an alum of the University of Arkansas so I will be a little biased! I am glad your son enjoyed spending time in Fayetteville. It is a beautiful place.

The U of A is a great place to go to college. Fayetteville is in a growing, progressive area of the country. If you do much research on the area at all you will see that northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest growing areas of the country. It is home to Wal-Mart, Tysons, JB Hunt headquarters and many other businesses. It is also in a beautiful area of the county with FOUR seasons! And, then, there are the Razorbacks! Most people are amazed at the athletic facilities in 'little ol' Arkansas. It is fun to be a fan in Fayetteville. The baseball games are my favorite, of course! Last year they expanded the stadium and led the nation in average attendance.

Depending on what your son wants to study there are some areas at the UA that are more outstanding than others but all will give him a good education - for a good price. The College of Business is named after Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) and they have been given ALOT of money from the Walton family and have built a wonderful faculty. The College of Engineering is outstanding. There is alot of nano-technology research done on campus - most of it cutting edge. Many others.

Best of luck! If he decides to attend the UA I hope you enjoy coming to see him!

MountieMom,

Thank you so much for the info. My son mentioned that the football stadium is fantastic, and of course he mentioned the Razorbacks. He is undecided about his major at this point. He started college as a classical guitar major (was accepted into a very selective program at U of Minnesota) but decided that while he still wants to pursue music, he wants to get a more traditional degree to have a "real job" to fall back on. He has since been taking a mix of classes and is currently considered a Liberal Arts major. The architecture program interests him at U of Arkansas.

May I ask what your major was?

Thanks,

Julie

MN-Mom, My wife and I attended U of A, though it was a long time back. I graduated with a B of Architecture (5-year professional degree, 168 hours for the degree). The professors I had, most of them now have memorial scholarships named after them, were very good and they challenged us every step. I was fortunate to get the opportunity in my last semester to study under E. Fay Jones who was a student of F.L. Wright. This should gives you an ideal of how long ago. Attending Ark and architectural school was the best time of my life (except for wife and kids). My wife also attended Ark and we met there and after graduation we tied the knot and went to work.

I have not been back to the architectural program for a while now, but by all accounts and notifications (mailings)I receive from them they are doing and teaching much more than when I attended.

As the poster said above it was and still is a fun and nice place to go to school. My brother and his family still reside in Fayetteville.

For sports, most athletic venues have completely been rebuilt. It is much bigger and glorious to the great HOG! It is a big time athlectic enviornment with a realitivaly small student population.

Though we live in VA, we still love that place. The U of A is not considered a high academic school. I'm sure it is hard to get into some schools at the university, like architecture, business. None the less it is a solid higher education.

If you can handle your boy being that far from home, as you can tell, I'd recommend the school.

MN-Mom -
My degree is in Computer Info/Business. My husband's degree is in Engineering. One of our best college friend's degree is in Architecture and he has done quite well professionally so I can only assume that his degree paved the way. Like FieldBuilder said, they have had some very impressive profs in the past. I read last week that they were given $10M from someone that knew Fay Jones. He apparently had quite an impact on the man!

Your son is wise to have a degree to 'fall back on'. Hard to make much money playing the guitar unless you are one of the lucky few. But I hope he continues playing it for the shear pleasure of it!

Baseball season starts Feb 22 - can't wait!

Kim

Thanks all for your replies. It sounds like a great school!

My son contacted the U of Arkansas about qualifying for in-state tuition based on his grades and test scores (which seemed like it might be possible), but did not hear back. Based on the higher cost and a few other factors, he has decided to stay at his current school. To tell the truth we are very happy about that, since he is only a half hour from our home, and a degree from the U of Minnesota is also very well-regarded.

Thanks again!

Julie