Day 8-Belmont University, University of Alabama

Today we started off visiting Belmont University which is in Nashville. It's a small private Christian School with 4800 students. Most students are there for music with 1/3 of students being music business majors. The average class size is 19 and there are no large lecture style classes. They really focus on the students and faculty getting to know each other personally. Now when we headed there I was under the impression that the school used to be Christian and just last November they left the church and will no longer be a Christian school. Not so. They are definitely a Christian school. They require all faculty to be Christians, but do not require students although the vast majority are. There are many opportunities for spiritual development through Bible Studies, mission trips and their Religious studies programs.

Students have free access to the 9000 square foot recording studio on campus. It is also available to non-music majors.

All in all we were very impressed with Belmont. After visiting the amount of schools we have seen many students are beginning to get the idea for the school they will like to attend next year. We are also beginning to realize that there are many outstanding schools out there. We thought we would be able to see a school and say yes that's a possibility or no definitely not, but really we have not run in to any that we were completely turned off by. It's going to be a tough, prayerful process as these students begin to formulate their list for applications.


We then headed on the 3.5 hour drive to Tuscaloosa for the University of Alabama. Bama was also very impressive. They have 18,000 undergrads and 4,500 freshman. The campus is very spaced out to give a very open feel. It was cool to see that each major or program of study has their own building so you don't have to worry about running from one end of campus to the other for classes. Also in their video that we watched they stressed their campus ministry department and the many opportunities for students to get plugged in. Bama also boasts over 200,000 alumni and prides themselves on the 14 National Championships in football. Their admissions standards are very reasonable as they only require a 3.0 GPA, 21 on the ACT or 990 on the SAT.

After the tour at Bama we headed back to Birmingham. On the way we experienced something we have not seen the entire trip....RAIN!!!! This was not your little dampening of the rain. About 5 miles from our exit it began lightning really bad, then the huge gusts of wind came along with a heavy downpour and hail. It was so bad that everything was coming at the vans sideways. But we survived, got checked in and then headed to dinner.

We ate at the landmark of Birmingham, Dreamland Bar-B-Que. It has been around since 1958 and has some of the best BBQ you will ever have. The girls enjoyed their ribs and as you can see they were a little messy. Stefanie LaMay decided she would have the rib sandwich. When it came out she had 4 spare ribs, on the bones, between two pieces of white bread. She looked confused and asked what it was and they politely said....rib sandwich...duh!!!! I guess things are literal at Dreamland.



Andrea Fant getting into her ribs.

Kristen Robotham, Christian Anduiza and Cassidy Curtis

Before heading back to the hotel we decided to stop at Samford to see the campus at night. It was very beautiful with the lights and we can't wait to see it in the daylight.