University of Alabama
739 University Blvd, Tuscaloosa, AL
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The University of Alabama, founded in 1831, is the state's flagship public research university, and its Crimson Tide football program, under legendary coaches Bear Bryant and later Nick Saban, has won more national championships than nearly any other program in college football history. The university's business school and its nationally recognized honors college have driven substantial growth in out-of-state enrollment over the past two decades, with Alabama's aggressive merit scholarship offerings helping the school become one of the fastest-growing public universities in the country for non-resident students. The campus retains several buildings that survived the Union Army's 1865 burning of the university during the Civil War, including the President's Mansion, giving the historic quad a physical connection to the institution's 19th-century origins that predates most of the rest of the modern campus. The university's combination of major-program football success, aggressive out-of-state recruiting through generous scholarships, and its steadily rising research profile has made Alabama one of the more notable examples of a Southern flagship university using athletic success to help drive broader institutional growth.
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- Top 6 Colleges in Alabama
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