2025 College Rankings

The University of Alabama—a large Southern institution best known for its party scene and football program—has recently undergone a major administrative overhaul. While its curriculum still leaves something to be desired, the university is no longer dominated by activist administrators, thanks mainly to state-level mandates.

In 2023, Alabama legislators banned Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at public universities. After some initial resistance, the state’s flagship university eliminated its DEI office that fall. The school now employs fewer than one DEI staffer per 1,000 undergraduates, and no faculty job postings require DEI statements. Other activist initiatives have also been curbed: the university has adopted a policy of institutional neutrality—a welcome development.

Alabama’s administration has room to improve when it comes to free speech. The university has endorsed the Chicago Principles, affirming its commitment to free expression. Yet it also operates a bias-response system that monitors speech that some may find offensive. While most students believe that the administration supports free speech, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) gives Alabama a “yellow” speech code rating, indicating that its policies could easily be abused to restrict expression.

The faculty at the University of Alabama is more ideologically balanced than peer faculties. When asked to place their professors on an ideological scale—where 1 is “very liberal” and 7 is “very conservative”—students gave an average rating of 3.3, close to “moderate.” In the 2023–24 election cycle, 76 percent of faculty campaign contributions went to liberal or Democratic causes, while 22 percent went to conservative or Republican ones, a far more balanced split than at most universities. Notably, more than 1 percent of faculty members belong to Heterodox Academy, an organization that promotes intellectual diversity and free inquiry on campus.

Students at Alabama are ideologically diverse and generally tolerant of opposing views. The student body is roughly evenly split between liberals and conservatives, and student political organizations reflect that balance. The university ranks tenth out of 100 schools in our student free speech index. Still, about half of students say that they censor themselves at least once a month—a disappointing figure, though common across campuses.

Alabama’s curriculum is mediocre. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives the university a C in its What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. Alabama does not require students to study U.S. history or civics to graduate but also avoids imposing ideologically driven coursework in its core curriculum.

The University of Alabama is a questionable investment for prospective students. It ranks near the bottom of our list for the value added to education. Both retention and six-year graduation rates fall well below expectations, based on SAT scores and Pell Grant data. The predicted retention rate is 89 percent, but the actual rate is 82 percent. The six-year graduation rate is worse still: projected at 79 percent, only 64 percent of students graduate within that time frame.

While The Princeton Review ranks Alabama’s alumni network among the top 20 nationwide for public universities, those connections don’t always translate into career success. Median annual earnings ten years after initial enrollment fall short of expectations by approximately $2,000.