Birmingham Colleges & Universities
Birmingham, Alabama: College Life in a Classic Southern City
Once an industrial behemoth, this southern city has reinvented itself as a hip, trendy haven for culture lovers. Although the vestiges of the city's gritty past are still evident in some areas of town, college students attending schools in Birmingham find much to love about this rapidly revitalizing community.
Though the city proper has a population of fewer than 250,000 residents, the larger metropolitan area is home to more than one million - comprising roughly a quarter of the population of the entire state of Alabama... continue »
Birmingham Locations at a Glance
- 1. University of Phoenix - Birmingham Campus
- 2. Strayer University - Birmingham
- 3. ITT Technical Institute - Bessemer
- 4. Herzing University - Birmingham
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A Titan of Industry Remakes Itself
For decades, Birmingham was the center of industrial manufacturing in the South, undergoing a period of remarkable growth and affluence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, by the 1960s, many of these manufacturing jobs began to disappear, creating a citywide decline that some speculate helped to exacerbate the tensions that came to a head in the city in that decade. After years of struggle, the city has reinvented itself, adding medical jobs, utility jobs, financial services jobs, and IT industry jobs to a still-present manufacturing base.
Having Fun in Birmingham
Today, the city is home to a large population of college students, many of whom favor the clubs, bars, and other entertainment venues that are clustered in the city's historic Five Points South district. Here are some other entertainment options in Birmingham:
• Check out the college-town vibe and legendary football games in nearby Tuscaloosa.
• Enjoy Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival and the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, held concurrently in September.
• Stroll through the downtown district and drop in on one of several world-class museums there.
• Tour the Civil Rights District, which includes the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
• Take a day trip to Atlanta, only 150 miles away.
Often overlooked by students considering colleges, Birmingham is an under-appreciated city that has much to offer in terms of culture, quality of life, and entertainment.