UAB is a strong ophthalmology residency program, with some unique features. The UAB Medical Center is one of the strongest places for neuroscience research in the country (top 20 in NIH funding), has a strong optometry school on the same campus, and has an entire building dedicated to optics research. Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital houses 7 floors of ophthalmogy clinical, research, and educational space. UAB serves as the tertiary care center for a large part of multiple states, so there's great pathology. Ophtho residents take in-house overnight call in a 24/7 "eye ED." There are multiple subspecialists in each area, and the faculty I met there were friendly and down-to-earth. (They were incredibly welcoming of me even when I was just a senior in college, and gave me more autonomy to see and examine ophtho patients than I was given on one of my away rotations at a top-10 ophtho program as a senior medical student.) I got the impression that they really care about teaching and mentoring. I got to hang out with a fourth year medical student who was doing an away rotation there, and she was hoping to end up at UAB for residency. I know someone else that did residency at UAB, and he had nothing but good things to say about his training experience.
(Some of this info could be a little dated, I doubt things have changed too much, but it has been a few years since I was hanging out at UAB back in college.)
