<p>How is life at UT Dallas for...</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Someone from out of state and fully out of the region? Do most freshman come from Texas and continue high school friendships and relationships?</p></li>
<li><p>What is the minority presence like on campus...visible, barely around, self segregated...???</p></li>
<li><p>It is a suitcase campus where people head home on weekend or one that has a lot of options and involvement from students?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks-
HSG</p>
<p>1) I am a freshman and from what I’ve seen a lot of the people I have met come from Texas. I myself am rooming with 2 of my friends in high school and I know other people who knew each other before coming but that doesn’t stop them from getting to know more people and making new friends. As long as you’re active you’ll be fine.
2) Very visible, UTD is a diverse campus with many different people coming from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds. UTD also has a lot of international students and I always see them hanging out at the student union or elsewhere. Apparently we have a multicultural center too that does different cultural events even though I havent attended any.
3) The school tries to throw activities for residents but the ones I’ve been to havent been that great. They threw a lot of events the first few weeks but thats sort of tapering off and the events werent those huge events that everyone tells you to go to. That said they are still fun and a good way to meet people. Im only a freshman so I don’t know about every event yet, just the ones i’ve seen thrown so far, but I hear if you become active in a lot of clubs they throw really fun events. I live in the freshmen LLC dorms and its sort of a mix, one weekend a lot of people may decide to visit home and another a lot wont. My friend stays on campus usually and says that there are still people around and things to do.</p>
<p>Extremely diverse campus. Go to the student union and you’ll see more minority students than Caucasian students. Large international student body. Some international students do self-segregate but most undergraduates mix easily with each other across ethnic groups. My son has friends across all ethnic and national groups and across different majors. Although he is an engineering/CS major, he has friends from just about every other major on campus. </p>
<p>Dormitory experience is quickly expanding and improving. Some of the best dormitories in the country. No exaggeration. Dorms are safe, clean, great facilities, pleasant resident advisors, fun activities, great large atrium, etc. See: [University</a> Commons - University Housing - UT Dallas](<a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/housing/uc/]University”>University Commons - University Housing | The University of Texas at Dallas)</p>
<p>Homecoming events are examples of fun things to do on campus: <a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/homecoming/[/url]”>http://www.utdallas.edu/homecoming/</a></p>
<p>Lots of fun things to do in Dallas on weekends. Major museums and attractions. Also, nearby towns of Richardson and Plano and Frisco have many nice eateries in safe, pleasant suburban setting. Good athletic facilities. Fabulous new ATEC building hosts many interesting events that combine art with technology. <a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/[/url]”>http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/</a> and <a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/news/[/url]”>http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/news/</a></p>
<p>UTD has recently been attracting more students from out of state (everywhere from NY to California) so there is much more diversity. The generous scholarships, spacious on campus living environment and the new Honors College is contributing greatly to this.</p>
<p>I’m a current freshman.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I live in Texas, but from what I observe, OOS students don’t have much trouble finding friends – they just got to break out of their shell. The vast majority of the people here are from Dallas and the surrounding areas, so lots of the students continue old high school friendships, which felt pretty daunting.</p></li>
<li><p>Haha I honestly think Caucasians are the minority. In terms of diversity, UTD is the UCLA of TX; everywhere you look will have at least one minority student. It seems as though the internationals self-segregate quite a bit.</p></li>
<li><p>Yup. Not everyone, but a good number. The school has dorms for those who don’t commute, but the majority of students still commute, so community for the whole school lacks. The dorms, however, change that. I’ve developed close friendships with those in my residence hall – not much beyond that, but they’re friendships I value. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>In terms of things to do, honestly, not much. There could be SOME events on the weekends, but not a lot of people care for it. The vast majority of the weekends, however, are quiet. Almost all the shops and restaurants in the surrounding area are closed after midnight.</p>