They just released a new campus master development plan. www.utdallas.edu/masterplan/download/Campus_Master_Plan_Update_20181210.pdf
It doesn’t look like the building is going to stop any time soon!
Thanks for sharing @gtaustin - it looks like a lot of positive changes. It’s hard to get people to understand that if they are not seen UTD in 5 years - they are really not talking about the same school. The graphic drives it home - they have more than doubled their undergraduate population in the last 10 years - seemingly without lowering their standards. And they have added the needed infrastructure (dorms) to support the growth.
I did my first school visit about 7 years ago. It is remarkable all the changes that have occurred. I’m just wondering where they are going to put the 2 new art museums.
Pages 32 and 36 of the pdf shows at least one.
I be that changes, now that there is 2 museums. It seems to make more sense to put them north by the Events Center and Dart Station.
It’s even harder to get people to understand who knew UTD 20+ years ago lol!!! Back in the 90’s when I graduated from high school UTD was the most boring and depressing campus ever. Being a local, born and raised in Dallas, it just floors me when I drive by, or drive through the campus!
I keep seeing people posting that it’s a boring/commuter school. I think the percent of students living on campus is now is near what UT and TAMU have. But that was not the case 5 years ago. I get people in the DFW area knocking it - they can’t help seeing it for what it was. And there is frequently a bias against local. (If you live in Lubbock or Houston - wanting to go places other than Tech and UH respectively)
Maybe I had extremely low expectations when I toured the campus - but I was impressed. It did not feel cold and sterile. It was warm and inviting, even on a rainy day.
If you want a school that rallies behind a football team on the weekends - then UTD is not for you. But there is still a ton of stuff to get involved in.
My in-laws got their masters degrees there eons ago and they have a hard time understanding why my DD is there for her undergrad. If they go back now, they would understand.
What impressed me on my first tour was the facilities. I had toured many older, larger public institutions and the facilities at UTD just was night and day to them. At other schools, I had been shown engineering rooms that had a blackboard with 6 foot tables and metal chairs and that was what they were highlighting on their campus tours. No audio/visual, no plugs and the chairs uncomfortable. Almost everything at UTD is new and with modern conveniences and you can’t beat the dorms. I became a fan then.
@BlueBayouAZ I should have expanded on my post…I am very impressed with what UTD has become. In the past 5-6 years I’ve had 5 cousins finish undergrad from there, my nephew and 4 more cousins are currently studying there and hopefully my own son will applying to UTD in a couple of years. It is an impressive campus with a great name…and even though it started out with the reputation of a boring commuter campus, I haven’t heard any complaints from current students there right now.
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I am happy to be seeing all of this great stuff about UTD. My d20 has it on her list.
Oh I got what you were saying @Momof3B - I had a very similar experience when touring UT with by dad in 84. I got into UT (dad had a Chem Engineering degree from there and bled orange) - but because of my class rank I would have had to go to summer school. I was all set to do it. But when we toured the campus - UT was MUCH larger than when my dad was there in the late 50s. He could not see sending his 17 year old daughter off to a school that large. I ended up going to a school with about 12,000 students, with the intention of transferring my junior year. But I liked my school so much I never transferred.
Be aware that there are some big differences between a school that is growing incredibly fast and a school that already knows how to be large. There are definitely some growing pains, including a lot of new professors who have never taught before as well as inexperienced advisors. UTD can work for a student who is assertive and not too easily stressed, but may not be a good choice for others.
@TxMom222, you are right UT Dallas has had remarkable growth and with that will come issues. My DD has had good teachers and poor teachers but isn’t that the way of the world. She had that in HS. At least now, there is ranking of professors that lets you know what you are getting into and she makes the choices, not the school. As far as her advisers, they have done everything they could to help her. She has had to wait to see them but the advising has been good. Also, isn’t teaching kids to be assertive, advocates for themselves and to take control of their future part of the college experience. You’re right, it may be overwhelming but it necessary for them to develop those skills before they are truly on their own.
Also, historically large schools also have significant problems. Just this week, I read that UT Austin messed up the admissions process. Somebody in administration switched up the ranking system between the more and less desirable admissions and sent out CAP notices to the students they wanted to admit and sent admittances to some students that they really didn’t. I don’t know how they are going to correct this without revoking admissions. I’ve also read that UT CS students cannot get into any CS elective classes because they do not have the faculty or the facilities. There are problems everywhere. I’ve always been impressed with UTD because they actually try to fix them versus just let the students deal with them.
@TXmom222 My oldest attends OU and I think we can all agree that it’s an older, larger University. She’s in the Honors program so has access to special advisors and she’s still been given misinformation like making her take two physic labs (without the classes) because she had AP credit for the Physics classes but the advisor insisted she had to take the labs, which turned out not to bet the case, what a waste of time! She also dropped her meteorology/comp sci double major down to a meteorology major with a comp sci minor because she’s found the comp sci teachers at OU to be very poor. It seems that it’s hard for universities of all sizes and ages to get and keep great STEM teachers because they are so much in demand in the work force. UTD seems to be addressing this problem by offering many evening STEM classes which allow the professors to stay in the work force (keeping their skills up to date and still teach). Personally I think it’s a good solution and something that’s doing able in the Dallas area but not that practical for Norman, OK!
Even though a school is experiencing growth, it doesn’t necessarily mean the professors and staff are inexperienced. I would be interested in seeing the source data behind this statement.
I do think that as a rule - growth or not - you will always have people complaining about professors and advising.
Hell, I discovered that you could get a BS degree in communications instead of a BA at my school back in the 80s. It just required 1 computer class and 2 additional 101 type science classes - so 4 science classes total. My chemical engineer dad could not believe that I could get a BS degree without any advanced science. But he looked at the degree plan too - and I decided to go for it. The lady where you file the degree plan tried to refuse to write it up “because as long as I have worked here - people end up changing their minds and I have to retype the plans up (this was pre-word processing computers).” I had to argue - So you complete a lot of degree plans for people on track for a double major and a minor - who have never taken less than 17 hours and had one semester of 21 hours? She typed up the darn degree plan.
Come graduation - there were 3 columns of probably 100 BA degrees. And then me with my own separate section as the only BS degree in the Applied Arts and Science department. My dad was floored. As someone who felt a BS degree was more valued - he could not believe other people did not get it - when it was so easy to obtain.
And when working on my master’s thesis - I learned to NEVER hand my revisions to my three advisors at the same time. I made the mistake of doing that once - and two of my committee members were very different. And they made exact opposite changes. I eventually learned how to take it to one - then the second - and then have the chair sign off.
We’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen of UT Dallas, so far. My son has been accepted to the computer engineering program. He’s very interested in robotics. Has anyone had experience with robotics at UT Dallas? I’m interested in knowing about the classes, research, internships and career opportunities.
Unfortunately, I do not have specific knowledge about robotics and CE. My DD started in CS and transferred to Cognitive Science. Her roommates have been in premed. CS is in the engineering dept there vs CNS so my DD did have some experience with the engineering dept. The classes were like other schools. Some good professors, some not so good. Use Rate my Professor to determine the better professors. She did find that all TAs were helpful and the professors did keep and encourage students to come to office hours. There was a lot of outside help as well - math lab, CS lab, other students. There did not seem to be a weed out philosophy but the opposite. A lot of help but you do have to reach out for it.
There is a lot of research opportunities. The student does need to initiate the process. The student needs to show interest by talking to the professor that is doing the research and things will go from there. In her experience, the professor would talk about the skills needed, whether the student had the skills and if not, how they could develop the knowledge or the skills. They are looking for students to do research but they want a time commitment and a certain level of expertise.
Students are expected to do internships. There is a separate career fair just for engineering. Many companies are there. I have heard of students getting internships from the fair. My DD has gotten her internships thru linked in. She goes to the career fair to get contact info but send in resumes thru online platforms. For the first internship after the sophomore year, she did have to send out 20 applications and did get a couple of responses. She did get a very good offer for being the first and she was the youngest there. It was her level to Master’s students from A&M. After the summer, they immediately extended another offer for this summer and was willing to work with her on a different location. I think that speaks well for UTD.
As far as career opportunities, they are there. UTD is very well respected regionally and is getting more recognition on the west coast. Probably not so much on the east coast. I do know there are many jobs for CEs in Austin and UTD is well respected. Graduate with a good GPA, with research and internships - getting a well paid job will not be an issue.
I hope this answers your questions. UTD has been a great school for my DD. The student does need to show initiative but the opportunities are there and accessible to all.
UTD is well on its way to becoming the UCSD of TX.
Their stated goal is UC Berkley and UCSB. @PurpleTitan