How does the academic rigor in Engineering compare to other flagship schools in Texas, such as Texas A&M? Is it significantly more difficult?
Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin have pretty comparable engineering programs in terms of rigor.
If one is more rigorous than another, it is not by much.
The biggest difference we saw between the two is that UT Austin accepts straight into the major while Texas A&M requires you to start in general engineering and then you are accepted into your major later.
Graduate well from either leads to many career options and recruitment. Not sure about A&M, but UT has a clear weed-out process the first semester. Be ready for that and persevere.
@EngPII In your opinion what are the “weed-out” courses for engineering?
I can only speak to EE major, but may be similar across the competitive UT Engineering School. The first semester EE course that all majors have to take–that’s the weed out course. Possibly the required first semester CS course as well. The prof of the EE course told the students on the first day to look around the room, because half the students may not be in EE next semester. The average test score for the first test in my son’s class was 46–46/100. Testing the will, fortitude and study skills to persevere in order to keep EE in the US Top 10 ranking for the major.
For UT and many state schools, the performance metric of 4-year graduation rate is probably the other driver to weed out early those students who can transfer to other majors and still graduate within 4 years.
My student currently at UT heard stories about “weed out classes”, but what she has learned is that if you make a full effort, show up at class, go to study groups, use TA hours and go to prof hours, keep up with homework, etc you can succeed in the classes and that the professors want you to succeed. BUT, you do have to make a full effort. The professors said they don’t intentionally weed out anyone. You just need to learn to use your resources.
Hi,
Can we complete the weedout subjects in Community college before we start the college? Like Physics or Calculus…
“If you come to the realization that the class is a weed-out class, you’re the one being weeded out,” -reddit comment
I think that weed-out classes are just regular classes but because it is your first time seeing a full blown college course, it’s tempting to call it a weedout someone check me on that. Latter classes aren’t considered weedout because you are forced to develop effective study skills already.
@NotSoPatient, well said. One of UT’s challenge is the State Law, which Admiral McRaven and President Fenves would change if they could: the top 10% law restricts the school’s ability to attract the world’s top talent with only 10% from OOS and International. Texas is a wealthy system that generates revenue with its oil field leasing and strong state support, unlike other states like California and Illinois. Texas is also one of the most populous states–indeed a destination state–so it has a large and growing student pool, unlike other states.
Bottom line is that allowing the top 8% of the state HS ranking, you have to encourage students in engineering quickly through work ethic, resources and personal resolve. Being in the nation’s top 10 in engineering is a feat that needs to be engineered in order to be maintained. UT does this as well as it can, given the constraints.
I somewhat argue against taking “weedouts” at a CC because the CC doesn’t cover the advanced variations of topics. I you can compare practice midterms from UT and your local CC by doing a little bit of Googling. From what I see, a local CC covers less topics and they are less in-depth than that of a university course. I do expect upper division courses at UT to assume the full (or most) understanding of all advanced topics in the lower division courses.
My current Longhorn said that classes that apply to your major MUST be taken at UT. Classes that are core reqs and don’t apply to your major may be taken at a CC. They also advise students not to claim AP credits for classes within their major. So for example, a biochem major can claim AP macro for a core req, but should not claim AP Chem and should plan to take Chem at UT.