<p>My son is very much interested in UT Dallas. Any current feedback about this school is very much appreciated. For example, do your kids like this school? How are the academics?
We visited this school and saw so many great things about it.</p>
<p>It is strong in science and math. There are a lot of commuting students and I am not at all impressed with the campus life. It is a pretty ugly campus, in my opinion. There is some good merit money available.</p>
<p>MoWC’s assessment sounds fairly accurate, but if you visited and liked it the campus is obviously not an issue in your case. They have pretty decent employment/recruitment statistics for STEM fields and business.</p>
<p>The on campus housing is all apartment style - and relatively new. UT Dallas also gives great scholarships, from what I’m told. We live about a mile away and several kids from d’s high school class are attending - mostly for math/science related majors but some for theatre, psychology, etc. Their biggest sport is the chess team! The neighborhood is very safe and lots of shopping and restaurants - but they would definitely need a car.</p>
<p>It’s a very bland, suburban, flat north Dallas neighborhood. B O R I N G.<br>
Visiting and liking the campus is a different deal from living there and discovering that the place empties out on weekends and there is little to do.<br>
In my view UTD is an economic choice or a good place for an older student who is working.</p>
<p>my son applied to UTDallas and was a semifinalist for the McDermott (didnt get it) but did get academic honors scholarship that left only a minimal amount to pay. ( if given even 1K in merit, UTDallas will reduce tuition to instate level) While it originally started as a phd level school it now offers all levels. I think they are making a great effort to build on the campus feel with the new dorms, dining hall etc. I was impressed with the stats of the students accepted to UTDallas. And the people we met with were all wonderful. If you go to the utdallas forum in the college section, look for poster named ignatius…a wonderful poster that could give you alot of information .</p>
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<p>Wow, Dallas is boring? Where do you live? I used to live near Dallas (in my 20’s) and I loved it. We also toured UT-D. My son wanted a large school with D1 sports, so it wasn’t really a contender, but we were passing right by it and took the tour. The housing was very nice. The technology seemed very interesting (lots of robotics/computer clubs/activities). There are some sports and on-campus events.</p>
<p>I guess if you’re looking for a huge social life you might be disappointed, but if you’re going mainly to get a degree and can qualify for merit money - why not consider it?</p>
<p>My son stayed at a 3 week residential summer program at UTD a couple of years back. I told my husband as we were driving away after dropping son off that I would have clinical depression if I had to live on that campus for four years.</p>
<p>It is flat, ugly and smack in the middle of a suburb north of Dallas. Lots of strip shopping centers around it. Few to no trees and surrounded by lots of parking lots.</p>
<p>^^^ What givings said. Dallas itself is not boring. The area around UTD would be boring for a typical college student. I appreciate the efforts the school (and Texas Instruments) has gone to to build up the technology fields there, and I am sorry to be so negative, but this is simply not the ideal college experience.</p>
<p>I have young adults attending UT Dallas. Both spent weekends on campus. I just asked my daughter (home between summer sessions) to respond to:</p>
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<p>She says that she has the opportunity to party more than she’d ever be interested in doing. On the other hand, one of her guy friends wants more, more, more. She says it depends on the student how much is enough in a weekend. </p>
<p>Dallas is quite a large city with everything that entails. I live in a suburb of Houston, but still consider all that Houston offers part of what I do and where I go. UT Dallas students look at Dallas the same way. My kids go to concerts at large and small music venues. The State Fair draws people from all over TX. Movies and restaurants abound close enough - I could go on, but you get the idea. I have to say though that my daughter seemed content with the on-campus goings-on most of the time. The on-campus housing truly is the best we saw anywhere.</p>
<p>Oldest child now attends UT-Austin (graduate school) and nobody lives on campus. Austin is a college town, but just the size can overwhelm. She actually found friends and activities easier at UTD.</p>
<p>However if you’re looking for a school that rallies around a sports team, look elsewhere.</p>
<p>Fixed it for ya 
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<p>My own two cents…UT-D serves an important niche in Texas higher education by seeking out and rewarding serious students in certain fields who for a variety of reasons don’t want or need or desire a more traditional residential campus life. It serves that population very well. </p>
<p>It also serves a commuter population for whom location is paramount. </p>
<p>When my D was looking for an IS option, we found the McDermott Scholars program at UT-D and were very impressed at what it provided at the time.</p>
<p>@MoWC: I absolutely agree that a strong commuter culture might be a detractor, but what amenities are so crucial to a college student that are not available in a typical suburban area?</p>
<p>My son loves the apartment style housing and the laid back activities-basketball courts, pool tables and chess club. It has a sense of lack of social pressure. Loved the new, spacious Business school. My only real concerns are: no family in the area (OOS), few Jewish activities, if any (we’re Jewish), and are these serious students hyper competitive?
It was obvious that my son would easily make friends in the chess club which is a nice beginning. He does not want sports, football, Greek Life, drinking, and that sort of thing.
He is just happier reading his books, wholesome activities, enjoying some reasonable ethnic restaurants, and not too stressful an environment. I could see him thriving at UT Dallas, but he is a B plus student, works very hard, and I don’t know if these other kids are brains at UT Dallas because it is a much lower cost school in state.</p>
<p>There are certainly some bright kids there, but most of the in-state “brains” are elsewhere.
He isn’t going to find a huge Jewish population there, either.<br>
Sounds like it might be a good fit for him since he doesn’t seem to care about the activities that are often important to college students.</p>
<p>Actually the north Dallas/Richardson area where the school is located has a huge Jewish population. I would be surprised if there weren’t a significant Jewish population at UT Dallas.</p>
<p>I would be surprised if there were. There IS a Jewish population in that part of town, but anyone who says it is “huge” has not lived in the northeast. I can assure you that the North Dallas Jewish population is not attending UT Dallas. My kids went to school with many of them.</p>
<p>Football weekends held little allure for my kids. None wanted to go the sorority/fraternity route. Size of school mattered: none of mine liked the size of UT-Austin or A&M.</p>
<p>I can honestly say that our particular in-state high schools “brains” scattered every which way - in state, out of state, public, private, large, small - and yes, I include UT-D in that mix. The only thing in common was the lack of commonality. </p>
<p>The on campus apartments are really nice, but my daughter recommends the dorms for the first year. Easy to get to know other freshmen - but you still have your own room.</p>
<p>Students - while strong - are not negatively hyper-competitive - again, according to daughter - who I guess would be considered an in state “brain” :). (By the way, she just laughed at that description.)</p>
<p>not all kids want the football, greek scene etc. sounds like op’s student could do very well at utdallas!! i would think a solid B+ student wouldnt have any problem. I think it is great that your son is confident in himself with his activities that he likes!! for every school out there, there will be some that love it and others that hate it…best thing is to go with how he feels about it.</p>
<p>Just know that there isn’t a bit of a “college town” feel. Yes, there is a lot to do in Dallas (although the school is pretty far north)…but a student has to drive on the highways and branch out into the city to do things. I don’t get the feeling that there are neighborhood bars, restaurants and stores that cater to the college crowd.</p>
<p>An interesting effect of the top 10% rule has been the strengthening of satellite campuses, especially Dallas and San Antonio. While UT-D does resemble a suburban office park, I would say that their Engineering program is one of the strongest in the state (behind UT and Rice, arguably on a par with A&M). Definitely a university to watch.</p>