<p>Still no response to post #12…</p>
<p>Inexpensive independent eateries (as opposed to every chain you could name), green space, good public transportation, trees, nightlife…sprawling campus…</p>
<p>I agree that the engineering program (thanks, TI) is becoming very strong. I just really like a more traditional college experience. If you don’t, then UTD might be fine.</p>
<p>^ Okay, thanks for the clarification.</p>
<p>UT Dallas sent us a lot of mail. It seems to remember one letter with an offer to pay for travel if we visited (we did not do so).</p>
<p>Wow! Are you a National Merit Finalist to be offered to pay for visiting the campus? Clearly there is a lot of interest in you. Congratulations!</p>
<p>Anyone know if UT Dallas sponsors a sleep over night or week-end for prospective and/or accepted students? Since my son is so interested in this school, I was thinking if he were accepted, to go back and stay over night in the dorm or university apartment and see what it is like to go there, travel there by himself before commitment.</p>
<p>Many thanks to all the kind parents who sent messages to me about UT Dallas. My son wants to apply there. I also suggested that he go to school closer to home (Towson or Salisbury), work and then head to UT Dallas for grad school if he wants to move to Dallas.
I explained that if he goes to college in Dallas, he will end up in Texas and unlikely to find a job close to home. From my experience, employers tend to hire locally.</p>
<p>I saw this and thought you might be interested in the blog and the comments (alums and current students) that follow it.</p>
<p>[A</a> Blur of a Senior Year, and Now Focused on Dallas - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/envelope-ferdinand-6/]A”>A Blur of a Senior Year, and Now Focused on Dallas - The New York Times)</p>
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<p>I would contact admissions and ask about overnight visits.</p>
<p>mdcissp, the worry that a child will settle far from home goes with the territory no matter what school they attend. I do think that getting hired in the DFW area would provide more opportunity to transfer “back home” later than going to school in some other parts of the country. Big corporations have offices all over the place.</p>
<p>I know some kids who are at UT-Dallas and are very happy. One is a McDermott Scholar (is that what it’s called?). Sounds like a fantastic program. I think if your child were awarded that kind of deal, it would be difficult to pass up. The other boy I know who is there is a baseball player. He was really bright, skipping a grade early on. His dad tells me he’s really happy with his choice.</p>
<p>When we visited, we were less than impressed (other than those fabulous “dorms”!), but we were looking for the more traditional college experience. One thing I found weird was that there was no info session, just a tour led by a student. No institutional presence to sell the place. That made me feel like they weren’t ready to play in the “big leagues” in terms of attracting the avg college-bound student. But, hey, there are plenty of bright kids wanting to go there so I guess they don’t need us average Joes. ;)</p>
<p>Sounds like it might be a great fit for OP’s ds and definitely worth a visit. Good luck.</p>
<p>We have visited UT Dallas and went on the student tour. Thought the apartment housing was the nicest we ever saw. The business school was new, spacious and filled with light.
Excellent academic programs. My son also likes the leisure facilities-pool tables, basketball courts, etc.–there was a laid back feel to the place. We saw the chess club that meets on Friday afternoon. It was an excellent fit.</p>
<p>Speaking from personal experience, it is very hard to get a job out of state unless you are an internal transfer within a company. It looks like graduates have an easier (although not so easy in today’s economy) time getting a job locally in the state where they graduate.</p>
<p>My concerns with UT Dallas: few Jewish activities, perhaps the level is too high with all of these high academic performers there, far from home, and not sure if there are any campus activities on the week-ends.</p>
<p>Enjoyed reading the nice senior year article about the boy going to UT Dallas. He sounds like a great student. Thanks for posting. But this is my point: here is a boy taking 6 AP tests and getting a full scholarship to UT Dallas. My son is bright and hard working, but signed up for 1 AP class. UT Dallas is getting some very outstanding kids and I wonder if there will be some stiff academic competition there.</p>
<p>I see your concern, but that kid got a full ride, and surely not every kid is getting a full ride. The blogger is a top student for them. </p>
<p>What are your ds’s stats? Here’s UTD’s Common Data Set. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/ospa/stats/documents/CDS2009-10.pdf[/url]”>http://www.utdallas.edu/ospa/stats/documents/CDS2009-10.pdf</a></p>
<p>The 25-75% SAT range is pretty big – 1080-1350. Not everyone there is a super genius.</p>
<p>Is there a Jewish association on campus? Did you ask?</p>
<p>We asked about Hillel at UT Dallas. Rep said the kids meet with Hillel at SMU. SMU is really far if you don’t have a car. Said they might start a Hillel at UT Dallas-nothing 100% sure at time of inquiry this past spring.</p>
<p>Not sure if UT Dallas requires higher test scores and GPA for OOS.</p>
<p>Graduation rate is a little lower than I like. I think this reflects the possibility that UT Dallas is a very hard academically challenging school.</p>
<p>MD- check out that grad rate before you conclude that it’s due to academics. In general, higher grad rates correlate to more demanding academic programs (even though this may seem counter intuitive.) It reflects the college readiness of kids who attend more demanding colleges, the commitment of those colleges to make sure that kids who have academic or social or medical issues can still graduate on time, the better resources devoted to tutoring and academic counseling, etc.</p>
<p>If you anticipate that your son is going to need a lot of support you may want to probe further on UT Dallas to make sure the resources are there and that the school is willing to provide them. It is not a school known for a lot of hand-holding and your son will be far from home.</p>
<p>Or it might reflect the lack of a more traditional college experience and therefore lots of transfers. The 84% retention rate is a little low but perhaps not that surprising for what is largely a commuter college. That’s my perception; I don’t know the numbers. I’d be curious to know the percentage of students who live on campus. On our tour, I didn’t get the sense that it’s a lot. Dallas-area kids may start there and then decide to go to a Dallas community college to save money.</p>
<p>If an active Jewish life is important to your ds, and he has no car – well, that would be a major concern. Yes, SMU is quite a haul from UT-Dallas. There’s a light rail station near SMU, but I’m not sure there’s one by UTD.</p>
<p>I am currently a MBA student at UT Dallas and have been on campus for about 2 years now.
Here are some observations:
- UT D is transforming from a smallish public step child of UT Austin into a full fledge University. It has been granted almost on limited money by the state as it was recognized that Dallas is a major city but has no major University. UT decided that it would fill the bill (SMU is considered to have limited ability to grow due to location and funding).
- UT D plans to increase enrollment dramatically during the next few years and will wind up in the 24,000 range.<br>
- UT D is one of the only UT sister schools (UT Arlington, UT El Paso etc) which does not take U T Austin overflow from the first two years (take first two years at UT sister and then finish at UT Austin). The reason is not academic, but a decision to elevate UT Dallas to a prestige similar to UT Austin.
4. The Campus is undergoing a major transformation with the recent planting of over 100,000 mature trees. A central walkway with fountains, bridges and vegitation is under contruction as a focus for the campus. Major new building construction is occuring on the edges of campus.
5. Most UT D students receive financial aid and given the low tuition rates essentially go to school for free.
6. Campus life has improved dramatically as on campus housing has increased over the past few years. The Dorms are better than most private schools.
7. Transportation is available to the METRO (light rail) which is nearby which goes to Dallas and connects with rail and buses to other locations.
8. The University provides its students with heavily discounted tickets to Pro Sports (except Cowboys), The Opera House, Dallas Orchestra, Museums, as well as other cultural events.
9. If you have 600 on each SAT you are admitted to UT D automatically if you are a Texas Resident (skipping the paragraphs, decision process of other schools)</p>
<p>UT D has great professors, limited size classes and largely new facilities.</p>
<p>It is a great value for the money</p>
<p>rads4cure, thanks for the info. Any idea what percentage of kids live on campus?</p>
<p>It is still largely a cummuter school and the Jewish population is going to be very small. There is a high transfer rate and lower graduation rate due to the (still) lack of a traditional college experience. A lot of kids decide UT Austin or Tech (or A&M) would be more interesting and offer a lot more.<br>
I am truly glad it is a good fit for some and it IS a good option for an MBA for a Dallas resident in the workforce. Don’t try to make the place out to be more that it is, though. SMU is somewhat weak (very) in the science/math areas with vitually no engineering, so the TI folks decided to beef up UTD. It’s getting there.</p>
<p>My young adult lived in the new freshman residence hall - along with 399 other freshmen. Other freshmen choose the freshman on-campus apartments. I know that the residence hall had a waiting list and those on the waiting list had the option of the freshman on-campus apartments. So 400 + a goodly number of apartment freshman live on campus and eat at the dining hall. Looking at the stats listed by Youdon’tsay in post #32 well over a third of freshman students live on campus and eat at the dining hall. My daughter did not have a car, but rarely felt the need to leave campus. She did not come home weekends and always had something to do. On-campus activities cost nothing for students - and students have a free pass for public transportation.</p>
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<p>Actually the founders of TI were instrumental (in the 1960s) in the founding of UT Dallas, which has worked its way downward from graduate level to undergraduate.</p>
<p>I’m just going to jump in here and say that the idea of sending my freshman off to a college out in the 'burbs and telling him to find transportation to the metro light rail station so that he can get a ride to SMU’s Hillel doesn’t sound like a great idea to me. Plus I know Dallas pretty well, and even if my child had a car, I can’t think of two schools with less in common, culturally and personality-wise, than UTD and SMU.</p>
<p>That just doesn’t sound like a very good plan.</p>