<p>givings, I thought the same thing about the difference between the two schools. Definitely a collegiate Odd Couple.</p>
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<p>I know that the bus connects to the metro light rail station, but I agree that it seems to be a hassle to have to go to SMU - and I also agree that the schools have little in common personality-wise.</p>
<p>I realize how negative I have sounded about UTD on here. I do think it serves a niche and I think certain students can find a place there…my son almost fits into that category. And yes, UTD is coming into its own with the science/math programs. But I am leery of the notion that it would be a very good college experience for many students. Not just because of its lack of sports, etc., but mostly because of its location. I would just look hard at what UTD offers its undergraduate students…which sounds like what the OP is doing.</p>
<p>I hope I haven’t sounded too negative. Like I said, I know kids there who are happy. The school gives good aid. The apartments are awesome. For the right kid, it could be a great place. And let me add that the UTD local reception by far had the best food – fajitas! Only college that served a complete meal. 
But even at that reception, ds didn’t feel like it was right for him, and the visit confirmed it.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your insight and info. about UT Dallas. Since you are a grad student, what are you finding in Dallas for jobs? Are recruiters coming to UT Dallas? I told my son if he went to UT Dallas, to expect to end up working and living in Dallas. Am I giving him the right advice? From what I can tell, with the large number of people looking for work, I think employers are staying local. My point to my son is if he goes to UT Dallas, he will probably end up in Texas and not see his parents that much on the East coast.</p>
<p>MD- the career center at UT should have a calendar by now of the companies recruiting this fall- both for full time jobs for the seniors, as well as the internships for the coming summer for the juniors. Although your son will be looking for a job many years from now, in general, recruiting calendars don’t vary all that much year to year. My company will trim here and there or knock off a university where we had low yield, and of course last year companies were cutting back recruiting targets… but by and large, the schedule ought to show you if the companies are primarily local ones hiring just for the Dallas Metroplex, or if the national companies are going there as well for positions in other geographies.</p>
<p>My company recruits at colleges all over the world… but we don’t recruit at UT Dallas so I can’t help you there with specifics.</p>
<p>To MDCISSP:</p>
<p>The job picture for MBA students was down for the class graduate in June 2007. I am told that this year the class did very well. We have multiple companies throughout the year recruiting business students.</p>
<p>I do not know about how the college graduates have done.</p>
<p>Dallas Fort Worth is adding approximately 100000 new residents per year and was the top growing area over the past 10 years. The unemployment rate is lower than the country and the texas average although I do not know the current figures.</p>
<p>Dallas is home to many fortune 500 companies as well as start up companies. The real estate field has suffered similiar to elsewhere but other fields are doing relatively well. The Dallas Fort Worth Area has been blessed with many government contracts in the past (particularly military) with major aviation manufacturing (lockheed, Bell, Boeing).</p>
<p>The cost of living is less than most areas of the country except for maybe Arkansas, Louisanna, Mississippi, and Kentucky. We have no state income tax.</p>
<p>There really is no answer for the Hillel problem. I suspect that over time a Hillel will be established at the University but the fact is there is not one there now. There are significant cultural differences between UT D and SMU so I don’t think that will be an answer. There are several active and relatively large Jewish communities in Richardson, Plano, and North Texas with active youth organizations.</p>
<p>There is no question that UT D is in the process of changing from a commuter school to a residential school. I have sat thru multiple meetings where the expansion plans have been discussed and they are ambitious. The school seems to have unlimited money which is coming directly from dedicated State Funds (Derived from Oil and gas revenue) so I do not expect any cuts in the future. Producing a first rate National Public University in Dallas is the Number One goal of the University of Texas system. </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>There’s considerable misinformation about SMU in this thread. First of all, SMU has a great, full-spectrum engineering school ([Bobby</a> B. Lyle School of Engineering - SMU](<a href=“http://www.smu.edu/lyle.aspx]Bobby”>Lyle Home | SMU Lyle School of Engineering)) with a rapidly rising national profile and state-of-the-art facilities, thanks to its terrific Dean and faculty, and SMU’s close association with many area firms who provide lots of internship and coop opportunities. Also, SMU has been expanding and building steadily even in the current economic environment, thanks to its billion-dollar endowment and the enormous generosity of its successful alums. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to compare a well-endowed private university with a 100-year history as a residential campus with a school like UT Dallas, which originated as a commuter grad school and is in the process of transforming to a more residential campus. UT Dallas has some great departments and has, like SMU and many other area entities, benefited from the support of Texas Instruments, so they are both interesting places to explore in the Dallas area–but they are apples and oranges at this point.</p>
<p>@mdcissp: [UT</a> Dallas Career Center - Statistics](<a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/career/statistics/]UT”>http://www.utdallas.edu/career/statistics/)</p>
<p>No one is putting down SMU. I am personally very familiar with the School and the Campus as I am a regular for the TATE Lecture series, have season football tickets, walk on campus essentially every day and attend numerous events there. </p>
<p>However that does not change the fact that the University of Texas wants to have a national university in Dallas and that it has more resources than SMU.</p>
<p>Please check the current US world and news report (available on the web) concerning the ranking of the business schools of each institution. UT D has essentially caught SMU despite being considerally younger. Other sections of the UT D are also rising quickly consistent with the goal (not yet achieved) of a nationally ranked public university in Dallas.</p>
<p>I also didn’t mean anything negative about SMU with my Odd Couple comment. After all, who’s to say who is better, Felix or Oscar? Just meant that they were very different places.</p>
<p>^I didn’t think anyone was putting down either SMU or UT Dallas, just that some posters were clearly misinformed if they were characterizing SMU as having “virtually no engineering”! And rad4cure, the fact that UT wants a stronger presence in Dallas doesn’t have much to do with SMU. UT Dallas is doing great and the UT system will be increasing funding for it as it continues its evolution toward a more diversified, more residential campus. But that has nothing to do with SMU or the other private universities in Texas. SMU’s engineering school looks to Rice as its model, especially since the current Dean (who holds three degrees from Rice engineering, and has implemented all kinds of unique, progressive initiatives at SMU) arrived several years ago. Incidentally: SMU has also been boosting its merit scholarship programs substantially in recent years, so students who worry that it may be out of reach financially should look into it. SMU offers the full residential college experience in a beautiful, safe part of the city with easy access to everything Dallas has to offer.</p>
<p>SMU really is a beautiful campus with a great location. Both my boys have done summer camps there and just loved it. Ds1 didn’t apply but maybe ds2 will!</p>
<p>I only mentioned SMU because I heard UT Dallas Jewish students go to SMU for Hillel. Hillel may start at UT Dallas this year, but I heard this as a possibility, do not know if this is going to happen now.</p>
<p>SMU feels more like a traditional Eastern school with old red brick buildings adjacent to a nice part of the city. UT Dallas is modern and in a suburb. The two schools have different atmosphere and certainly a very different price tag.</p>
<p>I don’t know how a UT Dallas student without a car would ever be able to participate in an SMU Hillel event.</p>
<p>I know this thread has gone cold but I would like to add the following.</p>
<p>According to US News and World Report, the graduate engineering program at UT D is now ranked fourth in Texas behind UT Austin, Texas A & M, and Rice. It has no surpassed SMU.</p>
<p>My son wants to apply to UT Dallas. This school would be a perfect fit if we were driving distance.</p>
<p>Have him visit the school in session if you have not already and see if it is for him. The facilities are nice for a public school.</p>
<p>If he is interested in business at all have him stop by the school of management. Both undergrad and grad students attend classes there.</p>
<p>UT Dallas’ new dorms are the nicest I have seen. They are really expanding to provide more amenities to kids who live on campus. I would still recommend a car, however, for weekends and shopping trips. It is Dallas, after all. (Funny story: We live near the campus and D was at Target yesterday. She reported “It must be move in day for UT Dallas. Target was full of nerds.” She meant it in the nicest possible way. Her dad is the ultimate nerd - video game designer and professor!)</p>
<p><a href=“Funny%20story:%20We%20live%20near%20the%20campus%20and%20D%20was%20at%20Target%20yesterday.%20She%20reported%20%22It%20must%20be%20move%20in%20day%20for%20UT%20Dallas.%20Target%20was%20full%20of%20nerds.%22%20She%20meant%20it%20in%20the%20nicest%20possible%20way.%20Her%20dad%20is%20the%20ultimate%20nerd%20-%20video%20game%20designer%20and%20professor!”>quote</a>
[/quote]
Thank you, that made me laugh :)</p>
<p>I was one of the nerd parents at Target this past week, buying cables so my son could hook up all his electronic stuff in his new dorm room. In replying to several of the comments in this thread: UTD was the perfect school for my son and he was accepted into Amherst, Lehigh, UTAustin and others. </p>
<p>First of all they recruit nerdy kids who have high SAT scores so most get a free ride and part of housing paid, which in the college game is not a bad deal (more later). If you have high SAT your application is free and you have guaranteed admission…so it started out as a safety school for us. Eventually I realized that the “campus experience” was not something of value to my son because he won’t leave the lab, LAN party, or other geeky research crowd group no matter which campus he’s on. </p>
<p>His roomate is Jewish and both my step parents are Jewish as are several of my best friends (we’re not) as well as my son’s best high school friend. You won’t feel different at UTD in my opinion, but if you want a religious experience at college go to a faith based school…here science is the religion. </p>
<p>I talked to Dean’s of top science schools (have access via my work) and looked at stats and UTD is the best blend of current expertise and future reputation in the state. UTD puts more physics grad students into UTAustin than Rice. UT Austin is the only school in the state that’s nationally ranked for physics graduate programs, but not freshman friendly. Housing sucks and jocks rule. So we choose a career path that included a free undergrad education (no debt upon BS graduation) with nobel prize level faculty who actually teach classes themselves, the opportunity to do several strong specialties such as nano and particle physics (collaboration with Hadrion collider in Switzerland), and a clear track to PhD level programs…since that’s the strenght of UTD. </p>
<p>As for college life, the dorms are “sweet” and that’s where my son will live most of his life…or inside the brand new labs they just built. So we gave up ivy and trees (which I would have enjoyed) for sweet dorms, smart mentors and top research connections (which are what my son needed). After MIT (where he was not accepted but my step dad went there and another friend’s daughter who’s only an average B student with poor SAT scores was accepted to MIT too…easy for girls) this school shone unexpectedly in so many ways upon closer inspection. </p>
<p>In particular I found that the staff at UTD went out of thier way to nurture, support and assist my son in ways that I never expected or asked for. They bend over backwards to give attention to students at every turn. Not sure where that comes from but its something money could not buy and I have been blown away by the service attitude of every single person (housing, police, admissions, faculty, student services, etc.). They saw problems or opportunities long before I did and picked up the phone to call or walked over to find us and tell us how they could help my son…priceless. </p>
<p>In addition the Living Learning Community my son is enrolled in is for Computer Scientists and Engineers. They all live and do stuff together…can you spell c-o-n-n-e-c-t-i-o-n-s? When we moved into the dorm there were already over a dozen geeky kids in the 4th floor lounge area having a wireless LAN party and discussing strategies to conquer some new video game. Nerd heaven. Some large jock was watching football on TV lamenting to everyone who came by that “no one likes football here?” My son replied “Sorry, nerd dorm.” </p>
<p>Tomorrow’s world leaders will come out of groups like this and not from playing frisbee on some collegiate quad. But then I’m biased. </p>
<p>So I’m expecting that UTD will be a great school. We were offered scholarships 8 places, but this was the best overall value. Yes, they need more trees, but were planting about 800 of them last week and they will grow. Along with the half dozen state of the art brand new buildings this campus is taking shape and I expect good things to come. You can smell the future here. We were willing to bet on it’s success.</p>