Son accepted at all three as a freshman. Wondering if it’s harder to differentiate oneself at UT if you aren’t in Turing honors. UT has CS “pods” but no LLC for CS and seems more impersonal. Purdue has CS LLC, TAMU has engineering village. At Purdue all CS students seem to start on an even playing field since there is no program like Turing and at TAMU he would be in honors. Just wondering how much at a disadvantage a student is to not be in Turing at UT. He will start register probably with sophmore standing because of already having college credit for Calc 1, 2, 3, Discrete math and 2 CS Java classes, plus APs. Looking at academics, community and internship, research opportunites this seems a hard decision. Appreciate any thoughts.
I can’t speak for CS but my daughter had the same choices for engineering and she would’ve picked Purdue. She felt UT would offer no flexibility if she even slightly changed her mind and the engineering program at TAMU seems full of issues with 25x25 initiative.
@carachel2 Yes, I’ve heard the engineering programs vary a lot in their flexibility. CS is in the college of science at UT and Purdue so they are more flex in terms of more electives choices within their CS because they don’t have all the first year engineering courses required at TAMU and other Eng programs. He won’t be changing majors so no concern about that. He has know he wanted to do CS since 8th grade-lol.
Does he have direct admission to the CS major at UT Austin?
You don’t know that. It should always be a consideration. Sometimes it is by choice sometimes not.
@ucbalumnus he has entry level admission to CS which means as I understand it that he has to pass 2 or 3 classes with a certain average to continue. He has already taken several of these at our state university with As so I don’t think moving forward will be an issue. @Eeyore123 yes it’s in the realm of possibility, so are a lot of things we can’t control for. My bigger concern and greater possibility is the scenario where he chooses a school that doesn’t provide the community or opportunities he is hoping for and he transfers schools, but not majors. I hear about a lot of kids switching schools lately and not because of their major.
All of these are good schools. Computer science is an employable degree out of college, so the school really isn’t going to matter. UT has an advantage to the other schools. Austin is a big hub for tech jobs, so there are good internship opportunities and job prospects out of college.
http://catalog.utexas.edu/undergraduate/natural-sciences/admission-and-registration/#themajorincomputerscience describes what someone in the CS pre-major / entry-level-major needs to do. Basically, complete 311, 312, 314 (or honors versions) with a minimum of 2.75 GPA and C- grade in each, and minimum 2.00 GPA overall.
@ucbalumnus thanks for the links. He aced 311 (discrete math) and 312 (Intro to programming) so it looks like he just needs to take Data Structures. Assuming the courses transfer. The advisor we met on our visit didn’t seem to think that would be an issue…
@COMom09 these are all good schools. 2 things I would think about in making a decision. Is he in state tuition at UT and TAMU? If so is it worth the extra money to go to Purdue?
2 What kind of campus feel is he looking for, I feel like they are 3 very different types of campus. I have a student at Purdue (BoilerUP!) It is a more rural campus. My Boiler's 2 best friends one attends UT Austin, the other TAMU. UT is obviously in the heart of a big city, campus is a little more spread out. TAMU maybe the in between of the 2 as far a more rural vs more urban. Also to consider do things on campus such as football matter?
Personally I think a campus visit might be necessary to make the decision. He will get a good education at any of them but where will he feel more comfortable and like he fits in?
@Boilermom He is OOS at all the schools, but he got 5K of merit at Purdue which makes it the least expensive at this point, unless TAMU comes through with $ or in-state tuition waivers. They are all in a similar ballpark for cost so I don’t see the decision hinging on that. Not expecting $ from UT. I’ve heard Purdue is more similar to TAMU as far as a rural feel. He visited Purdue two years ago and will be going for an admitted visit in a couple of weeks and going to TAMU as well (first time there) and revisiting UT. He didn’t have any preference for rural vs city at the time, but maybe revisiting now that he’s admitted will help him decide if that’s a factor. He’s been very focused on the specifics of the programs up to this point. And he liked the vibe at both Purdue and UT when he visited and thought the students were really friendly both places. I’m hoping the admitted student visits will make it really clear for him.
@COMom09 Best of luck, definetly hoping the visits will help. 1 last thing to think about as far as financials is that Purdue hasn’t raised tuition since 2012 so it will most likely remain the same for the entire 4 years you are there.
TAMU is rural but definetly a different vibe than Purdue. I don’t know how to explain it but definetly different.
Both are great schools hopefully your son will pick up on the vibe of the school that feels right for him when he visits.
^ wrt tuition, I’d figure the opposite: since tuition hasn’t been raised in so long I’d assume it’s going to be increased by a good chunk soon.
@MYOS1634 generally I could see why one would think this but current Purdue President Mitch Daniels has laid out a plan with no foreseeable raise in tuition. Now he has to get the board of trustees to vote on the tuition freeze every year but barring a drastic change in the universities situation I don’t see it happening soon. Currrently the tuition freeze is thru 2019.
I would look I. To how difficult it is to get in to the CS major at each school as well.
Love Purdue, but in your shoes I would lean UT-Austin so long as you feel confident he will progress/retain a seat in the major. Mainly Austin (and the tech there) would be the attraction.
Glad you are going back for admitted student events.
That being said, I don’t think you can really go wrong with Purdue CS either. Sounds like he has great options.
If you can afford it without parental loans, I’d pick UT CS even without Turing, especially since he sounds quite advanced. Also, look into Turing to see if there’s a way to get in later on.
@MYOS1634 the website says one can apply later and it recommends that he petition to take honors classes to help get in. I don’t know how viable that really is, but I’m going to encourage him to ask more about that with an advisor.