@txsparty How would student rate level of difficulty at UTD in Math/Science? have you heard of any students struggling to maintain 3.0 GPA and up?
@2sunny - This question came up during McDermott Finalists weekend as scholarship recipients have a high GPA requirement (3.0 freshman year, 3.25 sophomore year 3.5 junior and senior year) A large percentage of the finalists are in STEM fields so there were certainly parents that were concerned about scholarship retention. We were told by administration that their retention rate is over 95% and that typically those who leave the program do so for reasons unrelated to GPA.
As far as GPA, the classes that my DD have taken as a freshman (but are sophomore level) in the CS field have been challenging but a 3.0 is definitely achievable. She is trying to keep a 3.5 in those classes, that is harder. The fact that they take + and - into considerations makes it harder. On the positive side, they do allow for test retake in those classes. You can take retake a test, not the same test but similar material, and potentially get half of the lost points back. They do this instead of curving grades. This puts the emphasis on knowing the material vs GPA and giving kids who put the effort in a chance to do better. I do not know if they do this in the premed area.
@2sunny MY DD is in the Business school so it may be different but she got a 4.0 in her first Calc class and is currently pulling a 4.0 in her second calc class. She took non AP calc in HS and she says that the teaching is significantly better at UTD and she understands it far better. She has not had any issue with grades even in BLAW Honors which has a reputation as a fun but challenging class. There are also math tutoring labs that are staffed by upper level students and very helpful if help with a concept is needed. They are just open come in and get assistance, not like a set office hours type of deal. She did not make the finalist cut for McDermott but is CV honors and business honors and the top level AES if that helps give some perspective. Just spoke to her last night and she is really enjoying the whole experience at this point.
Well, the first two Calc classes are pretty easy, to be fair. Same as HS. But a 4.0 sounds awesome.
Hi @4everEpical would you have any idea about the biomed. engineering, stream at UTD? I notice that Pre med and Cs are very popular at UTD but my S opted for and has been offered biomed. He is not on a premed track. Please share any info on this, thank you!
When we were looking into Biomed, UTD vs. CWRU, we thought the UTD was not that good in biomed, though there were some interesting research going on. In the end, we decided that UTD Biomed free ride wasn’t worth it (and CWRU at 35K/year was also not worth it). What you should do is go to the faculty page and see what each professor is researching on. And look at the news to see how much research funding UTD Biomed has received.
@getoveritnow may I ask which college you chose for Biomed that was definitely worth it?
@2sunny we didn’t. We chose UTD because of the free ride but chose a different major that was more employable coming out of UTD.