Planning on majoring in computer science, like a lot of people I see post on these forums. I live in Austin. I got screwed over by UT’s top 7% rule and their computer science, and got offered CAP. I’m deciding not to do CAP because it only guarantees Liberal Arts and Undergraduate Studies, and for any other major I’d still have to compete, and I would only be taking core pre-requisites anyways so I might as well go to ACC.
However, I am in the top 10%, so I could go anywhere else I want, but I didn’t apply to A&M (I regret it now). UT and A&M are the only schools in TX I would consider going for computer science.
HOWEVER, I also heard UT Dallas has a fairly strong computer science program as well, but it’s in Richardson and I doubt my parents will let me go that far, they don’t really want me to just “in case I need them for anything.” I would be alone if I went there, but I pay a lot of attention to the prestige of the school I’d go to and if I went here, I wouldn’t have to transfer.
On the other hand, with ACC I could save a lot of money, and strive for a 3.9+, I just don’t know how easy/hard it is to transfer. If I go to ACC, I’d stay for 2 years, get an Associates, and then try to transfer to UT or A&M.
I don’t know, what do you guys suggest?
I have two kids at UT Dallas. They do have a strong CS program. My husband recruited CS majors from UTD when we lived up there. He thought they had a strong program.
From what I have heard, it is very hard to transfer into the CS program at UT Austin, so I don’t know that you would be able to transfer in after getting your AS at ACC. You might try talking to a transfer counselor at ACC to see if they can give you something more definite.
My kids did dual credit classes at ACC. The only courses they took that did not transfer to UTD were the computer science courses. Those transferred as electives. They took the basic CS course for non-CS majors.
Did you apply to UT Dallas? If not, you might as well go ahead and try it. They are still considering students for the AES scholarship up through March 31, so if you haven’t already applied, you should do it right now.
As far as distance goes, Dallas isn’t that far. It generally takes 3.5-4 hours to get to UTD from Austin, although it has been as long as 5 hours on two occasions when there were wrecks in between here and there.
You should also know that there is shuttle bus that runs between UTD and UT Austin weekly. The round trip is $55. http://www.utdallas.edu/services/transit/express/
Even without a car, you’d be able to visit home as often as you’d like. $55 for the round trip isn’t too bad considering how much it would cost you in gas to drive it.