<p>I like U of H's diversity, it seems like a good school, and isn't that expensive...especially since I'm in the top 10% and have a high GPA, which means I'll get scholarships. The problem is that I keep seeing mixed reviews on it the school. What's your opinion on the University of Houston? I go to a dual credit high school where I finish the last two years of high school while getting two years worth of college credit, so when I go to a 4 year college I'll only be there for two years and I really want to get away from the Dallas area.</p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>You can get a very good education at UH but it’s not UT. UH is much more ethnically, economically, and age diverse. Over a quarter of it’s undergraduates are going to school part-time compared to less than 10% for UT and over 20% are over the age 25 with hardly any over 25 at UT. UH also has twice the transfer in rate compared to UT. 38% of UH undergrads have Pell Grants compared to only 27% for UT. This makes for a very different student population, one which is likely to take longer to graduate if they graduate at all. </p>
<p>However, since you’ll be going into pretty much upper-division classes, your experience will be different depending on your major. And being in Houston, UH has some great opportunities especially in engineering, medicine, and science not to mention business in general. I know some students prefer UH to UT simply because of the availability of the arts and the cultural diversity of Houston. If you go to UH, it can be less of a “traditional” college experience compared to other schools. However, it will be up to you to make the most of the available resources. It’s not that you can’t get a good education at UH, it’s just that outside of certain majors, you are going to have “prove” yourself more which really shouldn’t be difficult to do.</p>
<p>My major will either be Finance, Marketing, or Accounting.</p>
<p>[Houston</a> Texas Bauer College of Business - UH](<a href=“Server Error | Bauer College of Business at UH”>http://www.bauer.uh.edu/)
Job prospective looks pretty good (accounting probably better than others)</p>
<p>We visited the school in October partly because my daughter would have received a full ride as a National Merit Finalist, and partly because its a very good school for science majors. </p>
<p>It sounds like you would be eligible for the Honors College. The Honors College has a very nice building that is attached to the library, and the honors students take about half of their classes with the regular population and half in the honors building. </p>
<p>Some of the dorms are very old, some are two years old, and one was opening in the fall of 2013. As an Honors student you would get first chance at the better dorms. The cafeteria is huge and nearly attached to the two year old dorm building.</p>
<p>The school is heavily commuter, but there are a few thousand students who live in the dorms.</p>
<p>The president of the university is fully committed to bringing the university up to a very high standard. Just reading her background and accomplishments gave me a good impression of the school.</p>
<p>If you get some scholarship money and enroll in the Honors College, I think that U of H can offer you a very good value.</p>
<p>Did you apply for the Terry Scholarship?</p>
<p>There is quite a bit of misinformation out there regarding the university’s commuter status. As a current UH student living on-campus, I can say that you will probably only feel as a commuter if you are one, and that those who inaccurately portray UH as a commuter school have little to no knowledge about what goes on here in Houston. </p>
<p>Let’s take a look at some facts. U.S. News & World Reports claims that the University of Houston has about 15% of its students that live on-campus. This sounds terrible until you can put it into perspective. What do I mean? Take a look at the University of Texas at Austin. Does this school ever get portrayed as a “commuter school” like Houston? No way! You’d expect their percentage of on-campus residents to be really high, but this school only boasts 19.4% of its students as on-campus residents. That’s a tiny 4.4% difference. So, please only refer to UH as a commuter school if you’re prepared to call UT one.</p>
<p>Here’s another fact. UH is building on-campus dorms as fast as it can to keep up with demand. The plan is to have over 25% of students living on-campus in the 5 years. It is common for students to be on a waiting list to get on-campus housing if they do not submit their application early. Keep this in mind.</p>
<p>UH is an NCAA Division I FBS school, and over the past few seasons, has been considered one of the best schools in football. This translates to awesome gameday atmosphere and sold-out games. The university is currently building a brand-new stadium, and has also announced plans to pour $40 million into Hofheinz Pavilion.</p>
<p>As far as academics go, Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One university, and is also considered tier one by U.S. News & World Report. Internationally, the school is known as being in the top 100 in North America by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Whatever comprehensive academic list you name, you’ll see UH on it. If you’re interested in attending the Bauer College of Business, you’ll find that BusinessWeek has named it a top 50 undergraduate school in recent years as well U.S. News & World Report. The Entrepreneurship program is considered #1 in the nation. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that you’ll be a college student in the largest city in Texas, and the 4th-largest city in America. You’re going to find awesome stuff to do off-campus as well such as see the biggest name musical acts, nationally important museums in arts and sciences, NBA, MLB, NFL, and even MLS teams, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, the Houston Zoo, thousands of awesome bars and clubs in areas like Montrose, Downtown, Midtown, etc. This list goes on. All of this, due to the central location of UH in Houston, is within less than 5 miles off of campus. I should also mention that the campus will be finished with the MetroRail system extension to campus by next year which runs right by the dorms on Wheeler, and that bus public transportation is abundant here.</p>
<p>Go Cougars.</p>
<p>Those stats are misleading. When people refer to UH as a commuter school, they generally refer to students who live at home( as in their parents home in the suburbs) and drive to campus. This is vastly different from UT where most students live in off campus apartments, a 5 minute walk from campus, as opposed to a 40 minute drive.</p>
<p>Sent from my Desire HD using CC</p>
<p>andy09, do you have the breakdown as to how many UH students live at home versus how many UT students live at home? If you don’t, then your presented conclusion is based on fallacious evidence.</p>
<p>HoustonCouger, I think that people have been fairly positive about UH as a possible alternative to UT. You are correct about the no stats about living at home and UH is improving in terms of becoming a residential campus but it certainly leans more to a commuter school than a residential campus.</p>
<p>Other statistics that would lead one to conclude that you would have to work at getting the “traditional” college experience:
Part time undergradutes: UT 7% UH 27%
Undergraduates 25 and older: UT 6% UH 21%
Graduate students Part time: UT 12% UH 30%</p>
<p>I think the diversity of the UH student population and its location are definite advantages. I remember sitting in one of my very few small schools at UT and being the only person not from Dallas (suburbs only) or Houston as well as probably being the only person receiving a Pell Grant. </p>
<p>UH has a lot of things going for it. But right now, all other things being equal (which they generally aren’t if for no other reason because of cost) UT would be considered the better school. UH 6 yr graduation rate 46%, UT 81%. Not surprising since UH has so many more part-time students. I think students can get a great education at UH but it will be different, good and bad, from UT.</p>
<p>sadilly,</p>
<p>I understand where you’re coming from, but percentages alone cannot illustrate the picture adequately. This is because percentages are relative to enrollment, and are therefore nominal. So, these are not necessarily indicators of a non-traditional/commuter experience.</p>
<p>As far as statistics go, I have a bit different numbers than you. Here are the latest ones I could pull for part-timers at each of these universities:</p>
<p>UT-Austin - 7%, 2,872 undergraduate part-time students
Texas Tech - 10%, 2,610 undergraduate part-time students
TAMU 10% - 3,904 undergraduate part-time students
Houston 20% - 8,152 undergraduate part-time students</p>
<p>On the other hand, a school that almost never has a “non-traditional”/“commuter” tag thrown on it is: Texas State. Similar to Houston, it has about 18% of its undergraduates as part-time. This accounts for 5,235 students of its undergraduate students.</p>
<p>Also, it doesn’t really make sense to talk about the number of part-time students a school has as it does to talk about the number of full-time students that are actually there. After all, a non-traditional experience is more likely caused by a LACK of large number of full-time students than it is from a number of part-time students concurrently attending.</p>
<p>So, with all of this information, we can go forward with meaningful analysis of statistics. At a school the size of Houston (top 25 school in terms of enrollment, last I checked), with 80% of the undergraduate enrollment being full-time, this accounts to 23,215 students. To give you an idea of how this relates to another large state school that never has the non-traditional/commuter tag thrown on it, Texas Tech’s full-time undergraduate enrollment consists of 23,215 students. We can see that these numbers are almost exactly the same. As for the aforementioned Texas State, this school’s figure is a comparable 24,223.</p>
<p>As far as your other numbers go, they are much the same story. I understand about your “fairly positive” remark, but the things you cite are considered common negatives for a university freshman, and are frankly unfairly leveraged against UH regularly.</p>
<p>I think a more telling figure is : Top 10 Places of Student Origin - 2011
[Facts</a> and Figures - University of Houston](<a href=“http://www.uh.edu/about/uh-glance/facts-figures/index.php#enrollment]Facts”>http://www.uh.edu/about/uh-glance/facts-figures/index.php#enrollment)</p>
<p>In 2011, 28842 UH students, or 72% of the student body originally hailed from Harris, Fort Bend, or Brazoria counties.
Lots of students, due to clost proximity to UH, will commute all 4 years from their primary residence, or commute 3 years after one year of living in the on campus dorms. </p>
<p>Compare to A&M, in which 6% of students hail from Brazos county and UT, where less than 20% of the student body hails from the surrounding Austin counties. </p>
<p>This is not to say however, that nothing goes on in the UH campus, and that the school has no school spirit. I’m sure UH has lots of well attended school events and activities, but as it stands, it remains more commuter based than UT or A&M.</p>
<p>andy09, again your conclusion is still fallacious. Also, I should note that it is not logically sound to compare College Station, Austin, and Houston with each other because of the extreme differences in terms of area and population. The Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area is several times larger than both Austin and College Station combined.</p>
<p>Again, let’s put this into perspective here. If the Houston MSA were treated as a state, in terms of area, it would be larger than New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It would be comparable to Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Maryland.</p>
<p>In terms of population, it would be larger than Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Maryland. It is comparable to Missouri, Tennessee, and Arizona.</p>
<p>Given these circumstances, let’s try to make more of a direct comparison.</p>
<p>Would you say that UMass is a “commuter school” because 80% of its undergraduates are from a region that is roughly the same size as Houston? How about Rutgers with 94% of their undergraduates from a region that is smaller in area than Houston?</p>
<p>Would you say that Minnesota is a “commuter school” because 74% of its undergraduates are from a region with a smaller population size than Houston? How about Arizona with 70% of its undergraduates from a comparably populated area?</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make was not with respect to population density at all. It’s more so about distance and proximity. Minnesota for example, is a large state by land area, and it only has one major public university. This in addition with tuition reciprocations with Wisconsin, allow for more students from further distances to attend the university as entering freshman. Students who drive multiple hours, or have to fly to get from their original residence to school, will very rarely, if ever, commute daily to campus.
In UH’s case, since a vast majority of the student population is from harris county and the suburbs, the relatively SHORT distance will allow many the option of commuting to save on boarding costs. </p>
<p>Houston is a Huge city, and UH draws most of its student body from the directly surrounding areas. Unlike college station, where a vast majority of students are from Houston, Dallas, Austin, San antonio, and daily commuting is not an option. </p>
<p>Umass is not really comparable to UH in this case either. UMass is the primary public institution in the state of massachusetts-a state flagship as it were. Any flagship university will be hard pressed to call itself a commuter school.</p>
<p>Houston Cougar, Texas State has been known for generations (by me and my friends and now our children) as a suitcase school. Play with interpreting your numbers however you want. The fact remains that a lot of students start at UH as full-time undergraduates and drop to part-time status and then just don’t graduate. I’m sure there is a critical mass to provide the undergraduate experience but the other factors do affect a student’s experience, socially and academically, as well. </p>
<p>Do you think it’s a good idea for potential students not to be aware of conditions? When these issues come up and affect them personally, would you rather they be prepared for it and know it’s part of the growing pains of a relatively new school or that they decide to transfer and bad talk the school and their experience?</p>
<p>HoustonCougar, Texas State has long been known as a suitcase school. As for UH, interpret the numbers however you like, it doesn’t change the fact that a large number of students start as full-time students at UH, drop to part-time, and then never graduate. There may a critical mass of undergraduates for the traditional undergraduate experience but the other factors will affect students socially and academically as well. </p>
<p>Would you rather has potential students not know about the issues? A student who is aware of it and ultimately affected by it will be prepared to deal with and see it as the growing pains of a relatively new school. Someone who isn’t may decide to transfer and then spend time bad mouthing his experience at UH. Which do you think gets more attention? </p>
<p>UH has a four year grad rate of 15%, A&M 46%, UT 53, UMass 52 One of these numbers is not like the other and there are reasons for it. Your experience at UH may be wonderful, congratulations. But given that majority of students at UH do not graduate (at least not from there) I suspect they can’t claim the traditional experience.</p>
<p>sadilly,</p>
<p>Those are legitimate remarks, but they have little to do with calling UH a “commuter school”. In fact, those 4-year graduation rates don’t even speak for quality of academics. </p>
<p>My only point was noting that the misuse of terms to describe the University of Houston that gives prospective students the wrong idea.</p>