My UT Dilemna with my parents

<p>I have no doubt I want to go to UT but my dad is so far against it. Considering I only have a few weeks left, I need to convince him now. I have to choose between the Univ of Tulsa and UT Austin. It took me these past two weeks to convince him UT Austin was better than Tulsa in every academic way. He finally admitted to defeat last night on that point. I thought that'd be enough since he mainly cares about academics, but now he feels the academic difference between the two schools isn't significant enough to warrant going much further for Austin over Tulsa. I live in Wichita, KS, so Tulsa = 3 hours and Austin = 8-9 hours. My dad tries to say Tulsa will be better because I can come home more frequently. He doesn't realize that my bro, who is already at Tulsa, could easily come home every other weekend but maybe visits once every 6 weeks. He also feels UT would be worse because it's a "big school" and thus the professors wouldn't care about me. I told him I don't need the professors to watch my back, but he still insists I won't be a speck of 50,000 if I go to Tulsa which has 4,000ish in undergrad+grad combined. </p>

<p>Like I said, I know I want to attend UT next year. I want to major in some sort of bio and minor in Arabic. Another trick (yes, I'll admit I originally brought this up to convince my dad UT over Tulsa) was to do Arabic since we're Arab and I can't speak the language fluently. I can read and write but can only understand/speak some. Honestly, I definitely plan to minor in Arabic and having myself graded and grades put on my transcript will motivate me enough to learn it (I think haha). So, that is another good reason but again that's for academics. He now knows UT is superior academically. Now, I need to convince him why the location and size of the school aren't negative factors or at least some suggestions on how I could overcome these issues in his mind would be VERY, VERY helpful. Soooo, anyone??</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>heh, thats a tough one... You should just show him a variety of things that make UT sound better, go to the UT website and get some propaganda, haha. With my parents, ranking alone would have been enough (seeing as Tulsa is ranked 96 and UT is ranked 46.)</p>

<p>-UT is more diverse.
-Tulsa has a Presbyterian affiliation(unless that doesn't matter)
-Maybe(Im not sure), there could be more opportunities at UT. </p>

<p>There might be more, but this is off the top of my head</p>

<p>check out flights, particularly on Southwestern. If you are flying, it might actually be easy to get home from Austin than from Tulsa.</p>

<p>Austin is the best place to live in, and the size isn't a problem believe me, as long as you are going to a public school you will get the same attention at any of these schools. The only way you're really gonna feel that you're in a small school is if it's less than 15 or 20 thousand ppl, most of which are private.</p>

<p>I'm a fellow Kansan, but I'm the parent (mother). I'm really happy our son has chosen UT Austin. He got into many California and Ks. schools for engineering, and we traveled around a lot to see them, but the students in Austin seemed (a) most enthusiastic and (b) happiest.</p>

<p>The Arabic angle is a good one to use with your father. Also, if your grades and test scores are good you could apply for one of the science honors programs and then you would have a niche. That would give you a small group of people with common interests in a large university. Plus it might impress your father.</p>

<p>Also, I would think that there are a lot more students of Arabic decent in a university the size of UTAustin than at Tulsa. Would that help talk your father into letting you go where you really want to go?</p>

<p>I've actually heard good things about Tulsa. But I have a hard time comparing that to what I know about UT Austin. If you are really strong about your desire to go to UT then you should go for it. Good luck.</p>

<p>ha ha. tell ur dad to let go. and also tell him tht u need to learn to be independent and ut austin s the best way for you to experience the real world cuz in the real world u are a speck in a million ppl and u still have to shine.</p>