<p>What's it like being a student from out of state (New England, let's say) at UT?</p>
<p>The kids who are active in the Out of State Students Association seem to love it at UT very much. (Out-of-state kids are a bit of a novelty at UT.) One of the girls who is active in the organization is from Dracut, Mass.</p>
<p>MidwestMom, that’s good to hear. Laura’smom, my son has been accepted. Maine is pretty different from Texas, but I think he’ll do fine there. Whenever we’ve visited Austin in the past (where my parents still live), DS has been amazed at how friendly and welcoming everyone is. And Austin is such a fabulous place to live.</p>
<p>Just today, driving through the blustery wind, I thought, “Wow, DS could be in Austin this time next year, enjoying beautiful weather.”</p>
<p>he should have a great time, plus he has family out their, thats always a plus</p>
<p>I’m from Virginia, so I’m a long way away (almost as far as New England). My experience here has been great. There is an organization for Out of State Students which has mixers and dinners for students to meet other OOSers, which is super helpful. Overall, it’s not that odd being from OOS because people always seem to find it interesting to talk to the person who’s from far away.</p>
<p>If your son/daughter is worried about meeting people, since most likely they don’t know many (if any) people here, there are TONS of organizations they can join- right near the beginning of school is an Organization Fair where they can check out a bunch of different groups. also living in the dorms is super helpful, because you meet so many people around you and have floor-meetings and such to help with that. </p>
<p>UT is a very welcoming community, at this point I don’t even realize that I am not from Texas sometimes.</p>
<p>We are OOS-Int’l…son would know no one. He has been invited to the Engineering Honors program, would that make UT seem smaller in comparision?</p>
<p>I have been encouraged to join FIG, can anyone shine some light on that group?</p>
<p>Both FIGS and Honors programs are great ways to meet folks with similar interests for friendship and study groups. Participants form a cohort who take several classes together. Honors classes are generally smaller. FIGs have a specific FIG meeting and take larger classes together (mixed in with non-FIG students). There are also residential FIGs who room in smaller dorms with other FIG members. FIGs have many of the benefits of Honors programs, but are open to non-Honors students.</p>
<p>My d did a fig first semester frosh year. She took three classes with a group of 20 or so kids. The intent was to provide some familiarity with other freshman. Her group was not that cohesive. They did a few study groups, but not regularly. While other groups may have had a better experience, her’s was nothing noteworthy.</p>
<p>Socaldad, is your dd happy at UT?</p>
<p>She loves it. Could not be happier. She lives in Towers. There seems to be a lot of OOS kids iiving there. She is in a sorority. Really likes the kids in her sorority. She has had no problems making friends. She thinks the kids from Texas are incredibly nice.</p>
<p>She likes her classes in her major(RTF). The Core classes are not as exciting.</p>
<p>Good to hear that your dd is happy ^^. </p>
<p>It seems that you have to take 60 credits for core curriculum? Thats an entire year! I am just wondering that DS is going to get ancy if he has to wait for a year to get started on his computer related courses.</p>
<p>Someone please correct me if I am misinformed ;)</p>
<p>60 credits is 2 years (15 hrs/semester). If students didn’t get core requirements out of the way with AP credits, they typically spend the 1st 2 years focused on those (with a few major-specific classes sprinkled in) and then take the upper-level major-specific classes their last 2 years. Students in some majors (like engineering) start taking major sequence classes their 1st semester. Students are not required to finish the core curriculum before taking upper level classes, but may be required to have 60 credits.</p>
<p>I participated in a FIG last semester. I chose the Liberal Arts “Business and Society FIG” because I was hoping to find other people interested in business, and the classes that came with it were interesting (mine consisted of a Global Money course, Microeconomics, and a LA biology course). </p>
<p>I didn’t have a great experience. Most of the people in my FIG joined because they wanted to transfer into the business school and thought it would help, and many of them knew each other already. I didn’t get along with anyone, and ended up not going to my FIG meetings and dropped one of the classes that came with it because it wasn’t as interesting as I had expected. </p>
<p>That being said, I would encourage everyone still to try for a FIG. You can sign up and almost be guaranteed to get in at your orientation, and it takes care of having to fight to get into those 3 classes. I have many friends who had great experiences with FIGS - my roommate’s FIG even decided to all take the same classes together this semester instead of just last semester. If you decide that the FIG isn’t for you after classes start, you have a grace period where you can drop/add classes so you can drop one or all of the classes of your FIG and take others if you decide that’s what you like better. You also don’t get graded for FIG meetings so you don’t have to go, like I did.</p>
<p>Which FIG would you recommend for Engineering (ECE)?</p>
<p>Can anyone find the 2009 FIG list posted somewhere? The 2010 list isn’t up yet.</p>