PACE Questions?

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
1

This afternoon, I was placed on the waitlist and offered PACE/CAP. I already accepted the PACE agreement, but I’m still unfamiliar with the program. I would be much obliged if someone could shed some light on this for me.

Is the orientation hosted on the same dates as other schools (namely, fine arts)? Do PACE students attend orientation with UGS or is it entirely separate? If I already have history and composition credits, what classes will I end up taking to fulfill the PACE agreement? What class do you take at UT? Is it hard to organize course enrollment due to attending two different institutions, or do they have a streamlined method in place? Will transferring into computer science following my PACE year be impossible? Is it embarrassing to be in PACE?

I obviously have some issues to work through here

2

Great questions @SlimShadyLady‌ ….my son also accepted the Pace offer and also had Comp Sci as his first choice. I called admissions and the counselor was unclear about some of the program particulars such as how AP credits will work etc… I will call back next week and speak to a higher level admission counselor when the madness is over there. They were inundated with calls yesterday as you might imagine.

3

I found these PACE sources useful:

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2014/11/02/in-second-year-ut%E2%80%99s-pace-program-has-higher-enrollment-rate-than-cap and

http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sfl/pace_list.php

4

My S got the same offer (wait list, PACE, or CAP) and was a Computer Science applicant as well. It sounds like it would be extremely difficult to transfer into CS under any circumstance (PACE or not), but I could be wrong about that. @WrigleyMom – that article is very helpful!

5

My D was admitted to A&M - engineering (chemical) and Clemson. What I’d like to know… is she better off at A&M (though she’s really not an aggie) for a year then trying to transfer into UT Cockrell or trying PACE. I would think A&M is the stronger option. I’ll call admissions for guidance next week. It’s so opaque.

6

Thank you guys for responding, and thanks for the articles @WrigleyMom‌. I’ve been scouring UT’s website trying to get some answers but I still feel like I’m going in blind. Im glad to know that I’m not the only person confused by this, haha

7

Interesting that UT considers PACE part of their enrollment. See table below from UT: http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/whyut/profile/app-to-enroll

2014 Freshman Profile: From… Applicant to Student
Summer/Fall 2014
• Applied: 38,785
• Admitted: 15,381* (40% of applicants)
• Enrolled: 7,287* (47% of admitted students)

  • Admitted number includes students who accepted offer to participate in PACE; enrolled number includes students who enrolled in PACE.

Five-Year History, Summer & Fall
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Applied 31,022 32,589 35,431 38,162 38,785
Admitted 14,583 15,172 16,563 15,335* 15,381*
Enrolled 7,275 7,151 8,092 7,252* 7,287*

  • 2014 admitted number includes 210 students who accepted the offer to enroll in PACE; 2014 enrolled number includes 203 students who were enrolled in PACE on the 12th class day of the fall 2014 semester. 2013 admitted number includes 104 students who accepted the offer to enroll in PACE; 2013 enrolled number includes 92 students who were enrolled in PACE on the 12th class day of the fall 2013 semester.
8

A bit dated…but some more on PACE: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1618668-pace-p1.html

9

@WrigleyMom My vote would be for A&M. She is guaranteed a spot in her first choice major of Chemical Engineering at A&M. Pace is a great option, but it might be difficult to internally transfer into Chemical Engineering after the Pace year is up.

10

@wrigleyMom Based on a good friend’s son, I would recommend A&M. The son’s dream was UT CHemE and he was offered CAP. His mother wanted him to take CAP because it was the son’s dream and she was not sure he was an Aggie. The neighbor who worked at UT recommended A&M. The neighbor said he is in gets his full freshman year in his college and getting into ChemE after CAP was not certain. The son just graduated a Happy Aggie and has a great job. Was definitely the right choice for him.

11

Thanks to Pualum and collegefind. The PACE info I’ve found today will be helpful for her comparison of the options.

12

I thought A&M changed their Engineering program. Don’t all students get admitted to a general Engineering program now, then move into their major choice later? I realize the students put down a preference on their applications, but what happens when the general ed Engineering classes are finished? Does anyone know?

13

@FloMoMom - Yes, A&M did change their engineering program (I have a son there). They are admitted to general Engineering and then may apply to their major after the first semester if they have taken the correct classes.

14

My’s daughter’s letter from A&M referenced it this way: “engineering (chem)”.

15

@wrigleyMom - I wonder if that means just keeping a minimum GPA at A&M to continue in the program if you have been admitted with a “chem” engineering preference. So one does not have to compete for “chem” after the first semester. But, if one wants to change engineering then one competes again. I am just guessing here…

The advantage I see is that after the first semester/year if one does not like “chem” engineering, one can change majors to any of the other engineering tracks (I think A&M has a general engineering class where kid’s are introduced to different engineering tracks). Purdue and Michigan also have general engineering the first year. A&M is strong in Petroleum and Chemical engineering so you can’t go wrong choosing A&M.

Even at UT, one must apply (GPA requirements) to major engineering sequence after core courses. I can’t remember the details, but I know my son had to be accepted into his major track. Also it’s much tougher to change majors at UT. Engineering classes at UT are tough with lots of weeding out. My son knew a few who had to change to easier majors.

16

This is the first year kids enrolled in A&M engineering are not put directly into their major. They are all in general engineering (noting their preference) and may apply to their specific field after the first semester. It is competitive. It used to be that maintaining a minimum GPA was all they needed to do, but not going forward. They still have to keep the minimum GPA to move onto upper level engineering courses, though, in addition to competing for their specific discipline. The website explains in detail.

17

Hey all! So I am currently a PACE student for the 2014-2015 school year and I wanted to ease some of your concerns. As far as I can tell, they are still withholding info from new students as much as possible, just like last year, which is very unhelpful! Anyways, hopefully some of my answers can help. I don’t know if the PACE requirements for next year will be the same as the one’s for my cohort, but we will see.

@SlimShadyLady‌ Orientation is on the same days as everyone else, except, PACE was limited to only 4 different session options when I went. So we could only go to one of the first four orientation sessions. You would have to check only to see if Fine Arts coincides with those dates. PACE students are part of UGS and so yes, that will be your college, but you have so much free time beyond that.

As far as credits, we were allowed to take any course that could be transferred to UT as part of the Core Curriculum required to graduate. So basically, all those basic courses you took in high school that you need to graduate.

Your first semester at UT, you take a UGS course, which is require for ALL freshmen, regardless of major. It is like an interdisciplinary course and actually quite interesting. I recommend Identity Development in a Multicultural World! For your second semester, you can pretty much take any course that you want as long as it is open to all majors.

Registration has not been that difficult for me, since you only have one UT class to fit in with your 4(ish) ACC classes. You just have to find a way to make it work. Sometimes you might have to sacrifice a class you want to make your schedule fit, but that’s not just a problem that PACE students face. You’ll be fine.

Right now, I am in the midst of the transfer process, hopefully into McCombs! (my application is actually due next weekend!) It is NOT impossible. Never hold back from your dreams. For my cohort, we had an extremely large amount of people who wanted to transfer into business, and based on this thread, it seems like there may be a lot of Comp Sci competition in your year. DO NOT LET IT DETER YOU. I cannot emphasize enough that you need to keep your GPA as high as possible because that is what they look at mostly, and a 4.0 is definitely attainable at ACC. If I did it, you can too. Also, make sure you get involved in activities on campus related to your major so that you can get a feel for it and put it on your resume.

PACE is what you make it. My Orientation Advisor was a PACE student from the inaugural class and he told us the best advice yet: do not let the stigma of PACE consume you. At first, I was embarrassed, going from the top of my class to community college, but in the end, you will see it as a blessing. While full-time UT students are struggling, your making A’s in the exact same classes at ACC. Now, it’s not a blowoff, it’s still college and you still have to work, but I would be lying if I said that the workload is equal(there are exception to this!). But its the same material so it can be just as confusing! Anyways, at first it may be hard to explain your situation to people, but at the end of the day, nobody will know if you don’t tell them. I chose to be honest with my friends about it, and guess what? THEY DIDN’T CARE. They support and encourage me and that’s a true group of friends. Remember, those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. :slight_smile:

All in all, PACE is a great opportunity for those who really want to go to UT. This has been my dream school since forever so A&M’s business school was out of the question. No matter what, you ARE already a Longhorn, you HAVE been accepted into The University of Texas and its your choice to get integrated within the campus or not. There’s so much to do here. ACC is just where you take classes but UT is your school and home. So welcome to the Forty Acres!

Again, all of this info is from my own experience so it may have changed for your year. Just trying to ease concerns in the meanwhile. Don’t worry, they will tell you everything you need to know at orientation! If you still feel unsure, email me at alyssadgroves@gmail.com. Hope this helps!

18

@adgroves‌ Thank you so much for the current-student perspective. I myself will be starting PACE in the fall and hope to transfer into McCombs after my required semesters are completed. May I ask if you have any prior college credit prior to joining PACE, like from AP or dual credit in high school? If so, did the PACE program accept any of the credit and put it towards your required 24 hours?

19

Will a law school see and/or care if you did the PACE program and did classes at a community college or will they just see you as a UT Student your first year?

20

@frostcause‌ no problem! Okay so one great thing about PACE is that you have the choice to claim credit at either UT or ACC depending on who takes what score. So, I only had credit for English I based on my SAT writing score before I started PACE. However, once I went to orientation and found out that I could claim credit at ACC too, I took some more credit exams! So I took the 2 CLEP exams for US History, which UT does NOT take scores for, but I sent them to ACC and got 6 credit hours. Also, I sent my old AP Spanish Language scores to ACC and since they take 2’s for credit (which is crazy to me!) I got 10 credit hours for that too!

These credits do NOT count towards your 24 hours. But it will be nice to have them to get you ahead in your overall college career!