<p>I am about ready to make my decision to go to Texas, but I still have that slight feeling that I might be making a mistake. What are the pros and cons about UT? What are the really great things about UT and what are the not so great things? Please fill me in!</p>
<p>Pros: High caliber academics and gets better every year(USNWR is BS), Great social life, Austin is a great unique city, large student body, great athletics, comfortable campus atmosphere, great night life, cool people, very diverse</p>
<p>Cons: 40,000 undergrads is too much for some people, not the best liberal arts programs(aside from Plan II), very diverse maybe wasps dont like that, it is a party school: not for everyone, Freshman professors can suck</p>
<p>where else can you go?</p>
<p>you can always go somewhere else and then transfer as a junior into UT where your classes will be smaller (still big compared to smaller colleges though)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/436138-what-dont-you-like-about-ut-austin.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/436138-what-dont-you-like-about-ut-austin.html</a></p>
<p>if you can ignore the A&M v UT debate, the thread has some valuable information</p>
<p>Pros: A well respected university with a huge number of highly ranked programs. You can find just about any major you can think of, and most of the time it is a ranked program nationally. A great, well rounded sports program with lots of school pride. Austin is a great city, not too big but still with plenty to do. Alumni network is huge, with particular strength in Texas. </p>
<p>Cons: yes, it is huge. Many freshman lecture classes are enormous. Pickaprof can be your friend helping you pick out the better ones. (Better doesn’t necessarily mean easier.) Parking is impossible, so don’t even try.</p>
<p>Pros: the best social life at a university of its caliber, the best weather of a university of its caliber, most specialized fields like business, engineering, architecture, etc. are the best in the nation, the best college sports program in the country, great alumni backing, you get to be in Austin, Southern gentlemen/girls who treat you with respect</p>
<p>Cons: freshmen classes tend to either be huge or TA taught (rarely both), if you’re not used to it it gets quite hot, not the most racially integrated campus, parking is terrible, some tasks can be bureaucratic nightmares, campus is really crowded, Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences programs aren’t much better than most public universities outside the honors programs</p>
<p>I think the pros outweigh the cons by a lot though.</p>
<p>Pros: UT is the #1 school for gamers, #70 best school in the world, #15 best public school, #13 best library, #8 best party school, #19 best in-state tuition value, #47 best national school, #8 best business school, #1 in sports in 2002, & many more high rankings.</p>
<p>rankings dont mean anything if the individual doesnt like the campus…</p>
<p>i’d recommend starting out with 12 credits and see how you like it there…if you plan on going to med/law school it doesnt matter where you go undergrad b/c all that matters is your GPA + TEST SCORE (lsat/mcat)</p>
<p>FlyerO: What is pickaprof?</p>
<p>181818</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.pickaprof.com%5DPick-A-Prof%5B/url”>http://www.pickaprof.com]Pick-A-Prof[/url</a>] allows you to look up professors and classes to see how many people make an A, B, C and so on, read reviews of the professors written by students. You can use it to find the courses with the easiest A’s or you can read through the reviews to find the professors who are the best at teaching. It has a nice course scheduler too for when you are registering for classes. It costs like $10 a year or something but I find it worth it.</p>
<p>pickaprof is a website that students use to gain information on how a teacher distributes grades. It also shows how they’ve given grades in the past. another website similar to pickaprof is ratemyprofessor.</p>
<p>just curious, do professors send in grades to pick a prof or what?</p>
<p>From their website:</p>
<p>"Pick-A-Prof has posted the number of A-F’s given by EVERY professor in EVERY course at most campuses and lets you compare the grade histories in the courses you are about to register for. We are the ONLY website that obtains these grading records directly from universities.</p>
<p>That means before you register, you can look up the courses you are thinking about taking and see the number of A-Fs each professor historically gives in that course ** straight from the official university records." **</p>
<p>Pros: You can get a new wardrobe (t-shirts…that is) and free food for about the first two weeks of school.</p>
<p>^ as in they give out free shirts and food?</p>
<p>Different clubs and organizations do to get you to join, as do many businesses, to get you to become a customer.</p>
<p>I didn’t really get too many free t-shirts, because I have enough clothing, but I ate dinner for free almost every day for the first couple weeks of school.</p>
<p>If you’re religious, particularly if you’re a Protestant, you can “church-hop” around the different Christian groups and churches in the campus area, and they almost always provide food.</p>
<p>UT Austin is poised to become the greatest public university in the country. I recently attended the Texas Leadership Luncheon and was blown away by the school’s ambitious goals. Moreover, these goals aren’t pipe dreams, UT has raised over a billion dollars in its campaign to raise 3 billion by 2011. I’m currently in the Plan II Honors Program so most of my classes have had less than 20 ppl. I’ve heard that some of the intro freshman courses are large, but after the first year the class sizes are much more manageable. As mentioned many times previously, Austin is quite possibly the best college town in the nation. It’s got nearly a million people, but feels much smaller. It is also one of the most unique and dynamic cities I’ve ever lived in or visited. Austin is the center for huge tech companies and the job prospects after graduation are similar to what Top 20 schools on the USNWR would garner. My one complaint about UT is the top 10% rule. Fortunately, I believe legislation is doing away with the rule and shifting to something more like the California system. This transition will in turn lead to UT becoming even more prestigious and sought after. Finally, the UT campus, at least the portion designed by Cass Gilbert (UT Tower, 6 pack, 40 acres, etc.) is simply gorgeous. I never thought it would be a joy to walk a couple miles each day through campus, but when you’re constantly in awe of the beautiful architecture around you kind of get lost in the moment and the walk is awesome. If you choose UT you won’t, at least after you spend some time here and find your niche, consider it a mistake.</p>
<p>^kind of OT, sorry, but I’m wondering if there is grade deflation or inflation in Plan II? If you are in Plan II, don’t you still have some gen ed requirements that will be very large classes possibly taught by TAs?</p>