Pros/Cons of UT Dallas

Was accepted as a finance major (might double major in finance and/or economics or data science, still not sure yet). OOS student, and received the AES scholarship (and applied to Mcdermott, but I know its hard to get into). For those who attend, what has been your experience and what are the pros/cons? Does anyone know how their literature minor is as well?

You would probably get a faster and better response on Reddit. Lots of current and prospective students post there. /utdallas

My DD is a current 3rd year student at UTD on the NM scholarship. The reasons she went to UTD were the scholarship, the big town environment of Dallas/Ft. Worth and the flexibility of taking classes outside of major. She started out a CS major but also wanted to take as many fine arts classes as she could. Surprisingly, that is a difficult thing to do at most universities. She has had a great experience there. She has traveled abroad and presently is in Peru. She has been involved in many clubs. I will say UTD has broadened and enriched her. She comes from a very white, protected suburban area. At UTD, she has friends of all colors, from many different cultures.

The potential cons to the school are the lack of a football team, the lack of a large greek system, and an environment that does promotes academics over partying. As you can tell from my tone, I actually think of those as pros, not cons, but many students would not agree. My DD is very social at UTD, it just does not revolve around alcohol. The school gives out free tickets to plays, orchestra, symphonies which she does attend. She would do reviews for UTD radio and get free concert tickets. She likes to camp in the general area. Her and her roommates do host parties. They keep very busy.

UTD is not your traditional college experience by today’s definition. In my mind, it is a good thing but again many students would disagree with me. It depends on what you are looking for.

As a general comment: Finance combined with data analysis or economics should yield great job prospects.

@GTAustin do students participate in intramurals? Lack of a football team is not a make or break for my student, but it is definitely not a “pro” as it sounds like it is for many students.

Yes, the students do participate in intramural sports. My DD swam one year and did flag (or frisbee) football the second year. She has participated in the mud volleyball tournaments. She was involved with UTD radio as well as a hacking club. She is president of the sustainability club this year so she had to limit some of the other things she was doing. She still has a plot at the community garden and helps with the on campus bee hives. There is something for everybody there.

@GTAustin thank you. My older son is at an OOS state school which he loves, but their football program is not stellar and there’s not much school spirit around it or interest in attending games. He didn’t think that would matter much to him, but I think it has been a bigger disappointment than he expected when he compares that spirit to our state flagship school. S19 is a little more interested in following sports so I wonder what he would think of a school that doesn’t have a program at all.

Well, UTD does have sports just not football. They have basketball, baseball, volleyball and others as well. There is not a great school following them though. We come from a HS that has won the state football championship 6 times and we’ve seen that, done that. My DD swam through out HS and never got any glory so she was fine going to a school that did not place such emphasis on football.

Don’t forget about the chess team!

Or the new ESports teams - Go UTD!