<p>I'm really torn between UT and TAMU and, being from out of state, I don't know enough about either to know which is best.</p>
<p>Honestly, I only applied to UT for fun and never thought I would get in, but now that I've been accepted to both I'm not sure which to choose.</p>
<p>What are the pros of UT Austin?</p>
<p>What are the cons?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>They are both excellent schools. Admission to Texas is harder than admission into A&M. I was raised in Austin and went to Texas for a couple of years right out of high school. Then later in life I got married and went back to school and got an IE degree from A&M. Depending on your major, one school could have a little more weight than the other. I currently work in Bryan/College Station and Austin wins in life outside of the campus. My son would have been an auto admit at A&M, but chose only to apply to Texas. He got accepted Friday and in extremely happy.</p>
<p>So, you really can’t go wrong with either of choices. Good Luck!</p>
<p>@SmMarie42 How long have you lived in Texas? And from what area of the country did you come? Have visited one or both schools? </p>
<p>What programs were you accepted to at both universities? </p>
<p>It really makes all the difference.</p>
<p>UT!</p>
<p>Would you prefer a small town or a big city? Order or chaos? Are you a big football fan? Or do you prefer the arts?
They are both great options, but they are different culturally. Can you visit?</p>
<p>The program you were accepted into is all that matters.</p>
<p>@lots2do I am from Seattle and I moved here just in time to be considered for in-state tuition. I’ve visited both and, while I prefer A&M’s campus, I like the city of Austin better and I know Austin is considered a “public ivy”.</p>
<p>Same situation here. And I am still trying to sort through it. A&M is much more clean cut. But there is not a problem with non-clean cut people at UT Austin. TAMU is a little more country. I feel like I have stepped in to an old movie there, with the corp marching around and even an occasional calvary or canon. UT Austin, I feel like I am in the middle of a city, close to downtown (which I am). It is very loud with cars going by a lot. The dorms are very cramped and they already told us not to expect to be able to live in campus beyond freshman year. Oh, and a lot of people rush. I was actually excited when I got in to UT Austin. But now, I am leaning toward A&M. </p>
<p>I actually have no clue what to do. I do not consider UT Austin a “public Ivy” at all. Their average SAT scores are below so many of other state flagships, and way below any Ivy. And they are so crowded that it can be quite hard to get one’s classes. And forget changing majors. On the other hand, I am definitely a city person and wonder if I would want to spend the next few years in College Station. I have friends headed to Yale, Princeton, Swarthmore, and U of Chicago and I would not consider UT to be equal to those schools. That does not mean UT is not a fine school. I am just saying it is way overplaying it to say it is a “public Ivy.”</p>
<p>I don’t know if I am much help. I am just rambling on what little I have observed. I will be going back for an official tour and to ask questions in a few days. Really, my main concern is over housing UT. Where will I live after the first year? I am not likely to rush. I considered it. But then I read it is a “blood bath” for girls who don’t already have friends there. I am not interested in being torn apart. </p>
<p>@undecided2014 That really helps actually, thank you. I hadn’t even considered how crowded UT can be (not that A&M wouldn’t have a lot of people, but I mean specifically the problems you mentioned). I’m going back too in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>I’m from a large city, so I’m not sure I could handle living in College Station, however quaint it looks now. At the same time, that’s part of what I loved about it.</p>
<p>Ugh… still don’t know.</p>
<p>Anyway, thank you for your ramblings and I apologize for my own.</p>
<p>This whole “public Ivy” meme is way overblown and not very helpful. The top large state schools are not like Ivy League schools, not even Michigan or Berkeley. But that is not good or bad, just different. Texas and Texas A&M have far more educational options than any Ivy. They have great sports teams and all sorts of other extracurricular opportunities that no Ivy League school has. If you work hard and get good grades at Texas or Texas A&M, you will have just as good a chance to go to grad school or professional school as any Ivy League graduate. And if you are majoring in engineering or business, Texas and Texas A&M are near the top and way ahead of most of the Ivies.</p>
<p>We are from Phoenix and my son is facing the same decision. He likes both schools, but I think he will select A&M for Aerospace Engineering. So far, A&M’s merit aid is way ahead of Texas and he really liked his A&M visit. But this could change. (He is also considering Purdue and Michigan, but he has been closely watching the winter weather reports this year.)</p>
<p>Anyway, it is good to have choices!</p>
<p>The US News ratings are heavily biased toward private schools in that they significantly weigh factors like class size, student-faculty ratios, and % of alumni donors, factors which will always favor private schools. Overall, IMHO, a better overall prestige ranking concerns whether a university has been admitted into the Association of Academic Universities " leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education." AAU membership is by invitation only and there are only 60 U.S. members - 34 public universities and 26 private universities. Texas is one of three Big 12 AAU schools (along with Kansas and Iowa State) in the AAU and Texas A&M is one of four SEC AAU Schools (along with Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Florida). FWIW, Dartmouth, an Ivy League member, is not an AAU member, although the other seven Ivies are.</p>
<p>@beaudreau Can you link where you got this information?</p>
<p>Concerning the AAU: <a href=“https://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=13460”>https://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=13460</a> </p>
<p>From Wiipedia “AAU membership is by invitation only, which requires an affirmative vote of three-fourths of current members” “A spokesman for nonmember University of Connecticut called it “perhaps the most elite organization in higher education. You’d probably be hard-pressed to find a major research university that didn’t want to be a member of the AAU.”” Only four member universities have been added in the last 15 years: SUNY Stony Brook, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, and Boston University. Over that same time, four universities were eliminated: Catholic University of America, Clark University, Nebraska, and Syracuse.</p>
<p>Concerning the US News Rankings, the Michigan Alumnus Magazine for Early Fall 2013, had a great article. It is not available for linking, but here is a copyrighted excerpt:</p>
<p>So how exactly does U.S. News & World Report rank colleges? First, to allow at least an arguably apples-to-apples comparison among types of institutions, it divides schools into categories based on mission, such as regional universities, liberal arts colleges, and- the most prominent category- national universities. Michigan belongs in the latter.</p>
<p>From there, the formula uses 16 measurements that try to quantify both the academic quality of students coming in (inputs) and capture something of the experience on campus (outputs). For national universities, the biggest single factor is a reputational survey of leaders of peer universities and guidance counselors, which counts for 22.5 percent of a score. A calculation of faculty resources (including percentage of full time faculty, percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students, and faculty compensation) accounts for 20 percent, as does graduation rate.</p>
<p>Measures of the quality of incoming students (acceptance rate, standardized test scores) count for 15 percent, while financial resources per student count 10 percent. A measure called “graduation rate performance” (indicating whether a school does better than expected at graduating students given their academic profile) counts 7.5 percent, and alumni giving 5 percent.</p>
<p>One thing all the factors have in common: they’re all controversial. Inputs measure the quality of students coming in, but say nothing about what happens to students on campus. The output measurements are all imperfect metrics of student success, and they say nothing about what they actually learn. But most criticized of all is the reputational survey, which critics call a vicious circle. In short, the people who fill out the reputation surveys, which are supposed to determine a college’s rankings, are consulting the rankings to decide what they think of a college’s reputation.</p>
<p>This is also referred to as Tier One status - elite status - I know UT Dallas, University of Houston , Texas Tech are trying to achieve this status and are well on their way especially UT Dallas</p>