MYOS1634 sums it up nicely…Honors program = lots of perks; minuses: the city just isn’t comparable to Austin. Focusing on the academic environment only, as a Tech Honors student you will have a nurturing thriving academic environment with motivated Honors students like yourself as peers and interested, encouraging faculty and administrators. As you will likely be majoring in one of the sciences as a pre-dental student, you will have lots of ongoing counseling advice from faculty and older undergraduate Honors students. (My son graduated from Tech’s Honors College in 2008 and had an amazing experience overall.) Yes, do visit Tech and UT and see for yourself. There is no comparison with Austin, but Lubbock is a city of 250,000 with all the shopping, restaurants, and amenities of a major regional city with Tech as its centerpiece. Lubbock as a city outstrips College Station, Waco, etc., but Austin is in a league by itself. You will be among the many thousands of UT Autsin students, but at Tech you will be in the catered- to academic elite.