Texas Tech vs. University of North Texas.....which is a better school?

<p>Hi-Power, I am a Tech booster and you are not. You had a lousy experience at Tech and Lubbock and my son is having the opposite positive experience there. I am not going to get into another duel with you on the pros and cons of Tech and Lubbock, so if anyone wants to see my views on what can go right at Tech do a search on my screen name "lonestardad" and Tech and get some facts from a half-full glass perspective.</p>

<p>lonestardad, my views on Texas Tech is not just limited to my lousy experience at the school. I just get tired of people trying to compare it to A&M or UT. Texas Tech is a regional Texas institution, not a flagship school. It's great that people can get a degree from Tech, and make a good living doing what they want, but that doesn't mean it's a flagship school. That Tech graduate on the other thread proved my point: she wants to get a graduate degree in real estate but she can't do it at Tech.</p>

<p>I just think that Tech is a little bit overrated, that's all. It's a good school as far as regional schools go.</p>

<p>BTW, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't consider my views half-empty. Just because I didn't want to spend three years around frat boys getting drunk all the time in the middle of a dustbowl doesn't mean I have a bad attitude about it. I didn't develop my dislike for Tech until after I spent a semester there.</p>

<p>Bottom line is, I see Tech as a school to go to so you can get a decent job after college; I don't see it much more than that. Tech doesn't really have very good networking. If I had stayed at Tech and got my degree there, I probably still would've went to grad school somewhere else.</p>

<p>sorry just to jump in Hi Power, this thread was about UNt-TTU and YOU are the one comparing to UT/AM ...funny.</p>

<p>I am a tech grad, went to grad school at AM.. I wouldnt disagree that ut/am are more well known especially at the graduate level. Some people will thrive better at Tech than some place else. Better to suceed at Tech than fail at UT... If you dont like lubbock, fine dont go, just be honest about your predjudice....</p>

<p>Recent CEO of ATT is a Tech grad, so are a number of luminaries .. you could do worse than Tech and I would say Tech is more well known than UNT</p>

<p>rty456,</p>

<p>First off, if you are going to state that you went to Tech and then A&M, at least use some grammar. It doesn't reflect highly on you that you write no better than a 16-year-old high school girl on MSN Messenger.</p>

<p>As far as UNT compared to Tech, considering that neither school has a huge advantage over the other, there's no real point in discussing it. Tech is a "catch can" school whereas UNT is a commuter school. You can do the same with a degree from one of them as you can with the other.</p>

<p>"If you dont like lubbock, fine dont go, just be honest about your predjudice...."</p>

<p>Well, if you actually read what I've already wrote, you would realize that my distaste for Tech isn't just limited to Lubbock.</p>

<p>"Recent CEO of ATT is a Tech grad"</p>

<p>And you honestly think that his degree from Tech really got him there? Hahaha! There's more to it than that, bud. Besides, if you go on UT's web site you'll find at least two dozen CEOs from UT.</p>

<p>It's statements like that I don't like. You try to make Tech look like it's a better school than it is. It's not a flagship school, so don't kid yourself.</p>

<p>If you spend $400 to $800 more a semester, you can get a degree from either UT or A&M, which have a lot more name recognition, a MUCH larger career network, and there's a lot more to do in Austin and College Station. If you need a degree just to have a degree, there's plenty of regional schools in Texas so you don't need to drive 300+ miles to go to school in Lubbock. If you can't get into UT or A&M for whatever reason, I see no point of you going all the way to Lubbock for school when you've probably passed two or three universities driving out there.</p>

<p>I'm not going to pick a university to go to because "I could do worse." That's not the right attitude at all.</p>

<p>Texas Tech doesn't serve any sort of role that's not already covered by other schools in Texas, except maybe allowing kids who live near Lubbock a place to go to school.</p>

<p>Hi-Power, </p>

<p>Your venom for Tech knows almost no bounds. Tech just this past year got a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa which is a testament to Tech's achievements in the arts and sciences. Only six other schools nationwide received this honor (and several of my son's friends were inducted in the first class). Regarding the quality of the programs at Tech, you do not know what you are talking about and it shows in your every post.</p>

<p>Hi Power...do you mind telling us where you go to school now that is so much better than Texas Tech?</p>

<p>I think lonestardad has some good specific comments for the OP. I would second them.</p>

<p>I would ignore the other poster.</p>

<p>You can't debate the points I bring up, rty456, so all you can do is ignore them. Hah. All your responses so far have proved my point.</p>

<p>kbfunkymonkey, I don't go to school anymore; I already graduated. As far as your statement is concerned, are you joking? You really can't compare Tech to other schools its size or larger in Texas.</p>

<p>Oh, I don't know the programs at Tech? That's funny, since I actually went there. I don't even think you are Tech alumni. As far as Phi Beta Kappa is concerned, who cares? Does that make Tech a better school in the state of Texas? Nope. Is that going to make Tech more prestigious? Nope.</p>

<p>The only thing Tech can do at this point to make itself more prestigious is to raise it's admission standards, but it really can't even do that because I doubt anyone would want to go all the way to Lubbock for school if it's hard to get in. The school screwed itself by being built in a welfare town barely supported by an agricultural economy.</p>

<p>I think Tech is a good school if you consider it for what it is: a regional college.</p>

<p>Did you graduate from Tech?</p>

<p>As a Texas resident without much to lose from this discussion (apply/admit to UT McCombs but attending OOS), I'll chime in.</p>

<p>The general order of things in Texas seems to be like this:</p>

<p>Rice
- considerable drop -
UT
- slight drop -
A&M
- considerable drop -
Baylor / TCU / SMU
- decent drop -
Tech</p>

<p>To my knowledge, Tech is definitely one of the 10 best schools in Texas, which is nothing to balk at. If you can and want to receive a good education, Tech Honors could definitely be the way, especially if they end up paying your way and/or giving you perks. You can very well get a good job upon graduating and impress a good deal of Texans. That said, the heirarchy is primarily important when it comes to viewing schools on a national basis. To be fair, the only truly national schools in Texas that attract a considerable number of strong OOS applicants are Rice and UT. Excluding Rice from the discussion, UT's business school has long been considered one of the best in the nation, and easily one of the best values. For practically every concentration you can get excellent training and a great job. The same might be said for Tech, yes, but the difference lies in that McCombs is recruited well by major national companies, the same of which visit Michigan Ross, NYU Stern, etc. So it depends on what you want really. Disregard personal opinions in this matter. Do you want to work and be able to impress people in Texas only or do you wish to have mobility? A degree from McCombs will give you both: a degree from Tech might leave employers outside of Tx and the surrounding states scratching their heads. IMO, Tech offers a great education. Perhaps it is a bit steep, but Tech also isn't receiving the generous funds that UT/A&M are from the Tx govt. They are free to charge what they want and students are free to attend which school they want. For me, being interested in having options outside of Texas, Texas Tech never even crossed my mind. For plenty of my friends, most of which plan on remaining here, Tech is an excellent option, specifically when it is so difficult to get into McCombs yet the benefits are, in the end, quite similar. Good luck with your choice.</p>

<p>I go to Tech but I dont know if even I would even consider it 4th best in Texas. UTD, UNT, UH, and Tech are pretty similar, depending on who you ask and what you are looking for. There is also Baylor, SMU, TCU, etc that would need to be included if you are ranking schools in texas (public and private).</p>

<p>Tech wasn't the school I thought I would end up at, but now that I'm here I wouldn't trade it for any other school out there. I was accepted to many of the schools that are listed above, including UT, which can't be said for everyone. I'm happy with where I'm at, but if you have a negative attitude towards a school before going there you will probably hate it. All the people I knew that were excited to go to Tech in the beginning of the year, ended up loving it. All the people that were still ****ed they got rejected by A&M or UT because they were barely out of the top 10%, ended up complaining all year long and finally transferring...thank god.</p>

<p>Yeah I agree. I had to think about it for a minute because there are so many schools in Texas, though Tech is a really popular one. After UT/A&M/UH, it's probably the most talked about public school where I live (H-town). </p>

<p>Why did you turn UT down?</p>

<p>I changed schools in high school and their way of calculating gpa was very different, so i ended up out of the top 10% after all that...so i didnt get into the business school at UT, only UT...and getting scholarships at Tech was a lot easier so I'll be spending a lot less money here. If I end up deciding to get a MBA...UT would be the only place I would go to get one, if i ever got in.</p>

<p>Texas Tech would be a much better school if it raised it's admission standards. There's really not an all-around, nationally known university in Texas. Texas A&M puts itself too much into a niche and UT tries too hard to be a public Ivy. Tech could really fit the bill, but the problem is that it accepts almost everyone.</p>

<p>Then when you got business graduates from Tech coming on this board bragging about how she got the same job as a UT business graduate even though she had a 3.25, that doesn't speak very highly of the school, especially when you consider the fact that the UT graduate probably did not have a strong GPA.</p>

<p>Brand, are you from the Houston area? You keep bringing up Rice. Like I've said in another thread, Rice doesn't have a large enough student body to really be a threat to anyone else in Texas. In my career, I don't even remember ever meeting a Rice graduate, and even if I did, he wouldn't really have a leg up because he's outnumbered by 10 UT graduates. Of course, in my career, networking and connections are more important. You can get all the benefits of going to Rice by going to UT, plus more. </p>

<p>If you actually think there's a considerable drop between Rice and UT (McCombs), you must not be in the corporate work force yet. Go google up the credentials of many UT graduates who are now corporate officers, and then get back to me. The fact that they didn't go to Rice didn't hurt them in the least bit. There's plenty of McCombs students that could have gone to Rice. I think that's a smart decision because UT is also in the Top 50 and it has way more networking.</p>

<p>As far as A&M is concerned, yeah, I think McCombs is a little bit more prestigious, but for careers in Texas, it doesn't matter. A&M will get you through the door. A&M is also a Top 50 school (ranked #29 I think), and for 98% of the careers out there, that's good enough. My problem with McCombs is that they cater to way too many foreign students. Not that I have a problem with foreigners but it hurts the networking.</p>

<p>Baylor, TCU, and SMU are far enough down on the list that it's silly to go to either of them and pay 10 times as much money just for a business degree when you could've went to UT. There has to be other reasons why it would make sense, but I can't really think of any. I actually think it would be better to go to the business school at Tech and save money rather than go to Baylor, TCU, or SMU.</p>

<p>"To my knowledge, Tech is definitely one of the 10 best schools in Texas, which is nothing to balk at."</p>

<p>You've never been to Tech.</p>

<p>"You can very well get a good job upon graduating and impress a good deal of Texans."</p>

<p>Except for when you are applying for a job by a company ran by A&M, UT, Baylor, or TCU graduates.</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you actually think there's a considerable drop between Rice and UT (McCombs),

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Reread my statement and you will find that I did not claim that. Between Rice and UT overall, there is a considerable drop. Between McCombs and Rice for business, the two are comparable and I would give McCombs the advantage.</p>

<p>
[quote]
You've never been to Tech.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>True, but that doesn't weaken my argument. Me never being to Tech does not refute the fact that it may indeed be one of the top 10 schools in Texas. If you can name 10 better ones, I'll concede, but I for the life of me couldn't.</p>

<p>"That said, the heirarchy is primarily important when it comes to viewing schools on a national basis. To be fair, the only truly national schools in Texas that attract a considerable number of strong OOS applicants are Rice and UT."</p>

<p>But the reason UT attacts so many OOS students is because of the environment in Austin. Austin doesn't feel too much like Texas, so it's a great city for people out of, say, California. The only real stand-out programs at UT are business, engineering, architecture, and maybe geosciences. Everything else is not really any better than other schools. Texas A&M has very strong programs in all of those except maybe for geosciences and I would recommend A&M's engineering and even architecture schools over UT's. But not a lot of kids from OOS go to A&M because of its small town, country environment, and I don't blame them.</p>

<p>You can get the same careers with a degree from Rice but I don't think it's worth paying so much money for it over UT. You can do the same with a UT degree and besides, UT is a better school all-around. Better looking girls and better athletic events. Rice is too much of a bookworm school.</p>

<p>"The same might be said for Tech, yes, but the difference lies in that McCombs is recruited well by major national companies, the same of which visit Michigan Ross, NYU Stern, etc."</p>

<p>This is also true for A&M or any other school with a population of over 25,000 students. Don't get me wrong, I think McCombs is an awesome school, but major, national companies are rarely the best places to work. These companies also recruit from Tech, which is evident earlier in this thread. So I don't think that's the primary reason why people should go to McCombs.</p>

<p>"Disregard personal opinions in this matter."</p>

<p>Yeah, you definately haven't graduated yet. Frankly, from reading a lot of your posts, it appears that you are quoting US News reports than your own personal experience. If you think that someone should choose Tech only because of its academics and not anything else, you are never going to get the full college experience and you won't have a fulfilling life. It's not like Tech has academics you can't find anywhere else in the state, anyway.</p>

<p>"Perhaps it is a bit steep, but Tech also isn't receiving the generous funds that UT/A&M are from the Tx govt."</p>

<p>UT and A&M do about eight times as much research a year than Tech. Considering the steep drop-off between A&M and Tech (in your diagram), and that current tuition between Tech and A&M is only about a difference of $400 to $500 a semester, you are getting way more bang for your buck at A&M.</p>

<p>"Tech is an excellent option, specifically when it is so difficult to get into McCombs yet the benefits are, in the end, quite similar."</p>

<p>Hahahahahaha! If the benefits at the end are so quite similar, then how come Tech never crossed your mind? You praise McCombs, yet then you try to say that the benefits of Tech are similar. Come on, now, I know you don't even believe that.</p>

<p>Tech's business school is good if you need a job but you aren't picky about what job. Otherwise, you'll need to go on to UT or A&M for a grad program. But if you're going to go to UT or A&M for a graduate program anyway, then there's really no point of spending almost as much money for tuition at Tech.</p>

<p>kbfunky:</p>

<p>"I go to Tech but I dont know if even I would even consider it 4th best in Texas. UTD, UNT, UH, and Tech are pretty similar, depending on who you ask and what you are looking for. There is also Baylor, SMU, TCU, etc that would need to be included if you are ranking schools in texas (public and private)."</p>

<p>You're right, it's not the fourth best or anywhere close. UTD and UNT are similar, but UTD is more of a satellite campus and UNT is a commuter school, so Tech has an advantage over both just by feeling more traditional. But I would choose Tech's business school over Baylor, TCU, and SMU. I don't know about TCU and SMU, but I know that Baylor is only ranked around #75 or so in the nation, so there's no real benefit for spending more money for Baylor tuition over Tech. Baylor is a crappy school for the college experience, anyway.</p>

<p>"All the people I knew that were excited to go to Tech in the beginning of the year, ended up loving it."</p>

<p>They were excited for being in college and being away from home. That's not a feeling unique only to Tech.</p>

<p>"All the people that were still ****ed they got rejected by A&M or UT because they were barely out of the top 10%, ended up complaining all year long and finally transferring...thank god."</p>

<p>That wasn't the case for me. So kids that were above average in academics compared to everyone else at Tech were complaining? That doesn't surprise me. When I was there I got tired of the dumb blondes in class who would ask if what we were studying would be on the test.</p>

<p>If they had their heart set on going to UT and they couldn't get in, they should have went into the CAP program instead of going to Tech.</p>

<p>Brand:</p>

<p>"Reread my statement and you will find that I did not claim that."</p>

<p>Okay, let's look here:</p>

<p>"Rice
- considerable drop -
UT"</p>

<p>Yup, you said considerable drop. Eat your own words. When we're going to rate schools like UT and Rice compared to each other, we are rating competitive programs like business or engineering. Otherwise, there's no point of having Rice in the picture because the cost of going to Rice for another major will keep it at a disadvantage compared to similar programs at UT. I'd never spend 10X as much money to go to Rice and live in the middle of Houston if I'm going to have to give up three years' worth of salary afterwards just to pay off student loans and I don't think a lot of people would, either. Even with scholarships it's still expensive.</p>

<p>"True, but that doesn't weaken my argument."</p>

<p>Yes it does.</p>

<p>"Me never being to Tech does not refute the fact that it may indeed be one of the top 10 schools in Texas."</p>

<p>A top ten list is made up of opinions, not fact.</p>

<p>"If you can name 10 better ones, I'll concede, but I for the life of me couldn't."</p>

<p>Off the top of my head, I can name several:</p>

<p>University of Texas at Austin
Texas A&M University
Trinity University
Rice University
University of Houston (it's growing and it's connected to the Houston workforce)
Angelo State University (no longer a regional college just for SA kids, it's a growing school. Lots of kids all over Texas going here now, and give it another ten to fifteen years it'll have an enrollment around 15,000, excellent physics program, plenty of people going to strong grad programs afterwards, comparable academics to Tech but in a nicer town, generally more respected by A&M grads than Tech)</p>

<p>That's just off the top. If Tech's in the top 10, it's going to be 8th or 10th. It is a good school for getting a career, but like you said, outside of Texas, you really need to be in a better known program. Out of that list, only UT and A&M qualify, maybe Rice.</p>

<p>Also, academically I think SMU and TCU are better than Tech but I would choose Tech over both of them just on cost. Howard Payne is a good school, but I don't know very much about it.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Posted by Hi-Power: Hahahahahaha! If the benefits at the end are so quite similar, then how come Tech never crossed your mind?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>
[quote]
Posted by brand_182: For me, being interested in having options outside of Texas, Texas Tech never even crossed my mind.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>
[quote]
Tech's business school is good if you need a job but you aren't picky about what job.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm not debating that or the tidbit about the difference in cost and the education you receive. I'm simply stating that the differences upon graduation for someone that graduated from A&M/UT or Tech, if both are looking for jobs in Texas, aren't going to be as drastic as you're making them. </p>

<p>
[quote]
If you think that someone should choose Tech only because of its academics and not anything else, you are never going to get the full college experience and you won't have a fulfilling life.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>In order for that to work, you'll have to put words in my mouth, as I've never said anything to that effect. What I have said is that if someone wishes to choose Tech Honors, they are not going to be at some major disadvantage. Would I choose UT over Tech? Quite obviously, since I never even applied to Tech. There is no way in hell I would want to live in Lubbock, or even College Station for that matter. But this discussion isn't about your personal experience or my personal opinions on the settings of these schools. It's about the business opportunities that you will find from either school.</p>