<p>Could anyone who has spent a year or two at a community college before transferring to UT please provide some insight? I applied as a transfer for fall 2010 with 41 hours and a 3.8 gpa and, to be honest, instead of worrying about whether or not I'm going to get accepted (I applied to McCombs. My second choice is CNS), I'm more worried about if I'm going to be able to handle the courses at UT. I've never been in a class with more than ~20 students and I have always been able to get 1-on-1 time with the instructor whenever I had questions. Nearly every non-lab test I have taken at CC was a multiple choice scantron test and several of my instructors dropped the lowest grade at the end of the semester, so just studying well the day before a test was good enough for an A or B in most cases. Since many of my classes weren't very challenging, I'm afraid that I won't do as well at UT with so many bright competitive students and professors who expect a lot from them. Has anyone had a similar experience and did well at UT? Any suggestions about what I could do to prepare myself assuming I get accepted?</p>
<p>I attended ACC for a year before transferring to UT. UT is much harder. You will adapt. It may take you a semester or so first though. The difficulty of classes at UT varies widely. It did not vary at ACC much. </p>
<p>As far as the large classes, they do get smaller at UT when you get into upper division courses. You have 41 hours already. I’m betting that most of your courses will replace those huge lecture courses for freshman at UT. Even so, those aren’t as bad as you may fear. I haven’t had a problem getting help from a professor, although usually in the big lecture courses there is a TA who is probably more helpful. </p>
<p>Scantron tests are well known at UT also. At least at UT, you don’t have to buy them, unlike at ACC. </p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about being able to compete. I think you will find you will rise to the challenge better than you think. It is nice to have someone with high expectations for you. You force yourself to do more than you would otherwise. I had a 4.0 at ACC and have like a 3.88 now. My grades are down but still good. Depending on the subject, there are all kind of different help available to you. For math classes, chemistry, accounting, and some others, there is a learning center and private tutors are also available. Each semester you receive ten private tutor sessions to use. </p>
<p>Do not let UT get to you. One thing I have hated about it is that students do not test out and take appropriate levels of coursework. Then you have to compete with someone who is out of your league. For example, in my intro German class, most people had several years background in the language from high school but still took the first semester. One girl had even lived in Germany and attended German speaking schools for 3 years. Students will do this in order to get an easy A. It is very frustrating to compete against those types of students.</p>
<p>I think Fiyero nailed it. Depending on your major, a 4.0 at your community college is probably going to translate to anywhere between a 3.0 and a 3.4 at UT for the same level of effort. So you’ll need to work a little harder if you still want good grades.</p>
<p>But that’s the reason you’re going for a diploma that says “UT” on it and not “Tarleton”. :)</p>