<p>Do they ever send out rejection letters?</p>
<p>Is there any way to know your status besides receiving the letter?</p>
<p>Thanks, Aximer. I appreciate your comments. And congrats to you for getting in to Turing! We are aware of the strength of the UT CS program. But we are also aware of the extreme difference between attending UT as a “regular” student and as a member of CNS Honors, having just had another son graduate from DS this past May. My older S’s friends that weren’t in Honors had constant issues with getting classes and classes that were way too big, and also having to watch ALL of the merit CNS scholarships go to the honors kids and no one else. Fortunately for you, if you accept your Turing spot, you will get to experience something equivalent to “Rice University” inside UT–the best of both worlds. My younger S got into pre-CS at UT a week or so ago, but if he doesn’t get into DS or Turing, I think he will probably be better off attending one of the other places where he’s already been accepted into Honors and has lots of merit $$'s as a result. There is something to be said for going to a college where you “feel the love”. When you are ranked 4th in your senior class with very high scores on your SAT and subject tests and strong EC’s, it’s hard to accept not being in Honors.</p>
<p>How selective is Turing Scholars? Does anyone know the approximate acceptance rate or how many apply per year? Are they looking for high scores/grades or good essays, or good computer-science related extracurriculars? Do they send out acceptances in batches (i applied early November), or all at once? I am really really really really really interested in this program, and I would be crushed if I got rejected</p>
<p>csman123: I think they are looking for all of the above. My S is from a school with basically no real CS program, but when he talked to the Turing office before he applied, they said they don’t ding you for not having the opportunity to take a lot of accelerated courses while in HS and that they looked at things like Math and Physics classes to see if you have the aptitude. I’m not sure that’s really true, though. I can’t really answer the rest of your Q’s. I know way more about DS having had another kid graduate as a DS this past May. I know that Turing is pretty darn competitive, though, and I’ve heard it has grown in popularity every year, so I’m guessing they have a large # of applicants. For what it’s worth, DS sent out their acceptances in batches the year my older S got in. He got his in mid-December, but a couple of his friends didn’t get in until February or later. Back then, the first group to get accepted got scholarships and most of the later acceptances didn’t. I would think that Turing might do it the same, but that would just be a guess on my part.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I talked to a friend whose son called and talked to someone in Turing about a week ago. The person he spoke to said that they were not completely done with acceptances. The person also said there was a wait list, but it wasn’t clear whether or not the people on that list had been informed that they were on it via email or letter, or if it was just an internal list they were using to pluck new acceptances from. Did anyone get an official notification that they were on a Turing wait list?</p>
<p>DS is in top-10%, but not top-7% at a top-10 Texas public HS.<br>
SAT: 1400+ CR+M, 2100+
Varsity sport, 4 years band, 10+ AP courses when it is all said and done.</p>
<p>If CS-Turing does not pan out, what course of action do others think is wise?
UT CS
UT ECE Honors (if accepted)
aTm Honors CS
Minnesota Honors CS
UTD Honors CS
Alabama Honors CS/ECE</p>
<p>Clearly Texas is the #1 ranked of those mentioned, but is honors at a lower ranked school worth the reduction in reputation? I read the comment about trouble getting classes. With as much technological wizardry as exists at UT Austin, you’d think that would never be a problem for CS students.</p>
<p>Boilerhorn: Is your S double-majoring in CS & ECE? I’m asking because my S had his 1st choice as CS, which is of course in the college of natural science, and his 2nd as Computer Engineering, which obviously is in the engineering school. He was told that once he got accepted into his 1st choice major of CS, he was no longer even eligible to be chosen for Honors Engineering. I just noticed in your post that you had “UT ECE Honors (if accepted)” and I figured the only way he might still be waiting for that to happen is if he is a double-major. Not trying to pry. Just curious if that is a way to get accepted into both CNS honors and Engineering honors. Also, I was the one who made the comment about having trouble getting classes if you are not in honors. I just know from my older son’s experience in CNS honors that getting to register before everyone else allowed him to get his classes pretty much when he wanted them. Some of his friends that weren’t in honors complained about having trouble gettting the classes they needed and about having “bad” schedules with long gaps of time between classes.</p>
<p>cdkmom: thanks for the reply. There is no intention to double-major. He just desires Honors ECE (computer) over non-honors CS. It sounds like that’s not an option if admitted to CS. Given that CNS is an “open school” admission to the university will gain him admission to CS, which sounds like it might disqualify him from Honors ECE.</p>
<p>That all aside, I’m also wondering if an honors curriculum in a lower tier school is superior to the mainstream curriculum at UT. Peer group is important, plus it seems as though there are fewer scholarship and internship opportunities for non-Turing at UT CS.</p>
<p>The “trouble getting classes” problem has existed forever at UT. It boggles my mind that, of all departments, CS would have that issue. They should have plenty of compute braintrust and resource to mine the data and accurately plan courses.</p>
<p>Can’t a student apply to honors once at UT? I know that is true for some majors, maybe not CS. Would your child be willing to roll the dice on getting good enough grades to apply later?</p>
<p>Don’t know what to tell you about UT honors vs nonUT honors. How much do non Turing CS majors bond? How bad is the course choice issue? Does it usually work out by the end of drop/add? Does it get easier for upperclassmen? Would there be an advantage to your child claiming some AP credits and becoming a sophomore a little earlier to get better course choices? </p>
<p>I have a kid in honors and the biggest advantage seems to be course choice. The other stuff, dorm, etc, doesn’t seem to be as big a factor. I get the impression that after the first year/year and a half, the course choice issues will work out.</p>
<p>I know several non-Turing students who requested Honors classes, did very well, and were accepted to Turing program right after that.
I believe, you can apply to Turing program any time the first 2 years at UT.
<a href=“https://www.cs.utexas.edu/turing-scholars/admissions/current-ut-students[/url]”>Current UT Students | Department of Computer Science;
<p>Lizardly - my child has UT CS #1 on his list, supposedly even if he does not make honors. It’s just me asking hypothetical questions. I’m not worried about bond and whether it gets easier along the way; I prefer the smaller, more intimate class size that honors offers.</p>
<p>YaYa - thanks for the link.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Regular students bond via:
- PODs (all freshmen are placed there) <a href=“https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate-program/student-engagement-and-support/360-connections/cs-pods[/url]”>https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate-program/student-engagement-and-support/360-connections/cs-pods</a>
- FRI (you join if you want, but it’s highly promoted) [Freshman</a> Research Initiative](<a href=“http://cns.utexas.edu/fri]Freshman”>Home | Freshman Research Initiative)
- Student organizations <a href=“https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate-program/student-engagement-and-support/student-organizations[/url]”>Student organizations | Department of Computer Science;
<p><a href=“https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate-program/student-engagement-and-support[/url]”>Student Engagement and Support | Department of Computer Science;
You can look up all the links under Student Engagement starting with 360 connections. </p>
<p>My understanding is that upperclassmen create special study groups and other opportunities for freshmen. They share a lot of info on facebook, but most of groups are closed UT groups, so I am not familiar with all the activities, I just know that there are many.</p>
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<p>Yes, there is advantage claiming AP credits and becoming sophomore a little earlier.
Schedule usually works out by the end of drop/add. It probably doesn’t work out very well for very advanced students who already claimed all calculus, physics and CS AP and want to register for upper level classes after all the upperclassmen, but requesting an Honor class is always a good option for these students.
Students who are in the worst possible situation during registration are usually transfer students, not freshmen.</p>
<p>By the way, FRI CS classes are never waitlisted, so if your child is interested in research he/she will always have some great options for classes.</p>
<p>When you are a freshman at Orientation, you generally won’t be able to have all of your credit go through since you need approval from your adviser and then CTE and the Registrar have their own procedures. However, if you are in a honors program like turing, your spots in the honors classes should be reserved (like Data Structures for Turing- a course you will take during your first semester in the program). </p>
<p>However, encourage the students to petition for credit everything they can get, and send transcripts from community colleges, so your credits exceed 30, and possibly 60 hours. That way, during registration for the spring semester, you can register before other class of 2018 students who are below 30 hours.</p>
<p>I am a current CS student at UT (waiting to go to my software engineering class specifically in our brand new GDC building…my new home). I am a POD mentor, undergraduate TA/proctor, and did a year and a half of FRI research in stream focused on Artificial Intelligence in Game Design. Figured I’d poke my head in and see if you had any other questions about the dept here. </p>
<p>Also, I have plenty of friends in Turing but ultimately decided against it because it gives me more freedom in class choices and I dont have to write a thesis (many many turing scholars dont actually graduate as a turing scholar because they dont want to do this last step).</p>
<p>texasCS, thanks for offering to address some questions.</p>
<p>You refer to “freedom in class choices.” How does the Turing program limit freedom?</p>
<p>I’ve also heard that many Turing scholars drop out to avoid the additional workload of the thesis. If such a student wants to attend grad school, does that impact the quality of school he/she might attend?</p>
<p>In your experience, is a high performing, non-Turing student less likely to get scholarships and top-notch internships?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>As far as freedom to choose courses, there is only one section/professor of each required course that is an honors version. There is a huge variety of upper division courses after that but yet again a very small portion of those are honors. Turing Degree plan (<a href=“http://cns.utexas.edu/images/CNS/Deans_Office/Student_Records/Web.DegPlans/BS.CS.TS.1214_20120926.pdf[/url]”>http://cns.utexas.edu/images/CNS/Deans_Office/Student_Records/Web.DegPlans/BS.CS.TS.1214_20120926.pdf</a>) Minor perk for honors students is priority registration though!</p>
<p>In my experience, being in Turing does not really put you in a better spot for an internship. I have had non-turing mentees (first semester freshmen) that have already landed impressive internships for this coming summer. Personally I have already had multiple internships (big name financial company for software eng. , DoD research lab, etc)</p>
<p>Turing/thesis would look much better in terms of grad school however because they try to focus more on research and in-depth learning like closer to what you would do in grad school. There is also a 5 year program (also highly competitive) here at UT where you can get your BS and MS by starting grad school early.</p>
<p>Has anyone been told they are “officially” on the wait list for Turing? Or has anyone else gotten in since the first wave back at the beginning of this thread? I heard they weren’t completely done with all of their acceptances, but there’s no evidence of anyone on CC getting in since then.</p>
<p>Son just got acceptance to College of Natural Sciences, with major in Computer Science, entry-level. No mention of Turing either yay or nay. When he goes to his Status page, it shows he applied to Turing, but no decision.</p>
<p>We are out of state. He has 800/800/780 on the SAT and a 4.3GPA (A/A- average) at a highly selective STEM magnet school. He took the AP Computer Science exam in 8th grade and got a 5, and has done advanced coursework at school. He had a summer job as a software engineer with a defense contractor.</p>
<p>Does this mean the Turing announcements come out later, or did he perhaps not make the cut?</p>
<p>@geomom, Your son is not only one with great stat waiting for CNS honor decision. My daughter has perfect SAT/SAT2 and rank within 1% but didn’t get Dean’s Scholar notice yet. (She is not in computer science.) I’d like to get a rejection notice rather than just waiting in the notice releasing waves. I cannot hold her to stick with UT in this situation. :(</p>