<p>I hesitate to post this here but I've found that the mass of people that read and post on this forum has proved to be invaluable for discovering the unknown small regional colleges. My youngest son and I (he's a Junior in HS) went to the Philadelphia College Fair a few weeks ago and he talked to a couple of dozen admissions counselors from small and large colleges. All of them except for a couple were ones that we had planned to see and get info from. One of them, was the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe AZ. Instead of the traditional booth with brochures they had a huge sign of a baby with lanyard and a flashdrive and a sign that said, "born geek?" The rep was kind of geeky himself and he and my son hit it off. Son's would maybe major in IST or MIS or something along those lines but not Computer Science. He's as more of a people person and technology guy then pure programming geek. Here's the college - <a href="http://www.uat.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.uat.edu/</a> </p>
<p>Since then son has gotten two phone calls which took me unawares since he's only a Junior and we made that clear. They also sent out a brochure that has all kinds of microsoft tags which take you to links when he uses an iphone app. Son is quite interested in this place and if we lived in Arizona, I would have no problem visiting. We do have relatives in AZ and in fact, he has a cousin at the U of AZ in Tempe but it's not high on my lists. Should it be on any list? My question here is - has anyone heard of this college and is it legit? </p>
<p>The name itself is a real turn-off to me and I'm trying to get past that.</p>
<p>I just looked it up on collegeboard. They do not have very many stats reported but only 54% of the kids return for soph year. That is a huge red flag for me.</p>
<p>On their website (followed the link from cb) they gave the average sat and act scores. I thought they were pretty low - 23 for ACT and 1610/2400.
"Incoming class average for 2009 Applicants
SAT 1610 (out of 2400)
SAT 1290 (out of 1600)
ACT 23
HS GPA 3.11
College GPA 3.1 "</p>
<p>They Financial Aid seems a little disturbing. From CB:
Financial Aid Distribution
Percent of total undergraduate aid awarded as:
Scholarships / grants: 20%
Loans / jobs: 80%</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve seen the stats, and one of the reasons why I posted and am hoping that someone has some personal experience. While I’m asking about this college, at the same time I am making arrangements to visit a couple of New England Colleges because I’m having a hard time taking UAT seriously. OTOH, it’s quite interesting to see a college really grab my son’s interest. I don’t want to blow it off. My older son was really interested in Digipen <a href=“https://www.digipen.edu/[/url]”>https://www.digipen.edu/</a> another unique techy college and I’m glad we took the time to at least look into it before he took it off his list.</p>
<p>As I mentioned above, “Son’s would maybe major in IST or MIS or something along those lines but not Computer Science. He’s as more of a people person and technology guy then pure programming geek.”</p>
<p>One thing to note is that it is a “for-profit” school and is “family owned” according to Wiki.</p>
<p>Also from Wikipedia: a list of accreditations, approvals, etc.</p>
<p>"The current accreditation is at the national level as certified by the ACICS from the U.S. Department of Education. As of 2007, UAT is a Candidate with The Higher Learning Commission. In October of 2009, UAT earned regional accreditation from North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.</p>
<p>UAT was designated a Center of Academic Excellence by the National Centers of Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE) sponsored by the U.S. National Security Agency and the Homeland Security Department.</p>
<p>Network Security programs certified by the US National Security Agency’s Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation program for 4011 CNSS National Standard for Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals and 4013 National Standard for System Administrators in Information Systems Security (INFOSEC)."</p>
<p>I agree it looks cool and interesting. The question is would you allow your son/daughter to take a $300 flight to check it out? Do I get to go too?</p>
<p>I’ve been there for some meetings. It’s a one-building place (very nice building, good facility and equipment) across the street from a Fry’s Electronics. I don’t think it’s residential. Think DeVry, but specialized with a higher caliber of instruction and some decent industry connections. If a student wants the specific technical programs offered (game design being the most popular), it’s likely to be better than a more traditional university degree. If the student is looking for the “freshman year experience,” not so much.</p>
<p>As to the “Center for Excellence” designation – at least one community college in that area has the same designation. It means they offer a curriculum in information security that’s NSA-approved. I don’t know a lot about their IS curriculum, but do know that a few years back, one of the faculty encouraged a student wardriving project that was interesting but illegal. (Wardriving is driving around neighborhoods looking for unprotected and/or hackable wireless Internet connections.)</p>
<p>Geekmom, I’m so glad a local Arizona person with a geeky background replied. Son is NOT interested in game design and his major (today’s choice) is available at Colleges throughout the country. The “one building” certainly give me pause…</p>
It’s Arizona State U. (ASU) that’s in Tempe. UofA is in Tucson.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure what you mean by this but both of my CS Ds are also not socially awkward people. It’s not a requirement for CS although it does have its share of them. CS grads can end up in many kinds of positions and they’re certainly not all the stereotypical “programming geek” types.</p>
<p>This particular college though seems to go out of its way to appeal to geek types according to its website. I’m not sure that’d be such a good fit for your S given your description.</p>
<p>Although I’ve never been to it I’d consider the points stated by other posters (family-owned, for profit, single building, short history, limited course offerings, not widely known, etc.). Something to keep in mind is that a fair number of students change their minds on what they want to major in a time or two and his options would be very limited at a place like this - he’d probably have to quit and go elsewhere. It seems that he’d be better off getting a more generalized degree in MIS, CS, etc. from a more established college with more options, more of a ‘college experience’, perhaps better industry connections with on-campus employer visits, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter and I actually visited this college in the spring of '08. She is geeky and wants to work in computer animation/game graphics.</p>
<p>The school itself is very impressive. It is just one building, but they had a motion capture lab and a lot of other highly technical equipment. They were also in the process of building a dorm which should have opened in the fall of '08.</p>
<p>The biggest drawback was the tuition- $30,000 a semester and 0 financial aid, other than loans. </p>
<p>Luckily, we found a great program at a regular 4 year university with great financial aid.</p>
<p>I have family in Phoenix, so it wasn’t a huge expense to go visit.
(she also looked at digipen, but we scratched that off our list for the same tution/financial reason.)</p>
<p>@twomules – Which one is better depends on the student’s goals. If he wants to specialize and get into the job market right away, I’ll stand by the statement: The more vocational focus of a UAT or perhaps a Maricopa B&II is better suited to that goal, and the industry connections a student can make there are solid and pragmatic. It’s like jumping right into the major core without having to spend two years in general studies requirements. And those newer, specialized programs are more likely to remain in place for four years at a private institution like UAT than in the state universities, which have cut programs and will probably have to make another round of cuts as the state continues trying to recover and balance its budget.</p>
<p>Is that for everyone – no. But it does serve a purpose and seems to do it well (nutty wardriving assignment aside). It’s not a sketchy, scammy place; it’s just a specialized one.</p>
<p>From what kathiep has described of her son, I wouldn’t recommend UAT for him. For an OOS freshman-to-be who’s still formulating his goals, other options out there – e.g., RPI, WPI, CalPoly – would probably be more suitable for the full residential college experience.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments, you have all given me something to think about. Right now, I’m just trying to decide if it’s worth a visit. Thanks also for the correction about the location of U of AZ and AZ State. My nephew is at U of AZ in Tucson, not the same as Tempe! If he goes, he would most likely visit the University of Arizona, but I don’t see the majors that he is interested in at Arizona State. The tuition is actually not far from other colleges that we’ve looked at.</p>
<p>For the record – twomules raised a valid and worthwhile point in a pm, indicating that new hires in the game design industry typically have 4-year degrees in some related field. I’m not in the game design industry, so I shouldn’t speak to that field. In my field (infosec), 4-year degrees in CS/CSE/CIS are typical (and Math is another possibility, if they get into crypto), but mainly because there haven’t been 4-year infosec programs long enough for the hiring orgs to evaluate their graduates. Work experience (which UAT seems to build in with its projects) and industry certifications (which Maricopa’s B&II emphasizes in its coursework) are most valuable.</p>
<p>Sorry for this off-topic post, kathiep, but I thought I should back off on the game design side of my comments for future readers of your thread. :o</p>
<p>One of the reason that UAT appeals to my son is the hands-on aspect. We’ve noticed that more colleges are requiring internships or co-op’s in his potential major and he likes that. I am concerned that he doesn’t have the grades to get accepted or get merit at some of the more traditional schools like WPI or Carnegie Mellon. I believe he would like (and we could afford) a lower tier techy school, but so far we haven’t found it. </p>
<p>BTW, I didn’t mean to imply that all CS majors are not-people persons or socially awkward (in fact, three out of four of his first cousins are CS majors) but that son has more of an interest in the what’s-the-latest-technology? aspect and helping people then the CS people I know.</p>
<p>You should check out Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. It’s reputable and sounds like what you are looking for at exactly the right level. It very hands on and they have mandatory co-ops. </p>
<p>36% of their students had a HS GPA between 2.5 and 3.0, 11% between 2.0 and 2.5.</p>
<p>@kathiep Something to keep in mind…
UAT offers a Travel Voucher. If your son visits UAT and decides he wants to attend, UAT will give you a $500 tuition credit on his first semester. </p>
<p>UAT also recently redid their scholarship program within the past year. Make sure you look over it. </p>
<p>While UAT is currently one academic building and one residence hall, I believe there are plans for them to build on the lot next to them within the next few years.</p>
<p>I hope you and your son find the best school for him!</p>