<p>Hi everyone-
I’m currently a high school senior in Texas, and I’ve been accepted to both U of A and UNT. I plan on doing a double major in journalism and philosophy, and then either going on to grad school for journalism or to law school. I’ve been reading through the forums about both schools, but I haven’t seen a direct comparison of the two, but I would really love everyones input on which school I should choose,whether for academic or environmental reasons. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Definately UNT. It has much, much better academics, as well as the benefit of being so close to Dallas for jobs when you graduate. The campus isn’t as big of a sports, school-spirit kind of school as Arkansas however.</p>
<p>MedSchHopeful,</p>
<p>What do you base your judgement of the academics off of? I think UNT and Arkansas have very different atmospheres, but I would certainly not say that UNT has “much, much better academics” considering Arkansas’s rankings in several significant categories. The Honors College at the U of A also has an extremely strong academic reputation.</p>
<p>I don’t fault anyone for liking a school over another, I’m just curious about what data or information your basing your judgments off of. </p>
<p>-Matt</p>
<p>I like the way that UNT has a very liberal vibe, I haven’t visited Arkansas yet so I don’t know how I feel on campus there. It doesn’t matter to me if the school is centered on sports, because I’m not super interested in college sports. There are only two reasons I’m leaning towards Arkansas. The first is because it is a tier one school. But like I don’t know if graduate schools would look at it in better light since it is tier one? UNT is tier two. Second, I live about 40 minutes from UNT and I’m pretty ready to leave North Texas.</p>
<p>Well, to be honest, I’m only basing my info off of the stereotype of our area (North Texas), which is that UA is the school where Texas kids go when they can’t get into a state school. I know it’s probably not accurate and I probably should have mentioned that I’m in no way a real expert, just that when I come back to Texas after school to look for a job, I don’t want to have a degree from the school everyone stereotypes as bad, no matter how inaccurate it may be. </p>
<p>I’m probably not the best person to get advice from on the UA side, just the UNT side. But I didn’t want the thread to go dead without even one person answering.</p>
<p>Hi livethglam,</p>
<p>I would definitely encourage you to visit UArk. It think you would be surprised by the “vibe” of the town and college. As far as academics goes, having a degree from a top-tier school is definitely an advantage when applyting to grad schools. Here are some of the rankings: [Value/Rankings</a> | Admissions | University of Arkansas](<a href=“http://admissions.uark.edu/244.php]Value/Rankings”>http://admissions.uark.edu/244.php) </p>
<p>Since you are interested in Journalism, I would also look at the program at UArk, which you can find here - [Front</a> Page, Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism, University of Arkansas](<a href=“http://journalism.uark.edu/index.php]Front”>School of Journalism and Strategic Media | University of Arkansas). The faculty and students have won a lot of awards recently, including some Emmys.</p>
<p>MedSchHopeful,</p>
<p>You have to be careful making such statements based off assumptions or stereotypes, but I do appreciate you trying to help out and keep their question from going unanswered. </p>
<p>I think there probably are quite a few students that apply to Arkansas due to the difficulty of getting into the top state schools in Texas (UT or A&M are the two I was always hearing about at fairs from prospective students and their parents, not much from any of the others), but I’ve never seen that as a negative thing. When I was there, (possibly due to the Top 10%/now Top 8% rule) Arkansas was getting some phenomenal students from Texas that your schools either didn’t have room for, or didn’t want to go to school in-state, so I always viewed it as a positive thing for everyone. I also think you’ll find that any stereotypes amongst high school students aren’t going to be very applicable to a potential employer’s point of view. Arkansas has one of the best business schools in the country, one of the best architecture schools, top ranked engineering and agricultural colleges, an extremely well funded and supported Honors College, and numerous arts, sciences, and pre-professional programs that receive national recognition each year. Prospective employers often pay close attention to these things and I think the career placement fairs and services at Fayetteville do a great job at helping students make connections. I’m sure UNT also has some excellent programs, I’m just not as familiar with them which is why I hadn’t chimed in earlier to compare the two.</p>
<p>Livetheglam,
I think that a lot of students that look at UNT might also look at Texas Tech, so I think you might find the following observations from a parent over in the Texas Tech forum helpful too:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-tech-university/1045157-texas-tech-vs-university-arkansas.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-tech-university/1045157-texas-tech-vs-university-arkansas.html</a> </p>
<p>I strongly encourage a tour and spending a day/night in Fayetteville! Take a college day and go visit and I think you’ll be impressed. My tour of Arkansas (several years back, admittedly) is what sold me on the school and was the most important factor in helping me decide where to attend. I think things have continued to change for the better since then too, so you should be even more impressed than I was :).
-Matt</p>
<p>I would say UNT all the way… especially if you are looking for journalism as a major.</p>
<p>I am currently a sophomore at the university of Arkansas and this is my lady year here. I will be transferring to UNT in the fall. Arkansas is a full on party school. Greek like and parties is 90% of the school. If you don’t like to go out and party Thursday Friday Saturday and sometimes Sundays then you will hate it as I do. UNT has a better environment to allow someone to learn. Students at Arkansas focus on partying and getting drunk. I am not stating stereotypes because I go here right now and know what it is like. Yes the campus might be pretty but it is a top party school</p>
<p><a href="http://www..com/Rankings/RankingDetails.aspx?RankingId=25&Ordinal=4&Year=2013%5B/url%5D">http://www..com/Rankings/RankingDetails.aspx?RankingId=25&Ordinal=4&Year=2013</a></p>
<p>UNT</p>
<p>Anyone that ranks UNT above Arkansas academically doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The average ACT at Arkansas last year was a 26 and the average GPA was a 3.6, so they’re hardly accepting less than mediocre students. </p>
<p>Rankings:
U.S News and World Report ranks University of Arkansas #128 of National Universities, which in contrast, North Texas didn’t even make the rankings at all. </p>
<p>Sports:
No real contest here, Arkansas is an athletic powerhouse and North Texas is an after thought for most sports.</p>
<p>Campus:
I haven’t been to UNT, but Arkansas is incredibly beautiful and I’d match against almost any college in the country. Can’t really pick a clear winner here though since I haven’t been to both of them.</p>
<p>Endowments:
Arkansas has a $800,000,000 endowment compared to just $113,000,000 for UNT. It should be noted that they have more students at UNT so Arkansas has about six times the endowment per student that UNT has. </p>
<p>Freshman Profile 25th/75th percentiles: </p>
<p>Arkansas: 23/28
UNT: 21/26 </p>
<p>Greek Life:
Not even a contest, Arkansas has some of the best greek housing and greek life in the country.</p>
<p>I don’t really see how anyone can say UNT is anywhere close to Arkansas in terms of quality education. It is much more respected than UNT and has a national reputation. Most people outside of Texas or surrounding states have never heard of University of North Texas. Everyone from California to Maine knows University of Arkansas. </p>
<p>Furthermore, what does a party atmosphere have to do with anything? University of Wisconsin Madison has been ranked among the top public Universities in the country and is a nationally regarded party school. Same with University of Michigan and Indiana University. The best party scenes are always at the most respected public universities. </p>
<p>College is what you make of it. So I hear, but Arkansas is ranked higher than UNT academically. However, if you live in Texas and don’t want to pay out of state tuition then you certainly cant go wrong with UNT. It is still a good school.</p>
Party life is up to you. All schools have it. Arkansas is no different. If you want to study on Saturday night you will have lots of company at the library. If you want to party on Dickson Street you will have lots of company there too.
@CoffeeFreak95 is spot on. A world of difference in the schools. If you want to branch out from the DFW metroplex it is a great place to go.