University of North Texas (Pros and Cons?)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I wanted to go to an unbiased forum and ask what people thought of the University of North Texas and it's location, Denton, TX. What are the pros and cons? What is absolutely amazing about the school and city and what do you absolutely hate about it? Best majors/programs for the university? Best organizations at UNT? Is it a decent college town?</p>

<p>If you attend UNT or just want to write about your personal experiences with Denton, feel free to give any information you want.</p>

<p>I live in rural Mississippi in a town of about 200. I will be easily impressed with just about any college town I'm sure, but what stands out to you about Denton and UNT?</p>

<p>I won't give any personal info like what major I want to pursue or my grades or any of that so this can truly be unbiased of anything to which I'm affiliated.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I don’t know if any/many people on CC know that much about the school to know what’s “amazing” and what’s not.</p>

<p>Why did you apply there?</p>

<p>Are they offering you a scholarship? If not, will it be affordable?</p>

<p>What about Ole Miss or Miss State?</p>

<p>What is your major? ( This is important, because some schools are better than others for certain majors). what is your budget?</p>

3

<p>Thanks for commenting, ma’am. Well, I haven’t applied yet. But I plan to major in Music Education. I know UNT’s jazz program is amazing, but not much at all about the College of Music as a whole.</p>

<p>Ole Miss and Miss State have their perks. Particularly engineering for Miss State and maybe medicine or law for Ole Miss. But overall Mississippi doesn’t have great universities. UNT I know isn’t astounding for academics in general, but I was first interested when I saw it on a list of best music schools at No. 16 I think it was.</p>

<p>It seemed as far as I could read a very interesting school and campus, but I can be naive about that sort of stuff so I wanted to ask people on here.</p>

<p>As far as budget goes, I’d be fine with paying out-of-state tuition to UNT, but I would like to get a scholarship of $1000 or more to be eligible for in-state tuition (as Texas allows for public universities). I can’t apply until late 2012 I believe because I’m currently a junior. But I wanted to get a good idea of my first choice college.</p>

<p>Also, since I put my planned major, I’ll go ahead and put some stats I suppose.</p>

<p>ACT: 26 (27 though if UNT superscores, and I heard they do)
GPA: 4.0 unweighted, don’t know about weighted GPA but maybe 4.3 or something
ECs: Not many. Our school doesn’t offer a lot. Band for 4 years (by graduation), jazz band for 4 years (also by graduation), Beta Club for 3 so far, Quiz Bowl/Scholar’s Bowl, Sophomore class President
That’s about it I guess.</p>

4

<p>*As far as budget goes, I’d be fine with paying out-of-state tuition to UNT, but I would like to get a scholarship of $1000 or more to be eligible for in-state tuition (as Texas allows for public universities). *</p>

<p>Do you mean that YOUR PARENTS will be fine paying the OOS costs for UNT?</p>

<p>Out-of-state tuition and fees: $17,739<br>
Room and board: … $6,892</p>

<h2>Books… $1,000</h2>

<p>Total…about 27,000 per year</p>

5

<p>Try asking this in the music major forum. They’ll have some other ideas for you as well.</p>

6

<p>Sorry, I did mean my parents. But yes, they would be fine with that. I found slightly different statistics that ranged between $20,000 and $23,000 total. The total for Miss State I believe is $17,000 per year. Considering Miss State probably isn’t nearly as good for my prospective field of study as UNT, I wouldn’t go to Miss State over $3k-$6k difference.</p>

<p>But seeing as I think, by one way or another, I’ll be able to obtain a scholarship of that size, I suspect I’ll be able to pay in-state tuition, which is from what I’ve found, $13k-$14k. By comparison to even Mississippi (in-state for me) schools, that’s great.</p>

<p>Oh, also, I don’t desire to be certified specifically for teaching music in Mississippi. Texas has a lot more opportunity and benefits.</p>

7

<p>I found slightly different statistics that ranged between $20,000 and $23,000 total.</p>

<p>^ That must be old info.</p>

<p>This is from UNT’s own website…so you can trust this. This is for the CURRENT year, so next year and the following years will be higher.</p>

<p>[2011-2012</a> Academic Year | Student Financial Aid and Scholarships](<a href=“http://financialaid.unt.edu/2011-2012-academic-year]2011-2012”>http://financialaid.unt.edu/2011-2012-academic-year)</p>

<p>Out of State - on campus …
Total cost of attendance $28,964</p>

<p>Even basic schools costs are:</p>

<p>15,568 OOS Tuition
2558 Fees
4998 Room & board</p>

<h2>1050 books</h2>

<p>about 24,000 for the CURRENT school year (without personal expenses, travel, etc)</p>

<p>Have you visited? If not, be sure to tour the dorms. </p>

<p>Frankly, I’d be a little concerned about the quality of the dorms if Room and Board only cost $5k. Yikes. The dorms must be archaic and/or they must rarely feed you. Check to see how many meals that covers…doesn’t sound like 2 meals a day/14 per week.</p>

<p>Yes…it does look like it ranks well, but do visit the school. </p>

<p>If it’s mostly a commuter school or suitcase school, you could be lonely on weekends.</p>

<p>This is my concern:</p>

<h1>97% In-state students</h1>

<h1>3% Out-of-state students</h1>

<p>Rankings
<a href=“http://www.uscollegeranking.org/music/top-music-schools-ranking-in-2010.html[/url]”>http://www.uscollegeranking.org/music/top-music-schools-ranking-in-2010.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>I have a friend whose daughter just started at UNT in music (piano performance). I know nothing about it but she said it’s the closest thing Texas has to a music conservatory. Her daughter was accepted and actually pretty heavily recruited by the nationally recognized schools but choose UNT for the cost since she plans on going to grad school. I don’t think her mom has been hearing any complaints but as I understand it, she spends just about every minute practicing. She’s a very outgoing person and I think that if there were any major issues, we would be hearing about it.</p>

9

<p>Mom2collegekids, I appreciate your concern. And you’re right about the total costs. But I think you’re wrong about the 3% out-of-state, 97% in-state. The UNT website doesn’t appear to mention that. I found that 3% statistic on a website that seems to be outdated because it is the same one that says the total cost is now $22,000. I found a statistic that says 10% (though not on the UNT website), which seems more reasonable. The UNT College of Music, the main one I’m concerned with, has 27% out-of-state (on their website). So the music students seem to like UNT and since I’m a future music student, that works out well.</p>

<p>I certainly will visit the school for both an in-person audition and a tour. The great thing about living in a town of 200 people that has one gas station and no mayor, police, fire department, school, etc., is that I’m used to boredom and a commuter or suitcase school wouldn’t bother me a bit. haha</p>

<p>Erin’s Dad, I have already sent a similar post to the music major page, and I have yet to get any responses, ironically. But thanks for the suggestion.</p>

<p>Sadilly, that’s good to hear. I hope she’s enjoying it thoroughly.</p>

10

<p>I live not too terribly far from UNT, and I’m quite familiar with the school. First, I’d refute the comment made about the dorms being questionable. My friend’s daughter is a sophomore there, and her dorm last year was much nicer than my D’s school and others I’ve seen. Some of UNT’s dorms have wood floors and are very nice. </p>

<p>The thing you should know about UNT is that most Texans perceive it to be a “commuter school”. There are many residents living on campus or in nearby apartments; however, the student body is composed of a large percentage of people who work in N. Dallas, HEB, Southlake/Keller/Colleyville, and Fort Worth who commute for both grad and undergraduate school. It is not going to provide the same kind of vibe as your “traditional” state school (ex. UT, Ole Miss, etc.). </p>

<p>Denton is not too far from Dallas or Fort Worth (in TX terms that is…40-55 mins.), and there’s quite a bit to do in the Metroplex on weekends. Their education program is reputable as is their music program. (My hs band director attended UNT.) However, it’s again geared more toward TX residents. I personally would have a very difficult time justifying paying OOS tuition for UNT. I feel a lot of people would agree which is why they have such a low OOS rate.</p>

11

<p>Is the College of Music at UNT as great as I’ve heard generally? I’ve noticed it’s ranked highly along with other prestigious music schools in the US. I’m sure it’s no Eastman or Juilliard by any means. But considering almost every other prestigious music school in the country is 40k-50k a year, I figured UNT was a great deal, no? I haven’t visited the school and have only done some extensive searching on it.</p>

<p>You said your band director went to UNT. I also want to be a band director and have wondered how UNT’s music education program is, since the jazz studies program seems to overshadow it.</p>

<p>Thanks for sharing.</p>

12

<p>D’s friend’s older brother is there in Jazz program and loves it. I don’t know all the details, but his parent routinely “gush” about how happy he is there. I think he’s in his 2nd year.</p>

13

<p>The College of Music as a whole is huge and very competitive among its students. There are constantly people getting into festivals, winning competitions, gigging, teaching, collaborating and much more. I graduated with a masters degree, and what I have found is that what makes the school competitive is your peers who are winning competitions, getting into festivals, writing and playing new music, and basically getting their name out there. It’s hard to just sit on your but while every one else is accomplishing things. For instance, in certain classes for freshman, the class size is usually large, mainly because students think that playing music or writing music is going to be “easy,” or they have other ideas of what the academic side of music is. What happens (or what I experienced) is that a class of 35 students at the end of the semester ends up being 5 or 6. The rest drop out. It is a very intensive music school that pushes you to learn material quickly, efficiently, and be able to speak intelligently and perform on demand. There is very little faculty push/support in other words, you have to be self-motivated to survive. Professors generally don’t say “…you can do it…Brad (or whatever your name is)” If you don’t do the work, you’ll definitely fall by the wayside. But, like I said, people who really want to be there usually find a way to succeed. As far as the town is concerned, it’s good for your undergrads, but not much really for grad students. I mean, it’s OK but really small, dead on the weekends, and mostly end up going to a friends house to hang out. Denton is not a big town, but does have a nice live music scene, with cool bars. Dallas and Fort Worth are fairly close so it’s not too bad. I’d say someone from a small town will think its big and I transferred from Chicago and had a bit of culture shock when I first arrived, but got used to it after I found a group of people to hang out with.</p>

14

<p>Thanks for the advice. I think we’d both have culture shock in different ways. But despite many people saying how small it is, I would be impressed with anything about 10,000 to be honest. Not that I haven’t been to a city of 100,000+ before, but I certainly haven’t lived in one.</p>

<p>Well if I did audition, get accepted, and attended UNT, I wouldn’t take it lightly. If anything, I’d be a little defensive about it and try to be as prepared as possible. But I suppose I’d truly find out at the time. Thanks again.</p>

15

<p>Pros:
-(IMO) Large university, lots to do and get familiar with. A variety of people and interest for you to find what you like. It’s also diverse, not just in the sense of ideologies, beliefs, etc, but racially diverse which I personally like. Variety is the spice of life :p</p>

<p>-Located in a pretty neat college town (Denton). There are two universities in Denton: UNT & TWU. UNT has about 36,000 students and TWU has about 12,000.</p>

<p>-It has a nifty little bar street called Fry Street right off of campus beside the language building where you can get a drink after a stressful day (when old enough). It’s packed usually on Thursdays. But Fry Street isn’t just bars, they’re building a new apartment complex there, there’s also a pizza place called Crooked Crust where I visit too frequently… There’s a 24 hour coffee shop and a book store… The rest of it is bars…</p>

<p>-It has a cool town square with shops, restaurants, more bars, and music venues. Denton has a large local music scene which the bands range from awesome to “What did I just listen to?” </p>

<p>-SPORTS! UNT in the past hasn’t been known much for sports, but man, that sure is changing and it is exciting! UNT just built a brand new football stadium (Apogee Stadium) last year and played it’s first season ever in it and hired a new coach. It was great.
For basketball, we’ve traditionally always been good, or at least a powerhouse in our conference. This year our basketball team is all freshman so it’s been kind of shaky, but I can’t wait until next year when they players have gelled as a team. Their senior year I believe they will make it pretty far into the NCAA tourney if everything goes well. (Our other sports usually do pretty well, and they are planning a baseball team right now which we are without :stuck_out_tongue: )</p>

<p>-Location. It’s about 30 minutes away from Dallas which you can find everything you want or need in Dallas.</p>

<p>-The campus itself is pretty nice. Not the best I’ve see, but it is nice nonetheless. I take walks around campus all the time for study breaks. It’s enjoyable, I miss it right now being on break. Haha.</p>

<p>-Professors, the professors are amazing. Truly. I don’t say this lightly because I want to be a professor and I critic them compared to future me, haha. Also, I take community college classes in the summer to get some credits out of the way and I dread going to class there because the professors are such an inferior crop comparatively. </p>

<p>-Student body. It’s whatever you want it to be. Honestly. When there’s 36,000 students, you can find whatever type of stereotype you’re looking for. UNT plans to enroll 45,000 students by 2016. Which, brings me to another pro.</p>

<p>-Growth. UNT is a growing university that is already an established university, but is striving to become ranked and known as another UT. It has built probably a dozen new buildings since 2003. From a new rec center, new dorms, new performing arts center (where you will probably play at some point),new business buildings, new science buildings, new football stadium and it’s next project is a new student union. It is planned to be the largest and most environmentally friendly student union in the United States. (Being environmentally friendly is a huge part of UNT culture)</p>

<p>Now onto some Cons…</p>

<p>Stereotypes: As someone mentioned before, they said UNT is a commuter school. This isn’t really true or even fair to say, but it’s a con because it’s negative for a reputation and word of mouth standpoint. It may of been a commuter school at some point, maybe early 2000s/late 90s? But not anymore.
Thousands of students live on campus in the dorms, there are 13 residence halls. All freshman live in the dorms pretty much.
(Also, if you’re going to be a music major, I suggest you live in Bruce Hall your first year. It’s where the majority of first year music majors live and it’s the closest dorm to the college of music buildings. If Bruce isn’t an option for some reason for you, pick Kerr, it’s the largest dorm and you will probably meet the most people there)
Anyways, back to the topic. Besides the freshman living in dorms, everyone else lives in apartments that are right outside of the university- walking/biking distance. The furthest people live away from UNT that I know of is an hour, and if you live an hour away you’re at the university and on campus all day which probably makes them more of a permanent resident than anyone in my opinion :stuck_out_tongue: Either way, say 10,000 students drive to school, 26,000 live on/next to campus in surrounding buildings. </p>

<p>School spirit- School spirit is lacking compared to other large universities such as UT, A&M, MISS, LSU, etc. This is historically due to the crappy sports programs. In Texas, football is king and if your football team sucks you’re a nobody. But as I mentioned before, that’s changing, and fast. I’m excited for next season and I’m not even a big sports fan.</p>

<p>Culture- The culture or UNT/Denton has both it’s positives and negatives, but the most negative thing about UNT culture is, well, the weirdos. Not to sound intolerant but there are a lot “hipsters” that are just art students who impose self importance on themselves. If you get stuck in a core class with one these kids, you will know it. Somehow UNT attracts them, but thankfully they’re mostly just the art kids. They don’t bathe, avoid them. (Then again, they’re fun to poke fun at)</p>

<hr>

<p>That’s all the negatives I can think of. But something personally for you, the college of music is awesome. Well, the students, the music majors are always incredible people when I meet them, they come from all over and are all super talented. You should enjoy it. I’d encourage anyone to come to UNT, the opportunities are endless. Heck, it took me to China even. :p</p>

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<p>I have two sons attending UNT, neither in the music program. One thing I wish I’d paid more attention to is the graduation rate from the school. It is 48% within six years. When my kids applied I attributed this to the fact that the school has a large commuter population. Both of my kids have had bad experiences that resulted in them either taking classes they did not need or having to take classes over. When my oldest started there his freshman year he had 6 hours of credit that should have transferred that he was not credited for. He found out after he had retaken the classes at UNT that he should have been credited. An advisor reccommended a class for his major. The class was in his area of study but did not count towards his degree. The response when he followed up with the advisor, was simply ‘sorry’. My younger son showed up for a final with 17 other students (out of 30) in the class to find that the final had been moved to another time; an earlier time of course. An message had been posted on the class website but no announcement was made in class. The instructor was reprimanded for moving the final but no recourse was offered to the students. He did’t flunk the class but it was not conducive to his GPA. My oldest will graduate this spring. We have easily paid for an entire semester of classes he did not need. My youngest is considering a transfer to another college to complete his degree.</p>

17

<p>Thank you both for contributing some great feedback. I’ll keep UNT as a serious option but not my only option. :slight_smile: All of this helps tremendously and I’m very grateful for your thoughtful advice, both with positive and negative leanings.</p>

18

<p>Professors have to much power to teach as they want, which is good if they “really” like teaching, and very bad if they are busy getting their Ph.D while teaching several classes, and applying for jobs, or if they have been working for the campus for several years and feel as if they are God and… Many do think they are God.</p>

<p>I found the administration not organized well…it took me over 4 months to get register. I had to pay them $800 6 weeks after school began because of their mistake. </p>

<p>If you miss more than 3 days in a class, you drop a whole letter grade. </p>

<p>Writing lab is under staff. Writing is suppose to be important as a college student, better seek help off campus if you want good editing for your papers. </p>

<p>Campus is large, over crowded, can take up to 30 minutes to find a parking space that you pay $235 for. </p>

<p>Lots to do around campus if you like to drink.</p>

<p>Lots of crime on and around campus. </p>

<p>Many Professors are not very understanding towards young students needs.</p>

<p>Not many places to study on campus in quiet.</p>

<p>Tution is cheap.</p>