I am still waiting for an international application decision. I have a question though. Is UT Austin major blind? Do they make their decision taking major into account?
they are NOT major blind - choice of school plays very much into the admission decision.
@UTWannabe23 Got major decision from McCombs in early Dec, still waiting on LIberal Arts Honors decision after being deferred to March 1st. Not holding out much hope anymore it’s most likely going to be a denial !!
@dogwood18 Current Longhorn parent here. There really is not a typical OOS way to approach it. Both of my longhorns had OOS roommates at orientations in June. One of my sons had a freshman roommate who did orientation in August.
My advice is that although UT holds certain sections of classes open for later sessions- that is really just for FIGS. Some kids (engineering) can fill a whole schedule with FIGS, but not most. Earlier sessions will have more sessions available. So if money is not a big issue, I’d advise an earlier orientation. My kids were super picky about having later classes and the earlier orientations made a big difference on that. And yes, June in Austin is more “pleasant” than August.
If you have not had a UT student before, I’d recommend the Parent Orientation. It is one day only and it has great info on resources, buying books, Greek life etc. There is an OOS parents breakout that is worth going to- it is just an hour though. I had enough work flexibility that I was able to stay in town and work while mine were in day 2/3 of orientation. While you might get a few texts from them, you will not see them at all those until orientation is over. I had read some horror stories on CC of kids walking out with 9 hours or not scheduled for right classes so I wanted to be handy in case anything blew up and in both cases that was unnecessary. Whether you stay in Austin for day 2 and 3 is really based on what you can afford and how much time you can steal away from other responsibilities.
OOS students are not handled differently during orientation. Most activities they are grouped by College. There may be some breakouts for OOS students and there is a student org for them. Orientation is probably the hardest for OOS students because kids tend to sign up with others from their high school and still clump together when they can. That will make it feel like everyone knows everyone and you don’t. That changes a lot once school starts.
If your student has time, there is Camp Texas in the summer which is another opportunity to meet people. Only one of mine went and he is not a “camp” type but I am still glad I made him go. Even in state kids have to work hard to create a friend group at UT.
Thank you so much for this @gettingschooled. I just messaged you privately but wanted to thank you here for this additional information. Things can be a little overwhelming as a potential OOS parent, so I really appreciate this. For anyone else who is trying to figure things out logistically re: orientation (and whether to come down with your student or not to do the Parent Orientation) I also highly recommend calling the Orientation Office and/or calling or emailing Texas Parents - they were both VERY helpful with some of the details and logistics to consider.
- One important detail that I learned is that housing is NOT provided for students on Sunday night prior to the Mon-Wed orientation when they stay in Jester. So that might affect your decisions if you're a fellow OOS parent - so it might make sense to go with them, or alternate arrangements would have to be made for the student for that one night.*
@UTWannabe23 How hard is Aerospace Engineering to get into relative to the other majors?
@gettingschooled Maybe you can answer this. If at orientation a freshman is actually a “true sophomore” at the time of orientation due to AP hours and dual credit, how does that then affect them for registering because haven’t sophomores already registered, so is it then harder for them to get into some of the higher level courses since they’ve already signed up and taken those slots?
Also, I’ve seen this at other college presentations we went to, but can’t recall if I heard it at UT, but do you know if Honors students have preference in registering? For instance, do BHP students or Plan 2 students gets to register before other non-Honor students?
@srparent15 Honors students get priority beginning the fall when they register for spring. I don’t have exact details on that but know it due to having a friend with a daughter in liberal arts honors.
Yes- you will be registering for “sophomore” level classes after sophomores so yes you will have less choices with those. That is part of the reason I think earlier orientation is better. Those classes are not held for later sessions.
When UT says they hold classes for later sessions they really mean the FIGs. One of my sons’ FIG was MIS (a business core class), AET (an elective with a required flag) and his FIG class. The other had Astronomy plus his FIG You sign up for these classes at once. So Son 1 filled half his schedule with his FIG and added the rest. The other one had to add more to fill his up.
There are certain freshman level classes you cannot test out of. Everyone has to take a Signature Course (UGS 302 or 303). These are usually part of a FIG but don’t have to be. You won’t be competing with many sophomores for those.
Also certain classes while offered every semester have more sections in the semester when more people take them. Microeconomics will have more sections in the fall and Macroeconomics will have more in the spring than fall. GOV 310 will be more available in the fall and 312 more in the spring. So if you are taking a class in an off semester, there will be less choices and those are tougher to get.
Both of my sons went in with significant credit and both have had no problems getting classes they needed in either the fall or spring. Their biggest complaints have always been getting classes at the time of day they would like (they like to sleep late). But even then they have still had very good luck.
No reason at all to freak out if you need to go to a later session. You should get classes you need but might have more 8 or 9 o’clocks than you’d like.
@gettingschooled Have you by any chance encountered this—AP scores don’t come out till July for tests taken in May of senior year, your student registers for classes at orientation in June, and then finds out they have tested high enough to get credit for some of the courses they registered for? I’m just wondering how it would be handled. Thanks for any insight!
@txaggiemom Hello fellow Aggie mom! Are you too suffering the heartbreak of your child becoming a t-sip? Hang in there. Now that they are in different football conferences it is slightly more bearable.
No I have not encountered that personally. They have the kids guess whether they passed or not at registration and they say kids are remarkably accurate. Mine both were. If they are wrong though, they have a few shots to drop that class and add another between orientation and start of classes and there is an add/drop period for all students for the first few weeks anyway. Also not too many of the classes are in a series so this isn’t a big deal except for sciences, calculus and maybe languages?
@gettingschooled Haha, yes, yes I am! Truthfully, we are nothing but proud of our daughter. She does have AP Chem, AP Bio, and AP Calc BC as well as AP English and AP Macro (though those two won’t impact course choice as much). Thanks for the information. It does help. I had no idea guessing would be an option!
@txaggiemom While my daughter doesn’t take AP English, she has the required score on the ACT section that gets her out of the Rhet 306 which is the one they want to take freshman year. The other one (E316) that AP Lit gets them out of looks like they have kids take Junior year (at least in McCombs) so maybe at least for that the score not coming out until July won’t affect your daughter. It looks like the biggest issue is going to be the Calc and Econ if in Business, but since you only need a 3 to get out of those, if she has done well in the classes now, then I would go with the assumption she will get those and base it on prior AP success.
I had wondered the same thing about the July scores, but realized they are all classes that won’t impact her until later on thankfully. My bigger concern is what she takes freshman year since of the 11 courses on the “Suggested 4 year Degree Plan” she already has credit for 5 of them, so I don’t know what are the next best courses to move into those slots.
@gettingschooled What is FIG? The Flag courses? And yes, it looks like she will be taking UGS, Visual Arts, and her Psy/Soc/Ant requirement next year and hopefully those will have a lot of sections for whatever she chooses. It would be a bummer for her if she winds up having to take mainly Liberal Arts classes as a freshman with the exception of the Career Planning, MIS course and Business Communication course.
FIG- Freshman Interest Group. Most colleges recommend them and McCombs requires them (everything is subject to change of course).
The FIG is a once a week, one hour class that carries no credit. It has appx 30 people in it. That class is a lot of getting to know college, UT, Austin type stuff. Those same 30 people have anywhere from 1-4 classes with each other. The non-FIG classes could have 200 people in there but you at least recognize 30 of them. These kids make ideal study partners because you have a class or more with them. They are set up based on majors. One of my sons got a lot out of his. The other one didn’t. At registration entering the FIG number enrolls you in the associated classes.
If your student is in McCombs, I can maybe help with courses via PM. Don’t get too hung up on the four year plan if you are working with AP credit. Your worst problem will be avoiding early graduation or choosing a minor. My older son and one of his friends have been able to add the masters in accounting and will both get out in 4 years (with some summer classes).
@srparent15 Thanks for the information. My daughter also has the ACT score for freshman English & credit from the junior year AP test, which is why I’m not too concerned about that one. She is a Biology major, so I think the chemistry & biology will actually impact her schedule quite a bit. And I think they are two-step, like get a 3, get one semester credit, get a 4 or 5, get both semesters credit, but I need to look again to make sure.
If she is a biology major they may recommend she not accept the Bio credit at all and take them all at UT since she will have so many Bio classes to follow. Also if she is considering medical school, GPA matters a lot apparently and she may want to retake some of the classes in order to maximize GPA. Engineering and Science majors have a lot of considerations when it comes to AP. It seems trickier than a business, liberal arts or communications major.
Agree with gettingschooled about the Biology credit. If she’s a Biology major she should consider retaking the course anyway. When my daughter was initially thinking of going CS, she would have not used her AP CS credit and retaken the course. You want to make sure you don’t miss anything that they expect you to know in future courses that may not have been taught in an AP Bio course.
@schooledparent I will sent you a message as she is in McCombs. She’s not interested in graduating early so that’s good. She will either double major or get a minor or do a Masters program. No need to hurry to finish. I don’t see anything about FIG in the McCombs Guidebook from last year. I will check again.
Do I need to accept admission before I can access the housing application? And if I’ve already paid the $50, would it be possible for housing to run out before I accept as I still want to wait on decisions from other colleges?
What are flagged classes? I’ve not seen nor heard of that nomenclature before. Thanks!
@Sushi121212 - as I understand it, the $50 dictates your “spot in line” for when rooms are selected to speak. Your deadline to accept admission and put down your deposit is 5/1, so definitely time to get all of your decisions and make your choice. Then, it sound like the specific housing preferences are done in June (8th - 30th according to one of the presentations the Housing dept had online) according to your “spot in line” based on your $50 deposit date. If any current Texas parents are on here and know differently, please correct me, but I think this is accurate based on what I read and info from Texas Parents, the organization.