@ChillyCow , sounds good. My son got into chemical engineering. I’ll let you know if he goes to UT. they can stay together.
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If I may ask another question. Is it easy to register for classes in engineering? Or are classes sometimes closed and students need to choose alternative courses? I heard that in computer science this happens very often.
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The kids will meet with an advisor during orientation and that advisor can help with FIGS. My son is Civil E. There was no Civil E FIG left so he joined an Arch E FIG. He loved the Arch class the FIG took - teacher was the former Dean of School of Arch School. Son liked him so much, he took another class from him the next semester. One of those classes with the former Dean counted as an art credit and one counted as his freshman writing credit (can’t remember what they call that writing credit). Son also liked his engineering office staffer who was the assigned mentor for his FIG. She was a wealth of information to him and a huge help coaching him through a bout of bronchitis 1st semester. I emphasize HIM here - the mentor is for the students. Parents are out of the picture in college from the university perspective - the client is the kid. Pretty sure GE stands for General Education section. It is like a TA break out but you commit to it like a class and it is a legitimate credit hour. UT has made a commitment for all students to have access to a small group class-like experience. Honors kids have breakouts, recruited small groups (like Women in Engin or Science or First Gen Engineering, etc - those groups have set small group experiences). For kids not in a scholarship cohort or small recruited group, UT offers FIGS. Be the squeaky wheel. That means: have your child be the squeaky wheel - your child is the university’s client, kids MUST learn to represent their own needs VERY early on! All UT FRESHMAN kids are supposed to have access to a small group experience. Since UT’s focus is on their client - your kid - I highly recommend that all parents join Texas Parents. You will learn about the group after your child accepts their UT offer & once you start getting orientation emails. 1st year, parents can be a Texas Parents member for free. But, if you pay for the 4-year paid membership, you get access to the Private Texas Parents moderated Facebook Page and there on the TXP FB page, parents share all kinds of useful information with each other. Texas Parents is the group that runs the Family (parent) side or orientation. They are structurally located in the Dean of Students office. Texas Parents has its own staff and an office in the basement of the Rec Center. The Texas Parents staff is spectacular.
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My son is very excited to be admitted into Texas McCombs. We are out of state and are unclear regarding next steps to pick a dorm. We paid the deposit when he applied, but how do students actually pick a dorm. Do we need to pay the enrollment deposit to hold a spot? I am unsure if he should live on campus or in Callaway? Any guidance is appreciated as we were unable to visit campus due to Covid.
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If living on campus and cancelled they let you out of your lease in the fall. Otherwise you were stuck. That’s one problem with off campus dorms or housing. Many kids this year are in singles and very lonely in on campus housing per the parent fb groups. UT also says only about 50% of students are in Austin as rest stayed home but I have no idea if that’s really accurate. Almost all classes have been remote but a few here or there have been hybrid or in person.
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Callaway is “fancy” in the world of dorms - at least it was in 2018. Callaway is private and pricier than on campus living. Many if not most kids in Callaway and the other west campus dorms go Greek, I think. Most if not all rooms in Callaway are single bedrooms that adjoin to a central living room. You can pick to share a common space with one student or more (set ups vary up to maybe 4 bedrooms being linked to the central living area). The kids I know who have lived at Callaway have enjoyed a private locking bedroom door and each have had a private bath if I am not mistaken, then they have a central living space to share. In 2018 after move in, my parent friends who had kids at Callaway House posted photos of a fresh cut fruit and a chocolate fountain that greeted them! Yep. I understand from another parent that the chocolate fountain and fruit did not exist in 2019. Even without the fruit, I think the design of Callaway House is to have more of house/home feel (your own room and bath, access to a shared living, etc) - that type of setting makes many students and their parents feel more comfortable about the successful start and execution of freshman year. Callaway House and the other private dorms are great options and they are just a few blocks from campus. My parents loved leaving me at a private all girls dorm that had a 24 door person and a curfew back in the 80s. Not sure if dorms with curfews still exist! At the private dorms, it is easy for kids to network and get to know kids from the many fraternities and sororities, besides their own (if they are in one). I do know kids who lived at Callaway and even Hardin House who choose not to go Greek - that was their plan all along and they enjoyed the dorms . The private west campus dorms can be hard place to live if a child really wanted to be part of the Greek system but was not invited to join any group. Greek rush can miss great kids freshman year in particular and then they start freshman year off sad at 1st, esp. if surrounded by lots of kids who had successful bid days. There is a lot of resilience and learning that can come from such an experience and there is the option to re-rush sophomore year. Callaway and the other private dorms on west campus are great places to get to observe kids who pledged all the groups and to make friendships that hopefully will enable participation as a sophomore if a student did not rush 1st year or if freshman rush just did not work out. The on campus dorm experience is very old school and traditional. Nothing fancy, just convenient. UT dorms do not have a very active dorm community with lots of RA activities as a general rule. Students seem to be mostly on their own to network and come up with activities. Of course there are exceptions, just depends on the RA’s and the kids assigned to them, I suppose. Not sure how active RA activities are at the private dorms. My husband and I lived in private dorms in the 80’s at UT and there were NO RA run activities even way back then. So, it just may not be a UT thing for dorm activities to be a big part of the freshman experience. Off campus dorms like Callaway, Dobie, Castillian, Scottish Rite (all girls) and Hardin House (all girls) can been researched on the internet and I am sure there are reviews online. Off campus dorms are located just west of campus. Off campus dorms have their own dining plans. So, kids just pay with cash or credit card when dining on campus - there is also an option to add dining $ to their id card. The private options are pretty proximate to classes and Guadalupe St. where the bookstore is and a string of restaurants and shops.
Re: UT dorms… You apply to UT and that same day you can pay the housing deposit or any day that after - the day you pay marks your place in line to pick a room the summer before school starts. Then, you get accepted to UT. Some time after acceptance and committing to UT, you get a housing contract that confirms you in fact have a UT dorm room and perhaps you rank dorms at that time (that is fuzzy memory wise). MUCH later - I am pretty sure it was not until summer, well after accepting admission - UT Housing gives you your date to log in and pick your room. In the meantime, kids fill out the roommate match questions and reach out to each other and scout each other out on the various social media groups. I know the private dorms and even the apartments on west campus assist with roommate matching or helping to fill up private sleeping rooms in a suite style setting with kids who are compatible. Hope that helps.
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It can be tricky to get into classes. My engineering junior has not had a schedule of 100% preferred classes any semester and sometimes even after adds and drops he stays on a waitlist hoping a kid will drop a class the 1st week of class so he can pick it up (and then drop a class he is enrolled in as a back up). Note: my son is NOT in honors and is not an athlete. Honors students and athletes may well get priority registration to which my Longhorn does not have access. Not to worry, there are plenty of classes - it is just a matter of being flexible and knowing that getting into the class a student really wants can take effort & in some cases a heap of good fortune. Kids get used to not being able to take all of the exact classes they want to take, the semester they want to take them, with their top professor choice. That said, it does all work out and students learn how to work the system. They learn to pay attention and get done what needs to get done. At UT, students must meet with the advisor of their college before they can register each semester and the advisor signs off on their dream schedule and confirms it will keep them on track to graduate on time. Then the student on their own logs in at their designated time to register. My Longhorn has learned to have multiple back up plans in place before he sits down to log in and grab classes. If a student’s back up plans don’t work, students can return to their department advisor for advice and help. If the department cannot help them and if the issue will prevent them from graduating in 4 years, then they can seek help from the UT Graduation Help Desk. The Grad Desk is a newer creation and it has really helped tons of kids out. I have heard repeated success stories from Texas Parents. The goal of the UT Graduation Help Desk is to ensure kids graduate in 4 years. You can find the help desk via a Google search. Hope that helps. Hook Em.
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Ok this is false. At move in there is not cut up fruit or a chocolate fountain. Where do you get your info from? My daughter lived in Callaway last year. It is outrageously expensive and definitely overpriced. Same owners as Castillan. Many more rooms are 2x2 than are 4x4. Plenty of students aren’t in frat life but it is a very social dorm. My daughter is fairly introverted and in an honors program and when she needed to study definitely found time to get work done. Many waste a lot of time but like anything it’s what you make of it.
Also for others re registration, you register based on the number of hours you have. My daughter has usually registered on the first or second day for her class and has had pretty good luck getting her classes. You can easily go on a wait list and often they open up. She did that only once for summer school and got in a class she wanted, otherwise has always gotten her classes without issue.
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I just went to the Austin Callaway House Instagram feed. If one scans thru the pics down to the pics posted in Feb of 2018 and Feb of 2017, they will find pics showcasing a Valentines Day chocolate fountain set up (from Feb. 2018 and 2017). The Instagram feed shows images of a chocolate fountain quite similar to the one I recall from the pics my friends posted of move in 2018. They do not have move in pics in the feed. It sounds like they have discontinued that move in day perk. All I can say is dear friends (including the parents of my Longhorn son’s girlfriend and the parents of his 2 best friends from elementary school) who moved kids into Callaway in 2018 and other friends who moved kids into on campus dorms that same year (2018), we all sure enjoyed a good laugh as we compared west campus living from the 80’s to what the Callaway parents experienced that year (2018). We also laughed at how posh it at least looked compared to the move in experience that year into the on campus dorms (which I must say went smooth as silk - the dorms had dollies for sharing and for a modest fee one could pay for early move in - we moved my son into San Jac early - we moved him in at 11 pm a few days before the main move in - no crowds, less heat and the dollies were available). I was just using this to help illustrate to parents unfamiliar with UT how the atmosphere and amenities on west campus differ at least to some extent from those afforded to on campus dorm dwellers. On campus dorms are pretty much 2 kids to a room and there is no living room, just the shared bedroom. Bathrooms on campus are shared, by 2 or 4 or a cluster of rooms, depending on the set up. Parents were offered NO food by the on campus dorms during move in - but we knew that would be the case and we were a-ok!! We were 100% happy with our move in and our Callaway parents were as pleased as punch, too. Pick what fits your budget and where your child will best thrive! My information is intended to help those new to UT. I am a loyal longhorn with 2 degrees and my husband has 2 also. We have 1 current Longhorn. Go Horns. Hook Em.
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I’ll have to ask my daughter if they did any kind of fountain at all last year, but we were there the weekend before Valentine’s Day and as of then they had not and they did not have signs up. It was also just before Covid had started. So they very well may have stopped that tradition in 2018.
As for moving in early, they only were able to move in early if they were going through rush or for some other legitimate reason and had to document why they needed to be there a week beforehand. I wouldn’t call the fee modest as it was ridiculous they charged for it because they did not provide any extra services and did not provide any food at all for that extra week. During the 80’s while still off campus they had Dobie that had suite style living and I believe during orientation my daughter stayed at Jester which is an on campus dorm and her room had while it didn’t have a living room it was a suite that shared a bathroom with only one other room as opposed to a community bathroom. They did provide dollies for move in and helped move kids in, but you would think for what they pay you do. However, my other daughter at another school who’s dorm was a complete dump also provided dollies with helpers, so I don’t think that’s just a private dorm thing.
There is one dorm on West Campus that is not private and is a university dorm. It was a former apartment building I think and it is supposed to be really nice as well. The problem with Callaway and most buildings on west campus is that one has to walk past all the homeless people who congregate there and on Guad.
Parents at Callaway were also not offered any food upon move in. It was crowded and busy and long lines with broken elevators and not the most pleasant.
There is a place for everyone, many live off campus because they can’t get a spot on campus. Also, many who live in Callaway or Castillan are in staters because the tuition is so dirt cheap when you add the pricey dorm it is not completely outrageous, however, my advice to anyone is it is a lot of surface niceness and it just depends what your kid is looking for. My daughter wanted to live in University Towers originally which was a complete dump and a lot cheaper than Calloway, but also suite style living and private, but her year they tore it down. Ultimately she went to Calloway because that’s where the few people from our school were living and where the people from her program that she knew were going to be living and that was some familiarity with her. She did not want to live in the old Honors dorms, or go random on a roommate and because we knew she would become a Texas resident sophomore year, we were willing to suck it up and pay the high dorm price freshman year for the offset this year and later years. Sorority and apartments later are significantly cheaper.
Can’t say enough about the academic experience at UT, except be aware that unlike most high schools, a 92 is not an A at UT. I think it’s a 94! So your kids definitely work much harder and will be challenged.
Their only fail has been covid, but their hands are tied for the most part on that and hopefully come fall things will be much better anyway with many more if not all in person classes.
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@srparent15 I remember Dobie! It had a small movie theater at ground level.
Are you talking about +/- grading? That’s actually very common at universities these days.
Where do most kids do their grocery shopping? I know Target is near by but is there an actual grocery store close to the campus?
No movie theatre now, but there is a Target at the Dobie!
+/- grading yes, except normal +/- is usually 92 is an A and 90 is an A- but there a 90 is not the lowest A-. I think that’s a B+. It’s a higher grading scale. I can’t remember offhand but I remember my daughter telling me about it first semester.
@Chillycow The target is at Dobie and a lot of kids do grocery shopping there or they will order from Whole Foods through Amazon Prime or HEB. But generally if living in a dorm or sorority/fraternity you don’t need groceries. Next year my daughter is living in an apartment and they will have to figure that out. At least one of the roommates will have a car so they can go to the store. Otherwise, they take Uber to pick up stuff, although this year, we try to avoid having her take Uber as much as possible due to Covid and I think she’s only taken it once. The bigger issue is Austin is just expensive and they socially spend a lot of money. Also, clubs seem to cost money. Although again, not this year, so maybe because of Covid and not meeting in person.
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@srparent15 What I’ve seen typically with university +/- grading is that 93 and up is an A, 90-92 is A-, 87-89 is B+, etc. The main thing is that the policy is communicated and understood. It’s frustrating to be just below a grade category, but then it’s nice when an 89 gets you more than a regular B. It tends to wash out in the end, and also serves to motivate students to keep trying when they have an average that would normally be almost impossible to get to the next full grade level. My only philosophical issue with it is that there’s no A+ bump, so in my classes I give everyone a full A at 90 and above 
Yeah each professor lists it on the syllabus. I remember when my daughter would tell me a quiz grade like 9/10 and being mad and I’m like cool that’s an A- and she said “no, it’s a B+” so I need all 10’s!
My other daughter after a preliminary (midterm) they just give them a grade estimate telling them they are around an A, A- or whatever because the classes all curve anyway at the end of the semester. They also give A+ which I have NEVER seen before, so you can actually get over a 4.0. In a class of 1000 maybe like 2 kids get that, but still wow. She’s in a major that you’re lucky to have a 3.5 and you’re expected to get C’s and that’s ok, but A+ would be cool to see.
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If kids have a car or a friend with a car and they want the big grocery store experience, they will likely shop at HEB in Hancock Center at 41st St near I-35 or at the Randall’s on 38th near Seton Hospital. There is a Whole Foods at 6th and Lamar and a Central Market at 38th and Lamar, but those are pricier. There are several mini-markets in the west campus area that stock basics for kids so chips, bread, peanut butter, milk, etc is only a walk away. The Target in Dobie has food and that is where my son shopped while living on campus, as well as the store in Jester and the drugstore on Guadalupe. There are Amazon Prime shipping boxes in the UT Rec Center. So, kids can buy snacks thru Amazon Prime and have them delivered to Gregory Gym, too. HEB delivers for a fee. Instacart delivers for a fee too.
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@hope1333 my son got into McCombs as well this year. There is nothing that you have to do. University will reach out to you. Be very aware and do as they say when they send the emails. If you miss the emails and deadlines, you are out of luck. My daughter goes to UT already. Let me know if you need any more information. I am in Houston, Texas. Your son is going to LOVE UT that I can assure you. It is just amazing (unbiased opinion). Congratulations to you and your son to get into one of the toughest programs in the country and into the public IVY School.
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How competitive is housing at UT? I submitted my housing payment yesterday. Will I get on-campus housing?
Congratulations to everyone, and your sons! My son was admitted to McCombs last Thursday too. We are from Houston and trying to decide where he will live.
Take a look at Kinsolving for dorm. I have read They have a Women in Engineering cohort at that dorm.