So, I know a bunch of us are waiting on Honors decisions…hopefully those will start coming out in February! A question while we twiddle our thumbs, do y’all know/think that an honors admission decision is affected in any way by a student officially accepting their admission/paying enrollment fees, etc. or by them NOT officially accepting yet?
I’m guessing it is a separate decision entity and they don’t even know what is going on with the admission side of things other than the candidate was accepted. But, we have time on our hands, so let me know what you think or have heard!
It is completely different and separated, no doubt about it. Honors is another way to entice people to join UT so it is completely understood that a student would not accept their spot until hearing from their honors program.
@chillycow My daughter committed to UT in Dec 2018 a few weeks after she was accepted as an OOS applicant, didn’t hear from her Honors program until mid February 2019. So it doesn’t seem that her committing to UT had any bearing on them selecting her for honors or not as it did nothing to entice her as @HL2020 eluded to because she had already committed. If anything, being selected to the Honors program was just icing on the cake and an extra bonus.
Some honors have been rolled out - My daughter was admited to LA Honors last week. She noticed it online on Thursday, Jan 21st, and then she received an email later that morning.
@ChillyCow - Sorry, I forgot to mention to mention that my daughter had not accepted admission into UT yet. So they definitely don’t wait for acceptance to offer Honors… but they might be using it as an enticement as HL2020 mentioned.
Thanks for the congrats! This honors acceptance actually makes the decision harder for my daughter. She is choosing between TAMU & UT, both honors.
DD wants a “smaller” environment within the large university. I know the vibe and atmosphere of the campus should be a huge portion of the selection process, and we will be revisiting both campus in the next few weeks.
For TAMU, she is in University Honors (have not heard yet from LA Honors). The program definitely seems to create that smaller environment with the honors dorm, Hullabaloo first year experience course, etc. We are having a hard time finding that info for UT LA Honors. She will be attending a virtual session with a counselor next week to try to get more info, but I thought I would ask in this forum some of the questions to get a hopefully unbiased response. Sorry if my questions are no brainers… this is my first one going to college!
Does anyone have any kids with experience in both/either honor programs at TAMU and UT? Are the programs similar?
Are the honors classes “harder” or just different? Is it just an expectation of more in depth studies/conversation? Or is it a heavier workload for the classes? I don’t really want her to have such a heavy load that she can’t enjoy the college experience.
For early registration for UT LA honors, is that just registration for LA classes? Or all classes?
Also, I have read comments from various sources that UT has a stronger LA program, and I have seen some rankings that also place UT LA higher than TAMU LA. I honestly know she be fine at either campus - wherever she is most comfortable. But I am still trying to figure out why UT LA ranks higher than TAMU. Can anyone shed some light on that also?
@kwhdman, congratulations and thanks for your thoughts on honors and accepting yet or not!
Your daughter has a wonderful dilemma before her in deciding between UT/A&M Honors! While I don’t know the rankings to compare her specific major, I speculate that it is probably close to splitting hairs to pick one from the other. Her job prospects will be great coming from either school!
I can’t speak to UT honors since we are on the green team with UT at this point but my daughter is a sophomore in engineering honors at TAMU. The biggest perk for her has been the early registration and living in honors housing. She has not said anything good or bad about the actual classes.
From a parent’s perspective, I think decisions could boil down to:
A) Wait and see if she gets some scholarship money from TAMU. I would speculate that she would see money from TAMU before UT from what I’ve read and seen. Money is always fun so if she is in coin toss up mode, going for the money naturally has its perks and feeling of accomplishment and prestige.
B) Austin is more expensive to live than College Station so if funding college is an issue at all, TAMU is the cheaper way to go for apartments/cost of living down the road.
C) Vibe, vibe, vibe–the schools are polar opposites in my assessment (not that your daughter wouldn’t thrive at either one!) These are gross generalizations, of course, but in my assessment, TAMU students are very outgoing and friendly. UT students are more reserved and solitary. Now, that sounds like a dig to UT students but some kids are naturally just more quiet and introverted and not into being around tons of other kids/socializing. TAMU is a great fit for my first born daughter who likes to have her fingers in 10 different pots at the same time and go, go, go. I think UT is going to be a great fit for my son who just wants to study hard at college to get a good job and is a total homebody. These are my observations from being on both campuses and milling around students over many different visits. I’m sure there are many go, go, go kids at UT and many solitary kids at TAMU too but these are the vibes I get when I’m on their campuses.
At the end of the day, she can’t go wrong with either school in my opinion! Best wishes on decision making! Keep us posted on her decision…
Can’t speak for LA Honors, but for BHP Honors, the classes supposedly are different and they are smaller. I have never heard my daughter say she felt like the university is huge. She usually knows many people in her honors classes and when she has had non-honors classes which are the bigger ones, even has found people she knows in those too.
Priority registration is for all classes. But it’s also based on the number of hours. Students with accommodations also get preference registration. During summer registration though you don’t get preference registration but then after that you do and if you come in with a lot of AP you usually register pretty early, but it is still possible not to get your first choice honors sections since those classes are so small and fill up quickly.
I’m surprised to hear that assessment. Maybe since UT is more competitive, some students are more serious/intellectual? There are definitely differences along the political spectrum, which can imply a lot of additional variables as well, so it might be premature to generalize based on a campus visit as a parent.
Does anyone know if there is any way to appeal for instate tuition as an OOS (california) admit to McCombs? I know there are ways to become a resident for sophomore-senior year but I would like to not have to go one of those routes if possible.
My DS was admitted a while back (auto). He had applied for the Engineering college, and the decision on his choice of major was “under review”. Now (since Jan 22nd) the Major shows as "School of Undergraduate Studies Undeclared"
I would really appreciate it if anyone else who is in the same boat can respond to this post. I just want to know the meaning of this status because he did not choose undeclared as his major. I am quite confused by the opacity of UT’s admission process. I saw the reports that some kids have been given the choice of their majors.
His stats are as follows:
Rank: Top 3% of his class (Competitive DFW ISD HighSchool)
SAT: 1530 (one attempt pre-covid, could not improve the scores)
Grade: 4.46GPA (Scale of 5)
Recommendations Letters- excellent
Essays Relevant to his experience, which relates to the choice of his major.
Maybe TAMU is a big party school, but UT isn’t far behind. I wish it were a quiet sedate school, but no way! Just check out the bars on 6th street in normal times. Kids party from Thur-Sun nonstop at the bars. Frats right now during covid, even though they aren’t allowed are having parties constantly.
Check out that social “group” RHO who was fka another frat that was kicked off campus and came back under this name and has raucous parties. Ugh if only it were quiet. Then maybe, they would have a handle on covid and it wouldn’t be a mess but nope, even remote, they have no plan and can’t keep a lid on it, but they made testing harder this semester, and most kids just go off campus to get tests and then don’t report back to UT.
But no way is UT tame! That is hilarious! I’m sure @rbc2018 would agree to that one!
UGS is different than Liberal Arts Undeclared, which many AAs who did not get their choice of major, received. You will need to do some research, but my understanding is that it is for up to the first two years only, and is like an exploratory holding pattern until you decide which major you would like, and apply for that major. Depending on the major, you can start applying at different semesters, and I believe some number of spots are effectively held for or allocated to UGS students, which does not mean that the process will not be competitive. My sense is that you get to compete for more spaces than a student who is applying for a general internal transfer.
Some kids who are UT or bust apply into UGS because it may be less competitive for original admittance to the university. You cannot graduate with a degree in UGS, which is why you must declare another major by the end of your sophomore year. I have no idea of what happens if you get to the end of that time and don’t get into your top choice majors.
