We got a letter addressed “To the Family of” our DS. It says DS will soon receive invite to visit UT-A - at the “exclusive Best of Texas event” on 3/25/17. He’s admitted (non-auto-admit) to CNS-CS. Hasn’t enrolled as of this moment. Stats include 35 ACT, 1510 SAT, NMSF (hopefully Finalist soon), etc. So, who gets invited to this and why? I have read just a few brief sentences about past Best of Texas weekends in threads on CC over the past few years.
Anyone have more insight into who’s invited (or will be invited, actually)? And, anyone actually attend one of these in years past who would care to share more about the weekend? Not only interested in who gets to go, but also what the schedule is for the event. For example, I read that the spots fill almost immediately so you have to RSVP almost instantaneously. I read something that implied there were buses from major cities in Tx that are connected with the event that leave in the middle of the night (4 a.m.???) for the event. What do you do there? Is it all in one day? Is it overnight? What does the invitation mean, if anything, in terms of merit scholarships?
As you can tell, I am ridiculous, and over-excited about my S’s college plans. That’s why I am trying to pester y’all instead of him about this.
Don’t know the answers to your questions, but just want to say welcome and also that, living in Maine, I miss using “y’all.” Such a great word. “You guys” just doesn’t cut it.
Maine-iac here as well but living in Texas now. LHS was admitted into UT last year during the third week of January, batch release. About a week later he received his acceptance into the Liberal Arts Honors (LAH, some have called it Plan 1 ) program. Soon after that he received an invitation for the “Best of Texas” event held in March. As you stated, it fills up quickly so we RSVP’d quickly and went to the event. From what we were told, mostly students who receive acceptance into UT’s Honors programs, (Plan II, LAH, BHP, Engr Honors, etc and others that each of the colleges deem to be highly competitive students ie 35-36 ACTs, high SAT’s, NM’s etc, and highly talented Music/Art students) are invited. It’s another opportunity for UT to try to convince these higher achievers to come to UT versus the Ivy’s and Ivy class universities like Duke, Stanford, MIT etc. It was a one day event starting about 8AM and went to late afternoon. Looking back it was really like a large scale Campus Visit event. One major presentation at Gregory Gym. There were hundreds in attendance. Then we broke out into colleges. Engineering Honors went to one building, BHP to McCombs, Plan 2 and LAH to COLA etc. for more specific presentations from that college and honors program. Then I think we had the chance to choose between a handful of other QA presentations for like Housing, FA, student union/programs/clubs. I believe we were then done in the late afternoon, after visiting the CoOp to get some swag. My LHS was pretty much convinced by that time. I remember we also stopped at the Honors dorms to check them out.
If you haven’t visited the school yet, then this would be a good event to go to. If you’re on the fence between UT and others, it might help to go too. We really were just looking for an excuse to be on campus again and checkout the Honors dorms.
Didn’t hear about any buses, but Megabus is an option from Dallas and Houston. No talk of scholarship money except to say you should always be applying for them, in and out of UT. (UT is not known for it’s scholarships. There’s 50,000 undergrad and grad students there. My guess is less than 2% get any merit money.) Total cost per year is already less than half of the big private schools.
Hope this helps. Congrats, good luck and Hook’em \m/
My HS senior is NM commended with an ACT 33. She was hoping for Eng Honors, but from your post @TXDad56 I am guessing she won’t get Eng Honors. She has not gotten an invite for Best of Texas either. She was hoping for scholarship money. BTW, I have a LH who was admitted in the same round as yours last year. Can’t believe second semester starts tomorrow!
@txdad56 slight correction. BHP has their own Discover BHP day on March 25 separate from Best of Texas for their admitted students. In addition, dinners for admitted students were held in the larger cities in Texas in early Jan. These serve the purpose for BHP students.
@NotSoPatient --I know quite a few ACT 33-34s, top 2% of class at UT who got…zero in merit scholarships from UT or TexasExes groups. It would be awesome if it happened but I for sure am not holding my breath. I think those who qualify for Texas Advance have already started to receive notice.
@CollegeParent123 BHP handles their recruiting differently. They had a dinner in Dallas last weekend. They are calling students. And there have been a number of other invites… I can’t keep up with them all. Definitely some hard selling going on. But nothing about the Best of Texas.
@itsgettingreal17 that is correct. BHP not part of Best of Texas though their event is same day. Exactly the way it was with my older child currently in BHP as well.
My daughter has been getting the serious hard sell from Women in Engineering with post cards and phone calls happening regularly. Ironic since she already accepted her enrollment at Christmas time.
My honest mistake then about BHP being apart of “Best of Texas”. McCombs College was present during our Best of Texas event last March. I must assume now that it was for High Achievers that applied for McCombs, but not BHP’ers.
Does anyone know what the difference between regular Mccombs and the BHP is? I know BHP is the honors version of the business school. But I really want to know if the curriculum is different, the class size, and the quality of the professor from the regular business program vs. the BHP, and maybe more internship opportunities for the BHP folks?
@SLparent. Some classes are BHP-only sections and the advising in the program is incredible. It is a tight-knit and collaborative group of students who really bond in and out of the classroom. BHP students have the same internship opportunities as any other student, but they do seem to consistently land impressive internships. As, I am sure, other accomplished students do in other majors. Curriculum is the same but from what my D tells me, the BHP sections move at a quicker pace and are taught more case-metthod and collaborative than the comparable McCombs course. Also grading curves are different between BHP and McCombs courses.
@CollegeParent123 Thanks for your response. How about class size? I can’t seem to find anything about the class size for the BBA on McCombs website. Everywhere I look it talks about the BHP highlights as you mentioned above and class room is 30-45 but no mention about the BBA…which leads me to think the class size is large. My D is accepted into Mays, McCombs and TCU so we will try to have her sit in classes at 3 schools before she makes her decision.
Best of Texas weekend back in Fall 2012 was an overnight bus trip sponsored by UT Admissions offices. The potential students in our area met at the Dallas Admissions office at 4 am (!!) and took a charter bus to Austin. Weekend activities included: visiting a UT Austin class, admissions Q&A, campus tour, meal in residence hall, meeting with college/school, student panel, and football game. By 2015 the event was a one-day showcase and parents were included. That year COLA (College of Liberal Arts) invited the Liberal Arts Honors accepted students to the program. I don’t know how Engineering chose their students because my Longhorn hadn’t even applied to UT when invited to the Best of Texas Weekend in Fall of 2012.
Anyone else get the actual invite for 3/25? We got the save the date letter a while back, but not the actual invite. Asked my S and he said he hadn’t received anything via email, portal, etc. We’re in Houston, BTW.
You’re completely right. I have read in various places, though, that upon invitation the event fills up instantly, so I wanted to be on top of it. One person indicated they received the actual invite - hence my inquiry. Thx.