I was never aware of anything really about TAMU until we went for my son’s tour… I completely drank the Kool Aid. I came home and started looking for a doctorate program that I could get online. Although it is my son’s first choice, he is considering other colleges that give more scholarships. Although I appreciate his thriftiness, I can’t say I will not be disappointed if he goes elsewhere!
@srparent15 I’m sure she considered it a safety if she was above 75th percentile for stats. My daughter kind of thought of it that way, although of course anything could happen with admissions! I don’t think it was meant to be a reflection on the selectivity or quality of the school.
Yes, my daughter just informed me that in Texas, a lot of kids actually apply to UGA as a backup, especially for non auto admits. Funny how schools are considered so different in different parts of the country.
She’s very modest and doesn’t like to publicly share her stats, but she was near the Top of her class from a top ranked public high school in our state. Took the most rigorous course load our school had, with the exception of AP English and maintained high grades in those classes. Did some unique things outside of school also. She had applied and was accepted to Computer Science at highly ranked schools in Engineering so her rigor was in the Math and Sciences which I think also strengthened her application as she had taken Calculus 3 in high school along with some heavy AP science courses.
She’s thrived at UT, is very humble and unassuming which I think has only helped her avoid a lot of the cut throat/competiveness aspect of CBHP. She came in with so many AP credits that she just takes extra classes for the heck of it in self interest. As an OOS I can’t say enough about UT-McCombs from an academic perspective and the access to her Professors and advisor, however, as I said previously, they need to fix the Covid situation. I have never felt she is safe there, however, she is an adult and that is her choice and she does her best to stay safe and has her own little pod, which is working so far.
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Actually UT may be doing a little better than UGA in terms of COVID handling, consider UT enroll 35% more students.
UT
UGA (you may have to scroll all the way down to find the cumulative total)
Both universities performed around 5300 tests.
UT cumulative PCT positive total 1941 since March 1st (data from 3/1/20 to now).
UGA cumulative PCT positive total 3753 students since Aug 17th (data from 8/17/20 to now)
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I don’t know anything about UGA as far as testing and I don’t care. I’m looking at UT where my kids is as a whole and their testing was a joke.
They tell students to quarantine for 2 weeks before coming back for the spring semester, yet they are having them leave for 1 week for spring break? How does that make any sense? They won’t be able to then quarantine before they return from spring break.
There is constant partying and no oversight.
They tell you to come get a test if you feel like it or might be exposed. Tons of kids are getting tested off campus or going home to other Texas cities and then not reporting back to UT to say that they’re positive. There is zero contract tracing.
They need a testing plan, they need to activate it, they need to have a contract tracing plan, and they need to actually follow up and trace, and they need to provide the proper education and training. They should require testing for all students both on and off campus living in Austin if they expect to be anywhere on campus or going to events. They should be testing fraternities, sororities, off campus dorms. Work together. They also need to provide education. The amount of misinformation blows me away. People who think it’s ok to have a rapid negative test the day after an exposure and that it gives them a free pass to do whatever they want is just bewildering. My other kid was tested 2x/week at school where they performed more than 35k tests a week. Texas is just as bad as Michigan. They have the resources to do it, but aren’t. The only difference is that UT didn’t close the dorms and tell everyone to leave.
If they weren’t so careless about this, there wouldn’t be so many lonely freshmen or kids staying at home for remote learning and perhaps they could actually have more in person classes. That is also one big difference. My other kid? Also has many in person and hybrid classes, whereas my UT student has zero, and next semester also zero.
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@srparent15 I imagine there are political pressures (governor, legislature) that affect how these flagship schools approach testing and Covid in general. I have a son at Ohio State and they test every on-campus student weekly (and that is a LOT of people) and off-campus students randomly. There are also plenty of parent complaints from all angles (too much testing! too little testing!), but I think the governor has been very cautious with Covid since the spring and that trickles down to how the state universities are approaching things. That presents a very different political climate than what Texas schools might be dealing with, but I’m just speculating! (We are OOS for Ohio and TX)
@rbc2108 100% accurate. President of UT is awesome, but his hands are unfortunately tied thanks to the state legislature.
OSU had a rough start for a hot sec, but they got their act together. If they can do it you would think a school like UT or Michigan can do it. Even UIUC did it. It is not impossible.
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@srparent15 OSU’s new president didn’t officially start until August 24, so I wonder if that had something to do with some chaos early in the semester. I was waiting for them to close campus, but they managed to stay open with generous usage of quarantine and isolation dorms for exposed and positive students.
That’s a bummer about Texas and the lax testing. My hope is that with vaccines becoming available my youngest (current HS senior) will start college somewhat normally, and my older 2 will also get some return to normalcy before they finish.
I spotted you in a UVA thread. Lots of waiting!!
Haha yes too much waiting! He applied ED and then 6 EA schools (1 is a true safety). If ED rejects/defers then he will add GA Tech, Northwestern and USC. Normal years he would never have applied to 7 (+3 more possibilities) but who knows what is going to be. We have heard from someone that UVA is going to be over-accepting by a lot this year but who really knows?
I tried to get him to apply to OSU as a safety but he decided to just go with Miami(OH) and be done with it. I’m not sure he will like it if that’s how things go down but it will be cheap if he does and at least he can’t complain about that! Where else is yours looking and in what?
Can someone please tell me what is meant by the “typical” TAMU student compared to a UT student?
Texas and Texas A&M offer lots of programs that are similar…specifically in Engineering. However, Texas has a much better liberal arts program versus A&M, which has an awesome Ag program. As a result, Texas tends to be more liberal politically than A&M. But I don’t see this as prevalent as it was when I was at A&M.
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A&M and UT are both huge schools. There are definitely exceptions to what I will say.
A&M is generally more conservative. UT is more liberal.
A&M leans/looks more Southern. UT leans/looks more West Coast.
A&M has a higher percentage of Caucasians. UT is more Diverse (especially a lot more Asians).
A&M is more rural in locale and student body. UT is more urban with its student body and being in Austin.
AtxAg95 and MrQster -
Thanks for the feedback. I knew Austin was more liberal as a city, but I guess I didn’t flow that down to the university level. Do the political leanings (for both schools) also impact the teaching from the professors? I may be wrong - but I tend to assume that most college professors teach from a liberal viewpoint. Is that not the case at TAMU?
@kwhdman I think some of those mindset differences relate to the campus/area/student culture rather than just faculty.
I honestly don’t think it has much to do with the city, but more of what the colleges offer.
Is it confirmed UT Austin regular application deadline has been extended to Dec 15th? I saw on their website but would like to double check here, thanks!
I wonder what the reason was for?
The rumor at Tuft was that they extended their ED deadline, because they has a lot less number of applicants than they were hoping for.
UC just extended their deadline from Nov. 30 to Dec 4 b/c of technical issue on their application site.
I was told by admission office two weeks ago many OOS HSs delayed sending transcript and GPA distribution report. As many students are test optional the transcript and calculated ranks are very important. Many HSs (like mine) sent transcript but not the GPA distribution data unless requested (my HS has a separate request form for GPA distribution data).
@KaYoung2025 What exactly is the GPA distribution report and how is that requested? We are OOS and our high school does not rank. Texas received the HS transcript and says everything is complete. Is the report only for high schools that report rank? The portal doesn’t show anything else received from the high school or counselor except the transcript.