What advice would you give a freshman in Engineering to make a smooth transition into UT and have a successful freshman year? My specific interest is Mechanical Engineering, but any advice is welcome - especially from sophomores and juniors/seniors.
I doubt you will find many current UT students here as I think this is mostly students and parents of students who were applying for Fall 2017. My advice as the parent of a student currently at UT Austin is to get involved. Try new things and find where you fit so you have a group of friends. Take advantage of the awesome opportunities provided to you at UT Austin, study abroad, etc. Good luck!
As another parent of a UT student (and a UT grad myself), my advice is to get over any shyness or insecurity that you may feel, and take advantage of every academic resource available to you, starting with the Sanger Learning Center and the career center. Get to know your advisor, your professors, and your TA. Get involved in a club related to your field and befriend upperclassmen/women in your major. Get advice from everyone about school, your field of study, and career and research opportunities. Never again will you be surrounded by so many people who can teach you so much. Don’t just sit in your dorm room - take advantage of it all and learn from everyone around you. And never pass up a chance to improve your writing and speaking skills - those will help you as much as anything else.
^Great advice! Get help from the beginning of the semester, too - don’t wait until you’re totally overwhelmed. Freshman year is pretty tough - don’t try to go it alone. I’d say 99% of professors want to help you succeed - don’t be scared to talk to them. I had the advantage of having a dad who’s a prof so I wasn’t intimidated by them, but a lot of my friends seemed to think they were gods! If you make the effort, they will be glad to answer questions.
Enjoy the football games! You don’t realize how amazing they are until you graduate and miss going to them. 
@Axonta I’m a Mom of a graduating ECE/CS major. There are a few things you can do to ease the transition.
- Pick up a couple of classes in the summer before you start at UT. This way you can reduce your hours to the minimum your first semester.
- Use the gained time to join a social outlet type club, wherever your interests lie, to build connections. -And you can always cut this back if you need the extra study time.
- Don't wait until after the first round of tests to find qualified tutors. I highly recommend starting with a tutor for the calculus sequence. You can always drop the tutor after you successfully ace the first test.
- Expect very low grades as the norm. You want to focus on the class average, and staying above it, not the actual number of your score.
- Engineering is hard. Give yourself the gift of grace. It's very unlikely you will maintain the straight A's (I'm assuming) you had in high school.
- I second MaineLonghorn, go see your professors. Drop in at the beginning of the semester just to say hello and connect. It will make it easier when you need help.
Good luck to you! Hook 'Em!
Physics was the killer course for me. I made the mistake of taking honors physics. What was I thinking?? My high school prep was very poor - no AP physics class was available. My first college exam was in physics, and I got a 45!!! I had never even gotten a B for a final grade in high school, so that was a shocker. I squeaked by with a C that semester. But I kept working hard and ended up graduating with high honors. So don’t get discouraged your first year.
Thanks MaineLonghorn, I forgot about Physics. DS took the advice given to him and took both semesters at our local CC over the summer after freshman year. They are a huge time drain. He was an A+ physics student in HS but, wanted to have time to do other things. -never regretted it.
@PokeyJoe , when you talk about finding a qualified tutor, I take it this is someone from outside the college? Are there tutoring services close to campus that are good? I’ve heard someone mention that they have these at Texas A&M.
@Axonta Yes, there are good choices both on and off campus. Check out the Sanger Learning Center on campus.
https://ugs.utexas.edu/slc
Also, have one or both parents join the Texas Parents Facebook page. There are many private tutors recommended there. -and tons of other helpful information
Just enter what you’re looking for in the search bar.
There is a program called “General Engineering”. Check it out.
Good advice to take Physics in community college. My son is in his second semester as a Freshman ECE major and is currently taking Physics at ACC (Austin Community College). He is taking it at the Rio Grande campus at night and can walk or ride the bus. He will take the next Physics class in the summer either at ACC or online.
I loved UT for the most part, but I thought the physics instructors were very poor - it seemed obvious to me that they really didn’t want to be teaching introductory physics. I think it’s sad that the common wisdom is that kids should take it at ACC. 
It shouldn’t be that way.
@MaineLonghorn : Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring theme in many universities - poor teachers for the foundational classes. I suspect this would be different in universities that are not research and graduate study focused. I know from my own experience that research and teaching abilities are often mutually exclusive! Does not have to be, but is often the case. There are many brilliant researchers who would fail as teachers. I wish flagship universities like UT Austin would pay more attention to this.
@PokeyJoe : Thanks for the link to the Sanger Learning Center. Looks promising. Do you happen to have the name of an off-campus tutoring center that is well regarded?
@Axonta I don’t have a listing for an off-campus center. DS did use an individual off-campus tutor but, I am not sure that I should post that name and/or contact information here. Probably best to search the Texas Parents FB page. I know it’s listed multiple times there, among others. Good luck!
@Axonta. All good advice above. My S is in his second semester of EE and PII. I echo the comments on how hard Cockrell is and those grades that shock people after the first exams. There is a weed-out process the first year in Cockrell, so persevere!
- FIGs--first-year interest groups. My son joined a FIG that allows freshmen to take all of their first semester basic courses together (EE, CS, Calc). Helped hm make some good friends with students in his major and have study buddies for the first semester. A good transition was the result. Again, you will need to reach out to people and don't be shy in offering and asking for help. A lot of team sport in engineering as a profession, so it's more than useful for your transition and training.
- Physics. What is it about physics at UT? My son's peer advisors both recommended him to take the Engineering Physics 1 and 2 online at West Texas. My son told me that many of the students were doing this as well--and credit is automatically transferred to UT.
Best of luck, and congratulations!
This thread has been extremely helpful. I was looking thru links to make sure I didn’t do a duplicate link and came across this. It seems appropriate for my question. Has anyone done/ or will be doing the information session for admitted engineering students? My son has committed to UT for mechanical engineering and would like to go to the admitted students session. We have toured the school and he will go to orientation. Will the admitted students day be helpful? If it will, he’ll definitely go; any new information is welcome. We are from the midwest so it’s not an easy trip. He doesn’t know anyone at UT so I thought if nothing else maybe he can make a connection? Any insight would be greatly appreciate!
@oliver17 I don’t have an answer to your question but, I wanted to suggest that your son join the UT FB group. He could connect that way and possibly even find a roommate.
Also, if meeting new Longhorns is the goal, your son might enjoy Camp Texas or, if he’s a Christian, Camp Ignite. Both are excellent ways to make new friends before the fall.
http://camp.texasexes.org/
http://www.ignitetexas.org/
My son was also OOS engineering student last year. We did not attend the Admitted Students’ Day. And I’m a bit thankful we did not. Here’s why.
90% of the Freshman class are from Texas. The early activities and start of Freshman year, students naturally congregate around their high school friends and those from the areas they grew up, and it is not comfortable for non-Texans early on. New OOS students have no clue of the Texas HS system or the high school quarterbacks from Midland, Houston and Dallas, etc.
Kids are kids, and it shows in the first month–wait, you’re not from Texas? Why are you here?
A month later, all the dynamics change as kids find their first tribes within majors, in the dorms, in clubs, in intramural sports.
And in engineering, the first semester weed out courses of EE and CS humble most students, none of them ever receiving a 47 on an exam. They bond quickly after that. Living in the Honors quad also helped a great deal in building community.
Then Texas and Austin opens up and it’s all awesome. Remarkable resources at UT.
@pokeyjoe Thank you!