Oh good grief @riversider! My, how you love putting words in other’s mouths! No one, aside from yourself, has mentioned “perfection” In fact I think that the entire CC community can agree on there no one perfect school for everyone no matter how much money you want throw at it.
You have been asked repeatedly to back you misguided opinions with examples and facts and you have repeatedly failed to do so. Honestly, at this point you sound like a five year old with their fingers in their ears screaming, “I’m right and you’re wrong! I am, I am, I am because I SAY SO!” .
You also seem to have a hard time fathoming that parents that CAN afford the most expensive schools sometimes choose not to do so. All three of my kids were or will be auto admits to UT Austin, which we can easily afford without loans. None of them thought it was a the school for them. Although we can’t afford $70k x 4 years x 3 kids, we do have close relatives that have offered to pay “what ever” so the kids could go where ever they wanted. The kids know that these relatives really do have this kind of money. But not one them has taken them up on this very generous offer. These relatives could also easily afford to drive very expensive sports cars but chose not do so because cars aren’t something they enjoy and they would never flaunt their wealth just for the sake of it.
It’s sad that your ego is so tied to “price” and an persevered “prestige” of your child’s school that you feel the need to disparage UTD and other schools that offer generous National Merit Scholarship. Perhaps you should go back and reread some of the replies on your other threads on this topic. Here’s a good one: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/2121347-cheapest-undergrad.html#latest
It’s also pretty well accepted it’s not just where you go but what you do once you get there…
Didn’t you read my long two part post? Honestly, it’s time YOU backup what you are saying, after you do that I will make a very detailed post comparing three current students experiences at UTD, Stanford and OU but until you invest some time and effort defending YOUR opinion I’m done ‘feeding’ you.
I wish well to all who pick UTD or not.
What on earth is this more that @Riversider is seeking?
My son is on the McDermott Scholarship rather than NM but this is what he’s gotten (off the top of my head)
- A free undergraduate experience
- Study abroad funds
- Enormous access to free cultural experience
- One on one research experience which has already been presented at a conference and is working towards publication
- Access to terrific dorms (my goodness, the difference between his suite last year and apartment this year vs the itty bitty double I had at UF is significant)
- Access to a significant alumni network (I am less familiar with the alumni network for NMF)
Additionally, he has chosen to be involved
- Varsity athletics. The cross country team were conference champions and he has attened the NCAA D3 regional meet annually
- Writes for the student satire/opinion paper
- Has formed a band and played several gigs in the Dallas area
- Volunteers during spring break through the Alternative Spring Break program that the Office for Student Volunteerism runs
As far as what more he’d like
- Better wi-fi
- For Chartwells to lose their dining contract. The food is subpar.
In regards to football, it was never something he was interested in. And party culture exists, it’s just not his jam.
I literally.could not have hoped for a better undergraduate experience. He has many friends who chose to go to big name schools. He listens to their stories and is just like “nah, I love my school.”
@Riversider, BTW I want to thank you for thinking that my DD is having a fairytale experience. I think so as well! It appears that @delilahxc’s son if having one as well. I do wish that your child finds that same experience where ever they go. That is what we want for our kids, so good luck to you.
This thread is very enlightening. I agree that UTD seems to be a good choice for lot of students. Who cares if it Dallas instead of Austin or whatever. Majority of state schools are charging upwards of 32k per year with very little financial aid. UTD or UNT or Texas Tech seem like no brainer to me. Even schools like WPI and RPI provide very little financial aid so a decent STEM education at school like UTD is a godsend.
“Who cares if it is Dallas instead of Austin” that is almost fighting words here in Texas. Many of the kids here are desperate to get into UT Austin because of ranking and Austin. That is the reason that UTD does offer such generous merit aid. UT Austin is now turning away top notch students because you have to be in the top 6% of your class to get an automatic admittance but that does not include getting into your major. Many of them are giving UTD a chance as well as A&M. UTD does have the edge in merit aid.
I understand your defensive responses, it’s a UTD supporters thread. It’s like questioning a presidential candidate’s credibility in his supporters’s rally. I wish you all the best.
I am not a UTD supporter, but I will definitely say that the place you go undergrad has little to do with your future success if you don’t do something more. I will say that some Northeast people put A LOT of stock in where you went to school, which I have seen play out as being asinine. I had a boss that went to RPI and he was pretty great himself, but he would always hire in guys/gals because he was impressed with their school and 2 out of 3 times they would be horrible employees and not nearly as impressive as guys/gals that went to lesser schools, but truly made the most of all of their opportunities. The top Law student at Arizona State probably has more chance of success than the bottom law student at Harvard. Make the best of your opportunities and I am confident that the place you go to undergrad will have little effect on your career.
@Riversider As a neutral party (well, maybe more blah on UTD than neutral), your posts have lacked pretty much any details or facts to back up your argument while the others have attempted to put forth cohesive and comprehensive rebuttals.
Heck, some of their points almost made me want to look into it again (until I remembered the key reasons why it was not a fit for my D19). Your posts, on the other hand, leave me wondering if you are being juvenile on purpose to ■■■■■ (CC doesn’t like the word t r o l l) the others. If so, you are doing a good job.
@Reebtoor I totally agree with you, and have stopped putting food under that bridge;-)
It seems like UTD continues its movement in the right direction in terms of national recognition. Someone recently pointed out the new US News and World Report ranking are out - for whatever they are worth. UTD climbed 20 spots. It’s now tied with Alabama, Mizzou, Kansas, and Nebraska- at 61st best Public and 129 for national universities. It’s on the move in the right direction and performing excellently against several of the schools that actively lure kids out of state.
DD and I just did an honors tour this week. It was quite impressive!
Oy Vey, UTD is a great school. If you don’t like it move on. Why would you post drivel on a board for folks looking at a university when you obviously have no knowledge of or interest in the university in question?
Nobody has even mentioned this yet, but UTD also has “readings courses” for honors students modeled after Oxford tutorials (OK, they’re really more seminars than real Oxford tutorials as the cap is 15 students per instead of 2-3) but the point is that if you want a bunch of small liberal arts seminars, you could knock yourself out at UTD (as an honors student) as they’re each 1 credit so you could take a ton of them.
The perks of the various UTD honors programs are amazing bordering on ridiculous. On another thread, a Princeton student/alum was touting some all-expenses-paid overseas trip for Princeton students who finish some humanities sequence. Well, the UTD business honors program (Davidson) offers that everyyear_ so someone could potentially go on a paid-for trip abroad 4 times in their time at UTD (you have to pay for airfare to and from, but with your savings on tuition and R&B, you may have a little bit left over for that). And from what I understand, the average test scores of the students in the UTD honors programs are on par with, say, Cornell’s (which itself is not exactly a small school).
Really, the only thing UTD doesn’t offer is prestige to East Coasters (the Northeast is probably the only place in the US where it really matters when it comes to work) and a national alumni base (alums seem heavily concentrated in the Metroplex or at least TX) but if that matters a lot to you, so long as you keep your grades up, you could use the money saved from undergrad to spend on a prestigious master’s program and still come out ahead financially (if you would be full-pay at a private).
I just hope that UTD will still offer generous NMF and AES scholarships in a dozen years.
Wow, if my child had known about the Davidson travel abroad offer, she would have majored in business!
UTD the bomb diggity. If they had a nursing program my daughter would have strongly considered going there.
I don’t think they will every have a nursing school because UT Arlington has a large one that services North Texas.
And TWU Parkland campus has a very large one.
Good thread. Thanks to all for the great info!
UTD is rising up our list fast. My son is a rising senior and a projected NMSF with no reason to think he won’t be a Finalist (4.8 GPA, 1510 SAT, IB Diploma Candidate). As a parent, their NMF scholarship got my attention.
He is also being recruited to play tennis, and since it’s DIII, there is no athletic scholarship pressure and a good athletic/academic life balance. The tennis coach recently gave us a private tour of the campus and we were very impressed! I have to say that being on campus in person does not do pictures on the web justice. It has a good feel - a cohesive campus with an interesting variety of modern buildings and plenty of space.
My son wants to study physics/math/cosmology and their brand new science building will open his freshman year. He is interested in grad school as well, so the opportunity to do undergrad with no debt and the possibility to complete a Masters in 4 years is super appealing. Will be investigating more!
@BMC9670, Good luck to your son! I will say everything that UTD promises, they do deliver.