I was surprised to read recently that UTD actually had an increase in NMF freshman students attending in 2019 over 2018. They are up to 195. I really thought the Florida schools would cut into their number. Happily surprised!
Itās hard to pass on UTDās full ride for National Merit Scholars. UTD was not on radar at all, and still is a tough sell in my house when DS was accepted at more prestigious schools (obviously with a bigger pricetag). Heās interested in physics, astronomy, and possibly music minor. We are āyankees,ā so I have concern about culture shock and diversity. He never got to visit, so thereās that.
DS is somewhat introverted, not interested in sports, a little sassy to me right now (itās the age), but all-in-all, a good kid. Hardworking, and crazy smart, but not at all competitive or cutthroat. Completely comfortable with his self-acknowledged nerdy group of friends.
I donāt want to take responsibility for forcing DS into choosing his college. I am happy to be a sounding board, but I need to be careful about what I say because I have been surprised by how something Iāve mentioned that was seemingly innocuous turned out to be very impactful.
Not sure that he has the maturity and to understand the real implication of college debt. He really does not spend any money.
Realistically, these kids are 18! And the whole world is in chaos.
Open for thoughts. TIA
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I can promise you that Dallas is not the āsouthā, Yankeeās will have no problem. UTD is not a sports school, they donāt even have a football team. Chess is the big sport there. UTD is also very diverse with a large international population. As for ācut throatā environment, this was one of the big things for my DS. He went to a very competitive, cut throat type high school and was done with that. UTD is much more of a collaborative environment, the donāt have āweed outā classes.
@jane2000, look in to UT-Dallas and NCF. Both are in the South but not Southern. The antithesis of a giant football-power state flagship in their own way. UT-Dallas is quite diverse (the northern Dallas suburbs where UT-Dallas is located is quite diverse). NCF would be full of lefty/liberal/hippy white kids from the FL burbs.
I would think of UT-Dallas as TXās UCSD.
NCF as a public (tinier) Reed located on a FL beach.
@jane2000, I considered UT Dallas for my National Merit choice and visited twice, once on a regular tour and the second time as a finalist for their McDermott Scholarship. Iām from South Carolina. For other reasons, Iām going to be using my National Merit scholarship at UofSC, but UT Dallas is a great option too.
Itās a very solid school academically, especially for pre-med, STEM, CS, and business. These majors make up around 75% of the school. However, many of the students I talked to took humanities courses and quite a few were minoring in something like art history or music. During my second visit, they advertised their orchestras/ensembles, which are open to all majors. The National Merit program also gives free tickets to cultural events like Dallas Symphony performances, which I thought was really neat!
Have you visited campus? Itās very modern looking and a lot of the facilities are new, particularly the science buildings. Dorms are new too and honors housing is suite-style and spacious. Yes, itās still considered a commuter school, but around 5,000 students live on campus. Thatās a lot larger than entire colleges. The majority of out-of-state kids live on campus, so there will definitely be a community there for your son. That being said, youād probably want to have a car with you, as campus is around 16 miles away from Downtown Dallas. There is a plan to have a DART stop on campus to take you into the city, but it wonāt be ready until 2022 or something like that.
The student body is very diverse and the school isnāt very āsouthernā at all. Iām Asian and it definitely didnāt feel lacking in diversity. However, the majority of the student body is in-state (but Texas is quite a big state on its own).
UTD is quite different from my own state schools in that there isnāt much focus on sports. They do have large variety of varsity teams though, if thatās an interest. They also have a highly-ranked chess team and e-sports team too.
My only complaint about the school is that it seemed ātoo quietā (to me at least). Iām not the most extroverted person, but not that introverted either. I was on campus during a weekend and there didnāt seem to be much activity. That might not matter to your son, but I would still reach out to students and talk about their social experience there. Iād say that social life at UTD revolves around you and your friends, not the school/sports teams.
All in all, I think UTD is great option, especially considering finances and the current economic situation. Not the typical college experience, but it definitely suits some students more!
As to the car, my son has gotten along fine without one. He often goes out with friends that have cars and uses Uber if he needs to. We figured with what weāre saving on insurance and parking fees by him not having a car on campus, thatās less than heād ever spend on Uber and chipping in for a friendās gas.
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Thank you. My dd will be attending and wonāt be bringing a car.