Hi all:
My son wants to study Economics and has gotten into U. Illinois (UC) and UT Dallas. He has also been offered the CAP program at UT Austin (he will need to complete Freshman year at UT Arlington first) and the PSA program at TAMU (he will need to complete Freshman year at one of the TAMU system satellite schools first).
We are trying to decide between UT Dallas and Illinois. He has almost full tuition off at UT Dallas (total cost ~$50k for 4 yrs for room/board) but no scholarships at Illinois (total cost ~$200k for 4 yrs tuition + room/board). Illinois is ranked significantly higher than UTD both the school and the Econ program, although UTD is a pretty good school.
He has firm plans to pursue graduate school so not sure if it is worth spending so much money for an undergrad program even at a highly ranked school such as Illinois. Looking for some perspectives.
Thanks,
VP
My only advice is to not overlook the UT option. But if narrowed to the two you list. UT Dallas from a financial standpoint standpoint and the majors involved, 100 percent.
UT-Dallas is a no-brainer if UTD and UIUC are the only 2 options, especially if he is going to grad school.
IMO, UT-Dallas vs UT-Austin should be the real decision, but I understand that not everyone is comfortable with planning to transfer after a year.
UT Dallas does have the course offerings to prepare for PhD study in economics, although they involve making choices beyond the base economics major. Start with the BS version of the major, but take additional math and statistics courses like multivariable calculus, linear algebra, real analysis, and probability theory (the kinds of courses that math and statistics majors take).
UT Arlington is less desirable for economics for a prospective PhD student; its intermediate economics courses are not calculus-based, and there does not appear to be an econometrics course. Is there a GPA requirement or competitive admission process to transfer to UT Austin under CAP?
Thanks for the input. Agree that the real decision should be between UT Austin (he really wanted to go to Austin) and UTD, but UT Austin CAP does not guarantee admission to the chosen major (Econ) at Austin, only to the University and the college (only to Lib Arts), didn’t want to take the chance of getting stuck at a school that we didn’t feel great about (Arlington). Trying to transfer to Austin for Sophomore year is a strong possibility wherever he starts. He is also still considering Law School Vs Grad degree in Econ. Will definitely need to save if he decides on law school. Will probably only know once he is in college for couple years. The ranking and branding of schools does add some anxiety and insecurity.
For UT Austin CAP, they need 3.2 GPA and required coursework, this is not that hard and not the key factor. They do not guarantee admission to chosen major only to Lib Arts college, that is the reason we are not considering that option. We can always try to transfer later.
Law school is not that prestige-sensitive regarding undergraduate school. LSAT and college GPA are the main factors: http://schools.lawschoolnumbers.com/ . But ranking of one’s law school is highly important in law employment: https://www.lstreports.com/schools/
Doing a math-heavy economics major in preparation for PhD study in economics should be good preparation for the LSAT and law school (math and economics majors do tend to do well on the LSAT, probably because the logic puzzle section plays to their strengths).
I would recommend you further investigate the CAP option, if you have not already run that to ground. The economics department at UT Austin is part of the school of liberal arts (where your son would be automatically be admitted sophomore year. I don’t really know but I thought Econ was not a highly competitive major for admissions purposes and you don’t have to separately apply to one of the other ut Austin colleges (engineering, communications, business).
I have a friend whose son is applying for transfer via CAP this year and his son was thinking the Econ major would be a good backup if he didn’t get accepted to his choice of major in the school of communications. He may not know, however. I would think a call to the Econ department might give you insight into whether a cap transfer to an Econ major would be competitive or likely.
Of course, you may have done all that already, with the result not being good.
Thanks. Yes, Econ is part of Lib Arts at UT Austin, however it is one of only 3 majors that are NOT guaranteed under CAP (this is specified in the CAP agreement that we have to sign), because it is actually a high demand major. So now I think the question is whether being in CAP provides any advantage in terms of transferring to Econ Vs transferring externally. Reaching out to the dept. is a good idea, we are doing that now to understand/get their perspective on this and general competitiveness for Econ as part of the transfer pool. I am sure they will not be able provide firm recommendation (since that implies commitment), but may help.
@VP75070 One of my daughter’s friends went to UT-Dallas OOS with a full tuition scholarship. The school had her desired major and she has really enjoyed her experience. She has enjoyed good support for securing professional internships and other opportunities.
Thanks. Closing the loop on this. In the past few days, we talked to the Econ dept. and Admissions office at UT Austin to understand ease of getting into Econ at Austin via CAP. They said/confirmed that although the CAP agreement says Econ is NOT guaranteed upon completion of CAP, all that is needed to get into Econ at Austin is to complete the CAP requirements (3.2 GPA, 30 hrs) + Econ pre-reqs (2 courses in Econ + 2 courses in Math) which can be part of the 30 credits. So it is not as bad as we thought. This puts Austin ahead now, although will come at the expense of the scholarship that UTD is offering. But Austin has the better ranking/brand. Still thinking (since I hate hype and Austin is definitely hyped up now) but son wants to go to Austin and is willing to put up with CAP.
Would it be harder to go from UTD to UT than from UTA?
The best solution might be to spend first year at UTD in honors dorms etc, then transfer to UT. This way he has a real first year, which UT A may not provide (unless he’s in honors there too?) And still aims for 3.3 and those 4 specific for classes?
Going from UTD to UT seems to be (at least theoretically) harder since he will have to compete with other external transfers to get into UT. Going via CAP he is already in UT as long as he satisfies CAP requirements (3.2 GPA) and if he completes the 4 pre-reqs will be admitted to Econ. Transferirng from UTD will basically mean that we start from square one. My gut says UTD not just bcos of the money but bcos of the stability knowing that he can try to get into Austin but even if he does not he will be fine (+money saved up for grad school). But the allure of the brand remains, not sure how much that counts if he still plans to go to grad school anyway.
If he does not transfer, Dallas would be a good place to study economics and math to prepare for PhD study in economics. Arlington much less so.
If he’s continuing on to Grad School, then absolutely UTD!