I’ve already been accepted by UT Austin for Arts and Entertainment Technology and in Texas A&M for Visualization (which is pretty much the same thing).
UT
pros: forward thinking town, better student life, lower rate of acceptance (I’d get the prestige of going there), my boyfriend goes there, newer/more modern looking buildings
cons: their AET program is fairly new so I don’t know if it’s even worth going, horrible traffic, expensive housing, depleting fine arts library, one building and one library dedicated to my degree
Texas A&M
pros: supposedly a more developed program, better traffic, more affordable housing, many of my friends are going, three buildings and a studio and a library dedicated to my degree
cons: higher acceptance rate (a large number of my classmates are going), more conservative town (please don’t bring up politics), brutalist-style architecture, more spacious campus (I’m got horrible sense of direction)
If you were in my shoes, what would you do?
If you’ve had personal experience in either one of these programs, please tell me!
If you’re more of a liberal artsy person, UT is the safest bet. It’s like a little blue bubble in the middle of a big red state. Austin is a more open-minded place. Yes traffic sucks…really bad…but you find alternate routes and back roads 
Hi. My daughter is in the same boat now as you were when you posted this. Curious what you chose & if you are happy with this choice? Would love any thoughts if you see this. Thanks!
A friend of mine’s daughter is happy with Arts and Entertainment Technology at UT Austin. She is a junior. She is much more focused on straight academics and doesn’t do many other campus activities although she enjoys eating out in Austin.
I don’t think she considered Texas A&M because she didn’t want to live in College Station. She did consider the program at UT Dallas which ended up being her second choice.
I clicked on this thread because my D22 is interested in digital arts and we’re putting together a list including Texas schools which are in state for us. Are there any other programs besides the flagships that your daughter applied to either in state our out of state?
If you get into UT and get your major you wanted, it would be an easy choice for me. UT Austin.
In Texas applied she applied to UT, A&M & UTD. Her main interest is the animation side of Arts & Entertainment/Visualization. Decided she was not interested in art schools, as she wants a more well-rounded education & wants to be exposed to game design/virtual reality, too & didn’t love the small size of a few art schools we visited. If you research animation programs specifically, most are private art schools, but consistently in the top 25 (that are public schools) are A&M, Ohio State & University of Central Florida, along with some CA publics. UTD is usually in the top 40. UT’s AET major is just too new for rankings, though clearly UT is a great school, just don’t know enough about the opportunities with their program. I wouldn’t discount A&M just because it’s in College Station. Google Visualization/Viz kids & you will see a lot of those kids are well connected in the industry because of their established program. We know a senior Viz major this year who has already worked with Pixar on a summer project & has continued to do remote work on the side. Still waiting for UT to release COFA decisions, but accepted to several of the others mentioned, so we’d still love as much info on any of these programs as we can get. Good luck!
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