<p>I got an invitation today in snail mail for an UT VIP event for March 22nd - says it is for "select admitted freshmen". I also got admitted to Dean Scholar program in mid-January and to Plan II in Nov or Dec. Can anyone please shed some light on this event. In the past years this seems to be on SAME DAY as the UT EXPLORE event and lots of comments on that UT EXPLORE event. This year UT EXPLORE is on March 1st and this VIP event is on March 22nd .
@Ya Ya - mentioned in Feb 2012 that this event isn't that helpful. But I couldn't tell if he had visited for UT VIP or not.</p>
<p>My S got the VIP invitation today. Was surprised because he did not get into DS or Turing, although he hasn’t received a formal rejection letter to either program. I’m not sure how he got into the group of “select admitted freshmen” unless it went solely by SAT scores, GPA and/or Class Rank, because he would have been near the top of that list on any of those 3 things. Probably won’t attend because he has a scheduled Honors Day visit to one of his OOS colleges that he hasn’t visited since being admitted. </p>
<p>You mention that your S did not get into DS or Turing. Is this based on your knowledge that all notificaitons for DS and Turing have been sent? Or did you mean he didn’t get in to DS or Turing at this point in time. Thx.</p>
<p>@tzero99 - Before I got my DS notification mid-January, i had emailed the school and I was told - Decisions will be released from now and through February, in no particular order.</p>
<p>tzero99 – Both cdkmom and I have sons who have heard nothing at all about Turing. Since we are sitting here on Feb. 27 and nothing has been received yet, we are assuming it is a no. However, they need to let these kids know that. This whole “waiting game” has really soured my opinion (and my son’s opinion) of UT. My son did not get the VIP invitation today, but even if he got it now, I can’t imagine he would want to go. He feels so unwanted by UT compared to other schools.</p>
<p>My DS got the “polite” email today. On Turing: “I regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission to the Turing Scholars Program for the Fall 2014 semester.”</p>
<p>The “waiting game” has improved greatly…it used to be April 1. Just out of curiosity, what do people feel is too long of a way? If a University is building a class, (and by building a class, I mean you can’t have just musicians or engineers, or all members of Model UN and no Treehuggers) and their deadline is December 1, which means, really they should wait till the deadline to start putting the puzzle together, how much faster do you think they can do it? </p>
<p>Ok, maybe I should clarify. Waiting until end of Feb from a Dec 1 deadline is not too bad. But the fact that they dribble out the acceptances versus just telling everyone yes, no, or waitlist all at once is what bothers me. And I am talking about honors acceptances not overall admission to the university.</p>
<p>My D also got the invite. We had already signed up for Admitted Students day on Friday, March 21st, so would appreciate insights on whether to attend Admitted Students day on Friday or the VIP session on Saturday. Maybe we should do both, but seems like there is a bit of overlap. Will be flying from California so if we can just attend Saturday’s session there will be less school/work days missed. However, I have found that it is helpful to be at a school when it is in session to get a good feel of the place.</p>
<p>And, I’m not sure about the “select admitted freshman” part. My D has good grades/SAT, but she definitely wasn’t a shoe-in for UT, and wasn’t really in the running for the merit scholarships (from what I can see).</p>
<p>@grove1987, she was accepted to School of Undergraduate Studies (so, undeclared) and she did not apply to Honors program. From what I could tell, she didn’t have the stats for it.</p>
<p>My son also got the UT VIP invite. He has been accepted to the UT Butler School of Music. We haven’t been notified yet if he will be a scholarship recipient (for music this is based on his audition). I was wondering if this was really a select invitation or something everyone gets?</p>
<p>I only know what I googled, but it appears UT VIP is relatively new (offered last few years) and is meant to woo admitted students that UT thinks would have multiple acceptance offers and who they really want to attend. From 2012 stats, ~70% of accepted students that attended UT VIP decided to attend UT, whereas only ~40% of students who didn’t attend accepted. So, UT thinks this is a good investment in increasing their yield. Each school at UT decides whom to invite. In 2012, ~400 prospective students attended. So, it does not look like everyone gets this invite.</p>
<p>This is getting better and better. Now, I have been invited to a dinner the night before with “campus leaders” - it is associated with UT VIP, but it is a separate registration - they even pay for hotel for the night and it says “invitation … due to outstanding academic and personal achievements” - I was thinking - this is all great and Thank you very much - but show me some money soon :-)</p>
<p>I thought the UT VIP offer was just junk mail sent to all the accepted students and I threw it away without even telling my S about it. I guess I shouldn’t have done that, though I am sure my S wouldn’t have wanted to go as he told me that he doesn’t even want to think about or talk about UT until after he hears from his reach schools.</p>
<p>@austinareadad. And what if all of those are rejections? He has missed a valuable opportunity to make connections at UT, all because of mis-placed confidence in one of the biggest arbutary systems in the world. </p>
<p>^ I just spoke to my S and he said he has a high school competitive academic event that day that he wants to go to, so apparently there was never a chance he would have considered going to the VIP event. Living in the Austin area, with several friends going to UT and several family members who are alums (including me), he is already pretty familiar with what UT offers and what UT is like.</p>