Hello! I am a freshman at UTD and after being here for around a month I already want to transfer. I got into UT Austin but chose to go to UTD because of the scholarship they gave me. My biggest two problems here are the professors and the people that are here. Something I didn’t realize until I got here was that it was a commuter school. I think this has a large impact on the culture here and has made it very difficult for me to make friends. Once you meet someone in class, they leave to go home/hang out with their already established group of high school friends from the Dallas/Plano area. I also feel like there is very little to do on/around campus (events, restaurants, etc), things that would be conducive to meeting new people or being distracted by classes. Secondly, the professors here are not very good. I don’t like showing up to office hours and being picked on by the professor or having the TA not even show up for their allotted time slot (but this might be a part of every school). There are other minor things that I don’t like about the campus (location, the overall attitude of the students → they all think they are better than everyone else and constantly talk about their achievements in high school, the party scene).
In contrast, at UT Austin, most people live in/around campus and the social scene seems to be a lot more inviting. There are always activities going on and it is right in the middle of downtown. Something that I didn’t realize would be important for me in a school is school spirit. Wow there is just no school spirit here (and I think a major part of it is the absence of a football team), but at Austin, the campus is bursting with school spirit, with football games being a weekly thing to attend. I’m not very into sports, but I do think that having school spirit at a college is imperative for a welcoming atmosphere. There is so much more of a community there, which is something I think that I need.
One of the biggest cons of transferring to UT Austin is the money aspect and maybe the fact that it’s a big school (but that is not a major drawback for me. UTD is a pretty small school, but that hasn’t really affected me in any positive way yet).
I was hoping that someone from UTD or UT Austin could give me insight (or even if you don’t go/went to these schools please give me your opinions :))
The only concern I have for my transfer application would be getting recommendations from professors at my school (but I’m not sure if recs are necessary or if they make or break an application, so I would like advice on this as well)
Thanks!