Taking my son for college visits

My oldest son graduates this year too. We never even looked at UT - I don't think he would have been successful there, nor do I think he would have gained admission in the first place. He is very bright and capable of handling the UT coursework, but the school is too big, cold, and impersonal these days, and I think he would have simply drowned in that kind of atmosphere.

Fine by me though, because he is getting a 100% free ride at UNT as long as he maintains a 3.0 gpa there. He can learn to make GIS maps and get a good job and exit UNT debt free. That's a pretty big advantage for him, in my estimation.
 
Texas badly needs to increase it's "supply" of quality higher education. UT and A&M are basically the same size as they were 20-30 years ago, but in that time the number of college-bound students has dramatically increased.

When I applied to UT in '89, it wasn't considered an especially hard school to get into. (I knew some real morons who got in somehow.). Not to mention that my first semester cost less than $400 for tuition and fees. I'm pretty dismayed by how the cost of attending UT has exploded in less than a generation.
 
Several of the SEC schools are coming into Texas and cherry picking. Offer in state tuition and up their student rankings at the same time.
 
There are a number of schools working on Tier 1 status now. I did my undergrad at UTA, which for the sciences, nursing, engineering is an excellent school. They kind of got screwed with the whole super collider getting canned many years ago. Last time I checked, UTA was pushing 33K students.
 
I entered UT in 1985 with very average grades. I loved it and excelled. But, if I were doing it again I probably would have gone to community college or another school for the 1st year or 2. Learning to study, write, take notes and handle college life on this campus was a challenge. Many friends transferred in afte a year or two and graduated with better GPAs.

It is unfortunate it is so difficult to get in with such great traditions and families with history. My family is the same way. I was told early on that my family would help support me as needed through college as long as I worked...and went to Texas.
 
The State of California model seems to have worked out better for an expanding population than the one Texas adopted. Specifically, California has a system of tier one universities across the state including UCLA, UCSD, UCBerkley, etc that are all great schools and are able to absorb the increasing population and continue to provide the best education to those who want it. The second tier system is the state schools and fills its niche.

On the other hand, Texas attempted to have two independent systems, each with a single flagship tier one University and tier two universities spread through the rest of the systems. The state has grown in population but these two flagship universities long ago maxed out on the number of students that could be reasonably accommodated. Creating one or more additional tier one universities within the two systems provides confusion and divided loyalties that likely would have been more manageable if for instance, all of the UTs would have been tier one and TAMU-CS was part of a large second tier group to serve other needs.

It's too late to make that sort of a sweeping change now, so some more creative solution needs to be sought.
 
Granddaughter, lives in Tenn coming for campus visit, 4.0 in Magnet school in NashvIlle, 32 in SAT (or ACT whichever has the low scoring). any chance to get in? Runs cross country but would not attempt at this level.
 
California's system is so great it has helped to bankrupt the state. The issue is forced acceptance without equivalency. This forces Texas to pass on very qualified potential students while holding spots open for what will be no shows.
 
high school seniors that think they know what they want to major in make me laugh.

a third won't make it through two years of prerequisites for their preferred programs and another third will change their minds...
 
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