| Charles, since I practice in Dallas we do a lot of recruiting ar UTA. It has been a very strong program, and up until recently was probably the second best program in the state behind Rice. I think you have a commited Dean and a strong faculty. The issue with UTA is that they do not attract the same overall quality of student as a Rice or UT Austin. My wife was at a jury there last week and said she saw some really outstanding projects as well as some that were below standard. The quality at UT Autin seems more consistently high. We currently have two UTA students working for us part time, and they are both great. I hope we can talk them into joining us full time when they graduate.
My suggestion to you would be that if you are an undergraduate student there; stick with it, get your degree, and focus on getting accepted into an elite graduate school. I know quite a few UTA undergrads that have gone on to Harvard/Columbia/Yale. You just need to make sure you take studio courses with the best professors (no matter how tough some of them may appear), and start thinking about your portfolio now.
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