We are going to visit UT Austin over the Feb break (16 or 17). Son interested in electrical engineering & CS. So far only able to schedule a general campus tour & a residence hall tour. Would love to learn about engineering & CS & see facilities but no tours are being offered then. Any current students on CC who perhaps could suggest something?
We took a tour in December. The regular tour includes a tour of a residence hall. We were there at the end of Christmas break so the residence halls were not open, but the tour guide specifically said they are usually able to go into a residence hall.
I’m not sure about the engineering part. We went into the engineering building and the main business building. I did not see where you could schedule departmental tours but maybe there is a way.
Good luck and enjoy your day!
@carachel2 – Thanks much - we will tour a residence hall too. And might attend some rec event or talk on campus.
You are welcome! Are you guys flying in from out of state?
Yes – from the Northeast. First to Houston to see Rice & then driving to UT Austin.
Call the engineering dept they may be able to schedule something for you. When we visited A&M last year we called and were able to set an appointment with a SR student that was able to answer our questions and give a tour of the engineering building.
@CA1543 …oh the irony. Native Texan here, kid with auto admit to UT and Texas A&M and getting emails from Rice. She is doing everything she can to get OUT of Texas and go to school somewhere in the NE, lol! We call Houston the “armpit” of Texas, but I know the actual campus of Rice is nice.
I would encourage you guys to find a way to visit Houston and Austin in the summer or early fall. It is the equivalent to us making sure we visit the NE in December/January.
You should also add Texas A&M to your list. Highly ranked engineering program, great student body and perhaps a bit less spendier than UT and Rice.
Thanks much @carachel2. We might be able to squeeze in Texas A&M too. Yes - for a Texan to go NE - and subject herself to winter just like us going in summer there - would be a “real experience” - though it has been rather mild (excep for our 1 big snow storm) this winter so perhaps misleading. We will go see the Northeast schools as spring comes along - Carnegie Mellon, RPI, MIT, Cornell and a few others! Hope you and your daughter have wonderful visits wherever you go.
Follow up – we have been able to schedule a meeting with a student ambassador from CS & will be able to earn more about the specifics of that program. We’ll contact Cockrell Engineering’s EE Dept on Monday. thanks for your suggestions. Yeah!!! :-*
We only visited liberal arts colleges, and maybe this wouldn’t work as well at a big university, but when we wanted to check out CS departments, we just found out where they were, started snooping around the halls and looked for an office with an open door. When we found one, we boldly marched in and my son explained that he’s a prospective student and asked if the prof had time to tell him a bit about their program. Except for a single school whose only CS prof was off campus the day we were there, this literally worked every time. Profs were happy to talk and answer questions, often at some length. We found it very helpful.
Thanks @rayrick – I noticed there are a couple of programs next week we can go to that should be interesting-- at least for my techy son anyway. Hopefully we’ll be also to see some professors and students in EE too.
Reporting - back – loved Rice for many reasons - programs in ECE CS, campus atmosphere, more contact time with professors and happy students (at least as far as we could tell)!! UT - great programs (though engineering bldg being constructed now so could not visit) but very large - may take a lot of energy to navigate. GA Tech is up next.
The tour/info session with the UT CS Ambassadors is great and I really recommend it. You can also have lunch with a CS student.
I agree - we had a CS Ambassador tour - it was fabulous & the facilities are very impressive too. Totally got my son excited about all that is going on there & how the students are thriving.