Vandy honors vs UT Austin honors

Jewel63
Mon, 31 May 2010 00:21:39 +0000

In regards to Faline2’s comment, “I know zip about UT Austin”:
I am from a San Antonio, TX school where the majority of students go to either community college, local religious colleges, Texas Tech, UT, or A&M. I have been on the UT Campus and in lecture halls, etc. several times, and know a bit about the school. Therefore, I will attempt to help
The main decision for you is going to be based on the social aspects of the colleges. I can say that UT is an excellent school for the sciences, and that if I were to go to an in-state college I’d probably go (I have guaranteed admission there). However, keep in mind that it is a university with a MASSIVE campus floorplan and 40,000+ students. At UT you are a number for a very long time, unless you get to personally know your professors, and the rumors are true that they try to weed out freshman–don’t know if you know this, but in Texas if you are in the top 10% of your graduating class you have guaranteed admission to Texas colleges; this means that they have to let in more students than they really have room for and they seriously try to fix that. The town scene is pretty good (keep Austin weird! :P) and the academics are good, but keep in mind that it if your child likes a feeling of intimacy in school, Vandy might be a better choice. Just my personal opinion. I turned down the Harvard waitlist for Vandy because of similar reasons–sure, there are amazing opportunities at the other option, but do you really want to be a number? At least freshman year?

@VandySAE, "I’m a little astonished that this is actually debatable… " Actually, for reasons outlined above, it IS! UT is an amazing school. Just because it’s public and not an Ivy or a Southern Ivy doesn’t mean it isn’t–they have one of the foremost natural sciences programs in the nation, especially if you factor in their connected programs in San Antonio, Port Aransas, the UT Health Science Center, etc. Hook 'em!