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Why an 18-year-old turned down her dream school, UT Austin, for 'a university that nobody has heard of'

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/04/16/why-this-teen-turned-down-the-university-of-texas-at-austin.html

 

Spoiler alert we’ve all heard of it.

But I gotta say her reasons are wrong. For her to argue she can’t find community at Texas is wrong. But it could also show a failing in terms of how we handle tours on campus too. granted that’s the difference between a 50k student body vs 3k. 

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Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

Spoiler alert we’ve all heard of it.

 

Yeah parents in Texas damned sure are aware of DBU.  If this article was about a student on the East Coast or something the line would make more sense.

If she chose Baccone or some shit like that, it'd be more valid.

Edited by Iceman
Posted

I can't blame students for rejecting UT for lesser schools when it comes to certain majors. But the "faith-centered community" excuse is an interesting one. I never got that isolating feeling when I toured the campus but that was also 20 years ago.

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Posted
Why an 18-year-old turned down her dream school, UT Austin, for 'a university that nobody has heard of'
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/04/16/why-this-teen-turned-down-the-university-of-texas-at-austin.html
 
Spoiler alert we’ve all heard of it.
But I gotta say her reasons are wrong. For her to argue she can’t find community at Texas is wrong. But it could also show a failing in terms of how we handle tours on campus too. granted that’s the difference between a 50k student body vs 3k. 

The best tour I've been on was at Colorado State. Maybe they need to sell it more than UT, but we all left with a vibe.
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

Why an 18-year-old turned down her dream school, UT Austin, for 'a university that nobody has heard of'

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/04/16/why-this-teen-turned-down-the-university-of-texas-at-austin.html

 

Spoiler alert we’ve all heard of it.

But I gotta say her reasons are wrong. For her to argue she can’t find community at Texas is wrong. But it could also show a failing in terms of how we handle tours on campus too. granted that’s the difference between a 50k student body vs 3k. 

Texas got 90K applications last year for what ends up being around 25K admissions and a freshman class of a little over 9K. They don't really have to sell themselves on a campus tour right now and they know it.  

Edited by Surly Bevo
  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

Time for the boy to get college stuff. Wants to go to UT but has to explore options.

Tulane knows how to lean into its strengths:

IMG_3587.thumb.jpeg.eab83ef89a9ba07168f88b07e807d199.jpeg
 

(it’s also a really good school)

Edited by The Dog
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Posted
On 4/20/2025 at 11:36 AM, jimmyjazz said:

If you're that intrigued by a "faith-based" school, maybe check out a few others?  SMU?  Trinity?  Notre Dame?  St. Olaf?

SMU and Trinity are not faith-based in the same way as DBU.  Not even close.

It seems some people are predisposed to just see UT as a huge, impenetrable monolith due to the size of the student body and campus and buildings on campus.  I suppose you can look at being identified mostly by your SSN as another feature of that.  But, by the same token, it's got some of everything, so you can find what you want.

I always figured you can't know more than a couple hundred people, even as acquaintances, so, 2500, 25,000, 50,000 don't make a shit.

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Posted (edited)

Well, that's not even close to true for some people.  Class size alone can intimidate kids.  I was a transfer into UT my soph year, and I left after a semester.  I loved the place but 600 people in a class was just a non-starter for me.  I didn't mind the size of the campus or the enrollment, but every person is different, and to assume you know what motivates a specific invidicual is pretty arrogant.

I came back for grad school, because I knew I loved UT and Austin and class size wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

Edited by jimmyjazz
Posted
33 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, that's not even close to true for some people.  Class size alone can intimidate kids.  I was a transfer into UT my soph year, and I left after a semester.  I loved the place but 600 people in a class was just a non-starter for me.  I didn't mind the size of the campus or the enrollment, but every person is different, and to assume you know what motivates a specific invidicual is pretty arrogant.

I came back for grad school, because I knew I loved UT and Austin and class size wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

I didn't assume anything.  I said "some people" and "seem."  I didn't purport to speak for everyone.  And yeah, class size I guess can be an issue.  I had three of those, E316, PSY301 and CH301.  They didn't bother me much for whatever reason.

Posted
1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

I didn't assume anything.  I said "some people" and "seem."  I didn't purport to speak for everyone.  And yeah, class size I guess can be an issue.  I had three of those, E316, PSY301 and CH301.  They didn't bother me much for whatever reason.

I don't think your last sentence was nearly that malleable, but I'm not going to belabor the point.

Posted
On 4/20/2025 at 11:36 AM, jimmyjazz said:

If you're that intrigued by a "faith-based" school, maybe check out a few others?  SMU?  Trinity?  Notre Dame?  St. Olaf?

I have a different view on going to UT as a person of faith.  If faith is important to you at Texas, you can definitely find groups that share your faith.  Catholic, Nondenominational, Baptist, Methodist, Muslim, Mormon, whatever.  And when you find those people, they will likely be serious about their faith, because they have decided to follow it in a place that is neutral toward faith at best (and often quite hostile). 

In contrast, at many "religious" schools, the average student has no more faith than your average student at UT.  Many go there because it is smaller, or because their parents think it is more sheltered.  I dare say it is easier to find a SOLID group of Baptists to connect with at UT than at Dallas Baptist or Baylor.  Because they are congregated in a small number of organizations.

Just my anecdotal experience, but I have seen it play out across generations at UT and other large state universities.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, HookEm said:

I have a different view on going to UT as a person of faith.  If faith is important to you at Texas, you can definitely find groups that share your faith.  Catholic, Nondenominational, Baptist, Methodist, Muslim, Mormon, whatever.  And when you find those people, they will likely be serious about their faith, because they have decided to follow it in a place that is neutral toward faith at best (and often quite hostile). 

In contrast, at many "religious" schools, the average student has no more faith than your average student at UT.  Many go there because it is smaller, or because their parents think it is more sheltered.  I dare say it is easier to find a SOLID group of Baptists to connect with at UT than at Dallas Baptist or Baylor.  Because they are congregated in a small number of organizations.

Just my anecdotal experience, but I have seen it play out across generations at UT and other large state universities.

This makes sense.

Posted
5 hours ago, HookEm said:

I have a different view on going to UT as a person of faith.  If faith is important to you at Texas, you can definitely find groups that share your faith.  Catholic, Nondenominational, Baptist, Methodist, Muslim, Mormon, whatever.  And when you find those people, they will likely be serious about their faith, because they have decided to follow it in a place that is neutral toward faith at best (and often quite hostile). 

In contrast, at many "religious" schools, the average student has no more faith than your average student at UT.  Many go there because it is smaller, or because their parents think it is more sheltered.  I dare say it is easier to find a SOLID group of Baptists to connect with at UT than at Dallas Baptist or Baylor.  Because they are congregated in a small number of organizations.

Just my anecdotal experience, but I have seen it play out across generations at UT and other large state universities.

I went to a faith based school and outside of required chapel (which I managed to never attend) didn’t feel faith based at all. I also was not looking for anything having to do with faith back then, so I never found it at a Southern Baptist backed college. My daughter at UGA easily found a large group that she goes to church with and that attend on campus ministry events. Even her good friends that aren’t churchgoers by any stretch attend with her on occasion and are extremely supportive. Ultimately, if your faith is a priority you can find what you are looking for on most campuses, especially large one where there are people looking for the same thing.

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Posted

When I checking out possible law schools I visited Baylor.  Walking across campus there were bible verses written in chalk all over the sidewalks.  I don't know if that is all the time or if it was just a one-off, but it definitely was not for me.

Posted
31 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

When I checking out possible law schools I visited Baylor.  Walking across campus there were bible verses written in chalk all over the sidewalks. 

"Thou shalt not report sexual misconduct by athletes."

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Posted
On 5/25/2025 at 7:33 PM, The Dog said:

Time for the boy to get college stuff. Wants to go to UT but has to explore options.

Tulane knows how to lean into its strengths:

IMG_3587.thumb.jpeg.eab83ef89a9ba07168f88b07e807d199.jpeg
 

(it’s also a really good school)

How does your kid feel about the State of New Jersey? 

Also, ironically, if you are talking about schools with a strong faith tradition, Tulane has a very large faith community of sorts.  

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Posted
On 4/20/2025 at 9:22 AM, Captain Ron said:

But it could also show a failing in terms of how we handle tours on campus too. granted that’s the difference between a 50k student body vs 3k. 

I did assorted college tours with my two kids, including twice at Texas.

The Texas tour was not much.  We started with a presentation with some basic facts at the visitor's center, which is now in the PCL.

After that we broke into tour groups and headed outside.  They showed us a sample dorm room in Jester East, which was not impressive.  We moved on past Gregory to the student activity center building and talked about clubs and the pedestrian-oriented Speedway, which has taken the place of the West Mall for clubs and folks hanging out.  I was amazed, because folks were hanging out in front of Greg, sitting at tables and even eating in a place that I know used to be covered in a half inch of grackle crap.

Then we walked through the Dell building, saw the canoes, walked through the Norman Hackerman building, talked about the freshman research initiative and peaked through some windows to see biology labs. Then we walked around the tower to the south mall where we could see the capitol dome and the front of the tower.  They asked for questions and told us they would either take us back to the visitor's center or we could go shop on Guad.   That was the entire tour.  On one tour we sat in a lecture hall for a bit, on one tour we didn't.

What *was* impressive about the UT tours was the meetings we went to specifically for our colleges.  They were student focused.  The folks from UT wanted to hear from and talk to the students.  Other schools talked a lot to the parents, but Texas stood out for speaking directly to the students.

Washington had a great tour with lots of stories in a beautiful setting.  They had an "admitted students day" with the cherry blossoms in bloom and Mt Rainer in the distance that was hard to beat.  Auburn gave you a real sense of family.  Texas A&M maxed out the "rah-rah" with an emphasis on all things Aggie.  Texas had kind of a boring presentation with a generic tour, but the gems were in the more specific meetings we attended.

I could design a better tour myself, but first I would have to get over the idea that the grackles aren't coming back to nuke me from above.

Posted

One campus campus tour at MIT was unlike any other.  They took us the entire length of campus in the tunnel system that students would commonly use at night.

Cambridge isn't the safest place for an evening stroll.  A student was stabbed to death right outside my dorm during my first semester.

Posted

This NYT article about whether private universities can maintain autonomy in the face of an authoritarian government was interesting. 

https://archive.is/UY1i6

image.thumb.png.581405ff891a6b86bc009ac40ec3d2ac.png

9k for a year's tuition and the kid gets to live in Vienna? Almost makes me want to adopt a high school student with good grades.

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Posted
On 6/3/2025 at 9:41 PM, Texas Jeff said:

I did assorted college tours with my two kids, including twice at Texas.

The Texas tour was not much.  We started with a presentation with some basic facts at the visitor's center, which is now in the PCL.

After that we broke into tour groups and headed outside.  They showed us a sample dorm room in Jester East, which was not impressive.  We moved on past Gregory to the student activity center building and talked about clubs and the pedestrian-oriented Speedway, which has taken the place of the West Mall for clubs and folks hanging out.  I was amazed, because folks were hanging out in front of Greg, sitting at tables and even eating in a place that I know used to be covered in a half inch of grackle crap.

Then we walked through the Dell building, saw the canoes, walked through the Norman Hackerman building, talked about the freshman research initiative and peaked through some windows to see biology labs. Then we walked around the tower to the south mall where we could see the capitol dome and the front of the tower.  They asked for questions and told us they would either take us back to the visitor's center or we could go shop on Guad.   That was the entire tour.  On one tour we sat in a lecture hall for a bit, on one tour we didn't.

What *was* impressive about the UT tours was the meetings we went to specifically for our colleges.  They were student focused.  The folks from UT wanted to hear from and talk to the students.  Other schools talked a lot to the parents, but Texas stood out for speaking directly to the students.

Washington had a great tour with lots of stories in a beautiful setting.  They had an "admitted students day" with the cherry blossoms in bloom and Mt Rainer in the distance that was hard to beat.  Auburn gave you a real sense of family.  Texas A&M maxed out the "rah-rah" with an emphasis on all things Aggie.  Texas had kind of a boring presentation with a generic tour, but the gems were in the more specific meetings we attended.

I could design a better tour myself, but first I would have to get over the idea that the grackles aren't coming back to nuke me from above.

We did both the Texas admitted student tour in May 2024 and the UW "admitted students day" tour in April 2024. UW is indeed a beautiful campus; the weather was pitch perfect (that day). 

The Texas tour did seem to focus more on the newer buildings along Speedway; pretty much ignoring the South and West Mall (which might tell you were prospective student's heads are at). It's funny because i spent 80% of my time at Texas on the South and West malls.

Posted
12 minutes ago, yoladu said:

It's funny because i spent 80% of my time at Texas on the South and West malls.

I was exiled to the north side of Dean Keeton (26th) and STILL spent a ton of time on the South & West malls.  That's where the normal people (specifically chicks) were at.

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