More Texas Recruitement Info

[TexasStar]

UT-Dallas has been mentioned.

[LPIDelta]

Originally Posted by epchick

Isn't Rice in the Houston area? So the comment they made about Houston needing a "tier-one" university is invalid because they already have one.

I think they are talking non-private institution--Houston needs a Tier 1 that is public (not that I agree with the statement, given there are other areas of the state that probably need it more).

And yes--the article is referring to research university status and nothing else. I believe this is on the Carnegie rating scale. There are several schools in contention to be the next Tier 1 in Texas... so likely it will not just be one that succeeds but many.

[texas*princess]

UNT would loooooooooooove to be the next Texas flagship. My entire time there that is all the administration would talk about. When I was a student though I just didn't "see" it. UNT is a really big commuter campus. They do offer a lot of great programs, I think I just always "saw" a "flagship" school as a place students want to live on and be around all the time with tons of school spirit (a'la A&M or Texas). When I was there the school spirit was pretty small, but it's been a few years since I graduated so maybe things have changed. Their greek system has expanded a lot (a few IFCs and 2 NPCs added in the last 3 yrs) and I think the sorority row that the school put there a few years ago was partly because the other big Texas schools have greek homes for all the GLOs. I know the school has several research facilities but I don't know anything else about them. They've also improved their UNT-Dallas campus in the last couple of years.

[breathesgelatin]

Frankly, if the Leg is thinking in terms of practicality, Texas Tech is probably already really really really close to being "Tier 1" so it would make sense to work on them first. Also in a less-served area.

I have a question... which is "better" (academically, eg, which is harder to get into) - UT-Dallas or UT-Arlington?

[SWTXBelle]

I've always heard UT-Dallas, but that's just hearsay.

[TexasStar]

Ut-Dallas has a very strong engineering program and good location. I have heard Techs location is not in their favor.

[OHNOITSJESS]

woot. At least no one is saying those that couldn't get into A&M and UT go to Tech [not the case for me, I prefer the Lubbock setting over Austin].

Here at Tech we hear that Texas State, U of Houston and [of course] Tech all have chances of being the next flagship [and I agree that either Texas State or Tech should be next]... actually I read an article that pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of both. Besides those schools, I think many people do leave out UT-Dallas [it was waaaaaaay too close to home for me...]. They do have a strong engineering and medical program [I think....] which is due to their close proximity to TI and the "Silicon Valley" in Dallas and various hospitals.
As for UNT, I don't think they are flagship material [I don't even think Tech's there yet...] but with more funding who knows? Their engineering program is not well established, but they have a really strong Music program. Not trying to pick a fight, I think they need to work on bringing up strong programs in all other areas before they can be flagship.

I haven't been to UTEP nor do I know much about them to state an opinion

[epchick]

I've heard that UT-Arlington is harder to get into.

I still don't want to see UT-Dallas or University of Houston get it. It would be beneficial for the whole state if they had more flagship schools across the state instead of located in the Austin/DFW/Houston area. There is more to Texas than just those 3 cities. Besides I haven't heard anything special about UT-Dallas nor U of H for it to be chosen.

UTEP has a VERY strong engineering program, as well as nursing program. UTEP is also really big into research labs & such. Recently, El Paso just got a medical school (the Paul L. Foster Medical School) but I believe that is part of the Texas Tech umbrella and not part of UTEP.

I'm not gonna say that UTEP matchs up to A&M or UT, but it would be nice to have a little recognition for our academics. But I doubt that they will pick UTEP.

[OHNOITSJESS]

lol. i just realized one of my good friends freshman year went to UTEP transferred to Tech and went back after a semester after being homesick. But she would tell us about how pretty the architecture of the buildings were both here and there but how they were totally different [she said something about it being Oriental or Syberian or maybe i'm thinking about the time she went to see the Trans Syberian orchestra... but how here it was really Spanish style]

anywhoo... the Med School in EP is Tech's... and they opened one in Dallas too...

idk about UT Arl. admissions... all my cousins went [or currently go] there and i'm not going to lie... [except for the one currently there waiting to transfer out to law school] they aren't the brightest in the bunch [and they claim to have a right to claim themselves "longhorns" because they go to a school with UT in the name.. RIGHT]

I do support the idea of having a flagship out of the way. From experience i can say having Tech in Lubbock has prob. increased intrest in the city, compared to a normal city in Texas [just an example who has heard of Farmers Branch?]

sorry for any typos. i've been staring at chemical equations all day.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by OHNOITSJESS

lol. i just realized one of my good friends freshman year went to UTEP transferred to Tech and went back after a semester after being homesick. But she would tell us about how pretty the architecture of the buildings were both here and there but how they were totally different [she said something about it being Oriental or Syberian or maybe i'm thinking about the time she went to see the Trans Syberian orchestra... but how here it was really Spanish style]

The architecture of UTEP is from Bhutan. There are only a couple of buildings that don't have that architecture (the ones from waaaaay back in the day). They changed the architecture to a Bhutanese style when a former President's wife went to Bhutan & was inspired it. UTEP has close relations with Bhutan because of the architecture & a couple months ago the Prince of Bhutan came and visited.

[NutBrnHair]

I can't believe I'm seeing all of this discussion re: tiers!

[LonghornPNM]

My understanding is that UT Dallas is a little harder to get into than UT Arlington.
However, UT Arlington is much bigger than UT Dallas and I always have the impression that there is much more of a campus life there, UT Dallas always seems more like a commuter campus. I could be off on that assumption, but if so I feel like that would give UT Arlington a leg up on Dallas for being in the running to become the next flagship.

[epchick]

Do you think the "lawmakers" that are trying to find the next top tier university will look at the new Forbes.com list?

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/94/..._State_21.html

If they do...then UTEP out ranks all the list of "possible contenders"------I'm pretty shocked!

Apparently 1st spot goes to The University of Dallas, while the last goes to UT-Dallas.

UTEP ranks #7 in Texas, right after Baylor and before Texas Tech.

[breathesgelatin]

Interesting about the Forbes list! I would have probably put UTSA as the top UT system school, not UTEP. But I don't really know a whole lot about all that - just basing it on what others have told me about the prestige of various schools. I'm not a Texas native so I don't know it from a college application perspective like I do NC schools.

209 University of Dallas
215 University of Texas, Austin
243 Austin College
260 Texas A&M University
326 St. Mary's University
352 Baylor University
365 University of Texas, El Paso
385 Texas Tech University
431 Texas State University
442 University of Texas, Arlington
444 Abilene Christian University
467 St. Edward's University
502 University of Houston
508 University of North Texas
509 University of Texas, San Antonio
512 Sam Houston State University
513 Texas Christian University
521 University of Texas, Dallas

I gotta say that it looks like something is off with this list. I don't know what their metric is or what the list claims to demonstrate, but if it's prestige/competitiveness, something is off. First off, where is Rice? Did they opt out of Forbes' list? Rice should be on there and it should be the highest ranked school in Texas more than likely. SMU is also missing. And the idea that a University of Dallas degree is more competitive than a UT-Austin degree, or that UD is harder to get into than UT, or even that UD is a "better school" is nonsense to me. And Abilene Christian being ABOVE TCU and UH? That's total crap. I know a thing or two about Abilene Christian and what I know is not good - it's not a good school. Or at least NOT better than TCU or UH and for that matter UNT and UT-D. Some of the other things I could believe depending on what metric they're choosing - like UTEP at #7 for example, but Abilene Christian from what I know of it is pretty flat out crappy. And I still want to know where Rice and SMU are...

It's interesting stuff, though. Although in terms of the legislature, I think what they're interested in is another "research university" and this is definitely not a measure of that.

FWIW, Virginia was on this page too and W&L was the top-ranked school in Virginia. I love W&L and think it's an AWESOME school, but in some contexts at least (definitely in the research u. one) there is an argument to be made that UVA is better. So I dunno. I think Forbes' list might be kind of crappy.

ETA: I just looked at NC's list out of curiosity. UNC and Wake are above Duke - surprising but possibly plausible. Salem being ranked above Davidson though? That's a pile of crap.

What exactly is Forbes' metric???

[lawgal]

We already have a thread on the forbes list in the general chat forum for academics. http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=98776

Not sure if I linked it correctly. This disucssion of tiers academically probably ought to be in that forum rather than sorority recruitment.