Recommendations please for universities in the area...

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by kretsch

A little biased when it comes to engineering programs. You're right, Texas really has a lot of good options out there

My daughter is in the Look School so I'm biased as well LOL!

[txplanomom]

I would recommend having your daughter do some campus tours to see how the schools "feels". My DDs went to Rice and enjoyed the smaller school atmosphere. To them is was more like a family since their residential colleges have a master (a couple or a family) that is the head of their particular college. There were several universities that they toured and immediately knew it would not be a good fit. It was also close enough that we could knew we could drive there in 4 hours if needed in an emergency. For others, Rice might be a "no" because of the smaller size and lack of Greek system.
With the stats that your daughter has, I would let her apply to several schools and see what kind of aid or merit scholarships are offered. My daughters are also half hispanic and I understand the culture of trying to keep the family close.

[tcualum]

What type of engineering is she interested in doing? My husband studied mechanical engineering at TCU. He loved the program and felt that it really prepared him for what he does now which is owning his own businesses where he is a jack of all trades. He and his partner (also a TCU grad) do most of the mechanical and electrical engineering plus most of the coding for their products. They also run the company and meet with potential customers from all over the world. He felt that some other schools turned out graduates who were better at pure engineering but he felt TCU was better at giving him much more practical life experience especially since the department has chosen not to start a graduate program. He feels that the practical experience prepared him for than just working in a cubical at a large corporation. By the time he'd graduated he'd assisted professors with their research, worked on many team projects, given numerous presentations and completed a senior design project. Because of the requirements of the engineering degree it was also fairly easy for him to add on a physics minor and a math major. It took it more than 4 years for him to graduate because of that but he felt that it was worth it.

For the senior design project his group was hired by a company in CA to create a product that they needed. The company gave them design specs and a budget. The group formed a company that hired group members for different jobs. They designed and built the product within budget and on time. Their grade was based on peer evaluations and the presentation they gave to the professors, the company and interested members of the public. Immediately after the presentation was over my then boyfriend was offered a job by the company in CA and by a local company. Many other team members were offered jobs as well.

He attended UTA for grad school because he could attend there part time while working for the company that paid for his schooling. He was unimpressed by his fellow students and said he wouldn't hire them.

[UnfairPark]

Obviously, he is a bright exception who would've done well anywhere but yeah smaller private schools can provide opportunities and encouragement that's rare in huge public universities.

[jdallas]

Originally Posted by Moorhen3

One of the things I am struggling with is the option she has of very likely being accepted into BYU (in Utah). Because we are members of the Mormon church her tuition would be, I think, around 6k a semester and that's without merit acholarships. My in-laws don't live too far from Provo but they are getting older. And to top it off, we have been told that BYU has an excellent animation program. I want to find out, through this post, if there are universities in our area that can compete in some way to what we have heard of BYU.

Everyone is focusing on the mass market sheeple engineering part of the OP and ignoring the Art/Animation component.


BYU does have an excellent animation program and you should strongly consider it as an option given your circumstances. The only Texas institutions that would be worth considering as an alternative would be Texas A&M and UT SVA. Nothing else ranks in the entertainment world. Not even close. Even with Texas A&M, she would be heavily steered toward programming/UI/interactive and less animation work.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by jdallas

Everyone is focusing on the mass market sheeple engineering part of the OP...

Kind of a strange way to describe a profession whose raison d'etre is to work solely with reality and when necessary to speak truth to power.

[Moorhen3]

So much valuable input!! Thank you all so much. Like I said before, I wasn't aware that I had to "shop" for a university once I graduated high school. I just went where I got a scholarship and after that where it was fairly inexpensive to finally get my degree. So with my daughter now I see that things need to be a little different. I was completely ignorant on so many things but thanks to this post and everyone being so kind and giving me their opinions, now I can say I know a little more. Thank you!!!!