SMU vs. UTD for Undergrad (Richland: transfer, universities, pharmacy)

[Jay Kay]

^ I noticed that but thats not a major I'm interested in...

[notpictured]

In my day, the old days (90s) ..

To get a 2nd bachelors - at least at a state school here - you had to retake lots of undergraduate courses even though you had already taken it in your prior excursion: you had to retake Texas/US history, PE classes, foreign language, maybe even upper level English classes. Damn. All of that sucked. Politics. All of that would set you a year behind. I wonder why? So I went into graduate programs at UNT and UT-Dallas.

But ..

Have you considered University of Dallas in Irving? Catholic school historically, a liberal arts school but not so very doctrinaire as far as religion nowadays I bet. Also a much better girls-to-guys ratio than when I was there (late 70s). High academic standards, a very well regarded MBA program. Not so expensive as SMU for sure. Wish they had a football team. If I ever hit the lottery, I will pay to start a Div. III program at U. of Dallas. A nice pretty stadium I would build on all the undeveloped nice green verdant (for Dallas that is) lowlands property they own there. Very pretty location for a school here, UD is.

But even 35 years later, there is not much to do on weekends anywhere around. In 1976 you had to drive blocks and blocks for even a convenience store. It's about the same now. On the positive side, a pretty, quiet rural retreat in the middle of the crazy Metroplex, if you would like that.

[Jay Kay]

notpictured, my (first) undergrad is from Illinois, so even if I want to jump into the Masters program, I'm still required to take two US History and two Government classes. I'm currently taking two history and one government classes at the local community college (blow-off classes... I'm also working full-time and I still have time for family and other stuff... I know, I'm so cool.) For me to get my Associates Degree, I have to take a PE class, an English class and a few Psychology classes. I figure since those are fun and interesting classes, might as well get the Associates as a way of getting into the groove of studying and slowly taking more challenging classes until ultimately going for an MBA. Its been ten years since my Bachelors so don't want to jump straight into a challenging program.

I have looked at University of Dallas, but its in Irving, which is not convenient for me...

[TX75007]

If you are artsy, I'd get an MFA with minor in quantitative MBA track, like Accounting/Finance.

An MFA with a minor in Accounting is just as employable as a pure MBA, given the right intern experiences.

MFA in Arts and Technology - School of Arts and Humanities - The University of Texas at Dallas

M.F.A. in Art - Meadows School of the Arts - SMU

[Lakewooder]

SMU has traditionally had a large number of students from the midwest. One of my best friends from SMU is from Effingham, Illinois.

[Dr. Jake Oil]

Originally Posted by jr1038

That's an interesting assessment considering that the quality of the student bodies at SMU and UTD is very comparable in terms of SAT/ACT scores, GPA/class rank, and selectivity. I won't argue that UTD is strong in liberal arts because it's not, but to suggest the school has "barely reached respectability" is a bit of a reach especially when comparing to the likes of SMU.

UTD:



SMU:



Those graphs don't look the same, honestly.

[Pemberly283]

Smu honors graduate. Go to utd, save the thousands and thousands of Dollars and go to Europe and study at Oxford for the summer and then study in Paris that next summer. Point is to maximize your education resources and smu is ridiculous price wise.

[Big G]

I'd think UTD would be a much more comfortable fit for a non-traditional-aged undergraduate.

As for MBA admissions - let's be honest, we aren't talking Wharton here, much as SMU defenders would have you believe. Bring your open wallet (or two open wallets for SMU), and a reasonably intelligent person can gain admission to either one of those schools.

[DFWgal]

Regarding UTD: Hm... there are several classes for pre-health that only have one section per long semester and lecture is only during the day (8:30 to 10 or 10 to 11:30), and that's not very non-trad-friendly either. Not lots of online courses either. The only non-trad thing I could see there was that not tons of people would live on campus and it wasn't party town.

(By the way, guys, can you think of any university around DFW with courses like Biochem or Ochem during evenings or other non-trad-friendly hours [not online, though]?)

[facebookdigg123]

There are lots of non trads in my prehealth classes at UTD. They move their schedules around to fit in the classes. I doubt any university offers big courses like those in the evening.