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I'm a high school senior in Boston. I'm planning on going to college in the DFW area because I have family living there. I have a 3.0 GPA. I'm thinking about majoring in something like physical therapy or health care but I'm not sure yet. I'm trying to decide between TCU, North Texas, and UT-Arlington. Which one has the best campus and the best college atmosphere? Does anybody have any advice about which one I should go to?
TCU has the nicest campus and most traditional college experience (strong football program, tailgating, strong Greek Life presence, etc). It's in a great part of Fort Worth with lots of cute little restaurants and bars. It's also by far the most expensive- although all three are pricey for out-of-state tuition. TCU is also the highest ranked school, academically.
UT-Arlington is a non-traditional commuter school with not a lot of campus life. The area around campus isn't very college-centered, either.
UNT is a big state school in Denton, which is about 1 hour north of Dallas and Fort Worth. It's known for being a bit more alternative - indie music scene, counter-culture students, etc. Not a ton of school spirit as athletics aren't a very big focus. Does have some VERY strong programs, namely music and interior design/ fashion.
I can't speak to your specific academic interests- you'd have to check the course guides and rankings to see which schools are the best fit.
TCU averages around $18,000 per semester. For your major I don't think the TCU cache really means much, so I'd skip over TCU unless price isn't an issue. When I was at UNT I spent around $5500 a semester for classes books and my rent, and I think UTA is a little cheaper than UNT. These schools are all spread out, so if your planning on staying with your relatives keep in mind how far you'll be commuting to school. A lot of people try commuting to UNT but that can get old fast!
Admissions into Texas colleges are based a lot off class rank, so it's important to know where you stand in your graduating class. UNT is slightly more selective on who they let in compared to TCU. At a 3.0 you will need a fairly high SAT score to enroll at UNT.
Last edited by RonnieinDallas; 10-14-2012 at 01:05 PM..
1. physical therapy is not an undergrad degree you will need to get an undergrad degree first in something like kinesiology and then get accepted into a physical therapy or occupational therapy graduate program
all three of the schools you listed have kinesiology programs and TCU would be the top ranked school overall as a university and UTA, north Texas would be ranked about the same
UTA has bumped up their "traditional college feel" recently and is working to improve it even more, but TCU will offer that type of experience the most
none of the three schools you mentioned have a physical or occupational therapy program.....the only programs of that nature in the DFW area are at UT Southwestern or TWU (the dallas campus) and both of those would be very good programs
2. "health care" is a pretty broad definition from nursing, to health care management, to communication disorders, to laboratory and biology procedures, and on and on
TCU and UTA have the nursing programs out of the three schools you mentioned and TWU also has nursing at their Denton main campus and their Dallas campus
north Texas will have nothing dealing with health care UTA has very little and TCU has a little bit
male or female TWU in Denton will offer the broadest offerings of health care related majors in the DFW area by far and depending on what you want to study as an undergrad their DFW campus might work for you as well.....TWU will have somewhat of a traditional campus feel and they have a very nice campus in Denton, but some of their students will be older than the average college student
there would be ZERO reason as a male or female to choose north Texas over TWU if you decided that Denton was where you wanted to be especially since TWU will be the one that has the most health care related majors BY FAR and they will be the one with the PT or OT program as well
if you did not like TCU because of cost and it was down to the other two you specifically mentioned then go to UTA because they are in the UT System and that may offer a slight advantage if you apply to UT Southwestern and aid in the transition to their PT program in the future
if for some reason the dallas side of the metromess is where you want or need to be then SMU has a pre-PT/OT program as well
UTD is there as well and they will have strong science based programs like brain disorders and they have business programs geared specifically to health care that would be strong as well, but they probably have the least "college experience" out of all listed
so for PT/OT it would be:
TWU
UTA
TCU
SMU
and really nothing to consider after that
for other health care TCU, UTA, SMU, and TWU are the only nursing programs and TWU will far and away have the largest number of other health care related options after that
of the three you listed if you are looking at a kinesiology degree to start before PT/OT school
TCU
UTA
north Texas
but if you insist on the three above you are probably limiting yourself for getting into the strongest DFW metromess programs in kinesiology and it really would probably not make a huge difference to get into PT/OT school, but TWU would surely be the easiest transition followed by UTA most likely
for other "health care" besides nursing or PT/OT you would really need to define that further to really make an educated decision, but north Texas is going to pretty much not have that and UTA will probably be very limited with TCU having what is shown on their links
there is also Texas Wesleyan in Forth Worth with Exercise Science
Academically speaking TCU is the best out of the three. Then it's UT Arlington and UNT.
As someone who has experience working in Wall Street and other business related fields, I can tell you that UNT is viewed as a degree mill, and many applicants from UNT are disregarded. However, I'm not familiar with your field, so I don't know what the reputation for UNT is when it comes to physical therapy. I can tell you that UNT isn't exactly viewed as the most academically challenging school in Texas.
If you're looking at TCU, you should also consider SMU, Rice and UT Austin. All of these schools have a more traditional campus feel than either UTA or UNT, both of which are commuter schools.
Last edited by SteelBubble; 10-14-2012 at 01:47 PM..
Admissions into Texas colleges are based a lot off class rank, so it's important to know where you stand in your graduating class. UNT is slightly more selective on who they let in compared to TCU. At a 3.0 you will need a fairly high SAT score to enroll at UNT.
Are you serious? TCU's acceptance rate is under 38%, while UNT's acceptance rate is 64%.
TCU averages around $18,000 per semester. For your major I don't think the TCU cache really means much, so I'd skip over TCU unless price isn't an issue. When I was at UNT I spent around $5500 a semester for classes books and my rent, and I think UTA is a little cheaper than UNT. These schools are all spread out, so if your planning on staying with your relatives keep in mind how far you'll be commuting to school. A lot of people try commuting to UNT but that can get old fast!
Admissions into Texas colleges are based a lot off class rank, so it's important to know where you stand in your graduating class. UNT is slightly more selective on who they let in compared to TCU. At a 3.0 you will need a fairly high SAT score to enroll at UNT.
How do you figure UNT is more selective than TCU?
TCU is a top 100 school nationally. UNT is not a top 200 school and sports a "withheld" or "unranked" ranking.
UNT...Not a ton of school spirit as athletics aren't a very big focus.
Schools where "athletics aren't a very big focus" don't build $78 million football stadiums. Not saying that Denton is the center of the college sports universe, but that's pretty pricey demonstration of their focus on athletics.
I don't know why UNT would get the reputation as a degree mill when it comes to business degrees. I had to work pretty hard to finish with average grades and I'm not one that has to study hard to pass a test.
To the OP: This question should be asked differently.
You should ask "If you attended one of these X-universities, what did you like most? hate most? do differently? definitely not change? Would you pick another Texas school to attend instead?"
Something along those lines... otherwise you get people in defense mode about their school.
1) I don't know anything about UTA -- besides their mascot is a Maverick, which confuses me when I read it in the newpaper basketball section. I know they had some success in the near past in the NCAA. I have never stepped foot on their campus. Therefore I don't have any real opinion. It may be a gem.
2) I (personally) think TCU is overrated. I went to a high school with 4000+ students. I wanted a place to spread my wings and discover myself. I wouldn't ever consider coming out of TCU undergrad with $60k in loans without being completely confident in my decision.. so I never considered it. Academically speaking, I don't even know where TCU excels. I have been on campus, I dated a sorority girl while I was in college..
3) North Texas, by sheer size (~36,000 on the Denton campus), has more Greek(s) than TCU. So the argument that TCU has a more "traditional" experience is pretty absurd. There are more students living in campus dorms at North Texas, than entire enrollment at TCU.. so the argument about TCU being more "traditional" on that front, is in err too. If research (health) is your aim, North Texas is a Carnegie Research Institute. Here is the list of school nationally that fit into that category -- notice that TCU isn't there: Carnegie Doctoral/Research Universities-Extensive
The biggest strength I found in a place like North Texas, is the number of schools within the university. I was able to minor in Anthropology and Mathematics. I was able to major in Computer Science. I didn't start out on that path.. I was generically wanting to do some international business, but found out through the process that I loved science and was able to transfer among the different schools within North Texas. It worked out great. At a place like TCU, you are pretty limited outside of the standard liberal arts education.
Another strength is the social scene. Denton is a pretty traditional college town. You like live performances? You can find it all. You like small coffee shops and poems, plenty to offer. You like fraternities, you have plenty to pick from. You like jazz or brass music.. tons to offer. It isn't a top notch SPORTS town, but trust me when I say that the tailgating doesn't disappoint. The new Athletic Village is great... there are probably 15,000 students at the football games.. again, more than the entire campus of TCU. Though you will never get to have great football talk with outsiders, since it isn't the national powerhouse football program, but who is to say it never will? I like underdogs. Not so long ago (~10 years?) TCU was in CUSA, then MWC... and was NOT a national contender.
The "degree mill" talk is just insulting. From my science field, I have NEVER worked with a person from TCU. Ever. If a TCU resume came through my office, it wouldn't take any kind of precedence at all. It would be the same position as a person who came from Abilene Christian. People from UTA, UTD and UNT all have good skills from their research projects coming out of computer science. I worked with an incredibly talented guy from UTA. TCU would be more of a "degree mill" from my standpoint.
Keep in mind that North Texas has a medical school directly associated to it --- in Ft. Worth. I don't know how undergrads benefit from it directly, but I imagine there are research projects that take place on its campus for the Denton undergrads to participate.
The experience is what you make it. You should pick a place that will foster who you want to become. I found that at an extremely large university in a smaller town with a incredibly wide range of programs.
I would say that TCU has the nicest campus out of the schools you mentioned; I agree that this would be the most "traditional" experience. UNT also seems to have a good campus experience. I think UTD has some of the best students in DFW based on having interviewed potential candidates there. However, the campus experience seems to be lacking as it appears to be mostly a commuter school.
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