Report chides UT undergrad education

Nope, even in in electrical engineering, we had engineering communications. I think there was another course that was communication based also.

 

I tested out of a lot of college courses, but chose to take them anyway.

I never really understood the value or merit of testing out.

 

Gee, look who's #1

 

I was thinking Communications meant speaking classes. I didn't take into consideration my Technical Writing class.

 

you forgot to say "your point falls"

 

I don't know or want to go into the political realm of all this. As a former UT and current UH student, I think it's pretty ridiculous to add on more 'core' classes at UT. Being a bio major at UT while trying to do the prereqs for optometry school, it was a bit of an overload. I mean sure it'd be nice to take classes that gets you away from all the stress and frustrations all the while finishing your degree like I'm doing at UH, but UT is competitive. There's a reason why students test out of classes at UT--it's because there simply isn't enough time or money to tack on more courses. From a layman's POV, I think this is just another way to milk more tuition money out of the students and their parents.

"But I already got credit for English 1 from my AP test"
"Yes but now you have to take English: The Advanced Class"
"What's so advanced about it?"
"Instead of turning in a paper in Times New Roman, you will have to turn in a paper using three different fonts such as Arial, Courier, and my personal favorite, Georgia!"

 

to get into top 5.. they'd have to leap over a LOT of schools and get into the 20s range.. I don't see it happening..

berkley, michigan, ucla, virginia.. unc..

 

How is this an attack on UT undergrad education? Not having these types of classes in the core doesn't prevent students from taking it...

And now that we're posting articles/links for the sole purpose of ridiculing others' schools...

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engrank_brief.php

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/mba/brief/mbarank_brief.php

-Wow, what happened to Jones, the sole prize of Rice graduate schools? The so-called best value in business in the country?

 

The best value for your money was done on the undergrad level, not the graduate level.

The Jones School absolutely is not the prize of Rice's graduate programs. Rice is known as an elite undergrad institution. I make no claims about its grad programs. I attended Rice for undergrad and that is what I defend. The Jones School is a very young business school. It was founded in 1974. The progress it has made has been nothing short of remarkable in its young life. It was just accredited something like 4 or 5 years ago. To put this in perspective, Harvard Business School was founded in 1908. A little bit of a head start. You can run all the smack you want about the Jones school, it really doesn't apply to me.

 

First of all, UT has NO CONTROL over the 42 current hours, as many others have said. Period. They can add more but not change the ones currently required.

Secondly, I totally agree with the above quote. Im a UT student and i really don't understand the commissions findings (or the fact that these guys have been treated like gods this week). You can't blame the institution for some of their students not wanting to take certain classes. As a whole the student body does what it should with regards to taking classes. But at the second largest university in the country you're always goin to have the ones who are just looking to coast. Another thing that was forgotten among all of this is their reccomendation that any non top-20 program at the university be abolished.

 

Did you play for the baseball team? If not, then the Jones school(I'm not really sure why we're attacking it...I'm a fan of it myself) applies to you just as much as the baseball team.

I've asked this before, but you and your buddy never really give straight answers. What's with the UT-hate? Rejected? Envy?

BTW, Rice always used to run ads in a bunch of the business magazines proclaiming Jones the best b-school value in the US.

 

Yeah, Texas and Arkansas are some of the only states that actually require a core curriculum.

 

As someone who is currently writing a critique on her major as a requirement for her to graduate, this is what I've realized:

I had a hard enough time registering for classes, that the first 4 or 5 classes I got into that didn't conflict with each other were the ones I was taking for that semester. For the first 3 years, those were mostly the liberal arts classes, and the occasional Bio class here and there. As my list of miscellaneous classes dwindled and disappeared, I have had nothing but biology biology biology for the past 3 semesters.... I am completely sick of this school and I WANT out - they don't even have to ask me to leave, I'll do it readily.

There are so many kids crammed into that school, yet they want to improve 4 year graduation rates, and now they're going to ADD HOURS to degree programs?!?! F that! At the current rate of full time being 12 hours per semester, you're looking at 10 semesters to graduate. For those who don't take summer school, that's 5 years. The university is practically shoving a foot in everyone's ass to get the hell out in four... Add more classes to those 120 hours, and you're just asking for people to stay there longer.

Which one is it going to be? Get everyone out in 4 years or make us 'more cultured and well rounded'?

 

12 hours is the minimum for full time each semester, Nat Sci majors as a rule take between 14-18 every semester. If you plan on applying to Med school and/or other professional programs and have only been doing the minimum of 12 hrs every semester, you better have a good explanation (working, a ton of volunteer work, etc) and some kick a$$ grades.
Not trying to be harsh just realistic.

 

In engineering, I usually had 20 hrs per semester and still had to take summer school two years to graduate on time.