UT Austin CE Grad School?

LivinLaVivaPollo

Senior member
Dec 29, 2000
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Doing a complete 180(read: "Mid-college Crisis")... I'm thinking about going to grad school at UT Austin. They seem to be the only ones sending me stuff, but I have a bias for Texas anyway. Anyone have any info for me? I have a 2.9 GPA right now, it's not too hot, but I'm headed into classes that I am starting to enjoy - like digital design, etc. I am almost positive I can pull a 3.0 before I graduate in 2 years. What should be GRE's hover around? How's the quality of life there? Are jobs abundant? I want to do something in video card design and plan to get at least a masters. My girlfriend is about 3 years away from getting a doctorate in math, how much do math professors earn? Will the housing market be tighter/more expensive in couple of years? I figure I can live a bit more lavishly in Texas than I can here in the Bay Area, CA.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
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Originally posted by: LivinLaVivaPollo
? I have a 2.9 GPA right now, it's not too hot, but I'm headed into classes that I am starting to enjoy - like digital design, etc. I am almost positive I can pull a 3.0 before I graduate in 2 years.

As an undergrad there right now, within the ECE department there is a strong dislike for the run-of-the-mill ECE student. UT undergrade CE is ranked #6 nationally, and it's a wonderful program, but at a 3.0, you'd be hard pressed to have any professors interested in you.

An example of this is my programming prof's page: This mindset is echoed throughout the department...Chase just writes it down more bluntly.

Graduate application facts.

In my case most of my students start at UT with either a fellowship or a teaching assistantship (I'm very, very unlikely to consider supervising your research if you've accepted a research assistantship under another faculty member). For these students, the second step in getting an RA is to take one of my graduate classes, especially my Parallel Computer Architecture class. If you're the best student in the class, you can count on me asking you if you're looking for a supervising professor. If you're not the best student in the class, then I'm probably not all that interested anyway.

You might want to start looking elsewhere (unless you did a lot of undergrad research..reseach is *really* big at UT).

EDIT: did you mean Civil Engineering or Computer Engineering? If it's civil...disregard what I said.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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a nice 2 bedroom apartment near campus will run $1600 a month. if you go out away from the student areas they're about $900 a month. housing near campus and in student areas doesnt' change price much, away from student areas we've been in a downturn for a while because 1) tech downturn 2) lots of houses going up. the quality of life in austin is pretty damn good, theres a reason everyone wants to live here. job market is so so, really this town isn't all that big, and if you want video card design you're gonna be in CA or CA anyway, there hasn't been much here ever in terms of that. theres no income tax here but the sales tax is rather high at 8.25%. profs earn 65 or 70 to start, iirc.
 

Hammer

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
13,217
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yup, UT is pretty much at capacity. it is very hard to get into now. the law school is almost impossible. i'd want to do it here, but I don't know that that will be possible.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,408
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Originally posted by: Hammer
yup, UT is pretty much at capacity. it is very hard to get into now. the law school is almost impossible. i'd want to do it here, but I don't know that that will be possible.

475 seats, 5000 applicants
 

Reel

Diamond Member
Jul 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: Elemental007
Originally posted by: LivinLaVivaPollo
? I have a 2.9 GPA right now, it's not too hot, but I'm headed into classes that I am starting to enjoy - like digital design, etc. I am almost positive I can pull a 3.0 before I graduate in 2 years.

As an undergrad there right now, within the ECE department there is a strong dislike for the run-of-the-mill ECE student. UT undergrade CE is ranked #6 nationally, and it's a wonderful program, but at a 3.0, you'd be hard pressed to have any professors interested in you.

An example of this is my programming prof's page: This mindset is echoed throughout the department...Chase just writes it down more bluntly.

Graduate application facts.

In my case most of my students start at UT with either a fellowship or a teaching assistantship (I'm very, very unlikely to consider supervising your research if you've accepted a research assistantship under another faculty member). For these students, the second step in getting an RA is to take one of my graduate classes, especially my Parallel Computer Architecture class. If you're the best student in the class, you can count on me asking you if you're looking for a supervising professor. If you're not the best student in the class, then I'm probably not all that interested anyway.

You might want to start looking elsewhere (unless you did a lot of undergrad research..reseach is *really* big at UT).

EDIT: did you mean Civil Engineering or Computer Engineering? If it's civil...disregard what I said.

Thanks for the link. I liked it. I am applying for CS/CE PhD or Masters in the next year and I think this provides some useful insight.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
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I wasn't implying that UT was a bad school, because it isn't.

But when your ECE dept alone costs of almost 2,000 undergrads, the average student doesn't connect well with most of the faculty. It's a great program, but only if you really, really want it to be. I myself am having some problems, and there is a very definite bias against the mediocre student. The best students define the research and the program itself....and that's what the faculty want.

 

human2k

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2001
3,563
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Originally posted by: LivinLaVivaPollo
Doing a complete 180(read: "Mid-college Crisis")... I'm thinking about going to grad school at UT Austin. They seem to be the only ones sending me stuff, but I have a bias for Texas anyway. Anyone have any info for me? I have a 2.9 GPA right now, it's not too hot, but I'm headed into classes that I am starting to enjoy - like digital design, etc. I am almost positive I can pull a 3.0 before I graduate in 2 years. What should be GRE's hover around? How's the quality of life there? Are jobs abundant? I want to do something in video card design and plan to get at least a masters. My girlfriend is about 3 years away from getting a doctorate in math, how much do math professors earn? Will the housing market be tighter/more expensive in couple of years? I figure I can live a bit more lavishly in Texas than I can here in the Bay Area, CA.

Hey is your GF asian?:) (prolly explains the intelligence in math)
 

WinkOsmosis

Banned
Sep 18, 2002
13,990
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Originally posted by: human2k
Originally posted by: LivinLaVivaPollo
Doing a complete 180(read: "Mid-college Crisis")... I'm thinking about going to grad school at UT Austin. They seem to be the only ones sending me stuff, but I have a bias for Texas anyway. Anyone have any info for me? I have a 2.9 GPA right now, it's not too hot, but I'm headed into classes that I am starting to enjoy - like digital design, etc. I am almost positive I can pull a 3.0 before I graduate in 2 years. What should be GRE's hover around? How's the quality of life there? Are jobs abundant? I want to do something in video card design and plan to get at least a masters. My girlfriend is about 3 years away from getting a doctorate in math, how much do math professors earn? Will the housing market be tighter/more expensive in couple of years? I figure I can live a bit more lavishly in Texas than I can here in the Bay Area, CA.

Hey is your GF asian?:) (prolly explains the intelligence in math)

I thought Indians were good at math and Asians good at biology!
 

HokieESM

Senior member
Jun 10, 2002
798
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One thing you should DEFINITELY do is just call the department. I'm willing to bet they can give you some guidelines right on the phone. I'm at a different university (Virginia Tech) working on a different degree (PhD in engineering mechanics), but I looked at quite a few schools (including UT-Austin in AE or ME).... and you'll find that it varies from department to department at each school.

I will say that a 3.0 is the standard--my dept really won't even look at your application if you don't have a 3.0 at a major university (smaller/unestablished university... well, they like to see other "verifications" of your qualifications). But VT is particularly good at mechanics.... other departments are different. UT-Austin is a good CPE school.... so I would bet this is similar. As far as GRE scores.... eh, well, I would definitely expect over a 700 in math. Back when I applied, they still had the "logic" section, although I think they've replaced that with an essay. If not, they expected over 600. Verbal scores for most applicants in engineering are usually, eh, low (<500.. of course keep in mind that the verbal isn't aimed at engineers).

If you've still got two years left on your undergrad.... just work hard. In ALL your classes. Motivation is the #1 thing in grad school--because if you don't want to be there, you'll leave and get a job. :) If you really like your classes and find it interesting... then keep plugging and good luck!