The University of Texas - San Antonio

Date: Feb 28 2005
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
Like the previous poster stated, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has the potential to become a great university, but it's not quite there yet. What I mean by that is: UTSA is essentially in its GROWING stage, on its way to becoming a top institution in Texas (give it 10-15 years). Don't mistake that for a developmental stage; UTSA has long ago left behind its developmental status, as it has already become a university with excellent faculty and facilities, doctoral programs, research institutes, and prompt and courteous staff. What I mean by "growing stage" is that UTSA is now in the process of adding more resources, professorships, and academic opportunities, and it's finally able to focus on developing student activities, increasing school spirit, increasing student housing and parking, and creating a better community with a more respectable name in the State of Texas and beyond. If one is looking for a school that is already "there," one shouyld look to UT-Austin. UTSA just isn't "there" yet, but the quality of education and opportunities available to the hard-working students are.

Because UTSA isn't quite "there," attending UTSA isn't exactly a traditional college experience. Yes, there are parties, frats, sororities, and lots of hot girls, but the social life is relatively dismal because much of the student body does commute in and out, every day. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on the student. For a working professional, it could be a good thing, because they too would be a commuter, but for a full-time student living on campus, it could be rather boring atmosphere full of discontent. As UTSA increases dining experiences, increasingly facilitates the implementation of more student organizations (there already exist many ways to get involved), and develops more on-campus housing (a new 3 or 4 thousand student capacity dormatory was just completed in 2004 in addition to the existing University Oaks apartment complex), campus life will improve. As you can see from my statistics, campus life is already improving, and UTSA is moving away from the commuter trend, but it will be a while. Whether one will enjoy UTSA during this growing/transitory period really depends on what one expects for a social life out of college.

As for parking, the situtation is pretty bad. UTSA has added acres and acres of parking lots to accomodate the 24,000 or so students attending, and I often find myself looking for a space during peak hours (10AM-4PM) for 20 minutes or more. UTSA is finally working on building a parking garage, so hopefully that will alleviate some problems.

IN conclusion, UTSA is a good school with good opportunities for the intelligent students to get together, work together and have fun. It's not quite on the level of reputation/clout of UT-Austin and other top Texas schools, but it will be there someday. If you want that experience now, don't come to UTSA, but if you want to save some money or stay in San Antonio for some reason, then UTSA is not that bad a place to be. One pro of this "growing status" is that, because many of the students commute, don't become involved and don't seem to be interested in their classes, it's relatively easy to establish positions of leadership in organizations and also easy to work with faculty in areas of interest.