The University of Texas - El Paso

Date: Jul 30 2010
Major: Mechanical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
I think I would have saved myself a lot of grief in the beginning if I had treated UTEP more like a greedy, penny-pinching pack of liars and misinformers. Early on I was struck with the

no scholarships for you!

treatment with run-arounds galore, which shocked me since I had excellent scores and teacher recommendations when I came in (enough that I would have had my full tuition paid if the university's scholarships office hadn't gone back on so many of their promises). Eventually I realized that the offices of financial aid and scholarships are, to UTEP, simply methods of railroading you into getting loans.

But that's how the administration works, and this mentality of "they're gonna try to screw me" is best when dealing with them (it's a lot like going to the DMV). Professors and departments are a whole other animal, though. For my part, I can say that the mechanical engineering department, while not of the highest quality in terms of equipment or professors, took very good care of me and others I knew. And the emphasis was not so much on simply knowing everything, but rather on learning to understand things, knowing where to find information, and learning to question data like your life depends on it (because in engineering it sometimes does). It's an excruciatingly difficult program; don't go into it with the attitude that you're going to be okay just because you took calculus in high school and had a great GPA and SAT scores. Instead, go into it as if you're going to be fighting a grizzly bear, knowing that you may lose this fight now and again. Don't you dare think that "Oh, this was HIS experience. I'm pretty smart, so I can adapt!" There are smarter students in my program than me, but not many, so trust me, and just try to survive. Granted, now you're screwed with the 6-drop limit, so ask around about professors. I kid you not, the difference between an A and an F, between understanding everything and understanding nothing, is in which professor you choose to learn from and which textbook they choose to read from.

Nightmare professors include Bronson, Dowdy, and Hawkins (although you can get used to each of their death grips if you work like hell): These nightmare professors are the ones you'll learn the most from, but you may not like your grade if you take courses with them.

Professors who can't teach worth a darn include Vargas, Kumar, and Gomez. Vargas is too vague and indirect, Kumar just doesn't teach well, and Gomez will first do an awful job of teaching before raining hellfire on you with her quizzes. Of the three, opt for Kumar. He's bad at teaching, but of the three he's the only one who really, truly knows his stuff.

Everett and Choudhuri are challenging without being bloodthirsty, and their grading can be pretty flexible. You'll live.