The University of Texas - San Antonio

Date: Apr 12 2011
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
Ok I am only posting because most of the comments are out of date, the earliest being a year ago. I will be graduating from UTSA in 6 years, not much different from most of the students that come here. There is a reason for this, terrible advising and LOTS and LOTS of misinformation (You cannot trust anything any one faculty member says, double check it, triple check it, get it in writing). Is the degree worth anything? You bet! But you have to get it first. First off the bat, when you first get here, advising is horrible, you?re a freshman so bottom of the barrel class feedings and lots of red tape and bad advising. It?s not because the faculty don?t give a crap (although some clearly don?t), it?s because they are too few in number and overworked, over 30,000 students and not nearly enough advisors. Then onto the teachers, it?s a hit or miss. That is what RATE MY PROFESSORS is for anyway, find the best teachers and don?t take anyone else. The absolute best teachers are few in number regardless of what college you go to. Although sometimes UTSA does have only one or two teachers teaching upper level classes and if they aren?t good then you?re screwed, happened to me about 3 times. Most of the staff (who aren?t advisors or teachers) in all departments are good. I mean, it?s really hard to mess up checking out a book to someone in the library. Now for the management, I honestly don?t know what their problems are but many seem incompetent. This leads to much of the damage done to UTSA?s reputation due to incompetence. For example, one of the economics professors asked the Parking and Transportation services how many parking permits they give out a semester, they couldn?t tell him. He then asked how many parking spaces there are for faculty, students, and pay spaces, they didn?t know. He then asked what method of timing is used for the shuttle transportation routes around campus. They couldn?t answer that either, no wonder parking at UTSA is so terrible! Basic college math could solve the problem easily and there are professors and students that could help LOL Truly incompetent! UTSA does have some hidden gems in certain departments such as International Business but these are few and usually don?t apply to most majors ie Liberal Fine Arts, teaching, sciences and math, etc.

Now onto the student body and surrounding San Antonio. Most of the students commenting are from outside of San Antonio, so they don?t know anything about social life outside of school and the way things are running so poorly by faculty, I understand why they give the negative reviews they give. 1/3 of the student body is from Houston, however Houston is so big that many of them don?t know each other. Then 1/3 of the school is from San Antonio and maintain the same friendships from high school. The other 1/3 come from everywhere else. 2/3 of the school is from somewhere else, mostly shy and don?t know anybody. 1/3 are popular as freshman many knowing each other, involved in cliques and not very anxious to meet new people. So the result, most people think UTSA is an anti-social campus. Its really not, it?s just hard to get used to. Upper level classmen 21 and up or ones with fake id?s go on to enjoy San Antonio and its bars leaving lower level classmen to find friends amongst themselves.

San Antonio is HUGE, over 2 million people and lots of events, even 3 Amusement Parks, Six Flags, Sea World, Schlitterbahn. And Hundreds of events throughout the year. The people who hate on San Antonio just don?t know anything about the town, get to know some locals and they?ll help you out. San Antonio has a HUGE art scene, most people don?t know about it though. Look up ?First Friday.? Music scene is okay but pale in comparison to Austin and bars are ok but again pale when compared to Austin. The Greek life is slow and a very small % of the student body less than 12%. Personally, I wouldn?t join Greek Life unless I was an incoming freshman, they can show you the ropes such as what is available at UTSA and how to make good grades and not get screwed over by advising so much? But you?ll have more opportunity if you don?t limit yourself to mandatory Frat/Sor meetings and events in your sophomore, junior, and senior years.

So a lot of information, the city and school have plenty of potential, it?s usually misinformation by faculty that screws things up for majority of students though. Would I still come here if I had to do it over again? No. Go to an already established University that has their stuff together. UT or A&M or Baylor, maybe even Texas State. Or go to a junior college first and knock out most of your classes then transfer to a University that already has they?re stuff together.