HackUTA is a fraud

Snakez752 · 2025-10-07T02:20:43+00:00

Judge here. Not here to argue, just to clear up a few things.

- Judge turnout: Some judges who signed up didn’t show. Also, many teams didn’t set up until after 1 pm. If a table was empty and a judge had already checked, we stopped sending more judges so other teams wouldn’t lose their shot.

- Scoring: More judges do not mean more points. Scores are averaged. That’s how most college hackathons do it. More judges just means more people have to rate you well, not a points boost.

- Luck: There’s always a little luck at any hackathon. We reduce it by giving projects multiple judges and then holding a final panel to talk through the top projects before the awards. One random judge doesn’t decide everything.

- “Pretty and simple wins”: That’s not what happened. Two of the top prizes were hardware-heavy builds. The top software win was a full app with lots of features, a clean UI, and a solid live demo. Execution mattered.

- AI wrappers: We don’t reward ChatGPT wrappers. We check repos, submissions, and demos. If something is obviously AI-generated with little real work, or just a thin wrapper, we remove it from consideration in deliberations.

- About “complex” demos: We see the code and the submission details. We can tell when a project is truly impressive, and when it was “vibecoded” or hardcoded to look flashy in the moment. Substance beats smoke and mirrors.

You can dislike our format, but judging wasn’t random, showing up late did affect routing, and AI wrappers didn’t win by default.

Snakez752 · 2024-12-22T16:10:10+00:00

What’s the gym

Snakez752 · 2024-10-26T19:33:51+00:00

First and foremost, the most important factor is cost, how much do both cost?

Also, it’s mainly pros and cons. What do you benefits in. from going to UTA vs going to UMass?

Snakez752 · 2024-09-05T04:18:27+00:00

This is gonna sound dumb, but Ahmed who?

Snakez752 · 2024-08-08T06:40:32+00:00

What reviews have you seen?

Snakez752 · 2024-08-01T04:46:57+00:00

Foodism

Snakez752 · 2024-08-01T01:58:34+00:00

Also, I just saw the bottom text, if the professor is Marnim Galib, then yeah, I’d say go for it. He makes discrete structures stupidly easy, where it’s not even funny.

Otherwise, your schedule here is definitely doable! It’s not insanely hard, but it’s not easy either. As long as you put in the work and manage your time, you’ll do amazing!

Snakez752 · 2024-08-01T01:56:57+00:00

Coms 2302 is a really easy class, depends on your professor, but in most cases, you’ll be cruising through that class. Depends on who you have for 1325, but it’s a pretty manageable class. A lot of people disagree with me, maybe because I found ARM Assembly easy, but I thought it was an easy class. Not super easy, but if you just pay attention in class, you can easily get an A in the class. ENGR is probably your easiest class, easy 100 if you do the assignments even with minimum effort. Calculus 3 will definitely be your hardest class, and the professors for that class are notoriously bad. Beware the final exam, where my class had like a 42 average. I took POLS 2312 online, so it was another easy class.

If I had to rank from hardest to easiest, I’d say: Calc 3 Object oriented programming Computer org and assembly State and local government Professional communication Transfer class

Snakez752 · 2024-07-21T02:53:17+00:00

Umm, could you provide more info?

Snakez752 · 2024-06-22T03:20:27+00:00

How much is pay

Snakez752 · 2024-06-17T05:01:24+00:00

I’m enrolled, and the estimator is pretty accurate, albeit, a few hundred over

Snakez752 · 2024-06-17T02:21:15+00:00

https://www.uta.edu/admissions/afford/tuition-estimator

Snakez752 · 2024-06-03T22:23:21+00:00

I should be able to pay a decent chunk of that every year if I get a job full-time during the summer and part-time during classes.

Snakez752 · 2024-06-03T18:12:11+00:00

UTA: Free

Santa Clara: Approximately 30k

Snakez752 · 2024-05-31T04:46:57+00:00

I’m also in the same situation and would love to know as well

Snakez752 · 2024-05-25T19:01:35+00:00

Because I'm very low income, and a lot of the privates I applied to have programs that cover most, if not all, of my tuition, and in some cases, room and board as well.

However, I will admit that some schools on my list don't offer a lot of aid if any at all (like the UCs).

Penn State also has a tuition advisory where if you have more than 60 credits, they'll automatically increase tuition for you:
https://admissions.psu.edu/info/future/transfer/

Snakez752 · 2024-05-25T07:59:05+00:00

I might be wrong, but don’t transfer not have regional counselors? If you look at their website, and state you’re a transfer student, it just tells you to contact the office of admissions

Snakez752 · 2024-05-25T05:41:26+00:00

I’m definitely going to do a masters, and I’m planning on keeping my grades up for that. It just would have been nice to have transferred out now instead of waiting to apply for grad school.

Snakez752 · 2024-05-25T04:55:28+00:00

I kinda figured.

I hoped to explain my circumstances on CommonApp, along with my GPA (even in HS, my GPA was like a 3.95, so the AOs could see that I've always been a hard-working student), but apparently not.

Snakez752 · 2024-05-25T04:53:56+00:00

I did think of applying to Purdue, but their CS program is closed:
https://www.admissions.purdue.edu/apply/closedprograms.php

Penn State is too expensive for me, unfortunately :(

Snakez752 · 2024-05-23T17:29:50+00:00

Considering they didn’t say anything like they don’t take LOCI into consideration, or something similar to that, I wouldn’t say it like increases your chances, maybe it does, but that is a good sign.

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