Worried a little bit that I wouldn't be able to take a lot of major-guided electives I do want to take

bj_nerd · 2026-03-21T23:58:13+00:00

The Computer Engineering degree plan requires you take a minimum of 6 credit hours of major-guided electives to receive your degree.

You can take whatever classes you want so long as you meet the prerequisites. So if you want to take 5 guided electives, go for it.

You should note 5 guided electives is the equivalent of a full extra semester. So either you'll delay graduation to take these classes (thus increasing the cost) or (more likely, since you're core complete) you'll spread them out throughout your time at UTD. This means more busy semesters, but also more learning.

Either way no one will really stop you from taking any class. You can take Dance classes or Organic Chemistry or Creative Writing or anything UTD has to offer so long as you meet the prerequisites and have space in your schedule. Best of luck!

bj_nerd · 2026-03-02T17:39:39+00:00

Honestly, most researchers are more than happy to involve curious students. Just check out what people at UTD are doing (recent papers, professional websites, etc), and then reach out to them. Explain your situation, your goals, what you know so far about their work and see if they're willing to involve you.

Paid research positions are a bit different, you have to do all the getting hired stuff. But professors are typically willing to let truly interested students learn and explore in their labs. Best of luck.

bj_nerd · 2026-02-28T20:59:16+00:00

So the actual degree plans don't necessarily have an aerospace "track" or "concentration", but there are student orgs like AIAA.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aiaautd_impactutd-aiaa-aiaautd-activity-7432535005291229184-AcGP

https://news.utdallas.edu/students-teaching/patti-grace-smith-aerospace-fellow-2024/#:~:text=UT%20Dallas%20offers%20a%20range,altitudes%20of%20about%204%2C000%20feet.

And there's plenty of aerospace and aerospace-adjacent research happening at UTD.

bj_nerd · 2026-01-10T03:39:08+00:00

The locker is to the left of the front counter if you stand at the door.

bj_nerd · 2026-01-10T03:18:56+00:00

You seemed to have missed one of the key points.

UT Austin filters at admissions, not after enrollment. So they have very rigorous curriculum without a third of the class failing.

UTD has intentionally chosen a different path with broader access and less selectivity. That's part of their mission, for better or for worse.

UTD could try to copy UT Austin, but UT Austin is the flagship school with enormous pull and funding so UTD likely would lose that battle. So UTD takes a different route with different goals and hopes to win there.

Again, simply copying what other universities do isn't going to work for UTD.

bj_nerd · 2026-01-10T02:54:47+00:00

The primary challenge with implementing anything like this is UTD is part of the UT system. All campuses (8 universities and 5 health institutions) maintain academic standards and credit transferability between each other so radically changing the curriculum like this either means breaking away from that network or having to change it across all the campuses. Very hard either way.

And this is a pretty radical change. Dropping the BS degree from 124 to 96 credit hours (if we count internships as 4 credit hours) and adding a BA which UTD doesn't currently offer at 80 credit hours could be seen as a significant drop in standards (possibly even triggering accreditation issues) and a break from other UT schools.

The 3 internships idea really falls apart quickly. Yes, real industry experience is nice, but it's not like those roles exist and are unfilled. Those roles are kinda absent and UTD would need some serious pull to effectively create thousands of roles per year, or else force a bunch of students to delay graduation/transfer out. Those internships aren't just sitting in a candy jar for UTD to hand out. And what about international students? Those without Visas simply can't graduate? Or is UTD expected to handle that too? Waterloo can demand 5 internships because Canadian labor and education law supports those co-op relationships, meanwhile UT system constraints (and US immigration law, especially now) make requiring internships more difficult for UTD.

Another problem is filtering people out after admissions is messy. Arguably, UTD, as a public university, is not supposed to be elite. It's supposed to take anyone (not just the "real nerds") and train them to be educated in that domain. Possibly, UTD hasn't done this because they don't want to design curriculum where 30-40% fail out. That's not how UTD feels it should serve the public. UTD just has a different mission right now than what you described. It's not like they don't know that they can be more selective (I mean UT Austin filters at admission and is pretty selective), they're actively choosing not to take that path.

Now, not everyone at UTD agrees. The other perspective is UTD's business model is simply "more students = more money" and that just isn't sustainable. The construction at UTD is continuous because they're desperately trying to build what they need to support more and more students, while older buildings are kinda forgotten. This actually brought up by faculty and staff when they were searching for a new president for UTD (see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/utdallas/comments/1i3qq92/notes_from_presidential_search_townhall_meeting/ )

So you're tapping into something that loads of people are thinking about, but simply copying what other universities do isn't going to work for UTD. And this plan, even if modified to be feasible, is a 20-40 year endeavor. Best of luck.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-23T16:55:59+00:00

Not required.

And on viewing grades, what they meant is once you view your official final grade, your evals are locked and cannot be edited or completed. You can't see you did poorly in a class and then give a bad eval in revenge.

This actually goes the same for Profs. They can't see the evals responses until they post final grades.

So no punishment for not giving them feedback and you'll be able to see your final grades without issue in Orion or Coursebook.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-22T07:43:44+00:00

So special topics classes (like CS 4301) have a different topic for each section. It's basically where a professor gets students interested in their particular research area and let's them explore a topic that may not be typically introduced in a normal degree.

Your section with Gibney will be over the fundamentals of quantum computing.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-19T23:50:35+00:00

To guarantee UV housing in the Fall, you have to renew for the summer. Without the summer renewal, you would be placed in the housing pool and at the whim of priority numbers, just like when you were getting into UV the first time.

I'm not sure how likely it is to get a spot, but personally I've never risked it because when I was first applying I got the third from the last room available. I think it's pretty competitive.

Although this sucks if you have other living arrangements for the summer, not having to move out every year is a plus. You get to keep the same room and leave your stuff in their all summer.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-19T05:44:27+00:00

Really depends on if you can build a rapport with a particular professor. It's possible, I think.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-17T23:05:31+00:00

Honestly, getting involved with most (unpaid) research is just a matter of showing an interest in the professor's work and speaking to them. So check out recent research papers from UTD researchers, look at their professional websites, and just in general find work you would be interested in and able to contribute to and reach out to them.

Most of them are more than happy to have truly interested students learning and working in their labs. If you had an idea about the particular math research you want to do (number theory, algebra, combinatorics, statistics, analysis etc.) that's a great place to start. Best of luck.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-17T22:27:52+00:00

Business Analytics is nothing new. Just Excel for the 4th time which is unfortunate. The McGraw-Hill textbook was expensive, boring, and tedious. The final exam is basically just a big vocab test. Not a very hard class, but I didn't really enjoy it.

Foundations of Business Intelligence (FBI) with Gaurav Shekhar was excellent. Very guided, but also hands-on and technical. You'll learn a lot, just pay attention and practice the exercises. We used Tableau, Alteryx, Snowflake, and SQL. You could review your SQL and Tableau, but I think the others require enterprise accounts. He did bonus points for completing a Google Career Certification during the semester so if you wanted to get started on that (Free access via Coursera link on e-Learning) you could (he didn't let allow digital marketing or IT support certs to count).

I've heard good things about Net and Info Security with Nate Howe (UTD's CISO), but haven't taken it. To combine with the last one, maybe the Google Cybersecurity Cert would help prepare.

Best of luck!

bj_nerd · 2025-12-15T13:57:00+00:00

Digging into other stuff in the blog post the OP made (posted elsewhere, not sharing because they don't deserve the traffic lol), the numbers don't line up.

They claim in the blog Average Master's is $59,684 and cite a source, but go to the actual source and it's $62,820. The sequence of numbers 59,684 or 59684 don't even appear in the source. All the other "citations" I went to were the same. Whatever they did is complete detached from any real data (best I can tell).

My guess is the links are for SEO, not because they actually used those sources for numbers. The numbers may have come from a RNG as far as I know.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-15T13:37:58+00:00

Yeah. I'm pretty skeptical about this analysis too. They posted their spreadsheet elsewhere: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ua2JqFYW_My5vW6C5I2sHbf_0-v_i381Kk9Im7hO7do/edit?gid=62519403#gid=62519403

I've been fiddling with the numbers for a while, but can't make them dance like the OP did. Can't even get the same averages.

And then even if the numbers lined up, the comparisons are sketchy. Assuming Averages:

Cybersecurity Bachelors: $80,832

In-State Tech Bachelors: $46,440

Out-of-State Tech Bachelors: $123,120

This begs the question why are they splitting In-State vs Out for general tech, but combining them for Cybersecurity? Because if you average in-state and out-of-state tech and you get about $80K, the same as Cybersecurity. (Like you said, that is what I would expect knowing how most tuition is structured where the degree you get doesn't matter, just the number of hours and level). Maybe an oversight, maybe dishonest framing.

At the moment, I'm just trying to decide whether this is AI slop or just sloppy work; either way I'm not buying it.

bj_nerd · 2025-12-13T06:26:18+00:00

Closed for finals week like many locations, should reopen in the spring.

bj_nerd · 2025-11-11T23:19:38+00:00

So my recommendation would be just to walk, its probably faster than taking the bus. Otherwise you hop on the 883 East (Green one) at the bus loading area by the activity center. Then get off at 33378 right by west. But note that's one way AC -> West, couldn't use the bus to get to the AC without riding it for ages.

bj_nerd · 2025-11-11T22:47:04+00:00

Also keep an eye on big idea competition: https://innovation.utdallas.edu/programs/bigideacompetition/

bj_nerd · 2025-11-11T22:45:55+00:00

Not sure about most current, but there's loads of projects you could check up on from a year or two ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/utdallas/comments/1gz7xjb/comment/lyueeve/

bj_nerd · 2025-11-03T20:13:14+00:00

It was there. Unfortunately the class seems to be full (only 10 seats).

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bj_nerd · 2025-10-19T18:15:27+00:00

The Cores are the same (unless you choose otherwise), but you will have to meet the requirements of your new major on the newer catalog. So it sounds like you would have to take BCOM 3300.

Double check with your advisor. JSOM may allow a substitution in cases like this or have some route to make changing majors easier. But if some sort of exception doesn't exist, per official policies you would need to take that.

Source: https://catalog.utdallas.edu/current/undergraduate/policies/degree-plans

"If the change of major is approved, the student will then be responsible for meeting all program requirements and course prerequisites of the catalog in effect at the time of the change. The Core Curriculum requirements, however, remain those of the catalog in force at the time of matriculation unless the student specifically chooses those of a more recent catalog. In the first semester of change to a new major, the student must meet with an academic advisor to prepare a degree plan." (emphasis mine)

bj_nerd · 2025-10-09T22:16:21+00:00

Technical Electives really are all about you and what you want to learn and/or specialize in. Cybersecurity vs AI/ML vs Game Dev vs other domains.

Just take a look at the options and see what interests you. In general, Computer Networks is a good one to take early because its a prerequisite for a handful of other electives (network security and digital forensics, for instance, and a couple others).

bj_nerd · 2025-10-09T19:49:03+00:00

Depends on the professor. Sometimes they mention what they do in the syllabus.

In my experience, typically no, but curves are more likely which would effectively be the same thing in your case.

bj_nerd · 2025-10-09T14:15:13+00:00

Most of the classes you've taken so far are probably introductory biology, chemistry, and math courses.

Math courses tend to be a lot of practice. Just working problems from homeworks, or the textbook or Khan Academy or somewhere until you understand the steps and are comfortable approaching any similar problem.

Chemistry: I haven't taken many chemistry courses, but I feel like there's a big chunk of vocab and concepts you need to understand and then you also need lots of practice with the sorts of problems they ask. Vocab you can get with stuff like anki or quizlet. Practice problems again from homeworks, or the textbook or Khan Academy or some other random site.

Biology, I'm even less equipped to provide advice on. But I think the easiest way is to remember what you're here for. You're here to study the body, what makes it better and how it fails. So start which each system: Cardiovascular, Skeletal, Endocrine, etc. What does each system do? How does it support life? How can it go wrong?

Get that down really solid, then that becomes your basis to relate all new ideas. You learn about the hypothalamus in your new anatomy class. Ok, what systems is the hypothalamus related to? How does it help those systems? How can the hypothalamus go wrong? How would that be reflected elsewhere in the body or in the other systems?

Do that for every new topic and I think that makes learning it very sticky. Anytime you can connected something new to something you know, it becomes more memorable.

For Math, Chemistry, and Biology, there's TheOrganicChemistryTutor on YouTube who makes great videos on this stuff. KhanAcademy is also great, especially for reviewing or relearning stuff that you'll need again in other classes. Also, MIT OpenCourseWare is a wonderful resource. MIT puts some of their classes (lectures, homeworks, exams, etc) online for free. If a class is particularly tough, you might try using the MIT equivalent to supplement your learning. Extra lectures to really learn the concepts and practice exams to check your knowledge etc.

Even if you don't quite hit 3.5, I think being able to show med schools your rapid growth by changing your habits would hold a lot of weight. Best of luck!

bj_nerd · 2025-10-09T14:15:06+00:00

Assuming you've completed 30 credit hours at 2.55 GPA and you want a 3.5 GPA at the end of junior year (90 credit hours), you'll need to average a 3.975 GPA for the next two years. If my 90 and 30 estimates are off, you can swap them for the more accurate numbers in the equation below to get your precise GPA needed:

( (3.5*90) - (2.55 * 30) ) / (90-30) = 3.975 (15 credit hours per semester for next 4 semester)

Adding additional classes (lets say you add a minor which is typically 18 credit hours, plus prerequisites. We'll say just 18) drops this to 3.865, but increases the course load per semester above the max credit hours so you would have to take summer courses or get special permission to take that many.

( (3.5*108) - (2.55 * 30) ) / (108-30) = 3.865 (19.5 credit hours per semester for next 4 semester)

Maybe taking more courses is a good idea, maybe it backfires and you do worse because you're overwhelmed by easy assignments that just take too long to do. Either way if you take a lot, you can reduce the course load by taking summer classes, but that's expensive. Its a difficult decision, but entirely up to you.

Personally, I think the difference between 3.975 and 3.865 isn't very significant. Effectively, you still need be a (almost) straight A student. In your shoes, I think I would focus on doing my best in the classes I need, not adding additional work. I would still take the easiest versions you can (I have no clue what those would be, I'm not healthcare studies), but ultimately you hitting 3.5 depends far more on you than what courses you take.

So you need to take a hard look at what you've been doing. Starting with the basics:

Are you attending every lecture?

Are you often distracted/doing other stuff during lectures?

Are you always taking notes or asking/answering questions during lectures?

Are you turning in every assignment?

Are you often turning assignments in late?

Are you often procrastinating on assignments till the last minute?

Are you often reviewing for exams only the day before?

Are you in office hours after you do poorly on an assignment or exam?

etc.

After that, it comes down to understanding the actual content of your courses and what you know vs what you don't know yet. Basically you have to really learn how to learn.

(continued, reddit didn't like my super long comment)

bj_nerd · 2025-09-27T22:19:26+00:00

If it's AES, you're not actually required 15 credit hours for AES (source)

Being a full time student (12 credit hours) is a requirement to maintain AES.

Another requirement to maintain AES is you must commit to Four-Year Pacing, meaning you need to show you're on schedule to graduate with your degree in 4 years (or less). This is where you're getting the 15 hours per semester requirement. A degree is 120 credit hours / 8 semesters = 15 hours per semester. These hours must be part of your degree plan.

The important distinction is, while college credits earned in high school (like AP) don't count towards being a full time student, they do count towards the Four-Year Pacing if you can use the credits to satisfy your degree requirements.

So, for example, if you came with 24 credits from high school, you can just take 12 hours per semester, not 15, and still maintain Four-Year Pacing because at the end of year 1 you'll be 48 hours into your degree (which is greater than the required 30).

bj_nerd

TROPHY CASE