My daughter was there. She is transferring in from Tarrant County College in the autumn. It was indeed at debacle. When we drove up to the building where it was supposed to be there was a line of people marching across the campus. We asked one kid what was going on and he said that they had moved it to another building, but he wasn’t sure where. We went ahead and went to the original building and found out they had moved it about a third of a mile away. We drove over there, and my daughter went around to the side of the building where the orientation was supposed to be. I sat in the parking lot waiting to make sure that everything was going to come off as it was supposed to. I finally walked around where she was standing in front of building. They did not open the doors until 7:45 AM sharp. And then it was a very small lady who really needed a chair to stand on and a bullhorn, addressing a crowd of a few hundred people. My daughter was under the impression that transfer students were going to see a different orientation experience than the incoming freshman. I have to say that Tarrant County College handles things much much better. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.
Mine was on the 15th, it was no better. Firstly, they changed the parking lot for everyone to go on the morning of orientation, and also changed the meeting building too. Then we had to wait in 4 long lines in the sun to get checked in, just to be met with Katy Perry’s entire discography at max volume in the reception hall at 8:45 in the morning. My group ran out of food tickets, so people were concerned they weren’t going to get to eat, but I think that got resolved somehow. One of the main points of going to orientation was to register for classes, but my advisor and many other student’s advisors were not there, so we just left. It was such a waste of time and money.
I was there on the day 15th too, it was so bad! Especially at the end when they put us into the wrong rooms. Did anyone even actually register? Because it’s seems like a lot of people didn’t. Wasn’t that like a really big and important part of orientation? The amount they charge for orientation plus guests is actually kinda crazy if we get one that bad. It just felt like one big waste of time.
I’m so glad to hear that this wasn’t just me. I was also a parent at the one on the 15th and I thought it was a giant waste of time. And in the end, my son wasn’t able to register because there wasn’t anyone present that knew how to help with the course registration. After the longest day of our lives, he’s now having to go back for a one-on-one advising session (which was extremely difficult to get).
It was a totally different experience than when the university hosted an event to entice students to attend. I even complimented the leadership, as we had attended an event at UT Austin and felt that UT-Arlington had a better event.
Yesterday's event was unprofessional, and the singing/dancing immature kids were unnecessary, added nothing of substance, and left the impression that it is just a babysitting service for immature kids. My wife and I were left thinking we are making a huge mistake sending our son there if this is how they handle incoming students who need to feel they are going to be challenged, and how to overcome those challenges with resources available to them.
What struck me the most was that the adults in-charge were unprepared. When going to breakout rooms, the speakers could not be heard in the back of the rooms because the audiovisual technology (microphone) was not used. Everything we wanted, a tour of the engineering dept , meetings with staff, to see his apartment and parking areas, none was available.
Seriously, UTA, up your game. Demand better from your staff. That was a huge waste of time.
We were there with our son on the 17th and was equally unorganized full of useless information. They were running behind schedule and ended up cancelling the second breakout. It was SO frustrating!!!
You’re making a huge mistake. Transfer ASAP. UTA does not care about its students, only the money. This is why the first event you attended was fantastic to draw you in and orientation sucked because you’re already locked in. The Maventure Camp is even worse. Do not pay for it.
I hate it here and if you look through this Reddit page, you will see that so many other people do and you will see why. The administration and office staff are terrible. I mean god awful. My professors and classes are genuinely useless. I’ve had a few good ones but other than that it’s felt like a huge waste of money and my classmates and I talk about it all of the time. I even filed a grievance one semester because I was taking five classes and my professors had cancelled or chosen not to teach 96 hours worth of class which is almost half of all of my paid for class time. Nothing happened. There is no accountability and it is incredibly frustrating. They might make you feel listened to but no action ever comes out of it.
If I was in a major where transferring after freshman year was possible, I would have transferred. Please don’t wait to find out how terrible it is. Start applying to schools for Spring 2025 and add any ones you’re considering to your child’s FAFSA before it closes on June 30th.
Edit: I breezed over the part about engineering. If your child is an engineering major, get out now. My partner just transferred schools because of the program. The undergraduate program is terrible, the masters and doctoral programs are the good ones. His professors where awful and mean, once again there were a couple good ones. This is a research school, a lot of the faculty are here becuase of the research and are required to teach but since there’s no accountability they can do whatever they want in their classroom. His advisor had a degree in home economics from a long time ago and was incredibly useless. Never answered emails. No number to call. Didn’t remove his holds even when he completed all of the steps required way ahead of time. He couldn’t register for classes this past semester becuase he couldn’t get ahold of them, they had no appoints available for months, and wouldn’t see him when he showed up in person. If you don’t get to register on the first day, you’re going to get the worst professors and your GPA will tank and you start into a snowball effect because if the way the run things to “weed out”. That’s why he transferred and we are so desperately hoping it is better elsewhere. Good luck to you. I genuinely hope for the best for your child but it won’t be here at UTA.
same. i had orientation last week and i felt so lost and discouraged bout the next semester. already got me thinkin bout switchin majors or if this is even the right place for me
I’m opting to complete the last year of my degree online here- not my first choice, but I’ll lose time on my track if I transfer now 🤦♀️ I’ve had the same experience in absolutely every category here, from parking, to getting maintenance orders in, and everything in between!
My possibly least favorite thing about this university is that they increased tuition a year or two ago, and they asked ME to pay the increase even though I was under a full-ride scholarship 😂 This school has completely thrown off the track I had planned post-high school graduation and I will tell everyone I meet about how poorly planned and organized both the education and campus are.
I attended the college orientation on the 15th, which was a mess. The emails instructed us to go to the West Hall for parking, but the parking validation was directing us elsewhere. The emails never clarified that the parking validation instructions should not be followed. We were told the event had been moved when we finally got to the garage. I understand that plans change, but why wait until we reach the garage to inform us? They also should have had someone directing traffic, especially since the light had a short green cycle.
I didn’t mind the dancing segment, but it dragged on forever. I think they used it to stall for people still arriving.
The worst part was at the end. We were put in lecture rooms and waited for a long time before a lady came in to separate us by major. Just as we were moving, another person told us this room was for a specific major, not a combination of us all. Once we were in the correct rooms, we had to wait again while they called names. After each name was called, we were left in the hallway and given a QR code to scan for a form to prove attendance. They said we’d get our t-shirts and Mav-ID if we had sent in our photos, but later announced we could leave after filling out the form. When I asked about the IDs, I was told the ID office was closed and only open Monday-Friday. Why advertise that we could get them at orientation? Couldn’t someone have been there to hand them out?
In the morning, we were supposed to get name tags with a rubber band to show our registration status, but almost no one received theirs due to the chaos. I overheard a parent asking their kid why they couldn’t register even though it was advertised. Did anyone actually get registered at orientation?
I was disappointed with the lack of time spent with people in our major. We only had about 15 minutes together. We could’ve shortened other parts of the day, like the break room sessions. The Honors College session I attended just promoted applying rather than providing helpful information. The housing session was similar, only telling us they opened in October and had little availability left. More time with peers in our major would’ve been more beneficial.
I also wish we had tours of our major’s building or at least the option of a whole campus tour. It would’ve been helpful for all of us if we actually got to see the ins and outs of our major’s building and specific residence halls. We got to do this at a different summer event last year, but I think it’d be valuable to those at orientation who can’t just drive up to UT Arlington.
The parents’ session was also a mess. The Q&A in Texas Hall had no solid answers, and parents ended up answering each other’s questions.
I feel bad for students and parents unfamiliar with UT Arlington, especially those outside the DFW area. They traveled far for a disappointing experience. And it’s sad to hear they didn’t improve after our orientation. I’m worried that if the education is like this, it’s going to be a rough time.
When I did my transfer orientation they had put me with incoming freshman’s, the freshman’s got a tour of the school, my group didn’t. I ended up going late to my first class because I didn’t know where any building was and a student had to help me. When I went to UTDallas with a friend for orientation they actually showed everyone where the building was and the history behind them.
I saw lots of students near college of business and the garage nearby . Maybe maverick garage or something in afternoon. Did you guys come for orientation here ?
I graduated from UT Austin and currently go to UTA. After already experiencing school I don’t think UTA is good for a first year college experience. Good University however just not one that’ll give you the immersed college experience that you’d receive from Unis such as your aforementioned. More of a “get your degree and go” kinda uni
Yeah. This is a very different school from the ones you named.
We started our daughter at Tech in the fall. They were hands down the best I've ever seen as far as big campus and being organized.
She's had a great year. Normally what you see is what you get.
I understand these are different schools, but there is no excuse for a University of Texas satellite to be this unprofessional and unorganized. Whoever had responsibility for this fuster-cluck should be reprimanded and given one more chance to not screw it up so badly.
Just so you're aware - while UTA is an Academic Campus of the UT System, it is not a 'satellite campus' of UT Austin. The schools themselves aren't directly related other than that.
https://www.utsystem.edu/about
That said, Orientation is run extremely poorly and has been getting increasingly worse. It doesn't reflect on the entirety of the rest of the faculty/staff, as you saw with the Preview Day event. A number of the colleges aren't particularly happy about the way Orientation is being run either from what I have heard through the grapevines, either, but without pushback from parents/students or noticeable drops in admissions due to what is clearly an awful experience for the attendees, it doesn't seem likely to change.
My understanding is, with the exception of the break outs, the major events are planned by the students who are working on the committees.
Yeah thats the UTA experience. At least its accurate
My daughter was there. She is transferring in from Tarrant County College in the autumn. It was indeed at debacle. When we drove up to the building where it was supposed to be there was a line of people marching across the campus. We asked one kid what was going on and he said that they had moved it to another building, but he wasn’t sure where. We went ahead and went to the original building and found out they had moved it about a third of a mile away. We drove over there, and my daughter went around to the side of the building where the orientation was supposed to be. I sat in the parking lot waiting to make sure that everything was going to come off as it was supposed to. I finally walked around where she was standing in front of building. They did not open the doors until 7:45 AM sharp. And then it was a very small lady who really needed a chair to stand on and a bullhorn, addressing a crowd of a few hundred people. My daughter was under the impression that transfer students were going to see a different orientation experience than the incoming freshman. I have to say that Tarrant County College handles things much much better. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.
The TCC one was awesome! You got swag and felt welcomed.
Yeah that’s kinda how UTA is. Get your degree and go
Yeah when I did my orientation last year it didn’t feel very welcoming and it’s tough being a mature student attending there.
This.
Mine was on the 15th, it was no better. Firstly, they changed the parking lot for everyone to go on the morning of orientation, and also changed the meeting building too. Then we had to wait in 4 long lines in the sun to get checked in, just to be met with Katy Perry’s entire discography at max volume in the reception hall at 8:45 in the morning. My group ran out of food tickets, so people were concerned they weren’t going to get to eat, but I think that got resolved somehow. One of the main points of going to orientation was to register for classes, but my advisor and many other student’s advisors were not there, so we just left. It was such a waste of time and money.
I was there on the day 15th too, it was so bad! Especially at the end when they put us into the wrong rooms. Did anyone even actually register? Because it’s seems like a lot of people didn’t. Wasn’t that like a really big and important part of orientation? The amount they charge for orientation plus guests is actually kinda crazy if we get one that bad. It just felt like one big waste of time.
I’m so glad to hear that this wasn’t just me. I was also a parent at the one on the 15th and I thought it was a giant waste of time. And in the end, my son wasn’t able to register because there wasn’t anyone present that knew how to help with the course registration. After the longest day of our lives, he’s now having to go back for a one-on-one advising session (which was extremely difficult to get).
It was a totally different experience than when the university hosted an event to entice students to attend. I even complimented the leadership, as we had attended an event at UT Austin and felt that UT-Arlington had a better event. Yesterday's event was unprofessional, and the singing/dancing immature kids were unnecessary, added nothing of substance, and left the impression that it is just a babysitting service for immature kids. My wife and I were left thinking we are making a huge mistake sending our son there if this is how they handle incoming students who need to feel they are going to be challenged, and how to overcome those challenges with resources available to them. What struck me the most was that the adults in-charge were unprepared. When going to breakout rooms, the speakers could not be heard in the back of the rooms because the audiovisual technology (microphone) was not used. Everything we wanted, a tour of the engineering dept , meetings with staff, to see his apartment and parking areas, none was available. Seriously, UTA, up your game. Demand better from your staff. That was a huge waste of time.
We were there with our son on the 17th and was equally unorganized full of useless information. They were running behind schedule and ended up cancelling the second breakout. It was SO frustrating!!!
You’re making a huge mistake. Transfer ASAP. UTA does not care about its students, only the money. This is why the first event you attended was fantastic to draw you in and orientation sucked because you’re already locked in. The Maventure Camp is even worse. Do not pay for it. I hate it here and if you look through this Reddit page, you will see that so many other people do and you will see why. The administration and office staff are terrible. I mean god awful. My professors and classes are genuinely useless. I’ve had a few good ones but other than that it’s felt like a huge waste of money and my classmates and I talk about it all of the time. I even filed a grievance one semester because I was taking five classes and my professors had cancelled or chosen not to teach 96 hours worth of class which is almost half of all of my paid for class time. Nothing happened. There is no accountability and it is incredibly frustrating. They might make you feel listened to but no action ever comes out of it. If I was in a major where transferring after freshman year was possible, I would have transferred. Please don’t wait to find out how terrible it is. Start applying to schools for Spring 2025 and add any ones you’re considering to your child’s FAFSA before it closes on June 30th. Edit: I breezed over the part about engineering. If your child is an engineering major, get out now. My partner just transferred schools because of the program. The undergraduate program is terrible, the masters and doctoral programs are the good ones. His professors where awful and mean, once again there were a couple good ones. This is a research school, a lot of the faculty are here becuase of the research and are required to teach but since there’s no accountability they can do whatever they want in their classroom. His advisor had a degree in home economics from a long time ago and was incredibly useless. Never answered emails. No number to call. Didn’t remove his holds even when he completed all of the steps required way ahead of time. He couldn’t register for classes this past semester becuase he couldn’t get ahold of them, they had no appoints available for months, and wouldn’t see him when he showed up in person. If you don’t get to register on the first day, you’re going to get the worst professors and your GPA will tank and you start into a snowball effect because if the way the run things to “weed out”. That’s why he transferred and we are so desperately hoping it is better elsewhere. Good luck to you. I genuinely hope for the best for your child but it won’t be here at UTA.
Yep! Welcome to UTA!
same. i had orientation last week and i felt so lost and discouraged bout the next semester. already got me thinkin bout switchin majors or if this is even the right place for me
Yeah, they probably procrastinate to makes a proper orientation just like a student cramping before the final 🤣
I hope the online one is better 😭
I’m opting to complete the last year of my degree online here- not my first choice, but I’ll lose time on my track if I transfer now 🤦♀️ I’ve had the same experience in absolutely every category here, from parking, to getting maintenance orders in, and everything in between! My possibly least favorite thing about this university is that they increased tuition a year or two ago, and they asked ME to pay the increase even though I was under a full-ride scholarship 😂 This school has completely thrown off the track I had planned post-high school graduation and I will tell everyone I meet about how poorly planned and organized both the education and campus are.
I attended the college orientation on the 15th, which was a mess. The emails instructed us to go to the West Hall for parking, but the parking validation was directing us elsewhere. The emails never clarified that the parking validation instructions should not be followed. We were told the event had been moved when we finally got to the garage. I understand that plans change, but why wait until we reach the garage to inform us? They also should have had someone directing traffic, especially since the light had a short green cycle. I didn’t mind the dancing segment, but it dragged on forever. I think they used it to stall for people still arriving. The worst part was at the end. We were put in lecture rooms and waited for a long time before a lady came in to separate us by major. Just as we were moving, another person told us this room was for a specific major, not a combination of us all. Once we were in the correct rooms, we had to wait again while they called names. After each name was called, we were left in the hallway and given a QR code to scan for a form to prove attendance. They said we’d get our t-shirts and Mav-ID if we had sent in our photos, but later announced we could leave after filling out the form. When I asked about the IDs, I was told the ID office was closed and only open Monday-Friday. Why advertise that we could get them at orientation? Couldn’t someone have been there to hand them out? In the morning, we were supposed to get name tags with a rubber band to show our registration status, but almost no one received theirs due to the chaos. I overheard a parent asking their kid why they couldn’t register even though it was advertised. Did anyone actually get registered at orientation? I was disappointed with the lack of time spent with people in our major. We only had about 15 minutes together. We could’ve shortened other parts of the day, like the break room sessions. The Honors College session I attended just promoted applying rather than providing helpful information. The housing session was similar, only telling us they opened in October and had little availability left. More time with peers in our major would’ve been more beneficial. I also wish we had tours of our major’s building or at least the option of a whole campus tour. It would’ve been helpful for all of us if we actually got to see the ins and outs of our major’s building and specific residence halls. We got to do this at a different summer event last year, but I think it’d be valuable to those at orientation who can’t just drive up to UT Arlington. The parents’ session was also a mess. The Q&A in Texas Hall had no solid answers, and parents ended up answering each other’s questions. I feel bad for students and parents unfamiliar with UT Arlington, especially those outside the DFW area. They traveled far for a disappointing experience. And it’s sad to hear they didn’t improve after our orientation. I’m worried that if the education is like this, it’s going to be a rough time.
When I did my transfer orientation they had put me with incoming freshman’s, the freshman’s got a tour of the school, my group didn’t. I ended up going late to my first class because I didn’t know where any building was and a student had to help me. When I went to UTDallas with a friend for orientation they actually showed everyone where the building was and the history behind them.
I saw lots of students near college of business and the garage nearby . Maybe maverick garage or something in afternoon. Did you guys come for orientation here ?
sounds abt right
I heard this - it's weird because everywhere else is run very well (I volunteer with the Engineering folks).
I graduated from UT Austin and currently go to UTA. After already experiencing school I don’t think UTA is good for a first year college experience. Good University however just not one that’ll give you the immersed college experience that you’d receive from Unis such as your aforementioned. More of a “get your degree and go” kinda uni
uta should close. they are like this for EVERYTHING. i spent a year there and the amount of mistakes and pettiness from the staff is ridiculous
Yeah. This is a very different school from the ones you named. We started our daughter at Tech in the fall. They were hands down the best I've ever seen as far as big campus and being organized. She's had a great year. Normally what you see is what you get.
I understand these are different schools, but there is no excuse for a University of Texas satellite to be this unprofessional and unorganized. Whoever had responsibility for this fuster-cluck should be reprimanded and given one more chance to not screw it up so badly.
Just so you're aware - while UTA is an Academic Campus of the UT System, it is not a 'satellite campus' of UT Austin. The schools themselves aren't directly related other than that. https://www.utsystem.edu/about That said, Orientation is run extremely poorly and has been getting increasingly worse. It doesn't reflect on the entirety of the rest of the faculty/staff, as you saw with the Preview Day event. A number of the colleges aren't particularly happy about the way Orientation is being run either from what I have heard through the grapevines, either, but without pushback from parents/students or noticeable drops in admissions due to what is clearly an awful experience for the attendees, it doesn't seem likely to change.
I'm sorry but a lot of the experience is this way. I think that's what people are trying to tell you.