It is with good reason that this is mostly a technology school seeing as it was founded by
Texas Instruments (one of the largest tech manufacturers in the world). That's right - brought to you by the same people who bring the
US army missles, bring 8th grade students around the nation
graphing calculators, and
Compaq users
network card chipsets.
Located in
Richardson (18 miles North of
Dallas),
Texas (
silicone prairie), UTD is close to over 600 telecommunications and advanced tech firms.
I could tell you what the main goals of the university are, but I'd rather just quote UTD:
"The Strategic Intent of UTD is to be a nationally recognized top-tier university sculpted within a model of focused excellence. The
University emphasizes
education and
research in
engineering,
science,
technology and
management while maintaining programs of focused
excellence in other academic areas. Within the context of this mission, the goals of the university are as follows:
To provide able, ambitious students with a high-quality, cost-effective education that combines the nurturing environment of a liberal arts college with the intellectual rigor and depth of a major research university.
To discover new knowledge and to create new art that enriches civilization at large and contributes significantly to economic and social programs.
To enhance the productivity of business and government with strategically designed, responsively executed programs of research, service and education.
The university intends to achieve these objectives by investing in students and faculty, building upon its programs, policies and operations and enhancing
institutional character and excellence in education. The majors points of UTD's strategic plan to accomplish these goals are as follows:
Continue to strengthen the identity of the university as a leader in higher education in terms of excellent faculty and superior students.
Enhance the quality of its students' learning experiences and its employees' work environment.
Emphasize education and research in science and technology and in leadership and management, while maintaining concurrent programs of focused excellence in other fundamental fields of art and knowledge.
Expand and intensify partnerships relations with business, governmental and educational neighbors.
Enhance programmatic quality and institutional balance while adhering to rigorous quality standards.
Actively pursue external support of and funding for the ambitious academic and service programs integral to its mission." - From www.utd.edu
UT Dallas was founded by
Eugene McDermott, Cecil Green and J. Erik Jonsson (the same guys that founded Geophysical Services Inc.) who created Texas Instruments (TI) in 1959. In 1961 the three founded the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies (SCAS). In 1967, the Texas legislature agreed that, by golly, we needed more engineers and gave the men a land grant on which to build another university. McDermott, Green and Jonsson later donated SCAS to the Texas university system. In 1969, the governor of Texas signed the bill that made UTD.
UTD was, by law, only a grad school until 1975 when it began admitting transfer junior and senior students. Only since 1990 has UTD allowed freshman to be admitted to the university and is credited as being one of, if not the most selective public schools in Texas (second only to, possibly, UT Austin).
The average freshman
SAT score for last year for UTD was an 1155. About 1000 freshman are admitted annually.
So far as I could tell, from a campus visit, the university is pretty much crap if you aren't going into some science or engineering field (maybe mathematics too). The Computer Science/Engineering/other Sciences building is gorgeous, almost a work of art. The other buildings (when they aren't portables) are kind of shabby. This could be because the campus was under construction when I went. Then again, it was construction to make the engineering building BIGGER...