Kate R.
Yelp
I've seen a few reviews for UNT lately, so I thought I should add my review to the mix.
I graduated from UNT in August of 2008 (Bachelors in History, minor in Anthropology, damn close to a minor in French), transferring here from UT Austin in 2004. Yes, I transferred to UNT from UT. Sometimes, when people hear that, they think I might be truly insane or possibly retarded.
However, I'm glad I made the change. Yes, UT is an amazing school, but it wasn't the place I needed to be at that time in my life for a variety of reasons. UNT was. It's smaller than UT, cheaper than UT, and I did well here.
There are downsides to living in Denton, but these are not specifically related to UNT itself: Yes, housing can suck. I was a transfer student, so I don't know about the policy requiring freshman to live on campus the first year. I lived on campus at UT, so whatever. If that really is a requirement and it really isn't an option for you: go to a community college the first year and then transfer in. Housing in Denton can suck. Either there are student-only apartments.. expensive, pre-furnished, required room-mates (OR no room-mates for 4x the money), ghetto one room apartments with the paint peeling near campus for too much money, slightly nicer places further away from campus... Jobs: yeah, it's a college town, so employment can be hard to come by. Get a car, drive to Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, etc. to work. I did.
Cops: Yes, there are UNT and Denton cops everywhere. Don't speed, don't park where you're not supposed to and you'll be fine. I only got two tickets in Denton in the 4 years I went to school at UNT: one was a parking ticket that I deserved (and it only cost $35ish to fix), and one was an "Illegal right turn on red", which I don't think I deserved, but wasn't too expensive, either.
Classes: I thoroughly enjoyed every class I took with one notable exception (summer Sociology course where the instructor treated us like middle-schoolers at best, was way behind in her own syllabus, etc). In every OTHER class I took, the professors/instructors treated us with respect and that we were college students, not kindergartners. Always appreciated. Group projects in my classes were minimal, with the biggest one I can think of being in a UNT-required speech class. All of the professors I had were great about their office hours, answering questions, and ensuring we had earned our grades and our education.
Staff: This (and advising) is the main reason why I'm not giving UNT 5-stars. People who work in the cashiers office in the Student Services building were more useless than useful. Other people I had to deal with (registrars, etc) were moderately more useful than cashiers, but still not amazing.
Advising was a complete joke for me. I was a transfer student, so I had required advising the first semester I was there, but never again- so I don't know why others were required to go to their advisers every semester. My History adviser was great (Dr Ken Johnson), but the Arts and Science advisers in the GAB were awful- and THEY were the ones responsible for my degree plan audit and THEY were the reason I graduated in August instead of in May. I graduated late because I was short one upper credit ELECTIVE. Despite me going to see them in the fall to make sure that everything was in order for spring.. when I came to them with my application for graduation in February, I was told I wouldn't be graduating in May. Because they missed something.
So all of the classes I took here were great (with the one exception), parking was decent (I shelled out for a Premium parking pass the last couple years and it was worth it), the train line now goes from Dallas to Denton, so grab your bike, take the train, and save cash. I learned a lot of cool stuff, I found something to study that I had never thought of before (by a total fluke), and I made friends here. A transfer student living off campus (and later in Lewisville) made friends here and had a decent time.
I'm seriously starting to miss being in school, and if I worked damn near-full time and went to school full time before.. Maybe I can do it again for a Master's degree! If I do decide to do that, UNT will most definitely be a top choice for me. Especially since more and more classes are offered online now!