UT Austin is Overrated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UT is not just like other state schools. UT Austin has the most valuable athletic department, revenue from 2.1 million acres of land (including oil and gas), the largest university art museum, the first photograph, one of only 21 extant Gutenberg bibles, papers of Woodward and Bernstein, Robert De Niro, Lorne Michaels, T.S. Eliot, Arthur Miller, Harry Houdini, etc., etc.

How many state schools can match these notable alumni?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Texas_at_Austin_alumni

I find it weird how American universities value football so much, almost to the point where football is more important than academics.

I agree. I only mentioned it because some (many) people put stock in it and would consider it evidence that UT Austin is not overrated.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the hype. What am I missing? Academics are decent but no better than a slightly above average flagship. They guarantee admission to a percentage of every high school in the state, so a lot of kids from weak high schools get to attend. The campus isn’t defined and is ugly. And finally, Austin isn’t even a college town, it’s a small city better suited for grad students.

The automatic admission is limited to the top 5%, and even that is not for every college/program, some of which are legitimately very highly regarded. The campus is quite nice with is big oaks and Spanish colonial style. Calling the 11th biggest city in the USA a "small city" is a decent mischaracterization, but it is indeed more than a college town; it has a campus and student area that is quite college town like, it has tremendous industry and government opportunities from its silicon hills and state capital status, full of music arts and good food. Hell of an alumni network, too.

If you are VA resident, though, I agree it wouldn't pull me away from UVA.

The campus is OK. Very dry area and not a lot of greenery accept for entry rectangular quad and that's not very big. Just sayin.

+100 Austin is fine but extremely overrated. There is nothing in Austin not found in Richmond. Nothing at UT not found at UVA. And the Texas landscape is very ugly compared to the mountains.

Let's not kid ourselves. Music, food, bars, and college sports are much, much better in Austin than in Richmond/Charlottesville.

Music Food and Bars is not a unique thing.

That's why people like Toledo as much as New York, right?

Now you’re being obtuse comparing a huge city to a small city.

The point is all college towns have music, food and bars. Other urban cities in the south also are home to flagship universities. The University of South Carolina has SEC sports in an urban environment just like UT.

I don't think I'm being obtuse. The unstated assumption seems to be that any two places with music, food, and bars are roughly equivalent. (Why have a Michelin-starred meal in NYC when you can have Applebee's in Toledo, amirite?) The quality of of the music, food, and bars matters. Austin punches well above its weight in terms of cultural offerings. It has world-class music on a nightly basis as well as major music and film festivals and an F1 race. It's also well known for its food, particularly BBQ and Tex Mex (both of which are infinitely better than whatever iterations are available in the DMV). I know several people from the East and West Coasts who visit Austin recreationally. Do many people in New York or Boston take vacations in Richmond or Charlottesville?

Mind you, I think Charlottesville is pretty cool and Richmond is fine. But Austin offers certain things that they don't.

Virginia has all of that and yes, I do know people that vacation to Virginia. Charlottesville and Richmond are not Applebees’s.

Good lord.

Companies now headquartered in Austin include Tesla, Oracle, Dell, AMD and Austin is home to Apple's second largest campus.

AMS is headquartered in Santa Clara, not Austin. Also, the truth is that Oracle, and Tesla have few people in Austin. Elon recently admitted that Tesla and SpaceX have trouble getting people to move to Texas.

Tesla has about 24,000 employees in Austin. SpaceX has had hiring issues, but it is far away in South Texas.

[Anonymous]

Overrated vs what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overrated vs what?

Schools that are perceived by some as good just because they have to admit 90% in-staters by law and many through an auto-admit process which greatly limits OOS admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overrated vs what?

Schools that are perceived by some as good just because they have to admit 90% in-staters by law and many through an auto-admit process which greatly limits OOS admissions.

In Texas, I think a lot of people are now OK with this because it makes UT accessible to people in all areas of the state, which aligns with its mission.

[Anonymous]

Which state has gotten a better return on its higher education investment? Texas for UT Austin or Virginia for UVA and VT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which state has gotten a better return on its higher education investment? Texas for UT Austin or Virginia for UVA and VT?

Obvious winner. Georgia for Georgia Tech and UGA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which state has gotten a better return on its higher education investment? Texas for UT Austin or Virginia for UVA and VT?

I think California has everybody beat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which state has gotten a better return on its higher education investment? Texas for UT Austin or Virginia for UVA and VT?

I think California has everybody beat.

+1

But it's unfair to compare a large state with a smaller state.

TX though, is a similar size to CA, and there are way more great CA universities than TX.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the hype. What am I missing? Academics are decent but no better than a slightly above average flagship. They guarantee admission to a percentage of every high school in the state, so a lot of kids from weak high schools get to attend. The campus isn’t defined and is ugly. And finally, Austin isn’t even a college town, it’s a small city better suited for grad students.

The automatic admission is limited to the top 5%, and even that is not for every college/program, some of which are legitimately very highly regarded. The campus is quite nice with is big oaks and Spanish colonial style. Calling the 11th biggest city in the USA a "small city" is a decent mischaracterization, but it is indeed more than a college town; it has a campus and student area that is quite college town like, it has tremendous industry and government opportunities from its silicon hills and state capital status, full of music arts and good food. Hell of an alumni network, too.

If you are VA resident, though, I agree it wouldn't pull me away from UVA.

The campus is OK. Very dry area and not a lot of greenery accept for entry rectangular quad and that's not very big. Just sayin.

+100 Austin is fine but extremely overrated. There is nothing in Austin not found in Richmond. Nothing at UT not found at UVA. And the Texas landscape is very ugly compared to the mountains.

Let's not kid ourselves. Music, food, bars, and college sports are much, much better in Austin than in Richmond/Charlottesville.

Music Food and Bars is not a unique thing.

That's why people like Toledo as much as New York, right?

Now you’re being obtuse comparing a huge city to a small city.

The point is all college towns have music, food and bars. Other urban cities in the south also are home to flagship universities. The University of South Carolina has SEC sports in an urban environment just like UT.

I don't think I'm being obtuse. The unstated assumption seems to be that any two places with music, food, and bars are roughly equivalent. (Why have a Michelin-starred meal in NYC when you can have Applebee's in Toledo, amirite?) The quality of of the music, food, and bars matters. Austin punches well above its weight in terms of cultural offerings. It has world-class music on a nightly basis as well as major music and film festivals and an F1 race. It's also well known for its food, particularly BBQ and Tex Mex (both of which are infinitely better than whatever iterations are available in the DMV). I know several people from the East and West Coasts who visit Austin recreationally. Do many people in New York or Boston take vacations in Richmond or Charlottesville?

Mind you, I think Charlottesville is pretty cool and Richmond is fine. But Austin offers certain things that they don't.

Virginia has all of that and yes, I do know people that vacation to Virginia. Charlottesville and Richmond are not Applebees’s.

Good lord.

Companies now headquartered in Austin include Tesla, Oracle, Dell, AMD and Austin is home to Apple's second largest campus.

AMS is headquartered in Santa Clara, not Austin. Also, the truth is that Oracle, and Tesla have few people in Austin. Elon recently admitted that Tesla and SpaceX have trouble getting people to move to Texas.

Tesla has about 24,000 employees in Austin. SpaceX has had hiring issues, but it is far away in South Texas.

Tesla is having huge issues in getting Bay Area employees to relocate. I know this firsthand.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the hype. What am I missing? Academics are decent but no better than a slightly above average flagship. They guarantee admission to a percentage of every high school in the state, so a lot of kids from weak high schools get to attend. The campus isn’t defined and is ugly. And finally, Austin isn’t even a college town, it’s a small city better suited for grad students.

The automatic admission is limited to the top 5%, and even that is not for every college/program, some of which are legitimately very highly regarded. The campus is quite nice with is big oaks and Spanish colonial style. Calling the 11th biggest city in the USA a "small city" is a decent mischaracterization, but it is indeed more than a college town; it has a campus and student area that is quite college town like, it has tremendous industry and government opportunities from its silicon hills and state capital status, full of music arts and good food. Hell of an alumni network, too.

If you are VA resident, though, I agree it wouldn't pull me away from UVA.

The campus is OK. Very dry area and not a lot of greenery accept for entry rectangular quad and that's not very big. Just sayin.

+100 Austin is fine but extremely overrated. There is nothing in Austin not found in Richmond. Nothing at UT not found at UVA. And the Texas landscape is very ugly compared to the mountains.

Let's not kid ourselves. Music, food, bars, and college sports are much, much better in Austin than in Richmond/Charlottesville.

Music Food and Bars is not a unique thing.

That's why people like Toledo as much as New York, right?

Now you’re being obtuse comparing a huge city to a small city.

The point is all college towns have music, food and bars. Other urban cities in the south also are home to flagship universities. The University of South Carolina has SEC sports in an urban environment just like UT.

I don't think I'm being obtuse. The unstated assumption seems to be that any two places with music, food, and bars are roughly equivalent. (Why have a Michelin-starred meal in NYC when you can have Applebee's in Toledo, amirite?) The quality of of the music, food, and bars matters. Austin punches well above its weight in terms of cultural offerings. It has world-class music on a nightly basis as well as major music and film festivals and an F1 race. It's also well known for its food, particularly BBQ and Tex Mex (both of which are infinitely better than whatever iterations are available in the DMV). I know several people from the East and West Coasts who visit Austin recreationally. Do many people in New York or Boston take vacations in Richmond or Charlottesville?

Mind you, I think Charlottesville is pretty cool and Richmond is fine. But Austin offers certain things that they don't.

Virginia has all of that and yes, I do know people that vacation to Virginia. Charlottesville and Richmond are not Applebees’s.

Good lord.

Companies now headquartered in Austin include Tesla, Oracle, Dell, AMD and Austin is home to Apple's second largest campus.

AMS is headquartered in Santa Clara, not Austin. Also, the truth is that Oracle, and Tesla have few people in Austin. Elon recently admitted that Tesla and SpaceX have trouble getting people to move to Texas.

Tesla has about 24,000 employees in Austin. SpaceX has had hiring issues, but it is far away in South Texas.

Tesla is having huge issues in getting Bay Area employees to relocate. I know this firsthand.

Yeah. No one has moved to Austin.

[Anonymous]

I follow a blogger who graduated from UTAustin and couldn’t find a job for a year. She said her peers had similar issues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the hype. What am I missing? Academics are decent but no better than a slightly above average flagship. They guarantee admission to a percentage of every high school in the state, so a lot of kids from weak high schools get to attend. The campus isn’t defined and is ugly. And finally, Austin isn’t even a college town, it’s a small city better suited for grad students.

No duh!

[Anonymous]

I know some lesser ranked state flagships offer unpublicized, zero application ‘merit’ scholarships to OOS students to lessen the cost deferential. Anyone have experience with whether UT Austin does this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I follow a blogger who graduated from UTAustin and couldn’t find a job for a year. She said her peers had similar issues

to be fair, the job market sucks right now for lots of college grads, even for those who graduated from a T20.