The University of Texas at Austin Top Questions

yes

The student body is more liberal than many of the other universities in the state. Not all of us are tree-hugging, peace monger hippies who beat you over the head with the Bible of Liberalism (though I may be one of those students). The University is large enough you can find any group of people with whatever political (or non-political) mind-set you want. Austin does make the University more though, seeing as it is the ?liberal Mecca? for those Texans who bleed blue. As for the parties, they are pretty prolific. Most Thursday though Saturday nights are filled with parties or going down to 6th street (6th street was a common scene for the Real World Austin cast). If parties aren?t really your thing though, there are some other things to do (though most do give in to the party life in the end). You will eventually get accustomed to the late nights, early mornings, and devastating lack of sleep. Alcohol and pot (sorry mom) are readily available if you want them, but there is no peer-pressure so don?t worry about it if you?re one of those who swears off alcohol and drugs (my room-mate is and I?m always respectful and there haven?t been any problems in 2 years).

Sometimes these are accurate stereotypes, but the university has a great deal of diversity so it is inaccurate to make such broad generalizations.

yes and no. lots of parties. lots of liberals but also a lot of conservative sorority and fraternity types. everyone is generally pretty excited about our school and our teams.

To a certain extent yes, but there are LOTs of hardcore overachievers and lots of average students who don't get ritually trashed every Thursday through Sunday. Lots of students do research. Premeds congregate and obsess over MCAT scores. I'd say less than half are really party crazy.

these do not apply to everyone, so no.

Yes and no. There are so many different types of students here, that there's no way you can say that about all of the students. About a lot of the students in Greek life these stereotypes are the most accurate.

I wouldn't even say that the above is a stereotype as much as it is entirely true. However, a better stereotype I should say is that "everyone is from Houston or Dallas..everyone!" This is mostly accurate considering most everyone at this state university is from this state and the most heavily populated areas are houston and dallas. Plus, people usually say they are from a city even if they are not from the actual city of dallas or houston. Due to the the urban sprawl factor of these cities, most people are from a small down outside of the physical houston or dallas city lines and they just say they are from houston or dallas because it is easier since their city name is not well known.

for the most part

Most people know us as having A LOT of fun but when it is time to study, we really crack down. Even the biggest partiers are still getting straight A's or close to it in their classes. It is also a much smaller community than you would think, especially if you go greek. I have my best friends, a huge group of good friends, an even bigger number of acquaintances, and then there are still another couple thousand people that I look forward to meeting every day.