The University of Texas at Austin Top Questions

My BIO 311C prof knows my name, the lady who runs the BIO 205L classes knows my face. My Sexual Health prof for next semester knows my name. I hated chemistry. I made and A, but it was hard and I wasn't too fond of my professor...he seemed standoffish. Some students have intellectual convos outside of class...not sure how many. I have really come across any competition.... Of course I try to do better than my friends, but no one really competes. The most unique? Haven't taken one yet, but I am about this fall (sexual health and human sexuality). My major is Premed/Biology. I enjoy it, of course I am a science person. I spent time with my BIO prof outside of class when I volunteered for her. UT's academic requirements are hard for Natural Science because it is really hard to have the major and minor in something else and graduate in 4 years. I wanted to get a teaching certificate, but I don't want to be here for 5 yrs. I want to go to medical school and get on with my life. I feel like my educational experiences here have been for the sake of learning. This may change.

Whether or not you're in a career fast track at UT largely depends on the major you choose. For example, in the business school nearly all of your classes are geared towards learning skills that you can apply towards the career of your choice, not to mention that internships and real world job experience is a requirement to graduate. In the art department, though, the learning structure is based entirely on the concept of "art for art's sake". You are actually not allowed to specialize in any one art form, and instead are required to learn a little bit of everything, meaning that your skill set may be varied (keep in mind this does not neccessarily include real-world skills!) but you are in no way prepared for any specific career after graduation, save continuing your education through graduate school or becoming a professional artist (though that too is primarily accomplished through graduate school). So research carefully before choosing a school, and see if the curriculum is geared in the direction you want to go in.

A lot of people get turned off by the fact that UT is such a large school. They feel as though they won't get the one-on-one attention that they want, but UT is just like any other school, if you seek out help then it will definitely be available. A lot of your classes will be about 30 people or less, so not only do you build relationships with your fellow classmates but also with your professors as well. The really cool thing is that the professors love it when you go to office hours or introduce yourselves to them. And it's helpful to you as well, because many of the professors are experts in their field and even write their own books that you use in class. They're great resources especially when it comes to finding jobs or internships because they can usually introduce you to someone in the field. Another great thing about UT is our Career Services Center, which is one of the best one's in the country. Each of our colleges has one and they have counselors who help you write cover letters and resumés, as well as look for internships and jobs post-graduation. UT really works to take care of their students. UT is often considered a public Ivy League, and that is very much so a true statement. A lot of students will ask what an easy class is to take and get an A in, and you can ask any student here and they will tell you that no classes like that exist. Every class here will challenge you to not just memorize information, but truly learn it and apply it either through class experiments or semester long projects, that the McCombs school of business hosts every year. Academics are very much the most important aspect of the University of Texas at Austin.

The academics at UT are better than most public universities in Texas. It's gotten so much harder to get in to UT, so the caliber of students that they accept are constantly getting better. People do take studying seriously, especially if they are in the school of business or engineering. For the most part, the classes tend to be huge and there is very little personal interaction between students and professors during lecture. Although, this tends to be a problem more for those core classes required for all majors. By the time you get to major specific classes, the teacher to student ratio gets smaller.

Once you start getting into upper level classes, your professors are on a more personal basis. You tend to form study groups and make friends in doing so. You can tell when a big exam is coming up because all of your friends are there studying with you. The engineering department is amazing, I would go no where else.

Being a government major, class participation was very common. I enjoyed my classes, and having conversations with professors/fellow students on topics such as politics and relations with other countries. I do feel, however, that (at least in liberal arts, or government) UT is more geared at learning for its own sake, instead of getting a job. Having started out in the business school however, I know that it is not the case with McCombs.

As far as Academics are concerned, I really only have one complaint about my major in Corporate Communications and this comes after being in the working world for several months. The Communications Department (as well as many others) don't have enough requirements in Computer Science and Finance classes. No matter what career path you choose to follow I feel like it is vital to have at least a little background knowledge in these two categories. Currently, I work at an Investment Banking firm in Houston and I spend about 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of my time on the computer and it would have been very beneficial if I had a little more experience with Microsoft Office.

I felt that UT was very acedemic. People around campus love to have intellectual conversations and participate in class discussion. Of course, there are some students who do the bare minimum to get by, but I felt there were a good amount of students who pushed me to try harder.

UT is quite competitive when it comes to academics. i feel most of the students want to graduate with high gpa's. most classes are large until you get to more upper divisions and most professors wont get to know you unless you get to know them. on the other hand most professors are easy to get ahold of and take notice if you get to know them. i think most students at UT dont get lost in the excitement of being in college and put academics as a prioity.

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