The University of Texas at Austin Top Questions

I feel that I could have been challenged more in my classes. However, if you do enough to seek out the good professors and interesting classes, it is possible to have a great academic experience.

Academics vary so much by major. Some professors are just concerned with their research and not really their teaching. Most professors don't seem interested in what's going on with the rest of the University - administration, student life, etc. It's pretty rare to hear about a great relationship with a professor at this school where there are such huge classes.

The academics at UT are great. Some classes are worthless, but others are worthwhile. I feel that many of the classes here at UT are a lot tougher. As with anything, you have very competitive students who strive to make A's in every class. Since classrooms are so large you don't get a lot of one on one time with professors.

Yes my professors know my name and so do my Ta's. its all about how involved you choose to be. I prefer the bigger classes.

i love UT. i hate the business school. all of the kids and teachers there just act all high and mighty. i have one teacher for management who always talks about how great things are "across the street" in the business school and makes it seem like no other school can compete. f that! i dont want to be on business on purpose. and yes, i am smart enough.

Classes here are good for a reason. At UT they teach you to work on your own and solve things by yourself. Professors are there to help you out when you get stuck, but students are expected to learn by themselves, to acquire problem solving skills. That is why companies recruit from UT. Aside from that, professors are extremely well prepared. Most of them do research, publish papers, books, etc. Combining these two things, I believe the academic level at UT is well above average.

The classes are really big so it's often easy to get lost in the crowd. But I find as you start to take more upperdivision classes of interest to you, you have the opportunity to get to know your professors as well as the people in your classes. I've taken a lot of unique classes about gender and race. I've met a lot of interesting people in my classes that I've formed friendships with. Some fields at UT gear you straight into getting a job, while others such as liberal arts prepare you more for advanced degrees.

I think that sometimes it is hard to get to know professors because the classes are so big, but that is what office hours are for. A student can get to know his or her professor as long as they want to.

I know most of my professors names. I never really cared much to learn my business professor's names. my favorite class is on the brazilian left taught by john dulles, son of the sec. of staCte under Eisenhower. He is 95 years old and actually lived through half the stuff he talks about. My least favorite class was probably MIS for non-majors. The teacher disgusted me with her teaching style. Studying depends on your major. I don't really study but that's because my major is more about reading than actually studying. Class participation is rare even when it counts for part of your grade. UT students do have intellectual conversations out of class. since most of us study a diverse set of topics it's interesting to compare knowledge across disciplines. In liberal arts we aren't very competitive at least not to my knowledge. I study government but I've only seen a government adviser maybe twice in my time here. I like to go to the undeclared advisers or my latin american studies adviser, even though I'm not going to finish that degree. Latin american studies is not even a department it's an institution. so we don't have our own professors, which makes it really difficult to finish requirements. Even though I'm a government major I'm not very mainstream in that I'm more interested in comparative government in Latin america. So I was more at home in the latin american studies inst. I didn't really take advantage of my professor's office hours in my time here. that is definitely one of my regrets. fortunately I had the opportunity to make a great connection with one of my government/latin american studies professors. The academic requirements are fair for the most part. The only reason I'm not graduating with a LAS degree was because I missed LAS301 that is only taught in the fall. But I understand why things are the way they are...at least in liberal arts. I think we are a bit more free-spirited than other colleges such as engineering. In liberal arts its all about learning. Business and engineering are definitely professional schools

Academics at UT vary greatly from department to department, sometimes even teacher to teacher. If you want the professor to know your name, you have to make an extra effort to get to office hours or make yourself heard in class. In general, the bigger classes have less participation while the smaller ones have more. Students are definitly competitive and organize study groups before tests to compare notes and ideas. The academic requirments seem pretty fair and balanced, on par with other similar universities. Education is geared to getting a job or getting into grad/med/pharm/dent/law school. Most of your performance is based only on grades, due to the large student population. It is important then to make connections with professors outside regular class time to help you feel less of just a number.