Texas 2013 Forum

[UTaylor526]

I feel like its the first day of high school.

Hi, I'm McFlooter, you can call me Flooter. I have red hair, which is apparently my defining characteristic. I like football, a lot. I like hockey even more. I'm a tiny little girl from Dallas.

*waves*

HaHa I think I have a friend for you Flooter. For anyone that stuck around DT with us and met my group of friends, one of them is the goalie for UT's hockey team and one of the biggest Stars fans I know.

[TheVoynichManuscript]

I'm still trying to decide as well, but I just wanted to say that it was great meeting everyone at the ASW!

[imisscollege]

I wasn't convinced by ASD. I grew tired of hearing about how UT is the best school in TEXAS and how the career fair is the biggest IN TEXAS. Like yeah obviously. And the comments about how Texas is first in TX, SMU is 3rd, and there is nothing in between just served to hammer this in more. If anything, I would have intuitively thought UT had a more national presence than was indicated to me at ASD. That combined with everybody talking about how for the months of the summer, you have to run from house to house due to heat plus the fact that the Austin legal market is a fraction the size of Dallas/Houston and everybody hates Dallas/Houston makes me feel worse about UT than I did before ASD.

The professor who taught my mock class (there were two) did not impress me relative to the professors I have experienced at peer schools.

Additionally, I talked to a few of the non-tour-guide students and they are STRESSED out. One said that he did well last sem but that I should not go to LS if I can help it. Who knows maybe he was having a bad day. Either way, this is not the vibe I got of students at other peer schools I have visited (PM me if you want more info on this)

On the plus side, all of the kids I met I really liked and they seem to have come from diverse backgrounds although some were a bit nerdy and intense for me. One was reported to have worn a suit to have a convo with financial aid. Knowing this site, he is a TLS member haha but the sighting of him was kind of a running joke among a few admits. The clinical offerings were impressive also.

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Austin as a city. I expected ridiculous looking girls and an amazing bar scene. The girls were fine looking but nothing out of control. Some cute ones some not, pretty standard. The bar scene was decent but very comparable to areas in Boston, DC, and NY before. Don't get me wrong-- a sizeable bar scene certainly exists and makes its presence known and there unquestionably are attractive girls but it doesn't blow other cities away in terms of its night life, as I had expected it to based on what I had heard.

Sorry to put a negative spin on an otherwise positive thread. I was wondering what people thought of the different specifics that I mentioned. And don't be like FINE UT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DIDNT COME BLA BLA BLA. Say something specific and constructive or say nothing at all.

Finally, all that being said I still think I am going to put a deposit down on UT as well as another school and ride some waitlists. I did not become completely anti-UT as a result of ASD but I certainly was not sold as I had expected to be.

[JordynAsh]

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Austin as a city. I expected ridiculous looking girls and an amazing bar scene. The girls were fine looking but nothing out of control. Some cute ones some not, pretty standard. The bar scene was decent but very comparable to areas in Boston, DC, and NY before. Don't get me wrong-- a sizeable bar scene certainly exists and makes its presence known and there unquestionably are attractive girls but it doesn't blow other cities away in terms of its night life, as I had expected it to based on what I had heard.

Given the bolded and your other TLS thread topics, I can say I won't miss you.

[adrib]

I guess my experience was completely different, imisscollege. To me, what stood out was how much they talked about UT's out of state presence. They said most of the employers at OCI were from out of state, and that some huge number of UT grads go out of state after law school. Honestly, I walked out feeling less secure about employment in Texas if I go to UT (though I know that's silly).

I don't want to say I was underwhelmed by Austin, because I haven't spent much time there. I do think, however, that I will end up preferring Dallas--but that really hasn't played into my choice.

I'm sorry you didn't have an awesome time at ASD. That was a big fear for me, that I'd end up going and disliking UT Good luck, no matter what you pick!

[imisscollege]

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Austin as a city. I expected ridiculous looking girls and an amazing bar scene. The girls were fine looking but nothing out of control. Some cute ones some not, pretty standard. The bar scene was decent but very comparable to areas in Boston, DC, and NY before. Don't get me wrong-- a sizeable bar scene certainly exists and makes its presence known and there unquestionably are attractive girls but it doesn't blow other cities away in terms of its night life, as I had expected it to based on what I had heard.

Sorry to put a negative spin on an otherwise positive thread. I was wondering what people thought of the different specifics that I mentioned. And don't be like FINE UT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DIDNT COME BLA BLA BLA. Say something specific and constructive or say nothing at all.

Given the bolded and your other TLS thread topics, I can say I won't miss you.

I mean I was told that Austin girls are beyond belief gorgeous and that the city is incredibly fun as a couple of the not-LS related selling points for living in Austin for 3 years. Much of this I have heard from TLS. I don't think it was a ludicrous thing to write in my paragraph about the city vs my personal expectations. But thanks for the constructive commentary.

[de5igual]

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Austin as a city. I expected ridiculous looking girls and an amazing bar scene. The girls were fine looking but nothing out of control. Some cute ones some not, pretty standard. The bar scene was decent but very comparable to areas in Boston, DC, and NY before. Don't get me wrong-- a sizeable bar scene certainly exists and makes its presence known and there unquestionably are attractive girls but it doesn't blow other cities away in terms of its night life, as I had expected it to based on what I had heard.

I don't recall ever seeing an area in NYC (and to a lesser extent DC since I've only been once or twice) where you'd have a 1-2 mile stretch of endless bars with live music, roads shutting down on a nightly basis, and drinking out on the streets. The good thing about Austin's nightlife is that it's all compacted into one area, which makes it extremely convenient to bar-hop.

W/r/t the emphasis on Texas...keep in mind that UT's required to matriculate 65% of its incoming class from Texas, so they'd have to cater their speech to the audience. One thing to note, though, is that while over 75% of each class is made of Texas residents, the school places over 30% out of state. That in itself speaks to the school's ability to place nationally.

[bmontminy]

imisscollege, you spoke with the wrong students. I snagged a couple of non-volunteers some of the Amy's Ice Cream b/c they couldn't get any, and they were all very chill, and neither stressed nor nerdy. One was pointing out how UT students study less than any other law school besides Yale (not sure about the validity of this statement, but he was convinced.) And TWO individuals in that group (out of three) not only both had 1L summer jobs (yeah...the 3k/wk kind) locked down, but received multiple offers each from firms. (one of them said 2 offers, and one said multiple).

While it is surely possible that they are both lying, I don't believe this to be the case, and this short conversation in itself made me much more comfortable about taking on debt for UT.


PS Ice Cream Networking FTW!

[philosoraptor]

I grew tired of hearing about how UT is the best school in TEXAS and how the career fair is the biggest IN TEXAS. Like yeah obviously. And the comments about how Texas is first in TX, SMU is 3rd, and there is nothing in between just served to hammer this in more. If anything, I would have intuitively thought UT had a more national presence than was indicated to me at ASD. That combined with everybody talking about how for the months of the summer, you have to run from house to house due to heat plus the fact that the Austin legal market is a fraction the size of Dallas/Houston and everybody hates Dallas/Houston makes me feel worse about UT than I did before ASD.

This isn't an unfair observation -- depends on what your expectations were. Frankly, I liked all the talk about how Texas' unique position as a "true (elite) state school" (as opposed to UVa, UCLA/Berkeley, Michigan) would help us make connections and get jobs. Sokolow reminded us that the school has always been what he called a "net exporter" of lawyers, so that national reach has always been there, but that nowadays it's a huge advantage to come from a top state university with a dominant alumni network within the state. That's how I took it, at least. That perspective also compares favorably against, e.g., Vanderbilt and Emory, two schools that do have "built-in," "traditional" markets but are tiny and have to compete against T14s plus their own state schools.

The professor who taught my mock class (there were two) did not impress me relative to the professors I have experienced at peer schools.

I actually haven't heard much about the guy who wasn't Anderson. Care to elaborate at all?

Additionally, I talked to a few of the non-tour-guide students and they are STRESSED out. One said that he did well last sem but that I should not go to LS if I can help it. Who knows maybe he was having a bad day. Either way, this is not the vibe I got of students at other peer schools I have visited (PM me if you want more info on this)

One 3L I talked to the day before the activities stated was also really gloomy about his job prospects (no job yet), but I didn't know anything about his grades or whether he'd availed himself of all the career-services resources. Most law students I've talked to (at a wide range of schools) have at least a little bit of uncertainty about school and life. No school is going to guarantee 100 percent placement or 100 percent peace of mind. But I think UT's administration is really focused on making sure we have opportunities, even if that means being creative or making sacrifices, like taking an unpaid judicial internship and living at home over 1L summer instead of counting on the swanky firm job of yesteryear.

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Austin as a city. I expected ridiculous looking girls and an amazing bar scene. The girls were fine looking but nothing out of control. Some cute ones some not, pretty standard. The bar scene was decent but very comparable to areas in Boston, DC, and NY before. Don't get me wrong-- a sizeable bar scene certainly exists and makes its presence known and there unquestionably are attractive girls but it doesn't blow other cities away in terms of its night life, as I had expected it to based on what I had heard.

I have no doubt that you will be able to find that special someone in the environs of America's fifth-largest university.

Sorry to put a negative spin on an otherwise positive thread. I was wondering what people thought of the different specifics that I mentioned. And don't be like FINE UT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DIDNT COME BLA BLA BLA. Say something specific and constructive or say nothing at all.

Thanks for making me think about this in a different light. Despite how it might seem, I don't want to get entirely sucked up in the rah-rah stuff -- the more my assumptions are challenged and the greater the variety of other people's impressions I hear, the more informed my decision will be, and I think that's a positive for everyone who still has such decisions to make.

[entrechatsix]

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Austin as a city. I expected ridiculous looking girls and an amazing bar scene. The girls were fine looking but nothing out of control. Some cute ones some not, pretty standard. The bar scene was decent but very comparable to areas in Boston, DC, and NY before. Don't get me wrong-- a sizeable bar scene certainly exists and makes its presence known and there unquestionably are attractive girls but it doesn't blow other cities away in terms of its night life, as I had expected it to based on what I had heard.

i'm sad you didn't think i was pretty

but in all seriousness, sorry asd didn't do it for you. a school can't be for everyone! and i wish you luck with your decision

[imisscollege]

I appreciate everybody who commented on the things I said. It unquestionably could be likely that my random sample of everything wasn't quite representative. I want to emphasize that I have not ruled out UT because OF COURSE it's an amazing school I am lucky to have been accepted. And yes Austin is quite fun but like I said I went in there expecting to be absolutely sold and that just wasn't quite the case. I am aware that my post seemed overly negative but I was just trying to bring to light some concerns that weren't voiced in the previous positive commentary about the school.

[UTaylor526]

I know I'm biased as UT is my alma mater, but I think there is still some truth in my opinion.

UT is a national school and I did hear a lot of talk about the school's placement in DC, Chicago, etc. Yes, a lot of people want to stay in Texas and with a high percentage of students being Texas residents, it makes sense to spend more time talking about the Texas placements.

Austin is incredible and IMHO, better than any other city. But that doesn't make it the city for you. Although ATX doesn't offer as much as some other cities, it offers a lot in a compact form. Within a 30 minute drive, you can go hiking through trails, bar hopping across some very diverse bars and crowds, see some excellent sports teams in nearly every possible sport (although no pro team), listen to some great live music, and much more. And that doesn't even take into consideration the school itself and the diversity it brings to Austin. Yes, other cities may have more of a night life or more of attraction X -but how many more can offer a significant portion of all of them in under an hour drive?

As to the girls. Texas girls are incredible. Most of them are beautiful but it is their personality and Texas nature that truly separates them from the other girls. And lets face it, if they were all 10's you would just go home alone every night.

[JordynAsh]

I know I'm biased as UT is my alma mater, but I think there is still some truth in my opinion.

UT is a national school and I did hear a lot of talk about the school's placement in DC, Chicago, etc. Yes, a lot of people want to stay in Texas and with a high percentage of students being Texas residents, it makes sense to spend more time talking about the Texas placements.

Austin is incredible and IMHO, better than any other city. But that doesn't make it the city for you. Although ATX doesn't offer as much as some other cities, it offers a lot in a compact form. Within a 30 minute drive, you can go hiking through trails, bar hopping across some very diverse bars and crowds, see some excellent sports teams in nearly every possible sport (although no pro team), listen to some great live music, and much more. And that doesn't even take into consideration the school itself and the diversity it brings to Austin. Yes, other cities may have more of a night life or more of attraction X -but how many more can offer a significant portion of all of them in under an hour drive?

+1 to all of this.

As to the girls. Texas girls are incredible. Most of them are beautiful but it is their personality and Texas nature that truly separates them from the other girls. And lets face it, if they were all 10's you would just go home alone every night.

LOL it's funny because it's true.

[adrib]

I appreciate everybody who commented on the things I said. It unquestionably could be likely that my random sample of everything wasn't quite representative. I want to emphasize that I have not ruled out UT because OF COURSE it's an amazing school I am lucky to have been accepted. And yes Austin is quite fun but like I said I went in there expecting to be absolutely sold and that just wasn't quite the case. I am aware that my post seemed overly negative but I was just trying to bring to light some concerns that weren't voiced in the previous positive commentary about the school.

lol. i didn't think you sounded overly negative. in fact, you reminded me a lot of myself after I watched Avatar. It was aight, but man, it'd just been built up to crazy levels maybe we just overhyped it for you before you got a chance to check it out. good luck, no matter where you end up!

[UTaylor526]

Friendly advice.

For anyone looking for a place to live, check out craigslist. In the search box, type in any of the following: law school, campus, hyde park, engineering school, north campus. You can even select the minimum number of bedrooms you want results to return (unfortunately not useful if you want a 1 bedroom -it will return everything.) Then, pull up a google map of campus and type in the address to see how far it is.

A word of caution. Results returned from searching hyde park or north campus may be out of walking/biking distance as that area is fairly large. IMO*, I wouldn't consider anything above 35th street walking distance and anything above 43rd/the hancock center biking distance. Yes, its possible but you will walk into class as a sweaty mess and no one will want to sit next to you.




*This is my opinion after having gone to school at UT for 3 1/2 years where it is fairly common to walk 15-20 minutes to get to each class. People coming from smaller schools may disagree and have a different range.

[Jericwithers]

[quote="UTaylor526"] you will walk into class as a sweaty mess/quote]

That is the case regardless of where you live or how you get to campus lol. I lived on 38th street for two years and biked 1.5 years and have been riding the buss this semester. Depending on how close you live to the bus stop (I ride the IF all along Speedway) you can live anywhere in Hyde Park. I head out for class 30 minutes early, have to walk all the way from the northern most part to campus to the southern most part, and still arrive to class roughly 10 minutes early. It is the most attractive part of living in the campus area. Biking sucks as it gets too hot and I am so unhealthy that the hills kill me. I wish I had been taken the buss since getting my apartment, but sometimes the busses can get too crowded (like when it snowed here a month ago) so it is good to be able to get to campus in the event of that without paying $$$ to park.

Anyways, I got an email from finaid asking me if I will be taking summer classes or be graduating in the spring before going to grad school. I hope to get my aid offer soon.

[Pro Boner]

The ride downhill from (Hype Park/N Campus) N-S is a cinch. It is the ride up that sucks, esp. if you are lugging heavy textbooks. The bus system is really efficient so transport should not be a concern.

[UTaylor526]

The ride downhill from (Hype Park/N Campus) N-S is a cinch. It is the ride up that sucks, esp. if you are lugging heavy textbooks. The bus system is really efficient so transport should not be a concern.

I plan to make full use of the lockers on campus.

[JordynAsh]

Anyways, I got an email from finaid asking me if I will be taking summer classes or be graduating in the spring before going to grad school. I hope to get my aid offer soon.

Same! Was getting antsy as I submitted my FAFSA in late Jan. and hadn't heard back when some people had.

[Jericwithers]

The ride downhill from (Hype Park/N Campus) N-S is a cinch. It is the ride up that sucks, esp. if you are lugging heavy textbooks. The bus system is really efficient so transport should not be a concern.

I plan to make full use of the lockers on campus.

There are lockers in the law school? For all 3 years? Free?

[adrib]

The ride downhill from (Hype Park/N Campus) N-S is a cinch. It is the ride up that sucks, esp. if you are lugging heavy textbooks. The bus system is really efficient so transport should not be a concern.

I plan to make full use of the lockers on campus.

There are lockers in the law school? For all 3 years? Free?

i saw kids using them at ASD. it's gonna take a while before I get over the middle school horror flashbacks and am able to use them myself, though!

[entrechatsix]

The ride downhill from (Hype Park/N Campus) N-S is a cinch. It is the ride up that sucks, esp. if you are lugging heavy textbooks. The bus system is really efficient so transport should not be a concern.

I plan to make full use of the lockers on campus.

There are lockers in the law school? For all 3 years? Free?

i don't think they're free, but i can't remember how much my tour guide said

[Jericwithers]

The ride downhill from (Hype Park/N Campus) N-S is a cinch. It is the ride up that sucks, esp. if you are lugging heavy textbooks. The bus system is really efficient so transport should not be a concern.

I plan to make full use of the lockers on campus.

There are lockers in the law school? For all 3 years? Free?

i don't think they're free, but i can't remember how much my tour guide said

Lame.

[Pro Boner]

You think $29,000 and years of dedicated tax-paying would buy us some storage space.

[yournamehere]

its either $20 a semester or $20 for the school year, I can't remember.