The University of Texas at Austin, School of Law Forum

[dml077]

Keep in mind that UT is a public school legislatively mandated to accept a large number of in-state residents. Therefore, the statistics will naturally show that most Texans will remain in Texas to practice.

However, the high number of national firms that conduct OCIs illustrates that these firms respect UT grads enough to show up and try to lure students to move out of Texas.

With this in mind, I do not think you will have any problem finding a great job in Phoenix with a UT Law degree.

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[RATRATRAT]

I think a full-ride or close to it is possible, even likely, from some T14. I mean, look @ the #s for people getting a levy/hamilton/darrow. Yeah, you could likely get a full-ride @ UT, but I think you might have other options you're not fully considering. New York, Philly, &c. are big cities where your SO would likely not have much of a problem finding a job either. I'm not trying to talk you out of UT, I'm going there after all, but I'm just saying you should at least consider these other places.

And don't apply ED. EA maybe, but not ED. IMO, it wouldn't make sense to apply to a binding decision like that when you have such a good chance at sig. money from these other schools. Don't underestimate your chances @ $$ from these other schools.

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[RVP11]

Esc, I'd be quite scared if you ended up in the same section as me at UT in 2009. Study partners?

And does UT even have ED? I thought they only had EA (non-binding).

If they do have ED, you shouldn't do it, Esc. Even if you're 100% sure about going to UT (and passing up the majority of the T14 that you'll get accepted to), you're going to want to apply to a lot of the top schools for leveraging purposes. 4.0/176 should get a you a full ride at UT right off the bat - if it doesn't, flashing an HYS acceptance probably will.

[RATRATRAT]

If I remember correctly, yes, there is. They're two different things. I believe UT (maybe it was somewhere else with EA) said that EA doesn't make admission more likely, just that it helps you find out sooner. I don't think you have to worry about getting in though & I'm sure that it helps for financial aid to be considered ASAP. & I think it's good to be thinking about these other options--not that UT would necessarily be a bad idea, it just shouldn't be the only one.

[RVP11]

http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/admissi ... d_app.html

Looks like UT calls their EA "Early Decision" but they also say it's not binding. It appears they do not have a binding early admissions program of any kind. Just non-binding ED (also known as EA).

[ProdigyDub]

The Early Decision at UT is non-binding, and there is no binding early decision option.

To the guy with the 176/4.0 -- while the correlation isn't perfect, someone with your numbers will probably be toward the top of your class at UT if you just put in the work. Given that, if you know you want to work in Austin, going to UT is as good of a choice as going to any other school. Trust me when I say that a top 10% UT'er is going to have just as many Austin job opportunities as a HYS'er. Your opportunities in academia or politics will not be the same, but for the kind of work you want to do, if you know you want to work in Austin, go UT.

Oh, and you will get either a full ride or something very close to it. I guarantee it.

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[RATRATRAT]

Damn, y'all rock. I didn't expect all this great input, and especially not so fast. I tip my hat to all of you!

ProdigyDub, as far as academia and politics goes, wouldn't the local contacts be as good, if in a different way, as the prestige of a HYS?

I would imagine UT would be good for Texas politics, but for academia, I can't imagine UT comparing to HYS, even for getting a job in Texas or @ UT, if that's what you meant.

And JS, good points with the ED program, I suppose I was a little off there; I guess I was thinking about somewhere else.

[BigAristotle]

If you want to go to politics, it is usually best to go to the state school that correlates to your region for politics. Especially in the self proud states like Texas, Alabama, Georgia, etc. In those cases, Univ of (State)>HYS for politics.

[Esc]

Good advice! Thanks!

[parkway45]

I have been thinking about Harvard, Stanford or Berkeley, but since I'm pretty set on wanting to go for environmental and public service instead of pursuing biglaw and lots of money, I don't think I could handle $150,000 in debt. I'm really looking for a school where I can get a full ride....and even without a full ride, UT would be a lot cheaper for me instate.

Another question: I have been planning to apply for early admission to UT, but I've seen some people on these boards saying early admission is a bad thing. The UT FinAid website, however, says that "Students interested in the highly competitive (full-ride) Rice Scholarship are strongly urged to apply for Early Decision Admission...."

Any opinions about applying for early admission?

You know that schools forgive loans right? If you are set on public interest, I would look into loan forgiveness before i made a choice

[ProdigyDub]

Damn, y'all rock. I didn't expect all this great input, and especially not so fast. I tip my hat to all of you!

ProdigyDub, as far as academia and politics goes, wouldn't the local contacts be as good, if in a different way, as the prestige of a HYS?

Local contacts are always good, and UT is very, very highly respected in Austin and in Texas at large. For federal-level politics, obviously you'd be better off at HYS. If you're interested in getting involved with the Texas government, then the gap is a lot smaller. UT certainly would be a fine choice in that case.

Percentages wise, you simply have a much better chance at academia coming from HYS or Chicago. However, UT itself does have quite a few UT law grads on its full-time faculty, so it's definitely possible.

[LaffyTaffy]

I would be shocked to learn that you were not offered a full tuition scholarship or close to it, Esc.

Good luck, and stay away from the prestige whores!

[joonbug]

I would be shocked to learn that you were not offered a full tuition scholarship or close to it, Esc.

Good luck, and stay away from the prestige whores!

Hm? Someone call my name?

[zonawildcat]

Thanks for the link ,countbizaller. I need to try and decide whetiher Texas is a viable option for me, taking into consideration I will probably have to pay most or a good portion of the tuition there. That is to say if I even get in. On the other hand, I am expecting a scholarship from UofA or ASU.

[CodyC49]

Can anyone here explain how the section assignments work? Do we have classes with our entire section (i.e-2), or do we only have classes with our subsection (i.e- 2c). And are the sections grouped together for only 1 class, or do they take all of their classes together?

Thanks!

[ProdigyDub]

Can anyone here explain how the section assignments work? Do we have classes with our entire section (i.e-2), or do we only have classes with our subsection (i.e- 2c). And are the sections grouped together for only 1 class, or do they take all of their classes together?

Thanks!

First semester, you will have all of your classes except one with your entire large section of ~100 people (i.e. Section 1). That will consist of 2 core classes plus LRW. Your fourth class in the first semester will be your "small class" consisting only of your mentor group (i.e. Section 1, Group B). This is a 25-30 person class.

Second semester, every class you have except for your elective will be a large 100 person class with your entire section.

[RVP11]

Okay, this thread's been dead for too long. I want to hear what all the new 1Ls think of life at UT so far. Paging RAT, cc0800, and countbizaller.

[RATRATRAT]

Well crap, I typed a long reply & it got deleted, so I'll have to give you the cliff notes version on it b/c it totally killed my motivation.

I really have liked it from what I've seen so far. being honest, law school is hard & takes a lot of time & that sucks, but I think UT has made it pretty bearable. I mean, no Friday class, lots of extracurricular get together type things (UT seems to advocate a life outside the library, which is cool), cool professors, & everything. I like the people I've met so far, & I've actually been surprised at how easy it is to get to know everyone here. & even though I'm not exactly a UT fan, the football games have been a good break. I mean, I've been impressed with everything so far. The academics have been impressive so far, but I don't really have much to compare it to. So, I can't tell you if you'd like it here better than like a T14 or another top 20, but I definitely don't regret choosing UT. I think it's the best fit for me, as far as balancing having a good law school & having a good life outside law school. But yeah, I'd definitely recommend visiting it & seeing what you think of it.

Anyway js, hope that helps ya

[countbizaller]

I'd echo Rat's sentiments. The profs are great, the activities plentiful, and the classmates intelligent and mostly normal.

I was really surprised at just how much stuff is going on. Class and the reading are work but we're getting tons of emails everyday from different organizations and get togethers and career services functions. For a guy like me, I tend to just focus on the classwork and socialize every now and then, but if you're the kind of person that likes to stay "involved" there's no shortage of that here.

The profs surprised me too (at least my lineup of profs) because they don't really hide the ball. They still do the socractic method of endless questions but they're usually going somewhere with it and genuinely want to get you there. They've also made a lot of resources available to us that I didn't expect. 2 of my classes have small TA sessions at the end of every week that we can go to if we wanted to review or discuss the material. And after that, one of my TAs offered us up a little road map of things they don't really explain to you coming into law school that becomes pretty important come exam time. And one of my profs just laid out a schedule of days and times that she'll be in our cafe throughout the semester just sitting there for whenever anybody would like to talk.

I should also mention the society program. Most people are still under the impression that UT has a gigantic class, like Georgetown. They've been shrinking it steadily over the last few years and I believe our class size is 404. That puts us much closer to schools like Michigan and UVA. But that's still quite a few people and it'd be kind of slow going to get to know a lot of your classmates. The society program remedies this to a large extent by giving you classes with all the same folks and giving you a small 25 person group that has a 2L or 3L mentor that plans activities and meetings just for your group. I find it very helpful to have familiar faces around the classrooms and halls, even if you're not friends with all of them.

Damn I wrote a lot more than I intended to. Suffice to say that I'm very happy with my experience so far. Law school can be very draining for anyone but I think the school does a lot to help ameliorate that. And when that's not enough, all the crap to do in Austin that has nothing to do with casebooks is a great way to recharge. I honestly don't know how folks at schools without many extra curricular options make it.

[cc0800]

There's not too terribly much left to say, but these two are right, it's a great school. The workload has been just enough to be challenging, but leaves enough room to participate in the never-ending activities that go on. I don't know that there has been a single day where there haven't been one or more out of class activities/etc. that I've gone to, and I've barely taken advantage of how much is available. Tomorrow, for example, aside from my three classes, I have a session to attend on the bar, a Lexis training session, and two after school activities. It really makes the days awesome and the school seem smaller. (And there is a lot of free food and free booze)! And IM flag football is about to start! I seriously love law school. And I credit a lot of it to UT.

[underdawg]

yah lexis training is THE SHIT!!!!!!!!111

[cc0800]

yah lexis training is THE SHIT!!!!!!!!111

haha....I did Westlaw today and it was basically useless....but I got a laptop sleeve which i reallllly needed