Grad School Option: UT Austin

One of the options I’m considering for grad school is the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). To be dorky about this, I’ve decided to break this down by the same criteria I rated RPI in this entry. There are many more holes in this entry mainly because I haven’t actually visited UT Austin, and I haven’t really experienced more of it than I have read on their website or heard about from acquaintances.

Location

I’ve never been to Texas before, which may be part of its appeal. I spent three years living in Saudi Arabia, which has a very similar climate and is mostly desert (read on for the Weather bit below).

Most of my extended family lives in Eastern Iowa, but I’ve never really identified with them. I actually lived there for about 6 months after we were evacuated from Saudi Arabia (back when I was 13-14 years old) and I didn’t much care for being that close to all of them. My parents just moved back to Ohio, however they are constantly talking about where their next overseas destination will be. The point there is that I’m not sure how long they will actually be in Ohio, but if they are there for more than the next year, I suppose it is only a plane flight away.

The drawback to Austin is that it sits isolated in central Texas. On a map it looks close to San Antonio, Houston, etc. In reality (and I know this because I just looked it up on MapQuest) it’s 180 miles from Houston and 80 miles from San Antonio. I suppose it’s not a lot different than it is now: a drive from Austin to Houston would be like driving from Troy to Boston. I can’t complain because I’ve really only done that once. It’s not too far from Mexico, which means that there are tons of good, authentic (not the crappy tex-mex) Mexican restaurants in the area! I love Mexican food, and am fluent in Spanish. Mmmm… I’m making myself hungry already!

The nice thing about Austin is that it’s a true blue college town. There is never a shortage of activities, and there is no real separation between UT Austin and downtown Austin. According to a lady I work with, who was there last September, the campus is surrounded on all sides by very economical restaurants, cafes, shops, and entertainment. She said it’s classy stuff, places you could take your parents to and they wouldn’t complain, but that wouldn’t break the bank. I liked how she put that!

I also looked up an Austin events calendar at a local TV station’s website. (As a side note, I’m happy to see that Time Warner Cable operates an equivalent of Capital News 9 there! I love that channel!). You can see that there is stuff going on, and it’s all close to campus (no car required). But being able to get around on foot (or by any means without a car) is a good thing, because it would seem that traffic can be somewhat hectic. Austin is afterall a big city, and as such has traffic problems like all the rest. Haha… but so did Cairo Ever tried driving on Hoosick St during rush hour?

The final cool thought about Austin is that it’s home to a lot of HQ’s of major companies (Semetec, Ebay, AMD, and Motorola. Next to Silicon Valley, Austin has the largest growth rate in tech companies (and many other industries as well) in the country. The chances of me finding a job in that area after graduation are much better than at a school located in a poorer job market. You can read more about this in the Research section, but that’s part of the reason why UT Austin gets so much funding, because they’re right there so accessible to all of these companies. See the pic below, and notice all of the cranes in the background!

Weather

One of the first things I did when I first looked at UT Austin was to pull up Weather.com’s yearly average info for Austin. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to be too hot. The summer averages are well into the 90′s, but that is balanced by winter temps in the low 70′s. Then I remembered that in a hot climate like Texas, every place has air conditioning and really it wouldn’t matter if it got too hot during the summer. In Troy if the temps get above 90 everyone dies because only a third of the population has air conditioning (and electricity is so prohibitively expensive here that half of them refuse to use it unless it hits 95!). But honestly these temperatures are not unlike what you would find in Cairo.

I was also concerned about the desert feel. I lived in Cairo for almost 5 years, and it was a constant battle with the dust. Then I saw some pictures of Austin and I realized that at least anywhere near the city, it’s hardly desert. Since everyone irrigates, and there is a huge river flowing through the center of town, everything looks just as green as it does in the Northeast. Lots of trees, grass, etc as pictured in this image above (from a lady I work with when she visited Austin last year).

Academics

It’s really hard to judge a school’s academics from their website, and the US News rankings also don’t rank pure “academics” because such a criteria is really quite subjective. I did however visit many of what would be my department’s (ECSE) professorial websites. Just like RPI, all professors at UT Austin are required to teach undergrad classes, take on grad students, and do research. In the virtual campus tour, their are quick to point out all of the undergrad labs and project areas, just as RPI likes to show off the LITEC lab. But who knows, how does one guage the academic performance of a school? Is it safe to assume that a school ranked number 9 in the country has some good professors (and perhaps some duds as well)? Maybe I should just throw this category out?

Activities

Just like RPI, UT Austin also has a mostly student-run Union: The Texas Union. From what I can tell, it seems that clubs and organizations are university funded (no activity fee) which isn’t too surprising (RPI is really unique in that regard). All clubs are managed through the Dean of Students Office, and they maintain a listing of the clubs and orgs (both active and inactive!). They have some neat sounding groups, but I can’t tell how much or what kind of funding they receive. RPI groups (some years) get a lot of money to play around with, partly because we have the activity fee. Everything is student managed which is nice when you have good student leadership. Too bad their FAQ is “Coming Soon”…

Research

Here is where UT Austin really one-ups RPI and many other schools. Among other things, this secures its place at number 9 on the top 50 Engineering Grad Schools according to US News. In the Engineering school alone, they spent $98.7 million doing research last year, compared to RPI’s $25.9. Part of that is location (as I mentioned above, UT Austin is located in a richer area in terms of research potential). But the other thing is that a lot of professors have become quite comfy here at RPI writing rediculous research grant proposals and getting nothing. There is some interesting research going on (highlighted on RPI’s homepage), but only time will tell if recent changes to the grad tuition policy will have the effect that Shirley Ann Jackson intended (that is, stimulating the growth in research). A lot of grad students don’t find interesting profs and research going on, so they do bull research and write crap theses so they can graduate. I’ve had to work with graduate students, specifically in MIS and IT, and I swear a high schooler with an internet connection could’ve done better.

Tuition

So it would seem that just when I said most other grad schools had adopted a flat rate for grad tuition, I should’ve left UT Austin out of that blanket statement. If I read their tuition and expenses page correctly, while there is a flat fee for undergrads, grads pay by the credit essentially. That’s good if I wanted to have a part-time job and take only 12 credits a semester! That way I could spread the cost of grad education out a bit, and make some money on the side to pay off some loans from RPI.

The drawback is that I’m not a resident of Texas, and I would end up paying out-of-state tuition. Now, the out-of-state tuition is nowhere near RPI’s tuition (for 18 credit hours, that would be $7,013.18 compared to $27,700 – a huge difference!). I was looking through the fine print of what is required to become a Texan resident. All you have to do is live there for 12 consecutive months… not too bad. BUT… you cannot become a resident for University purposes once you enroll in an academic institution. Damn.

However, if you get a position as a TA or RA, then they will consider you as in-state no matter what for tuition purposes. The deal for RA’s and TA’s isn’t as sweet as it is at RPI. Remember at RPI, they offer a full tuition waiver plus a $15K/yr stipend (however that’s only good for a few semesters now, depending on your program and how long you’re going to be here). In the UT system, TA’s and RA’s are given tuition credits based on the hours they work. I think they actually just cut you a check, but if you were to spend that money on tuition, you could just about cover the cost of in-state tuition. But there is no other stipend like there is at RPI. I guess they figure since the tuition is so cheap, why would you need all that money?

So UT Austin would definitely be more affordable, especially if I could go part-time over an additional semester or so and have a job on the side. I might go full-time for the first semester and see how it works out, it just depends on the program I choose and what kind of job I have. I might try to find a job with the University (which offers an employee tuition benefit, but you have to work for the school for a year in order to claim it… and then it’s only reimbursement for one class per semester).

Cost/Style of Living

After I read all about the school, I went apartment shopping online. I pulled up ApartmentGuide.com and started browsing through the listings. Within a few minutes, I found this place. Not saying this is a perfect place, but it’s good for discussion purposes. It’s not much more than the place I have now, and it’s quite a lot larger/nicer based on the pictures on the website. Certainly a lot cheaper than comparable places here in Troy. It’s also only about 10 mins drive from downtown and the UT campus. Of course, I have no idea what the traffic is like, but both the campus and the apartment complex are located relatively near to the same interstate, so it can’t be that bad. It just depends on the traffic on that interstate!

I’m thinking about calling GEICO (my auto insurance provider) just to see how much my premiums would go up or down in Austin. I’m really curious, especially after I got a quote for my parents house in Ohio and my rate would actually go up $250/6mo. I thought NY had the highest insurance rates! The nicest thing about Texas is that there is no state income tax, and utilities are rather inexpensive (thanks to Mr. Oil!). The sales tax in Austin is 8.25%, the same as it is here in Rensselaer County. That is still a lot higher than where my grandparents live (5%) or Ohio’s 8%. Then again, it’s no more than I’m used to paying, and there is no state income tax, so I suppose overall it would be cheaper.

According to people I’ve talked to, the area around the campus is very economical. The restaurants, bars, cafes, etc cater to the budgets of the college students but are tasteful in the upkeep and selections of their establishments. The same cannot be said of Troy’s places. If it’s cheap, then it really looks it (except for Ali Baba and a few others). If you want a nice meal in a clean place, you will have to pay for it. The same is true for entertainment. Even tickets to the Troy Savings Music Hall will set you back $25-$30 (when you don’t get them free through the Union!).

People

The cool thing about UT Austin is that it’s more than just an Engineering/Science school. It’s also a law school, they have psych students, arts, theater, etc. You name it (including possibly basket weaving and paperdoll making) and they probably offer it as an undergrad degree. They also have a wide selection of graduate programs. The point is that there is a huge variety of people and interests at UT Austin. I think I would like that. I have to look far and wide at RPI to find people who will even hang out with me on the weekends (thus parting with their computer for a few hours) and it kinda sucks. You can read more about my people rants in my RPI entry.

I googled for Austin, TX and I discovered that it was recently chosen as the most eligible city for singles. You can read more about the rankings at that link, but essentially it’s because Austin is inexpensive and has a lot of job/career potential. Those seem to be the same things that attracted me. It’s quite an interesting coincidence.

Summary

This was a long post, huh? UT Austin doesn’t sound like a bad place at all. I’ll apply and if I get accepted, I will probably go and visit to try and determine if the school and I are actually a good fit for each other. Since it’s a bit different that what I’m accustomed to, I would want to make sure before I committed the next several years there! And if I ever do make a trip out there, you can bet photos will appear in the album!