Okay, I'll step up. Texas 1L taking questions.

[redacted]

Shoot.

[botbot]

Angry at all about the chance at falling to 19 in the rankings?

[Don Karnage]

Is there a lot of student satisfaction with Texas? Do the students love their school?

[Shark Week]

How hot is it? Be honest.

[redacted]

Working backwards.

For the first few weeks it was unbelievably hot.  To compensate, the law school must keep the thermostat at 59 degrees.  But I can already feel it cooling down, and I can't wait until February.  I don't think the temperature/weather is anything but a positive.

Along the same lines, I am new to Austin.  I think you'll quickly find that people from Austin or have experiences with Austin (by and large) absolutely love it.  I am definitely not an exception.  I think the best way to describe the Austin vibe would be to imagine taking any of the major college towns in the country (Madison, Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, Berkley, etc.) and dropping it in the middle of Texas.  You get all the benefits of the college town (cool bars, interesting people, progressive politics, tons of arts, etc.) and all the benefits of Texas (amazing food, incredibly nice people, etc.).  If you think you'd hate living in Texas, you might not hate living in Austin....  But at the same time the Texas feeling isn't gone (football's a huge deal, I just got back from the Rice blowout).

The only redhed I know has initials K.S.

I think UT, USC, Vandy, WUSTL, and UCLA will take up the space between the top 14 and 20 for quite some time.  But, and obviously I'm biased, I think that if any of the schools has a chance to crack into the top 14, it is UT.  The survey scores are the hardest factor to game, and UT is in solid shape there.

Anything else?  Hope I can be of help, generally I'm very happy with my choice (if any of the regulars are around, I was choosing between UT, USC, and WUSTL ($$$)).

Edit: I missed a question.  A lot of student satisfaction has to do with job placement, and I obviously have no experience with that.  But I can say that my group of friends is very impressed with our profs, social lives, mentor/society program, etc.  So as a 1L only a couple months in, I'm quite satisfied.

[redacted]

What part of Austin is the school in?  Do most students live near the campus?  I know Austin has a relatively low COL compared to other major cities, but how much rent do you think the average law student pays there?

UT is kind of a second downtown a couple miles north of the actual downtown.  There's plenty of stuff going on right around campus.  The law school is on the northern edge of campus (just west of the corner Dean Keeton and Medical Arts).  Fire up google maps and it isn't hard to see what I'm talking about....  I have a condo which I'm renting for about 700/month a couple of blocks from the law school.  I'm in the relatively expensive Hyde Park area, which is fantastic because it so close to school and such a chill place to live, but is a little on the expensive side.  I'd say I pay a little above average.

[redacted]

I don't go to UT Law but I would love to if I can get in (praying for my LSATs next Saturday). But seriously, I would boldly stake the claim that Austin is one of the greatest cities for a student (if not the greatest). Yes, I am biased but seriously, the weather is great. The social scene is awesome. The music scene... we are known as the Live Music Capital of the World. Every band WILL come to Austin on their tour. The food... you can't get any better than Tex-Mex. And the whole atmosphere is very accepting and very chilled out. There so many local businesses that it would take years for someone to go to all the different restaurants. If you walk into almost any building, everybody is wearing sandals and a t-shirt. The idea or notion of suit and tie is almost unheard of in most places... of course this doesn't mean its lacking for professionalism. Its the capital city of Texas and rightfully so, politics and the law are huge here.

The only problem with this city is everybody loves it too much. Almost nobody wants to leave Austin when they graduate and only do so with reluctantly. And I think maybe because of this, there is year around construction but thats expected in any growing city. So be warned: if you come to Austin, you will not want to leave. 

Good luck on the exam, I haven't quite made it to that point yet, but I definitely can see it happening.

Also, you still out there botbot?  I'm curious why you're so sure about the rankings drop...

[Meliss1086]

I'm an undergrad at UT, so I can't comment on the law school. Here's my overview of the city/campus, though.

Cost of living in Austin is pretty low. I rent a 1 bedroom apartment 3 miles north of campus (10 minute bus ride) for $500 a month.

Campus is 14 blocks from the famous 6th street, and most of the major law offices fall between 1st and 12th. Austin has branches of Akin Gump, Fulbright and Jaworski, and Vinson and Elkins. It's also the state capital, so there are a lot of opportunities for people interested in politics or public policy.

City transportation is very reliable, though you do have to ride with all the crazy hobos. Even though every city has these types, Austin's are weirder- the city's unofficial motto is "Keep Austin weird". Most of the buses run from 7am through 11pm.

As far as safety goes, campus is pretty safe. I've walked around campus at 1 or 2 am and felt perfectly safe. You wouldn't want to leave your laptop sitting  unlocked in the library while you went to the bathroom, though.  There are areas of Austin you should avoid living in (Riverside, Oltorf, West Campus or anywhere east of 35 basically). No one is ever surprised to hear about "another murder" on Riverside.

You can't go wrong with Austin if you're looking for entertainment. As some previous posters mentioned, Austin is the "live music capital of the world" and you can find almost any genre of music in a live performance on a weekend. Austin also has a unique location in that it's in the heart of the hill country, surrounded by lakes, and filled with parks. There are parks less than a mile from the heart of downtown that are really great for running, volleyball, picnics, taking dogs, etc. There's no shortage of coffee shops/bookstores/movie theaters (The student union finally got around to giving us a Starbucks!). You'll never starve in this city- there's tons of restaurants within a stone's throw of campus. Pluckers, anyone?

The weather: It's hot. Really hot. Really humid. I grew up in Texas, so I've lived here for 2 decades, and it's still hot. You don't ever get used to it. It just sucks your desire and ability to complain about it away from you. Winters are great though. Most people BBQ over Thanksgiving/Christmas. We get about 2 weeks of real coats and scarves type weather, and any other time you can get away with a sweatshirt.

Also, Austin is expanding really quickly. In the north, the Domain was recently built (There was a NYTimes article about this). It's a multi-million dollar shopping area with everything from Apple to Dooney and Burke to Tiffany's. The city is really becoming a mixture of "hippy liberal potheads" and "conservative black tie affair industry barons". It really just makes the city more unique and interesting because there's something here for anyone.

And there's just something about being a Longhorn that makes you happy to be here. I imagine that even law students take pride in watching Texas football and have fun tailgating behind the stadium.  Like Redacted said, you get to live in Texas without having to actually *live in Texas* (read: Austin is in the only county in the state that voted pro gay marriage. Also, our local transvestite hobo "Leslie" regularly gets 11% of the mayoral vote).

Not that I've said all this- I love Austin for college, but I couldn't imagine living here my whole life. It's my opinion that the city caters a little too much to the Longhorn crowd, which is great when you're still in school, but gets old over time.

Hope this helps!

[utexas2010]

Couldnt agree more with Mwliss1086, its a great city for college students but all the adults here seem to be obsessed with the longhorn culture...kind of sad haha but its a great city although Im trying to get uot of Texas asap.

[tonyp]

All of the adults are obsessed with Longhorn culture?  I'm not really sure what this means.  Folks are certainly obsessed with Longhorn football, I'll grant, but that's a handful of Saturdays in the fall.