By rights, the University of Texas (known within Texas itself as “UT,” for short) ought to be 40 years older than it is. In 1839, the Republic of Texas officially set aside 40 acres of prime real estate in the center of the new country’s capital city, Austin, as the site for the campus of a national university. The Texas Congress also granted 288,000 acres of land, mainly in the western regions of the Republic, as a financial endowment for the future university.
Much later, oil was discovered beneath a lot of that land. As a result, UT’s endowment is now worth a little more than $30 billion, making the school by far the wealthiest public university in the country. Indeed, among all American universities, UT is second only to Harvard (see above) in the size of its endowment.
However, the actual building of the university was long delayed, first by the accession of the Republic of Texas to the United States in 1845, and then by the coming of the Civil War. As a defeated Confederate state, Texas was dealt with harshly by the Federal government during the period of Reconstruction. Eventually, however, the state recovered enough independence in running its own affairs to carry through the long-delayed project of building a state university.
Today, UT is the flagship campus of the far-flung University of Texas System, and is now officially known as the “University of Texas at Austin” to distinguish it from the 13 other campuses, which include eight full-fledged universities and five separate medical school/hospital complexes. The overall system comprises more than 300,000 students, faculty, and staff, while UT’s share in that number stands at around 75,000.
Although it is only fair to say that Texas itself has never exactly been known as a cultural mecca, nevertheless with the cash at its disposal UT has been able to attract a faculty—and to provide them with facilities—that easily rival those of the best Ivy League schools. For example, in 1982, in an academic coup that reverberated around the entire country, UT managed to lure the world-famous Nobel Prize–winning physicist, Steven Weinberg, away from Harvard.
In all, UT is associated with 13 Nobel Prize–recipients, including (in addition to Weinberg):
Among other notable alumni and faculty, we may mention:
According to Wikipedia, The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 graduate students and 3,133 teaching faculty as of Fall 2021, it is also the largest institution in the system. It is ranked among the top universities in the world by major college and university rankings, and admission to its programs is considered highly selective.
Annual Applications | Acceptance | Graduation Rate | Median SAT Score | Median ACT Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
66,077 | 29% | 88% | 1340 | 29 |
Tuition (in-state) |
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$11,752 |
If you graduate from University of Texas at Austin, then you can expect to earn an average of $73,900 per year. You also have a 92% chance of being employed after 10 years.
Demographic data is for full-time, on-campus students.
Student Body | Under-Grads | Graduates |
---|---|---|
45,281 | 37,647 | 7,634 |
University of Texas at Austin is located at 110 Inner Campus Drive, Austin TX 78705
University of Texas at Austin is known for it's academic work in the following disciplines:
University of Texas at Austin's most influential alumni include professors and professionals in the fields of Social Work, Communications, and Business. Here are some of University of Texas at Austin's most famous alumni:
University of Texas at Austin's most influential faculty include professors in the fields of Social Work, Communications, and Business. Here are some of University of Texas at Austin's most famous alumni: