Public research university in Austin, Texas, United States
How does this school stack up?
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 12 Nobel Prize–recipients, including (in addition to Weinberg):
Among other notable alumni and faculty, we may mention:
What does this school look for?
Annual Applications
50,575
Acceptance
39%
Graduation Rate
81%
Median SAT Score
1355
Median ACT Score
30
How much does it cost to attend?
Tuition (in-state)
$10,610
Fees (in-state)
$0
Averages for 10 years after enrolling
Avg Earnings
$73,900
Employed
92%
What's it like to attend this school?
Full time on-campus stats
Student Body
45K
Under-Grads
37K
Graduates
8K
Where will you be attending?
Location
110 Inner Campus Drive,
Austin TX
78712
Our answer to this is to show you the disciplines in which a school's faculty and alumni have had the highest historical influence. A school may be influential in a discipline even if they do not offer degrees in that area. We've organized two lists to show where they are influential and offer corresponding degrees, and where they are influential through scholarship although they don't offer degrees in the disciplines.
Who are University of Texas at Austin's Most influential alumni?
University of Texas at Austin's most influential alumni faculty include professors and professionals in the fields of Communications, Computer Science, and Physics. University of Texas at Austin’s most academically influential people include Walter Cronkite, J. M. Coetzee, and Bill Moyers.