Studying abroad at UT Austin (Academic year 13/14)
If you plan on studying abroad you are going to UT Austin you’ve made great decision! During my
year in Texas I made great friends, visited beautiful places and got a fantastic impression of the
United States.
Preparations
Before leaving you have to make sure to manage a few things. Make sure to book your flights in
advance and search online. This is how you can get the cheapest ones. Do not seek advice any tourist
agency’s advice. You’ll end up spending more money than online via expedia.de or fluege.de.
Insurance is another important issue! You don’t want to fall under UT’s health insurance plan
because that costs some 1000$. The cheapest german insurance provider for a year abroad is
probably ADAC but there is one problem: They won’t sign the required health insurance waiver.
Make sure to talk to ADAC’s officer for US health insurances. She will finally make sure that the
waiver gets signed. Concerning credits you want to transfer to your home university you’d better talk
to your professors in Germany that you plan on finish their course at UT. There are Syllabi available
online, so check whether classes are equivalent to the ones at home or not. Finally make your
professor sign an agreement that he/she will accept the grades from UT. You don’t want to come
back home and do the same course once again.
The most annoying thing is probably getting the visa for the US. The US administration is pretty strict
about that. UT will request your visa officially and eventually you’ll receive a letter. Then the
“trouble” starts. It is mandatory filling out an online form which takes almost two hours. Having
transferred 100€ to a lawyer’s office in Berlin you will finally set an appointment at the embassy in
Frankfurt or Munich. Don’t make one mistake: Buy the required DHL envelope (and NO other
one!).On average they make everyone wait in line for half an hour in front of the embassy and an
hour inside. In the end you leave your passport at the embassy and about two weeks later your visa
will be sent to you.
Plan on arriving at least a week and a half prior to the beginning of class. Three bars have to be
waived before being allowed to register for classes (insurance, talk to an advisor and immunization
bar which is no problem for Europeans). Getting used to the Texan heat and exploring UT and Austin
will take some time as well.
Housing is not easy to find in Austin. I applied about half a year in advance at the two big Cooporganizations. Living in a Coop was probably one of the best experiences during my year in Austin.
More about that and why it’s worth choosing a Coop is explained below:
Coop Life
One important thing to manage before starting a year abroad is finding an accommodation at your
host university. Since UT does not support internationals at all, this was up to me. Austin offers
something very special and unique. The so called Coops (Cooperative Housing) are some kind of
“alternative” community where between 15 up to 120 students live, cook and of course party
together. Often there are vegetarians or vegans in coops which makes meals healthier and less fatty
as one would expect in the United States. I lived at French House which is part of ICC (Inter
Cooperative Council) on 710W 21st Street. This is one of the two meat houses of ICC (and that’s why I
chose it). Bigger coops are for example 21st Coop right across the street from French House or Pearl
Street Coop right at the Corner. This makes 21st between Pearl St. and Rio Grande St. to one of the
most vivid locations at West Campus. I can only recommend living there. Especially at the very
beginning after my arrival my housemates helped me a lot getting around in Austin and UT.
Eventually strangers become acquaintances and acquaintances turn into friends. This is what makes
the coop experience special. Even though many people are there only for one year you care for each
other and help everyone wherever you can. That’s how coop life works. There’s two people cooking
for everyone else every night from Sunday to Friday, two people cleaning and so on. Others have
officer positions such as labor czar (I did that during fall term) or kitchen manager so that the house
is run smoothly. There were house meeting every two weeks where officers had to report what they
did during the last two weeks and we discussed several issues going on around the house. Parties are
all around the coops. Every ICC coop is doing their around the world party where every room has its
own theme and there’s one drink in every room. This and the mandatory big house party are the
semester highlights of the coops.
As mentioned I met some really impressive people and made really good friends. Without these
people my US experience wouldn’t have been half as great as it finally was. Being back home in
Germany I’m frequently contacting my friends in Austin.
UT and College life (and basketball, of course!)
College life is very different from what we expect from a university. First of all there’s a spirit that ties
everyone together. You’ll see people in burnt orange not only on campus but downtown and the
suburban areas. Everyone is proud of UT being part of Austin. Going downtown on a Friday night
there’s people on the bus singing the Texan song “The eyes of Texas are upon you”. By the way: This
song has to be memorized. It is mostly sung during football games. That’s probably the most
impressive thing about UT. Seriously! UT owns a stadium where more than 100000 people find a
place in. Even for people who don’t care about American football at all or just don’t know the rules
it’s a must see! Before the games there’s tailgating. It’s kind of like pregaming just in the afternoon or
even in the morning (if the game starts at 1 p.m.). People bring their grills and start having barbecue
hours before the game starts. Students organizations are all around at UT and have tents set up you
can just join. Meanwhile you have some free beers (Yes, it’s the only time drinking in public is
allowed!) and watch other college games at one of the screens.
Compared to Europe soccer is not a big deal. Americans follow Premier League soccer if they do at
all. Especially ManU and Arsenal are famous teams. For European fans it’s not easy following your
favorite team. Due to 7 hours of time difference Saturday games start at 8 in the morning and
Champions League takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. It was a really confusing
feeling watching the semifinals in the afternoon. Basketball is in the Second place just behind
American football. UT’s college team is still very young and it’s suspected that they’ll make it pretty
far in the 14/15 season. If you’ve been to a game in the German league college basketball will really
surprise you. They are as fast as German professionals even though they still go to college and are
not professional players yet. Talking about Basketball you have to see the best team of the NBA! San
Antonio is only an hour and a half away from Austin which is really close for Americans. If you like
basketball and watch ne NBA you probably know that so many times we promote the individual like
Lebron, Kobe Bryan or Kevin Durant. But then we leave out something unique and special and this is
team. What they play is pure and fundamental basketball. You need to appreciate this team and just
watch them play. If you want the glitz and glamour you better focus on another team. The Spurs
don’t have clowns or guys with huge egos. They have guys who do what they are told to do and
Timmy (Tim Duncan) is the guy who’s in charge of all that, he sets the tone on the floor. This
execution is second to none. You have to watch that team. I’ve never seen more selfish sportsmen or
a better team in any sports than those guys. Just terrific! In the end they won the final series this year
and broke record after record. I can just recommend going to San Antonio and watch a game or
better two. We even made it all the way down to the court!!
UT offers a lot of opportunities to do sports actively and non-professionally, too. Besides intramural
soccer, basketball, volleyball and many more (these are teams formed by students who play in a
league and finally compete in playoff games until there’s one best team) as well as sports classes.
These classes range from weight-lifting to running or tennis. I took a golf class myself. It’s a lot of fun
to learn but you need someone to give you a ride on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to the golf
course which is about 5 miles away from campus. I got better really fast and finally the class goes to
Butler’s Pitch’n Putt across the Town Lake to play 9 par 3 holes four times. You won’t regret taking
that course!
Classes
UT is organized in 18 different colleges and schools. As a Psychology student I went to the College of
Liberal Arts. This is surprising since Psychology counts as science in Germany. Most of these classes
were in the northern part of UT campus. While classes or lectures in germany are rather voluntary
most college teachers take attendance and if you miss more than 3 times (without excuse) you get a
worse grade or even fail the class. Skipping is serious business in the US. Overall the undergrad level
in the US is not as hard as German bachelor’s classes we’re used to. International students often
count to the 10% of the best students in the class. Undergrad classes are similar to what we are used
to from High School with attendance and a closer Teacher-Student relationship. The classes don’t
have one cumulative final but at least two if not three midterm exams. In sum this makes 12-15
exams in one Semester plus the weekly homework assignments. Workload in the US is in general
higher than in Germany and you have to be on top of your studies throughout the semester if you
want to earn good grades. This was one of the reasons why I chose to take one gradschool class in
spring. This class was most fun of all the classes I’ve taken at UT. There are about 10-15 PhD and
Master’s students in one class which makes it possible for the teacher to individually advice each
student in matters of his/her research. I learned how to scientifically program in MatLab doing
statistical analysis and data visualization. Grad school classes mostly do not have exams since
students are busy in their lab doing research. So teachers assign homework and readings that are
discussed the following week. Even though it’s not easy to get into grad school I recommend doing
the paperwork and getting the teacher, dean of students’ and grad school office’s signatures to
partake in one of these sophisticated classes. Further I worked in Professor Hayhoe’s lab which is
part of the Center for Perceptual Systems. Assisting Master’s Students in their projects and attending
weekly lab meetings where the lab staff talks about current research findings and single members
present the progress they’ve made.
Party the USA
For sure partying belongs to college life! Sixth Street is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. This doesn’t
exist anywhere in Germany and even in the US this amount of bars is rare. Every week from Thursday
to Saturday East (aka dirty) 6th Street is completely closed for cars and bars open until two. Since
mostly students go there prices for drinks are cheap especially at Soho and Shakespears. These two
are most people’s favorite bars. Some bars have Bullriding (You’re in Texas!) or fire-breathing
bartenders. Unfortunately bars close at two since this is official closing-time in the US. The only bar
open till three is Barbarellas on 7th and Red River. Everyone who’s not done at two tries to get in at
about 1:30. In comparison to East 6th West 6th is rather chill and there’s older people above 30. One
day during ACL weekend one (Austin’s most famous music festival) I ran into Lionel Richie at West
6th! Going across I-35 (one of the two big highways) the east side starts. There are bars for a rather
alternative audience. The nicest bars in Austin are probably on Rainey Street South of First Street.
Alternating bars and restaurants are lined up along a tiny street. Rainey Street is very charming and a
good spot for a rather fancy night out.
Texas and Austin Area
Texas has a lot to offer. The state is about twice the size of Germany but population is only half the
size there. This means a lot of nature to explore! Floating the river in San Marcos was probably my
most favorite thing to do in Texas. I went there with a group of 8 friends and floated down for four
hours having some beers and enjoying the nice weather. You better take some sunscreen and a hat
with you being in the Texan heat for such a long time. As mentioned earlier you have to go to San
Antonio not only to see the Spurs play but also to learn something about Texan history. The museum
around the Alamo tells the story of the struggle for independence even brighter than the Bullock
museum of Texas history in Austin. The riverwalk in San Antonio is a nice spot to chill out in the
shady places whereas the streets all around are busy.
Visiting Dallas/Fort Worth I found out that it’s pretty hard if you plan on visiting sites (so is Houston
I’ve heard from a few friends). It’s a gigantic metroplex but doesn’t have a lot to offer to its people
(besides Dirk Nowitzki’s fame). You need a car to drive around but besides a few museums I seriously
can’t tell what people how people spend their time besides working.
As just mentioned there’s a lot of nature in Texas. When winter break started my coop mates and me
went to Big Bend National Park and camped there for three days in December. This was just like in
Hollywood movies with tumbleweeds rolling along the road and devastated small towns surrounded
by leagues and leagues of dry desert. From the top of Emory peak we had a view I’ve never had
before. The horizon felt like being thousands of miles away without a single sign of civilization.
Road Tripping
During Spring break which is usually the second week of March South by Southwest (SXSW) takes
place in Austin. SXSW is the largest live music festival in the world and this is why Austin in called the
“live music capital of the world”. However, I decided not to stay but to go on a 5000 miles roundtrip
all the way to Los Angeles, San Francisco and back. We were two friends driving west for 4 days till
we reached Los Angeles. On our way we stopped at the Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands (both New
Mexico) and Joshua Tree National Park. Since many friends told us that LA was one of the uglier cities
we rather spent more time in San Francisco. A friend of ours lived there interning for apple which
gave us the opportunity to stay with him for two nights. On the way back we visited Yosemite
National Park, Sequoia National Park, Death Valley, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. My favorite
spot was the tunnel view of Yosemite Valley at sunrise. Nothing can compare to that! Grand Canyon
is fun to hike in but we only had one day so we did not make it all the way down to the Colorado
River. This would have meant to spend one more night at the basic camp inside the Canyon. Hiking in
to the most distant point that can be covered within a day took us about three hours – one way
(Down!!). I wouldn’t have thought that it can be that hard to climb back up to the rim. At about 8
p.m. we finally started to make our way back to Austin through the night with some 1000 miles to go.
One person driving while the other one was sleeping made this drive kind of boring but gave me
some time to reflect on the things I saw during the last two weeks. Some tips for such a trip are
comfortable sleeping pads and a tent as well as the National Park pass (saved us a lot of money) and
keeping a journal (it’s really easy to forget so many things that were amazing and funny).