jmcomicÂþ»­

My time at The University of Texas was the best time of my life. It is a huge school, right in the middle of Austin. My sister didn't want to attend this school as she was scared she would get lost in the shuffle of such a big institution. I understand that worry. There are issues with having a school so large; there is a sense that your advisors don't have enough time for you or a full understanding of your classes, there are some professors who you will hardly see and you'll have to speak with... Read More their TAs, etc. However, there are so many resources available that I never for a moment felt I didn't have what I needed to succeed. UT is a great place for research and is more than willing to help you if you have a project you want to pursue. As a bonus, it is in the heart of downtown Austin. This is most definitely a boon ,as Austin is such an amazing and vibrant city.

UT Austin offers a great environment for its students not only academically, but socially as well. The level of education is very high and harder than most other schools in Texas, especially for the sciences. They offer lots of opportunities for research and there are many labs with a variety of research topics that may suit your interest. Socially, UT has a tremendous amount of student organizations and they make it very simple to get involved with. Most students live on or next to campus, so it's... Read More very convenient to get to after-school activities or meetings which are held on campus. I would encourage you to get involved with something so that you have a group to hangout/study with.
Biochemistry in particular is known to be a very hard major, and a lot of the learning will happen on your own, not necessarily through the teachers. The teachers provide the resources and are always available for questions, but do expect to be studying a lot on your own. Personally, I found the content presented by my teachers to be extremely interesting and they try to make it applicable to daily life. The tests can be very hard, but studying in groups helps a lot (you'll realize you're not the only one that's lost!), but don't let that scare you, it is do-able, and often times generously curved haha. Teachers care and tend to be very understanding of personal circumstance and are very eager to help, so try to go to office hours and develop a relationship with your professor.

What made my experiences at UT worthwhile was not only what occurred in the classroom but also the opportunities that occurred outside the classroom. The extremely diverse campus provide some incredible opportunities for me, including research, volunteer, and the opportunity to meet other meet passionate students that shared the same interests as me. The campus and city is so large that the opportunities are endless as long as you are willing to put yourself out there. The one thing I will say about... Read More UT's program for the College of Natural Science as a student that pursued a degree in biology is that the class sizes never seem to get smaller. Each class size for the biology courses I took ranged anywhere from about 150-300 students, so getting to know your professor on a personal level is quite difficult.

The University of Texas at Austin has excellent Biology curriculums. I would highly recommend their Neurobiology degree plan to students preparing to pursue an MD or a PhD program in the neuroscience. I would NOT recommend this degree plan to students looking to find a career straight out of their undergraduate career since there is close to no jobs for a Bachelor's in Neurobiology (in this case I would suggest pursuing the field of Microbiology instead). As an aspiring healthcare professional, the... Read More courses I took at UT Austin were challenging yet valuable because of the passionate professors eager to ensure their students' success in their class. The only trouble I faced was the large student body population that made safety of the campus weak (i.e. recent assault/murder of Haruka Weiser) as well as the usefulness of their career advisors since they do not have the time to really get to know each student and tailor their advices to fit the students's own interests.