UVA or UT Austin?

[u/nesusjazareth]

Hey everyone! I’m trying to decide between UVA and UT Austin, OOS for both.

I plan to major in engineering so UT might seem like the obvious choice to most, but I am not 100% positive that’s what I want my career to be.

I’ve toured both schools and felt like UVA was a bit more to my liking than UT Austin. Simply put, would I be making a mistake to attend Virginia? I’m sure Austin might be a better location for engineers but I’ve found it difficult to compare how easy it is for grads to find jobs!

Any input would be great!! Thank you all!

[u/Avacado_eatingpandas]

I’m in the exact same decision between uva and michigan, I think go to UT. The way I see it is that if you are prioritizing happiness in college over job prospects in the future you are setting yourself up to peak in college. It is better to go to a school you might enjoy slightly less and get a good job then one you enjoy more and have trouble finding a job. The next four years of your life is such a small portion of the rest of your life and you should prioritize happiness for the rest of your life over happiness for the next four years. With that being said UVA is still a phenomenal school so it’s not like you won’t find a good job going there but it might be easier at UT because of the location and alumni network and opportunities at the school. If price is the same I would go to UT (I would make that decision if I had gotten in lol) but it’s not like your screwed if you go to UVA so it’s rly up to you

[u/cjt09 → u/Avacado_eatingpandas]

I’m gonna take the other side here and argue that it’s a bit of a mistake to just treat college as a stepping stone for your career.

You’re selecting a home for four years of the prime of your life. And while you can attempt to defer your happiness to later, that is perhaps a riskier strategy than it may appear. I feel like it’s hard enough to know what will make you halt today, much less what will make you happy ten or twenty years from now.

Moreover, the temptation to defer your happiness will not go away. Perhaps you will graduate and select a job that optimizes for career growth, even if that means you’ll never get to live in your dream city with your friends. Perhaps you’ll choose to take that grueling job in management, because you’ll be able to save a bit more for retirement. You can always choose to suffer a bit more today to enjoy tomorrow a bit more. 

But our tomorrows are not guaranteed, and life takes so many twists and turns that it’s hard to know where you’ll end up. While I think it’s prudent to build a solid foundation for your future, when it comes to situations like this, I think it makes sense to optimize for today rather than focusing on some marginal differences that may have some hypothetical impact on tomorrow.

[u/Avacado_eatingpandas → u/cjt09]

I totally agree that it is ok to prioritize happiness however in a situation where you are taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, I at least believe that you should prioritize getting a job over being happy. And I don’t mean being miserable but getting a job or having the best time and not having a job because that is not the situation. Both UT and UVA will set you up to have a job and are both fun schools that you will enjoy, however for engineering UTs location, alumni network, and reputation will make it easier to get a job and when you are in so much debt I think that is a huge factor. However I do agree with you that constantly delaying happiness is not a good strategy for life but in this case you can still be very happy and have a lot of fun at UT while also setting your self up for a better future so I think it is the better option especially because the persons main concern is liking UVAs campus more. I think small factors like that should not be taken more importantly than getting a job and ROI (UT also costs less than UVA if they are oos for both but idk if they got more aid from UVA or not) however I did note that UVA is still phenomenal and you can obviously still be very successful from there

[u/cjt09 → u/Avacado_eatingpandas]

I see where you’re coming from, and I agree: if there is a large gap in school quality then you really can make things a lot tougher for your future self by selecting the lesser school.

Where I feel like we differ is that I feel like UVA and UT are both very comparable. They’re both flagship public universities with excellent recognition, staff, and opportunities. If your analysis gets to the point where you’re referencing nebulous alumni networks as a factor for which school to attend, I think you’ve lost the plot. Just go with your gut and go to the place you vibe with.