Smart girl. My daughter looked at UT too, but decided on a small private university in Georgetown a few miles north of Austin. She loves it and heads down I-35 a few times a week to visit her high school friends who go to UT. The only thing I hear her UT friends complain about is the campus parking situation. A few of them left their cars at home because it's so bad. They say the campus shuttle works well.
Well, Pharmboy; you've done your level best. You've taught her right from wrong; what is moral and what isn't. Now, she's going to decide for herself 'who' she is going to be. She'll make some decisions that will make you proud, she'll likely make some that you will wish you were never heard about.
But, for a town; there are plenty of places a lot worse than Austin. Now, I'm a So. Dakota boy; and I'll tell you flat out, when my alma mater calls for money; my response is "call me again, and I'll sue you for harassment. Never call me again, do not write me; If my employer's stock takes off (again) and I have to give money to a school for tax purposes ..... it's going to UT Austin."
Why? UT loves their students, you see the pride UT takes in it's students is second only to the pride the students take in UT. My Alma Matter was more concerned about abusing their students and taking their money; forget what the kids want or think .... their purpose was to give the university money, and be gratefull that they are allowed to hang around between registration periods.
An added bonus of UT over Texas A&M. The Aggies are truly insecure psychotics. Wear an A&M bumper sticker, shirt or hat; and frankly very, very few people in Austin will care. You see, to the Austinites, Texas A&M is an annoying little brother.
But, wear the Longhorn in Aggie-land; and you are in for some unpleasant experiences. The aggies hate UT and everything about Austin. While the Aggies are jealous and insecure, we Austinites have bigger things to worry about .... like, is Rudy's gonna run out of their ribs before I get mine?
Congratulations to her, Pharmboy. UT is tough. My son is a UT graduate. (Ph.D - Psychology). What's her major?
That being said, many of the wonderful things that were around on campus when I was a student are gone: Captain Quackenbush's Intergalatic Espresso Cafe and Desert Company (Quack's got me thru college with its nearly intervenous drip of caffeine), Les Amis, Mad Dog & Beans, The Varsity Theatre... but many are still there: Scholz' Biergarten, Dirty Martin's Kumbak (up the Drag quite a ways, but still easily walkable), and any of a number of Vietnamese food carts that allowed me not to go hungry after I'd spent all of the rest of my money on books and booze.
There's nothing to be afraid of in intellectual diversity---as long as your daughter stands up for her beliefs. I had a very liberal government professor who announced his colors at the beginning of the semester, telling any students uncomfortable with him should transfer out, but that he didn't care what you believed as long as you could support it in your writing. For that, I truly admired him. He also had get-togethers (totally apolitical) for his students, where he would provide beer and accompany Irish drinking songs on guitar. Sadly, Prof. Philpott committed suicide not long after I graduated. But I had some fantastic professors, a wonderful class teaching the history of the development of science that had us reading Galileo, Tycho Brahe and other direct source texts, and a class on art history that serves me well even today. I still remember the German Stammtisch on Wednesdays held by Professor Michael and his wife, who always baked treats for the occasion and also sewed the costumes for our German language plays (we also performed at Winedale, like the UT summerschool group that performs Shakespeare there).
Anywhere in the world you meet a Longhorn, you're guaranteed to find at least *something* in common---your love of The University!
Not good news here for UT.
I put my son into UT at Austin and he partyied(sp) and screwed up the whole year. I told him when he got back home (in Houston) to go ahead and get himself the hamburger flipping job that will now be his career. He did and after a while begged me to give him another try, I did.
Long-story short, he's now has a PhD in physics and is FReeper 'Charge Carrier.' He got his PhD from ASU (Arizona State University) after they recruited him to work in their super-conducting program. He is presently managing one of the government funded satellite programs in the LA area.