@maplefall I really like UT Austin. Our kids have visited and they have really enjoyed it. However, as @nogddg has stated, there is no border, the campus seems to flow into the city. I think that it’s one of the friendliest colleges that we have visited, the students are always willing to help and share information. During my visits I haven’t felt crowded, except during a home football game 
There are Austin Metro bus stops on all sides of the campus. Austin Metro operates an airport bus that goes from campus, downtown and then to Bergstrom airport. UTA has amazing facilities and research labs. I’ve eaten lunch several times there and the food is good. The profs and staff seem pretty accessible for a major research university.
As an alum, I was happy when my son toured and liked the campus. Great facilities, friendly students, and nice campus area. Austin is a great city with lots to do and many intern opportunities.
“In response to canine mascots, I think the tartan scottie is adorable!”
Most everyone loves a dog mascot. At least the real ones (versus the guy in the weird suit).
Last week during the epic upset of the #1 UVA Cavaliers (talk about an awful mascot!) by the #16 UMBC Retreivers, the internet exploded with people posting all kinds of dog related stuff. Pictures of retreivers watching the game on TV; Air Bud dunk memes and gifs, etc. etc. etc.
We could have a whole separate thread for great schools that have bad mascots. Either dumb ones (Stanford, UVA, Vanderbilt, Wake, etc.) or wimpy ones (Quakers, Lords) that would be chewed up by your typical bear, wildcat or tiger. Best mascot, imo, is the Colorado buffalo.
The Stanford tree would destroy that poor buffalo with sly wit and humor… 
Okay- back to the snark. Not really unexpectedly, because it wasn’t a pre-planned visit, but because we were in the neighborhood we stopped by UMASS- Amherst. 3 words- generic, unattractive, uninspiring. Overheard my DH say to my D, that sometimes public universities have big architectural fails. Lol.
Thank you so much for your inputs. @nogddg @CollegeGrad79 @Rivet2000.
D is making final decision where to go for her college life. It sounds UT Austin is her top choice. We are unable to visit the campus so any suggestion/comment is appreciated.
Interested in reading so many stories and best wishes to everyone.
@maplefall where has she visited and liked or hated(to keep in spirit of thread)? That may help with comparisons.
@maplefall - I looked back at your posts. McCombs School at UTA really strong in entrepreneurship/startups and other areas. They seem to have good ties with other schools on UT’s campus like engineering. They take advantage of the booming economy in Austin (tech startups) and Texas. I also know quite a few direct admit students to Kelly School at Indiana University Bloomington. They really enjoy it there. Bloomington, IN is a really nice college town and the Kelly School has good reputation (probably not quite as good in the US as McCombs, a bit more regional reputation). Their salaries are a bit lower than some business schools, as grads often take jobs in lower cost cities in the Midwest. Many of their grads work in Chicago.
The need to think about jackets (much less coats) was a small strike against colleges for my son.
BTW, Pace University’s mascot is the Setters. Very cute.
@maplefell I highly suggest you start a new thread with your question and your daughter’s choices. You’ll get a broader opinion than posting it here on the snark thread.
@wisteria100 did you just drive past the strip mall part of Amherst ? The other side of Amherst is kind of cute, more old fashioned New England kind of town, but small. II wouldn’t say it’s a great town, but it’s quaint and has stuff there for the kids.
A lot of people drive in one way to Umass and miss the " cute" town, and only get to see the strip mall part of town if they use the other exit/entrance.
Now UMass itself, has a pretty generic big university kind of feel to it. It’s part old, part bad architecture, mixed with some newer nicer buildings. Pretty standard for a state U. I’ve seen worse, seen better.
Agreed that UMass Amherst has this odd generic feel and feels very haphazard…sort of like the bad zoning in Houston. (Shade thrown at two places in sentence…SCORE!) Town of Amherst felt totally fine to my kids. Enough stuff to keep them occupied for a few years. Pales in comparison to Burlington VT, of course…but still…
@RightCoaster We did see both the cute Amherst town and the non cute, but useful strip mall part. It was the campus itself we had the reaction to.
UMass did not exist as such until the 1950’s. Before that it was Massachusetts State College. In the 1960’s when they decided to expand they essentially built an urban university but with the buildings spread out: high rises despite abundant land available.
The 1950-60s was a tough architectural period, IMO, with all that Brutalist junk they threw up when lots of state colleges were expanding.
There are sooooo many campuses where the eye sore is the big library built sometime in the 1960s.
If ND’s library didn’t have the touchdown Jesus mural on one side, it would have been bull-dozed a long time ago.
Brown (which is my top underwhelming school) has that ugly tower science library. Joke is that tower has the best views in Providence – because that is the only place where you can’t see that building.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s well endowed universities commissioned famous architects to design avant garde buildings. Most of them have aged poorly, both physically and functionally. E.g. the many Sert designed buildings on several campuses.
Midwest Goose http://edgeeffects.net/canada-goose/
At my alma mater UNC, which is overall really pretty IMHO, there is one 1970s classroom building monstrosity that we were told was basically concrete with just tiny slivers of vertical windows b/c it was built soon after student protests in the late 1960s and the administration was worried about students throwing rocks through the windows during the next uprising so they made them practically non existent. Not sure if it’s true or legend, but an anecdote I remember from my campus tour back in the 80s!
Fort., it’s not on the historic upper or lower quad so it doesn’t blight the overall campus.
And I remember seeing that really ugly science tower @ Brown during the tour. . .
@TomSrOfBoston – would that include that odd library at the center of Yale? I think it was a library, but can’t recall for sure. It felt out of place but the tour guide seemed very proud of it b/c of the architect. Seemed pretty 1960s to me.
Like Dulles airport, LOL!