Thoughts

So my first year at UT is officially over. Finals got done on Saturday, and tomorrow I move out from the dorms for good (well, at least as far as I can tell). I figure now's a good time to be posting thoughts and impressions, both about the place as well as my own experiences.

Pros

• On the whole, it's a great school, no bones about it. It's a lot better than anything I saw in Dubai or India for sure.
• The women.
  
• The quality of education is light years ahead of anything I saw in Dubai or India for something at this level.
• Living by myself has been fun - and easier than I thought it would be. Ramen for the win!
  
• Trips back home to Dubai, or visits to relatives and friends in India are a lot more fun.
• The place is huge. There are a crapload of people. Even if you're the model introvert, chances are you'll make more than a few friends. I know I've met more than my fair share of lazy roommates who like to skip class, CS majors (*cough* Sanju *cough*), engineering majors who like to sound off about how their own engineering major is better than the others, people who drink like there's no tomorrow, people who eat like there's no tomorrow, and clueless Indians. Well, that really should read Indian. (How can you NOT know where the Gym is when you're standing across the damn road from it?)
• Did I mention the women?
  

Cons

• The long trans-Atlantic flights.
• If you're an international student like me, you'd better get used to feeling like your privacy is being violated every time you fly in. Finger-prints, photos and lenghty immigration procedures are just the icing on the cake. I don't even want to know the number of government databases that have my personal information in them.
  
• The place is huge. There are a crapload of people. The downside to this is that classes are huge (to the tune of 200 to 400 people for intro classes), and the chances of you running into someone you know while walking around campus is minimal at best.
• If you're not a terminal alcoholic who'd rather spend the weekend relaxing instead of going out and getting drunk, you're probably not going to enjoy the large number of NOISY people getting drunk and annoying the crap out of you on Friday nights. We non-drinkers are a dying breed.
• You could get unlucky and end up with REALLY crappy professors - like the one I had for microeconomics in the summer.
• 90% of the people here have next to no clue where Dubai is... or even what it is for that matter. Other international students do a lot better when it comes to this.
  
• It's Texas.
• I have to take a Computer Proficiency Test to enroll in some business classes. Those fuckers...

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