Original Article (Korean)

This article is a reflection on my experience as an exchange student at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) from the Fall 2022 to Spring 2023 semester. I’ll share my journey, from the visa application process to academic life, cultural experiences, and personal growth. This is a guide for prospective exchange students, particularly those from Sungkyunkwan University, offering insights into what to expect and how to make the most of your time at UT Austin.

Visa Application Process

After receiving the acceptance notification for the exchange program, UT will contact you via email. The MyIO page provides detailed requirements and documents, so you can prepare everything through that site.

Preparations Before Departure

I purchased a one-way flight ticket three months before departure. Since I planned to travel to other regions after the exchange program before returning to Korea, I bought the return flight ticket later. Austin has a large daily temperature range, so please check the weather according to your travel period and pack appropriate clothing.

Dormitory/Accommodation

There are largely three types of accommodation for students near UT:

  1. On-Campus Dormitory: Dormitories operated by the university. Mostly freshmen live here, and there are dormitory dining halls nearby. However, the housing prices are very expensive.
  2. College Houses: Co-ops operated by non-profit organizations, which are cheaper as a result.
  3. Apartment Sublease: Living alone. The monthly rent is expensive, and it’s hard to meet people compared to dormitories, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
  • Chosen Accommodation: College Houses – Halstead
  • Location: Off-campus
  • Cost/semester: 3,334 USD
  • Rating: Good

In exchange for the low price, you have to do 4 hours of labor per week. Labor includes cleaning common areas of the dormitory, cooking, collecting trash, etc. The officers work together to maintain the dormitory through these tasks, and it’s a good way to make friends while working. The facilities are a bit old but usable. There are several dormitories operated by College Houses, and I stayed at Halstead. It’s a 5-story building called Super Co-op, where Laurel, Nueces, and Halstead occupy floors 1-2, 3, and 4-5, respectively.

One of the most surprising things about living in a co-op was the large number of Koreans. Students from other universities in Korea tend to gather at the co-op after reading previous reviews. There are many foreign friends as well, but you might end up hanging out only with Korean friends.

Course Registration

The course registration method is not much different from Sungkyunkwan University. You can add courses to a virtual “backpack” and register on the registration day. Using the Chrome extension “ut registration plus” makes the registration process much easier.

Class Structure

2-CARDIOVAS & WEIGHT TRAINING

I signed up for this class thinking it included cardio in addition to weight training, but it was disappointing because the one-hour class was divided into 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weight training. Friends who took weight training-only classes had good reviews, so I recommend trying those.

5-STROKE TECH & FITNESS SWIM

This is a swimming class. The professor is very cheerful and humorous. It’s a bit of a hassle to wake up early, but swimming every week is refreshing and enjoyable. I took the intermediate class among beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes. Later, you also learn 5-meter diving, which is also quite fun. UT has its own swimming team, and the class is held in the same facility where the team trains, so the facilities are excellent.

DATA SCIENCE LABORATORY

Covers the basics of machine learning. There are weekly team assignments, one midterm exam, one Kaggle competition, and one final project. If you have already taken AI-related courses, the topics will overlap a lot, so I don’t recommend it.

ALGORITHMS

This is an algorithms class. There are a total of five exams, which is a lot. The professor is unique and generous, but the class is not very efficient in terms of value for time.

MIND AND BODY

You can hear the professor’s sophisticated British English. The professor graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics and later did a master’s and Ph.D. in philosophy, so he approaches the topics in a very scientific way. It covers various interesting topics such as mind-body dualism, free will, and consciousness. There are three exams, and if you review the PPTs the day before, you can get a decent grade. If you are interested in these topics, take this class. It was one of the most impressive classes.

FILM HIST 1960 TO PRESENT-WB

This course covers Hollywood film history from the 1960s onwards. Each week, you watch a movie and have a quiz and lecture about it. I was interested in movies and expected more in-depth content, but it wasn’t quite like that. However, it was a very informative class where you could learn about films, directors, methods, and techniques that had a significant impact on film history. The difficulty level of the class and assignments is very low, so you can take it comfortably without much pressure.

ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIETY

This course explores how architecture affects individuals and society from various perspectives. It’s a surprisingly important topic, and my perspective on architecture changed after taking this class. However, the class felt a bit boring.

MCHN LRN/DATA ANLYTCS EDGE AI

This is a follow-up course to 460J. It covers model compression, knowledge distillation, federated learning, etc., and since it’s a cutting-edge field, you encounter many recent research and achievements in the class. The professor and TAs put a lot of effort into the class and assignments, and it was a useful class where you learn practical knowledge that goes beyond just the classroom.

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

This was a really difficult course. The professor is over 80 years old and a prominent figure in the history of computer architecture. The difficulty of the lab assignments and exams is beyond imagination. It was extremely challenging at the time, but I have no regrets, and I learned a lot about computer architecture. I feel proud to have studied and competed with students at UT, where ECE and CS are ranked within the top 10 globally.

Evaluation Method

It varies from class to class, so refer to the syllabus. At UT, the highest grade is A, not A+, so keep that in mind if you want to receive letter grades.

Culture and Leisure Activities

  • Leisure activities at school: You can enjoy bowling, pool, PlayStation, and Switch on the B1 floor of the Texas Union building. There’s a well-equipped esports facility created by DELL to promote Alienware. The Blanton Museum of Art, located within the school, recently opened, and it’s free for UT students.

  • Sports facilities: There are two places, Greg Gym and RecSports, where you can do various sports like squash, table tennis, basketball, swimming, etc., and the facilities are great.

  • The campus is large, so it’s a bit tiring to walk around. I used the OrangeBike Project, which rents out bikes for $50 per semester, and it saved me a lot of time. However, make sure to choose a good bike when you first get it. And take good care of it. I had my bike stolen towards the end, which was a hassle.

  • The Bullock Texas State History Museum is located right near the school. You can learn about Texas history in detail, and it’s worth a visit if you’re bored. There’s an IMAX Theater inside the museum, which is really worth visiting. They often re-release classic movies, so check their website regularly.

  • Travel destinations: The only travel destinations accessible by car from Austin are essentially San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. They can’t be compared to big cities like New York or LA, but they have their own attractions and many interesting things unique to Texas, so I recommend all three. I took time off during the semester on weekends to rent a car and visit with friends. For other cities, take a plane.

Thoughts and Overall Review

Before going on an exchange program, you naturally have expectations and assumptions about the school, the US, and the people. However, when I actually went there, many things were different from what I had expected. Before going on the exchange program, I thought I would only hang out with American students at UT. However, as mentioned earlier, there are many exchange students and international students from Korea, so if you wanted to, you could live a day without speaking a single word of English.

I thought I would only spend time with foreign friends, but I naturally became friends with Korean students and hung out with them, which made me confused and self-critical at first. However, Korean exchange students were also high-achieving individuals from other universities with a lot to learn from. If you, like me, expected to use English as much as possible, you might be surprised at first, but don’t be too obsessed with using English and try to find a balance, making both Korean and American friends.

The school is an excellent place. UT has an integrated campus, and many exchange students from humanities departments in Korea also come, so you can meet diverse people. The most grateful thing was that the school did not discriminate against exchange students at all and provided equal opportunities for participation in various activities and academics as regular students. In that sense, there are many opportunities, so if you have the will, you can learn a lot.

Austin is also a good city. Although not as big as Silicon Valley, it is a steadily growing city with many tech companies moving in, and there are many interesting music festivals and activities happening throughout the city. There’s a saying, “Keep Austin Weird.” It means that even as Austin continues to grow and become a big city, it should not lose its original character. High-rise buildings are constantly being built, so I don’t know about the future, but while I was there, Austin was a sufficiently unique city.

One of the reasons for going on an exchange program is to have various experiences, but I think the most important thing is to break the previous expectations and illusions through these experiences and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the world. The past year of exchange student life at UT Austin was an incredibly valuable and precious experience for me, and I learned a lot not only academically but also personally. If you are interested, I hope you will carefully consider what you want to gain from the exchange program and make the most of this important opportunity.