questions about moving to austin! (West: apartment, to rent, school)

[ctnash]

hola folks,
my husband & i are considering Univ. of Texas for our graduate studies next year. we're both really laid back, chill people so i'm wondering if austin wouldn't be a little too rowdy for us. a girl from my hometown attends there & i'm constantly seeing photos of her on facebook getting plastered 4-5 times a week...definitely not the lifestyle we're looking to lead.
also, since we'll both be in school full-time, we'll be poor (go figure), so i'm wondering if there are parts of austin that wouldn't be outrageously expensive to rent. we don't need a real glitzy, glamorous apartment, but something safe and quiet is a must.
lastly, the big question: is austin a great place to live??
any and all answers to my multitude of questions would be much appreciated! thanks!

[CptnRn]

Austin will accommodate just about any lifestyle you desire. Its not all or even mostly a party town. I came here in 77 from Univ. of Colorado, as a newly married graduate student, 3 years in the architectural masters degree program and partied relatively little, but thoroughly enjoyed living in Austin. We loved Austin so much we never left. You will find the winter weather much nicer then Ann Arbor or Colorado. It gets hot in the summer but has lots of lakes and swimming holes you can go cool off at for outdoors activities. You can swim in Lake Travis from April through October, more if you don't mind cold water.

Search the Austin forum for "student" and you will find numerous recent threads discussing the various options for university students in Austin.

[hoffdano]

There are so many threads here that probably answer 95% of your questions. Most here believe Austin is a great place to live. If you want to be laid back there is nothing stopping you from being that way. Just because a relative gets plastered all the time hardly means everyone else does that all the time. You're smart enough to go to graduate school - you should know that one Facebook page doesn't describe a city.

You should remember that UT is always scored high on the "party school" lists.

But I think that is probably driven by undergrad behavior. I'm not well informed on places near campus to live - but if you want peace and quiet I would probably choose a place away from the undergrad crowd.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

But I think that is probably driven by undergrad behavior. I'm not well informed on places near campus to live - but if you want peace and quiet I would probably choose a place away from the undergrad crowd.

I agree. Graduate students live a different lifestyle more similar to faculty. A lot of them have kids and grad school is really "work" not school. I've known a few at UT that have received some pretty competitive salaries doing research for Professors with substantial grants. As others have mentioned, most of the "party" housing is just on West Campus between Guadalupe and Lamar.

[txgolfer130]

You'll be fine. Austin can cater to ANY lifestyle. The laid back chill especially.

[texastrigirl]

I agree with mark311. We moved to Austin the first time in 1996 so my husband could attend grad school. It was mostly "work" for him in the MBA program. He had time to boat and play rugby but mostly he studied as did most of his classmates. Most of them were beyond hard partying at that point because they had been out of undergrad for a while. We loved our time at UT, so much so that we moved back to Austin for another 7 years at a later time. I think the biggest danger is that you will love Austin after you have finished your degree and you won't want to leave!! We lived out in the burbs and it was really mellow. If you live near undergrads you may have to deal with partying (as you would at most any larger university) so I would choose your living situation wisely.