Questions about UT

#1
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CD11

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#1
Hi folks,

First, I apologize if I posted this thread in the wrong area of the forum. I'm brand new so I'm not totally familiar with the setup here, so if this needs to be relocated that's no problem.

I'm a soon-to-be-fourth-year Political Science student at the Univ of Cincinnati, and right now my fiance and I are looking at graduate schools. After whittling down our choices over time, it seems that we have two top schools at this point - Virginia Tech and Tennessee. We visited UT just a few days ago and loved it. The city of Knoxville seems very clean and is beautiful, the campus is comfortably large but overly intimidating, and the people seem very friendly. We took an official campus tour and got lots of helpful information, and overall the experience was fantastic. We were both very pleased and excited about the school.

However, there's only so much a person can find on a tour or the internet regarding academics. I don't trust rankings at all - heck, US News doesn't have UT in their top 100 Political Science schools while some other magazine had UT as the #18 program in the country. It's all subjective, I think. And I really can't go by reputation since up here in Ohio people tend to pretty much view things through scarlet and grey glasses, so I'm hoping some people here who actually know the university can help.

My fiance is studying Biology and as I said, I'm studying Political Science - and we're both wondering what those fields are like at UT. Are they strong? Do most people coming out of those fields tend to stay in Tennessee or do they fan out across the country? It's important to us to be able to move to Washington, DC after graduate school so that second question is crucial.

Personally, I was also wondering about some of the traditions and history of UT. We got to sneak into Neyland Stadium and my fiance, who doesn't even care about football, was stunned at how impressive it was. What a great facility! I know a little bit about the Volunteer Navy, and I heard something about a restaurant in the area that serves special food depending on the week's opponent (e.g. Peach Pie for Georgia, Gator for UF, etc) and that your tailgating is legendary. So, I am aware of some things, but with a school like UT I'm sure there are a ton of things I don't know about.

I guess the bottom line is that I'm hoping you folks can enlighten me about your school. Things one wouldn't normally learn about on a campus tour. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
#2
#2
Yes, wrong forum. Might not get many views in the endzone. Try the pub. PM a mod and they should be able to move it for you.

The endzone is more of a game/latest joke thread area.
 
#3
#3
I'm an alumnus of UTK who used to live in DC. There's no question that VPI has (or at least used to have) a pretty good pipeline to DC -- I was barely aware of them before we moved up there, but suddenly it was like every tenth person I met had gone to school there. If "getting hired in DC" is your #1 criterion, then VPI may be your better bet. All of those annoying Hokies I met in DC 15 years ago are probably in upper management by now.

That said, Knoxville >>>>> Blacksburg. No grad school is ever going to become your alma mater quite like your undergrad institution is, so if you're in doubt, I'd make my choice based on which city I'd like to spend a few years living in. Knoxville gives you not only Knoxville, but half an hour to the Smokies, two hours to Nashville, three hours down here to Atlanta. Blacksburg gives you.....what? Access to fabulous Roanake? Five hours to DC? You have to really, really like I-81 in order to go to VPI, IMO.

I'm not the kind of person who is going to argue that you should pick a grad school based on how awesome our football tradition and pageantry is, but if you're the kind of person who is swayed by that sort of thing, then you should pretty much stop mulling over this decision now and head down to Knoxville immediately.
 
#5
#5
I am UTK alum (class of '95) but spent a lot of time in Blacksburg on business from 2001-2003. While VT is not bad it is sorta pitiful next to UT. The campus is neat....at first but then the homogeneous architecture starts to look drab and cold.
And Knoxville has SOO much more to offer than Blacksburg.
I am biased of course but as I wrote I spent a lot of time on their campus (that is where I was on 9-11-01) and its charm faded rather quickly for me.
 
#6
#6
Thanks for the input, everyone. Really interesting stuff. The more people I talk to, the more it seems that my choice boils down to a superior pipeline to Washington (Tech) versus a superior overall lifestyle (Tenn). Tough choice, but feel free to keep contributing, it's all very helpful.
 
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