<p>I am considering applying to Occidental and I am already accepted into UT Austin. I really like what I have read about Occidental, but I am not sure about its prestige and the environment on campus. Idk I just want to make sure it compares to UT as a whole before I spend too much time on the application. Any input about either school? Thanks!</p>
<p>No, Occidental doesn’t compare to UT Austin because it’s nothing like UT. After all, Occidental has just over 2000 students while UT has almost 40,000 UGs. Although Oxy’s classes tend much smaller than UT’s, there are far fewer majors and courses offered at the former school. In terms of surrounding environment, Occidental is located in a quieter part of LA and doesn’t exert much influence on the surrounding economy. Conversely, Austin owes much of its existence to the flagship university situated there and many businesses around the school cater to the desires of students and faculty. </p>
<p>I happen to think Occidental is an excellent school for many subjects, although prestigious it is not (tough to make a name for yourself when you’re in the same area as UCLA, USC, and Cal Tech).</p>
<p>I would say that Occidental is prestigious enough if you’re talking about rankings and some of its programs are top notch so if you’re thinking of going to graduate or professional school that would help (you can check rankings if you wish but I won’t provide the link). Occidental COllege’s advantages over Austin aren’t the name, they’re rather in terms of education: you will have smaller classes that will be more interactive, you won’t have large lecture classes with TA’s in charge of your discussion section (as it is done in Austin) but professors the whole time, there won’t be thousands of others competing for spots in clubs and leadership positions, there won’t be as much red tape, the experience will be more personalized and probably quite friendlier.
As mentioned above, Occidental doesn’t have all majors so you have to check they have yours.
In addition, depending on your EFC and stats, they may be less… or way more expensive than UT Austin.
Anyway, it’s not like you’ve got much to lose by applying to Occidental: at worst, in March, you’ll make a decision between them, financial letter in hand. You’ll give yourself more time to investigate 
if you apply.</p>
<p>They do both have a similar vibe but as others have said, there are such huge differences based on size alone. If you like the (dare I say) hippie feel of UT (and I say that in the best possible way), you might feel just as happy at Oxy, but obviously you can’t know until you visit. No harm in applying so as to keep all your options open?</p>
<p>Hi journeytothetop, I’m a current sophomore at Oxy as well as an intern for Oxy’s office of admission. I’m also from Austin myself, so I think I can give you some insight into comparing UT and Oxy. </p>
<p>Oxy is a highly ranked liberal arts school with an intellectually rigorous academic environment. As far as the surrounding area, you will not find thousands of people wearing Oxy gear…so this is different from UT, where longhorn apparel is pretty ubiquitous. Another difference is of course the size of each school…Oxy’s population of 2100 students means you’re going to have a much more intimate community, where you’ll be more than a number and really get to know your professors. The average class size is 19, but most of my classes have been around 15. There are no massive lecture classes at Oxy (I know some at UT can be around 300 students). </p>
<p>But really you won’t know how you feel about Oxy until you visit!</p>
<p>The great thing about UT is all the options you have for majors, research, and fun stuff to do. It is not as if you see all 50,000 students at once (except on football game days, which are awesome). I also tell students that it is like living in a small neighborhood in a large, vibrant city. You get to know a lot of people in your major. I spent a good bit of my time in the engineering building with other architectural engineering students.</p>
<p>My FAVORITE class at UT, by the way, was US History, which had over 300 students. The prof was an amazing storyteller who was always happy to talk to me in his office. Most of my engineering classes were not very big.</p>