Meet Megan
Name: Megan Matthews
Hometown: Seabrook, TX
Major: Architecture
Minor: Business Foundations
Expected graduation: May 2012
Tradition, Diversity, and Being Who You Are
My dad is a UT Austin business graduate, and his enthusiasm for the school really got me excited at a young age about attending UT Austin. I am fortunate that the degree I wanted to pursue (architecture) is so highly regarded here at UT.
I’ve loved the university ever since I was a little kid, but it was ultimately because of the School of Architecture’s high national ranking that I chose to attend the university.
Thinking back to why I loved the university when I was younger, I come up with three main reasons why it’s always been so important to me.
- The strength of tradition and pride that UT students and alumni have for their school is unparalleled by any other university. We have the Hex Rally, the Torchlight Parade, the “Eyes of Texas,” “Texas Fight,” Bevo – just to name a few! And my personal favorite – the Tower. You can be miles away from the university, look towards Austin and see the Tower and know exactly where the university is. It’s such a powerful icon of the university, and I think that really defines who we are as a school and community.
- The diversity of the student population. People from all over the world attend the university, and they come from all sorts of backgrounds. The time you spend at UT Austin is a great opportunity to expand your views of the world!
- You can be who you are at UT and still fit in with the crowd. There’s no need to conform to a university-ideal or stereotype to fit in at UT. Your experience is really customizable to how much you want to get out of your time here.
“The Essence of a Stick”
I took an Architectural Graphics course in high school with a professor who was passionate about architecture and its relation to people and the environment. This sparked my interest in the career, and I began volunteering out at a Habitat for Humanity worksite to expand my experience with all parts of an architect’s work. Architects have such an awesome responsibility in the way they design space around the daily lives of people. It’s a career path which changes daily and is never monotonous.
The UTSOA (UT School of Architecture) has roughly 15-20 freshman students assigned to one professor, and we stay with that same professor the entire semester. However, there are other studio professors that we can get extra input on our design projects from, which is great! My Design 1 professor taught me so much just in my first year as an architecture student.
Each project was different, but one studio discussion that I will always remember was about “the essence of a stick” as it pertained to defining space within a spatial model. My professor constantly challenged me to look at each project in different ways and from different perspectives to see if I could learn anything new from each one. It really opened up my mind to another type of thinking that I hadn’t experienced before!
Gone to Texas
By far my favorite experience on campus to date was the night before the first day of school at the Gone to Texas welcome rally. They had the Tower all lit up in blues and purples and finally the burnt orange that it’s known for. The UT band came out and performed all of the famous songs like the “Eyes of Texas,” “Wabash Cannonball,” “Texas Fight,” etc. and the cheerleaders performed with them. It was a fun night filled with meeting people in the School of Architecture!
Megan’s Advice about…
Studying
Plan out what you need to study for an upcoming exam and just do it! If you keep putting off studying, you’ll only get stressed as you get closer to the exam, and being stressed in an exam is not a good thing!
Making friends
Really get to know the people within your major. Architecture lends itself very readily for this, but with other majors, maybe join clubs or outside activities that relate to your major.
Large classes
In larger classes with hundreds of people, sit up as close to the front as you can. I know it might sound nerdy, but the professors who lecture those huge classes really do recognize, and take note of, those who are consistently in class and listening to what they have to say.
Finding balance
Keep your commitments. The worst thing you can do is make a lunch date with friends and then later realize that you had to go to work at that time.
Living on or off campus
Starting out my freshman year, my parents and I had decided that I would live off campus due to the cost of on-campus living for all five years of my degree program. The advantages include getting to see my parents everyday, eating good food, and having my own space to study or just do whatever I want.
But, if it wasn’t for the architecture program with so many outside studio hours, I don’t think I would be spending as much time on campus as I do. For a new student, I would recommend living on campus the first year. Sometimes I think that I’ve missed out on some good opportunities to connect with my peers and take part in campus activities. However, having to catch a bus every afternoon really forces me to get my work done in studio and in my other classes. There are really trade-offs to each option!
Football Tickets: “Well Worth the Money”
Back at freshman orientation, I purchased season tickets for the football games and got a group together to go to the games with. Definitely well worth the money!
We were put on the second row in the end zone, right next to Smokey the Cannon and got to see all the action! I even saw Matthew McConaughey and Roger Clemens up close! Besides all that, going to the football games really unites UT as a community: everybody wearing burnt orange, cheering at touchdowns and singing the Eyes of Texas when we win! Football games are definitely ways to get involved with campus life!
Megan’s…
Favorites
- Class: Design and Visual Communications; any architecture-related course
- Professor (so far): Riley Triggs
- Study location on campus or off campus: The Texas Union 3rd floor – plenty of individual places to sit and read a book or study with a friend. It’s not so quiet to where you feel as if you drop a pencil that you’ll attract the attention of everyone else in the room!
- Place to eat on or near campus: Mellow Mushroom – excellent pizza, and a local place that is unique to Austin
- Book(s): A Clockwork Orange and The Da Vinci Code
- Movie(s): The Pink Panther movies, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- Thing about Austin: The energy! It’s nearly impossible to be bored in Austin, Texas.
- Pastime / Recreational activity: Biking through the hill country, volunteering, rollerblading
Best unexpected thing about Austin
Meeting so many great people in the School of Architecture!
Biggest challenge
Living off-campus and juggling sleep time with getting my work done in studio and hanging out with friends.
Plans for the future
Currently, my plan is to work for an architecture firm for a few years while dabbling in real estate investment. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to be a real estate investor full time. Like I said, that’s the plan for right now – I still have four more years to think about that!
The UTSOA is a fantastic program that I know is preparing me for working in the real world. In addition, the Business Foundations program will give me enough of a business education to understand investing and even the possibility of opening my own firm.
Send Megan an e-mail at mmatthews12@austin.rr.comail.