Southwestern University

The first college we visited on our Austin trip was Southwestern University, one of the colleges profiled in Colleges that Change Lives.  At fewer than 1500 students, it is a residential college located about 40 minutes from downtown Austin in the suburb of Georgetown and is the oldest institution of higher education in Texas.  The compact campus is comprised of newer beige limestone buildings. The landscape is flat – perfect for riding bikes, which is how the students get around campus and the nearby town.  While many bring their own bikes, there is a free “pirate bike” (Southwestern’s mascot is the pirate) system of yellow bikes that anyone on campus may use.  A whopping 75% of the students participate in at least one internship during their college years and all complete a capstone project as a senior.  Southwestern is the type of college that pays close attention to students and where professors know each student by name.  Athletics are offered and popular but are not a big focus here.  Fraternities and sororities are present but only a third of the students participate in them.

St. Edward's University

On a recent trip to Austin, Texas, I visited St. Edward's University , which is a sister school to Notre Dame.  Do you remember Dave Bralower, our former Director of Admissions?  He works at St. Edwards now in the Admissions Office and it was good to catch up with him and hear about his job.  Over the last ten years, St. Edwards has doubled in size to 3600 students.   The campus is on a “hill” with a fantastic view of downtown Austin, which is only about 10 minutes away.  Along with the most popular majors (psychology, communications, biology, English writing and international business management), they offer a number of innovative majors such as digital music management, digital media management and entrepreneurship.  The university owns an urban wilderness preserve used by the environmental science department.  The unique theatre arts program allows students to earn points towards membership in the Actors Equity Union.  As a Catholic university, St. Edwards requires all students to take an ethics class and either a philosophy class or a religion class.  My tour guide was Muslim and she said she felt totally at home here.  St. Edwards has developed a number of their own study abroad programs and is experimenting with innovative ways to bring an international presence into the class room by enrolling students from universities in other countries in their classes and managing participating by Skype.