Austin, TX
When do Texas college students return to campus? Move-in, start dates for 12 universities
5 ways to have a better dorm room experience
College students are preparing to go back to school and into their dorms. Here’s how to make the most of it.
Byron McCauley, Cincinnati Enquirer
As July comes to an end, Texas students are turning their attention to the upcoming school year. And it’s not just kids — college students are preparing to move to campuses and begin the 2024 fall semester.
Hundreds of thousands of students will soon occupy now-quiet college campuses as they either return for another year or step onto the grounds as students for the very first time.
With 1.56 million students, the Lone Star State has the second-most college students among U.S. states, topped only by California.
Here are move-in and start dates for top universities across Texas:
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Texas A&M University at College Station: Aug. 19
Texas A&M is the largest university in Texas as well as the entirety of the U.S. Over 74,000 students take classes there, according to the latest data from BestColleges. Last fall, the Texas A&M University System, which spans 11 universities, enrolled a record 154,865 students in classes. Its main campus at College Station welcomed about 12,540 freshmen that semester.
Student move-in dates for the Fall 2024 semester are between Thursday, August 15th and Sunday, August 18th and vary by location. Students must sign up for a move-in appointment after completing their online Annual Housing Orientation. Information about how to access the scheduler was emailed to students in early July.
The 5,200-acre campus has a total of 25 residence halls. Classes at Texas A&M University begin Monday, August 19th.
Click here to see Texas A&M University’s Fall 2024 schedule.
University of Texas at Austin: Aug. 26
Nearly 52,000 students attend UT Austin, which is among the largest and best research universities in the country. This year, it was ranked the ninth top public school by U.S. News & World Report. Despite its “Forty Acres” nickname, UT Austin’s main campus now sits on 431 acres, but the university owns a total of nearly 1,500 acres.
Though students can move to UT Austin’s campus as early as Monday, August 19th, most students will do so on Friday, August 23rd and Saturday, August 24th, in a centralized check-in at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Students may schedule their move-in appointments via the housing portal.
Classes at UT Austin start Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see UT Austin’s Fall 2024 schedule.
More on UT Austin: How a Texas Historical Commission vote may further delay plans for new UT football field
University of North Texas: Aug. 19
Like Texas A&M University, the UNT saw record-high enrollment last fall, with nearly 47,000 students enrolled in classes. It was also the top choice for career readiness and among the nation’s largest public research universities. UNT’s main campus spans about 900 acres, with its Frisco location raising the total to 1,000 acres and 15 residence halls.
UNT students can move onto campus as early as Friday, August 9th. They are instructed to sign up for a move-in date and time through the eHousing portal. Classes begin Monday, August 19th.
Click here to see the University of North Texas’ Fall 2024 schedule.
University of Houston: Aug. 19
The University of Houston claimed 46,676 students last fall on its 894-acre campus. Over 6,000 of those students were freshmen.
Students will move onto campus between Wednesday, August 14th and Saturday, August 17th. All students with a filed Housing Agreement received move-in instructions via email in early July.
The first day of classes is Monday, August 19th.
Click here to see the University of Houston’s Fall 2024 schedule.
Texas Tech University: Aug. 22
Over 40,000 students were enrolled at Texas Tech University in Fall 2022. Spanning a whopping 1,900 acres in Lubbock, TTU is the second-largest contiguous campus in the U.S. It is also the only college in the Lone Star State with an undergraduate and a graduate university, law school and medical school all on one campus.
TTU students will move in Thursday, August 15th through Sunday, August 18th and should have signed up for a move-in date and time this past weekend. The first day of classes is Thursday, August 22nd.
Click here to see Texas Tech University’s Fall 2024 schedule.
Texas State University: Aug. 26
As of this spring, over 35,000 students were enrolled in Texas State University. TXST set multiple enrollment records that semester, with freshmen enrollment up by 59% from Spring 2023. The university has several campuses throughout the Lone Star State, with two main campuses in San Marcos (517 acres, 245 buildings) and Round Rock (101 acres, six buildings).
New students will move onto the TXST campus from Saturday, August 17th to Monday, August 19th. The move-in deadline for other students is Monday, August 26th. Students should have selected a move-in appointment via their housing portal. The first day of classes is Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see Texas State University’s Fall 2024 schedule.
University of Texas at San Antonio: Aug. 26
A new freshmen enrollment record was made last fall at the University of Texas at San Antonio, with a total of nearly 35,000 students enrolled. UTSA has five urban campuses on a sum of 758 acres: Main Campus, Park West Campus, Downtown Campus, Southwest Campus and Hemisfair Campus.
Students will move into UTSA from Tuesday, August 20th through Friday, August 23rd, organized by residence halls. Classes begin on Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Fall 2024 schedule.
University of Texas at El Paso: Aug. 26
Another school to break records for freshmen enrollment last fall was UTEP, which reported over 24,000 students in total. It was the second consecutive year of enrollment increases. It was also ranked first in social mobility by the Wall Street Journal in September 2023. The campus’s 89 buildings sit on 367 acres.
Students will begin moving onto UTEP’s campus Friday, August 23rd. They will be able to choose a move-in date and time starting Wednesday, August 1st. The first day of classes is Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see the University of Texas at El Paso’s Fall 2024 schedule.
Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi: Aug. 26
As of Fall 2022, nearly 11,000 students were enrolled at Texas A&M’s Corpus Christi campus. The campus is 364 acres located in the city, though most students live off-campus.
TAMU-CC’s first-year students and those living on Miramar’s Islander Housing will move in on Wednesday, August 21st, while those living on Momentum Village’s Islander Housing can move in on Saturday, August 24th. Classes begin Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Fall 2024 schedule.
Angelo State University: Aug. 26
In Fall 2022, 10,600 students were enrolled at Angelo State University. Its main campus is 268 acres, with over 60 buildings centered around a tree-lined pedestrian mall, giving it a park-like feel.
Angelo State students will move onto campus throughout the day on Wednesday, August 21st, according to which floor they live on. Classes begin Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see Angelo State University’s Fall 2024 schedule.
Rice University: Aug. 26
As of 2022, Rice University had an enrollment of over 8,500 students. The private university in Houston sits on about 300 acres with more than 70 major buildings.
Students will move onto the Rice University campus on Sunday, August 18th for O-Week. The first day of classes is Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see Rice University’s Fall 2024 schedule.
Sul Ross State University: Aug. 26
Sul Ross State University had an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students in Fall 2022, almost half of whom were first-generation students. The college sits on 647 acres, divided into a main campus and a central campus. An additional 468 acres serve as a working ranch.
New students will move into Sul Ross State University on Friday, August 23rd, while returning students will do so on Saturday, August 24th. Classes begin on Monday, August 26th.
Click here to see Sul Ross State University’s Fall 2024 schedule.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Society Sons of the American Revolution unveiled a new monument at the Texas State Cemetery on Saturday, dedicated to Texas Revolutionary War soldiers.
“We must educate every generation about why it is that America grew from a tenuous 13 colonies into the most powerful country in the history of the world,” said Governor Abbott. “This monument here is an enduring testament to the heroes who fought for the freedom that is unique to America.”
The monument was dedicated to 69 soldiers who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later settled in Texas, according to a press release.
Among those that were honored, Abbott recognized:
- José Santiago Seguín, grandfather of Texas Revolutionary hero Juan Seguín.
- Peter Sides, who fought in the 2nd Battalion of the North Carolina Regiment of the Colonial Army, and was later killed in the 1813 Battle of Medina, fighting for Mexican independence against Spain.
- Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, the founder of Nacogdoches.
- William Sparks, who fought as a mounted rifleman in the American Revolution and later settled in Texas. He had two sons and two grandsons who fought in the Texas Revolution.
“This year marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, which not only gave freedom to the British colonies of North America, but inspired movements for freedom and liberty all over the world,” said TSSAR President Mel Oller. “Texans played a role in the war too, and it’s important to recognize them, and the sacrifices they made for our freedom.”
At the monument unveiling, Abbott was also inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution and received its Silver Good Citizenship Medal.
AUSTIN, Texas — Inside a green wooden box mounted to a steel fence, a treasure trove of trinkets awaits. Just a few miles north is another goodie box, this time covered in leopard print and inside a craft studio. Farther east, a simple white trinket box sits mounted on a wooden pole, decorated with stars and a crow saying, “Thanks for visiting!”
These boxes, filled to the brim with stickers, keychains, jewelry, collectibles and more, are known as trinket trade boxes. Austin has seen a sudden surge in these boxes over the last few months, and despite their varying locations, one sentiment ties them all together: trinket trading is a fun way to bring a bit of joy to the community.
“Little things that bring people joy is so important right now, which I think a lot of us can agree with, and I’ve seen all sorts of people use the box so far,” said Anna Arocha, whose trinket box is in The Triangle neighborhood downtown. “Little kids and all the way up to people in their 50s and 60s, I’ve seen stop by.”
Trinket trading operates on a simple system of take something, leave something. People can swap a toy car for a lanyard, a bracelet for a Sonny Angel, or a Pokémon card for a rubber duck.
“There was somebody who was just walking by with their kid in the stroller, and there was a finger puppet inside of the box, and I saw her swap something out and walk away with the little finger puppet,” Arocha said. “And it was just such a cute moment to see a mom and a kid enjoy something like that.”
Arocha put her crafting skills to work and made her green wooden box in just one day using craft wood and a wine crate last month. Amy Elms opted for a small, white junction box to ensure it could withstand harsh Texas weather. Ani’s Day & Night on East Riverside, which has a large outdoor space for picnic tables and food trucks, gave Elms permission to place her trinket box on their property in January.
Ally Chavez used her own property, Create! Studio ATX on West Anderson Lane, for her leopard-print box that opened in March.
“There wasn’t a ton up here in the north area, so we just kind of wanted to put it together and put it up for the studio just as a way to connect with the community in a way that no one has to spend money,” Chavez said.
Since their debuts, all three trinket boxes have garnered thousands of interactions on social media. When Arocha posted about the opening of her box in March, she racked up 100,000 views on TikTok. But with the excited comments came a bit of negative attention, and her cameras caught a thief trying to take all the trinkets. Arocha now locks the box at night.
“If somebody wants to do that, so be it,” Arocha said. “We can start over, and if the joy that it brings outweighs that every time, I think it’s worth doing.”
Arocha, Elms and Chavez’s boxes are now registered on a website called Worldwide Sidewalk Joy, alongside all the others in Austin and across the globe, as trinket trading grows to become a kind of new, modern geocaching.
“Honestly, it’s been I think even better than I expected so far,” Elms said. “I’ve had people… visiting Austin from out of town, and they’re making it a stop during their visit. I’ve also had multiple people reach out to me to ask how they can start their own trinket trade box, too, which I really love.”
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Forbes on Friday released its annual list of ‘New Ivies,’ and the University of Texas at Austin made it. This is not UT’s first time on the list; it was included in 2024 and 2025.
It’s important to note the Forbes designation does not make UT an Ivy League School. Schools currently designated as Ivy League are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.
Forbes argued its list was created because a growing number of employers have said they are less likely to hire an Ivy League grad today compared to five years ago. The list is curated by surveying over 100 C-Suite and hiring executives, as well as using data from the 2024 National Center for Education Statistics to gauge if a school fulfilled the criteria to be on the list.
One respondent said instead of prestige, employers are looking for graduates who have “complex emotional intelligence, radical adaptability and visionary creativity to orchestrate AI tools rather than compete with them.”
Forbes said colleges had to meet three criteria to be considered, which included:
- Size: Private schools must enroll at least 3,000 students, and public colleges must have at least 4,000 students enrolled.
- Selectivity: All but one private college had an admission rate of less than 15%; public college admission rates were 50% or less.
- Testing Requirements: At least half the entrants must have submitted either the SAT or the ACT scores
Forbes argued testing requirements indicated academic rigor, as a result. Schools such as the University of California and California State schools were not considered.
When it came to UT meeting the requirements for the list, UT had an undergrad enrollment of 44,663 students with a 27% acceptance rate. When it came to test scores, it had a median SAT score of 1390 and a median ACT score of 31.
For a full list of the public and private schools included in the Forbes 2026 New Ivies list, click here.
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