What a Year
Plus: Tyler Cowen visits and we're going to DC.
UATX 2025 Highlights
Winter 2025 visiting lecturers & guests: Bari Weiss, Mark Blitz, Gad Saad, Brian Kilmeade, Lorraine Pangle, Alex Epstein, Jordan Young (DJ Swivel), Michael Shellenberger, Loren Sammons, John Chisholm, Carl Hansen, Devin Stauffer, Alex Karp, Edward Luttwak, Jack Balkin, Akhil Amar, Curtis Yarvin, Ronna Burger, Ilya Shapiro, and Rear Admiral Richard Brophy.
Journalist Michael Shellenberger teaches freshmen a course on Pathocracy, while podcaster Coleman Hughes teaches on the Legacy of Slavery.
February 14: UATX releases its Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It’s the American Declaration of Independence.
Spring 2025 visiting lecturers & guests: Peter Thiel, Glenn Loury, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Jessica Wolfe, Jordan B. Peterson, Bill Ackman, Jeff Yass, Rabbi Mitch Rocklin, Rod Dreher, Coleman Hughes, Larry Summers, Patrick Deneen, Dorian Abbot, Alex Petkas, Peter Boghossian, Niall Ferguson, Clara Mattei, Sam Corcos, Noland Arbaugh, Jon Levenson, Bridget Phetasy, Joe Lonsdale, Gov. Greg Abbott, Tevi Troy, Graham Frey, Dave Rubin, Michael Doran, Brendan McCord, Senator Ted Budd, Gabriel Reynolds, Phillip Magness, Nathan Eubank, John Cochrane, Senator John Cornyn, Joe Leimandt, Jason Calacanis, Simon Haines, Nas Daily, Mike Maples Jr.
March 31: UATX launches the most meritocratic college admissions in America. Applications take less than 7 minutes. Test scores only. Palantir is so inspired by UATX’s admissions policy that it copies the policy for its own fellowship.
April 22: Jordan B. Peterson swings by campus to hang out with students.
May 2: Dr. Carlos Carvalho leaves his 15-year professorship at the University of Texas to become president of UATX.
May 2: UATX freshmen play poker with Jeff Yass.
June 13: UATX ranks its top students and rewards them with stacks of books.
Summer 2025: Students leave for their summer internships. Eitan Zarin serves as an investment intern at 8VC in San Francisco. Sam Indyk interns at the White House Office of Science and Technology policy. Faith Brown participates in the Hudson Institute’s Political Studies Fellowship. Merrick Meardon, Eli Crowder, and John Newland herd goats in Italy’s Apennine mountains.
UATX assigns incoming freshman summer reading: The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom, Regime Change by Patrick Deneen, The Assault on Excellence by Anthony Kronman, and The Iliad by Homer.
June 11: UATX President Carlos Carvalho explains why he left UT-Austin to build the alternative America needs: “Our universities have become infected by a harmful lie — that all ideas are equally valid, that truth is merely a social construct, that one culture’s wisdom is as good as another’s superstition. Merit is out of fashion… Political conformity and self-censorship are the norm…During COVID, we watched our best institutions abandon scientific reasoning in favor of political theater. After October 7th, we saw them struggle to condemn obvious evil… UATX is a return to American principles — and a place to prepare citizens for democratic life.”
June 27-29: UATX welcomes hundreds of high schoolers and parents to campus for small seminars taught by Rob Henderson and Joshua Katz (among others), a lecture on Texas history with Donald Frazier, and dinner with Michael Shellenberger.
July 17: President Carvalho responds to the Manhattan Statement on Higher Education: “Our purpose is clear: to educate citizens and leaders capable of assuring the success of constitutional liberty and national prosperity.”
August 21-27: Student leaders spend a week backpacking and whitewater rafting in the Colorado mountains with UATX Dean of STEM and Captain David Ruth, U.S. Navy (Ret.).
August 28: UATX earns Candidate for Accreditation status in record time. This means we’re officially on track to full accreditation.
Late August: UATX doubles its campus footprint, including a beautiful new lecture hall, expanded study spaces, and additional classrooms.
August 31: A new freshman cohort arrives (median SAT: 1450). President Carlos Carvalho welcomes the Class of ’29 with a convocation address that goes viral globally. It’s hailed as “absolutely magnificent” and “the best speech by any university president.” (Read it here.)
September 1-5: University Dean Ben Crocker confiscates all freshmen phones during orientation. Instead of mindless scrolling, UATX students kayak, debate Allan Bloom, two-step at Mavericks, and hike to learn the liberal arts. Every day starts at dawn and runs into the night.
Some of the schools that students declined or left for UATX: University of Chicago, Emory, Barnard, Claremont McKenna, University of Florida.
“Real intellectual rigor, no grade is guaranteed and success only comes from real effort.” – Benjamin Solin, UATX sophomore
“UATX has made me appreciate the liberal arts much more than I thought possible. Locke and Hobbes have made me a patriot as well as a pessimist on the nature of man (Machiavelli has helped this too). The people here have so much good energy and it’s really fun to be able to do battle in class in the form of debate.” – Alex Brodersen, UATX sophomore
Fall 2025 visiting lecturers & guests: Harvey C. Mansfield, Lord Matt Ridley, Justice Evan A. Young, Niall Ferguson, Jimmy John, Sen. Ted Cruz, Liel Leibovitz, Patrick Deneen, Andy Aymeloglu, Joe Loconte, Peter Savodnik, The Honorable Mark Oppenheimer, Christopher Nadon, Steve Doocy, Gov. Greg Abbott, Mike Shafer, Lawrence Reed, Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, Sean McMeekin, Justice Amul Thapar, Paul Diduch, Matt Long, Peter Boghossian, Tobin Craig, Scott Aaronson, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Mary Bryant Shrader.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon visits UATX and says it’s “breaking the mold of education — and the results are paying off! The Lone Star State is in good hands.”
Sophomore Alex Brodersen leads the UATX Gentlemen’s Society to educate himself and his male peers on dress, speech, etiquette, conduct, and the pursuit of honor. The Society’s core text is Washington’s Rules of Civility, convening weekly for reading and practical instruction.
September 11: UATX students, faculty, and staff gather at 7:30am to remember and mourn the victims of September 11.
September 12: UATX announces the Harvey C. Mansfield Chair in Political Philosophy. For over six decades, Professor Mansfield shaped the study of political philosophy from his post at Harvard, where he completed his undergraduate education, earned his PhD, and spent his entire 60-year teaching career. His chair, generously funded by the Alder Tree Charity Foundation, finds its home at UATX.
September 24: UATX freshmen and sophomores speak at a student-organized memorial for American freedom fighter, Charlie Kirk.
September 29: Fox’s Steve Doocy says UATX is Charlie Kirk’s vision for every campus.
“This University would not need to exist if other universities had remained as single-mindedly focused on truth as they were created to be.” – Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young
“Today, I’m writing about a miracle. That’s the University of Austin, the new, high-energy, high-quality college in Austin.” – Brian T. Allen, National Review
“Merit-based admissions, Great Books curriculum, and free tuition challenge higher education’s status quo.” – Marina Fatina, The Texas Insider
October 8: UATX Distinguished Fellow Liel Leibovitz delivers a public lecture on the October 7 war on America — and how to defeat the anti-American barbarians.
October 20: Leibovitz launches an intensive, after-hours seminar on “Jews vs. (and for) the World.”
October 24-25 Families Weekend: Sen. Ted Cruz says “Texas needs the University of Austin. America needs the University of Austin.” Michael Shellenberger plays cornhole with students and their parents, throwing the opening toss.
November 5: UATX ends tuition—forever.
November 7: Jeff Yass explains why he’s betting $100 million on UATX.
“I am giving $100 million to the University of Austin because the feedback mechanisms of higher education are broken… UATX will live and die by the excellence of its graduates and the success they achieve in the world.” – Jeff Yass, The Free Press
“What Bari Weiss did for media, UATX is doing for higher ed.” – Ingrid Jacques, USA Today
Fall 2025: MMA launches with biweekly, student-organized fights.
December 1-12: Many UATX undergraduates enroll in two-week, intensive seminars (including one by our president). Courses include “Liberalism and Conservatism,” “Film Studio,” “Industry Immersion Practicum at The Boring Company,” and “On Capitalism,” which is taught by UATX President Carlos Carvalho.
November 30-December 16: UATX launches its first study abroad program, taking twelve freshmen to Budapest, Hungary; Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Transylvania); and Vienna, Austria. The program features an intensive course on “Political Theology” taught by Dean of Arts & Letters Patrick Gray, as well as historical tours, cultural events, and meetings with intellectuals across Europe.
December 5: University Dean Ben Crocker conducts the choir, while students read the Christmas story at UATX’s Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols.
December 7: UATX receives some 4,000 volumes from the library of historian Paul Johnson and his wife Marigold.
December 12: UATX announces its Applied Engineering Lab, next to The Boring Company.
The Year in Review: From January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025, UATX witnessed a 448.4% increase in submitted undergraduate applications. From January to December of 2025, the percentage of deposited students rose by 244.4%. The top 75% of deposited students for Fall 2026 scored above 1450 SAT normalized. The top 25% scored above 1490 SAT normalized.
“If it’s true that you’re the combination of the five people you spend the most time with, there is no better place than UATX. The community here is strong intellectually, spiritually, and physically and is incredibly supportive of anyone seeking to develop in one or more of those areas. At UATX everyone is on the same team and shares the same goal: the fearless pursuit of truth.” – Nathaniel Freed, UATX freshman
“We read the same books, keep the conversations going outside of class, and come together for the weekly speaker series. We also have fun hosting one another for dinner!” – Liora Zarin, UATX freshman
“UATX has taken me places I never imagined. I interned at the Boring Company freshman year, started swing dancing, and actually look forward to the readings because the books are so interesting.” – Pierce Crist, UATX freshman
Join Us
If you’re local to Austin, visit campus for an evening lecture with a leading scholar:
“Christianity and The Architecture of Constitutional Law” with Nicholas Aroney, tomorrow (January 13)
“Because They Signed: Aspects of American Character and the Declaration of Independence, 250 Years On” with Charles Eskridge, January 20
“Western Civilization 2.0” with James Hankins, January 27
Plus more to be announced soon.
If you’re a current high school senior, apply for Fall 2026 in less than 5 minutes.
And if you’re a promising high school student, join us in Washington, D.C. (January 31), Phoenix (February 28-March 1), or Austin (June 20-21) for UATX’s famous Honors High School Program. Apply here.
Just amazing. American education is in such a decline - and I'm pessimistic about its future - so it's wonderful to read about a place where there is such a thing as absolute truth, a moral code, good books and open debate. Imagine.
Very impressive accomplishments.