First off, I will say that many people don't realize how much UT has to offer until they go see and/or attend other schools.  UT, in all honesty, has so much - superior resources for faculy and students, great degree programs (and many of them too) which are highly ranked and respected, great atheletics, great athletic complexes like Gregory Gym and the rec center, and just look at the library system - 5th largest academic library in the nation.  Only two Ivy league schools have a larger library than UT.  And if that isn't enough, The Texas Union is pretty cool.  :)

Everything is a business these days people.  UT does what it can to make money and be effective.  Academics are tough there, and the GPA computation system isn't the fairest and it's tough.  I know that attending a large university is discouraging for some people.  I, myself, hardly had any friends in high school coming from a small Texas town.  One of the things I can appreciate about attending UT was that it helped me fend for myself and go get what I wanted.  I learned how to survive, because I didn't want to flunk out and go back home.  I learned how to make it on my own, to go be social, to do what I needed to do to pass my classes.  Today, I am a proud Longhorn who lives in New York City, another large place.

It's a large school, so yeah, the frequency of meeting douches and nice people increases.  No school is immune to meeting bad people.  And you will likely meet good people too.  Some of the reviews here complain about the faculty not caring about students.  Do you really expect the real world to care?  Find out for yourself, when you go work for a corporation or some place, how hard it will be to find co-workers who aren't competitive with you and to find a boss that actually cares about your well being. 

When I attended UT, I found quite a number of professors who spent time with me, going over the content and reviewing it with me.  Many times, I was the only student there out of 500 students at office hours.  One professor even gave me hints on what was going to be on the mid-term.  And other professors in my major spent time with me, talking to me about the content, helping me , telling me where I needed to improve. 

Out of the all the professors I had, I can really say only one tended to blow me off during office hours.  One out of the many I had there.  One professor I had for Calculus, who barely spoke English, bumped up my grade.  I had a 79.5 and he gave me a B.  At UT, good luck finding any professor who is going to inflate any grade.  Why did he do it?  Because I'd go to office hours A LOT.

And as far as getting a recommendation, my academic advisor actually gave me a reference to a few companies I had applied for shortly after graduation.

And realize this - a lot of companies come to recruit at UT that don't recruit other schools, because they are aware of the academic reputation of the school.