This Old House

House of Torment will find a new haunted home after a decade at Highland Mall

For a full decade, the House of Torment haunted house has been a fall ritual for Austinites. It has provided screams, laughter and the extension of the best and bloodiest holiday of the year.

Characters such as Aggressive Chainsaw Guy, Killer Clown and Creepy Doll Girl roamed the parking lot of Highland Mall giving unprepared children frights that no bag of candy can undo. However, like in all the best horror movies, the bad guy has to die in order to be reborn in a more epic and larger budgeted sequel.

Similarly, after this Halloween season, House of Torment will no longer call Highland Mall home. Have no fear: the scariest haunted house in Austin will be moving on to an expanded location in 2013.

For now, however, prepare yourself for a Mayan end of days as House of Torment will be this year's apocalyptic attractions that call on the undead of the present, past and future.

From Sep 21 to Nov 3, they’ll be providing all the space zombies, bloodthirsty psychos, undead pirates, monsters, gore and human sacrifice you can (or cannot) handle. In their trademark three-in-one haunted house style, they'll be offering you three ways to get your scare on.

In Cursed: The Howling, your descent into a twisted Mayan temple will leave you traumatized by the bloody ritual sacrifices that give rise to dread Narentine pirates and howling dark wolves. These bitter enemies have been awakened, and the tour leaves you stuck in the aftermath of their timeless struggle.

The Awakening features the utter annihilation of the dark and twisted future by the evil Commander Nemesis. Armies of undead battle against Nemesis' evil minions as portals rip holes in time and space, spilling out dreaded villains from throughout mankind's history.

Finally, The Slaughterhouse: Fresh Meat provides us with a glimpse of what happens when the apocalypse occupies our world as we know it. Devoid of all hope, the remaining humans are rounded up and fed to the "Soul Reapers" that crave human flesh. Focused only on survival, they will do anything to escape this unimaginable fate.

If you’re still hungry after watching live humans being led into the hungry mouths of flesh eating zombies, there will be selections from some of Austin’s favorite food trailers and (sexy?) zombie dancers. Yum.

It's no wonder that they're moving on from the scary-in-itself Highland Mall. Luckily, you're assured that House of Torment’s farewell extravaganza promises to leave us all exhilarated, satiated and diagnosed with PTSD. Make sure to bring a change of pants.

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Tickets are now available for the 2012 House of Torment haunted house at Highland Mall. Dates run from Sep 21 - Nov 3.

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Top of the class

UT Austin ranks among best U.S. schools for entrepreneurship in 2025

UT Austin, University of Texas at Austin, top Texas schools, best public universities, best colleges

Photo by Alexander Williams on Unsplash

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The University of Texas at Austin has earned two top-10 spots on The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur’s lists of the best graduate and undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship studies for 2025.

UT Austin's McCombs School of Business ranks seventh in the graduate category, and UT ranks second in the undergraduate category.

The school is no stranger to the prestigious national lists. In the 2024 rankings, UT also appeared as No. 2 among undergraduate programs, and No. 6 in the ranking for the best graduate programs.

This year marks the fourth time that the school has landed in the top 5 on the undergraduate side, and the 12th time in 15 years that McCombs has made the top 10 among graduate programs in the annual ranking, UT notes in a news release.

The only other schools in Texas to make either top-10 list for 2025 were Rice University (No. 1 graduate school) and the University of Houston (No. 1 undergraduate program).

Rankings for The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur’s 2025 lists were based on a survey of administrators at nearly 300 schools in the U.S., Canada, and Europe that offer entrepreneurship studies. Among the more than 40 factors used for the rankings were academic programs, faculty credentials, mentorship opportunities, and alumni entrepreneurship ventures.

"If the focus of the MBA program at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin were to be summed up in one word, it would be 'collaboration,'" reads the 2025 graduate schools report. "Students in more than 20 concentrations uniformly crow over its 'incredibly collaborative culture,' citing the 'supportive culture' as a top reason they ultimately picked the program. As a 'top 20 school,' the 'rigorous academic[s]' and 'focus on clean energy,' 'technology,' and 'entrepreneurship,' are other stand-out elements of the program."

The top 10 schools on the list of 50 best graduate schools for entrepreneurship studies in 2025 are:

1. Rice University
2. University of California-Los Angeles
3. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
4. Washington University in St. Louis
5. Babson College
6. University of Washington
7. University of Texas at Austin
8. University of Virginia
9. Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands
10. University of South Florida

The top 10 schools on the list of 50 best undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship studies in 2025 are:

1. University of Houston
2. University of Texas at Austin
3. Babson College
4. University of Washington
5. Washington University in St. Louis
6. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
7. University of Maryland-College Park
8. Miami University of Ohio
9. Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico
10. Northeastern University

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The story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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