Texas State University

Date: May 08 2014
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
If you've heard of Texas State, you might have heard that we're a "party school." We're really not. Honestly, EVERY school is a party school if you make it one. Come on, this is college. If you want a party, you will find one, but if you don't you won't. It all depends on who you hang out with.

We have pretty much every kind of student here, so if you're worried about not making any friends, you should be fine. It's a big school, you'll find your type. The trick is to join clubs with the kind of people you want to meet, or join the Greek life if you're into that. If you want to join a sorority or fraternity we have PLENTY, but if you don't, you can just ignore them. No skin off your back either way.

My personal worry was finding enough nerdy smart people to hang out with because those are the kind of people I get along with best. I really shouldn't have worried, because there are a ton if you know where to look. If you want smart and nerdy, go to clubs like the Quidditch club (very fun, helps if you're athletic but you don't have to be) or Nerdfighters (we're not official but we're working on it, all kinds of nerds here).

If you want smart in general, and if you want things like interesting and small classes with early registration benefits, join the honors college. It's pretty easy to get in, and some of my favorite classes have been honors classes.

Visually, this campus is gorgeous. Some of the buildings (looking at you, Tower) are a bit iffy, but most of the architecture is interesting and classy. The nature is what really makes it though. Plenty of trees and flowers, especially by the Theater building. And Sewell park is right across the street from the edge of campus. If you're looking for something to do, like volleyball or swimming or just a really nice place to study, go to Sewell. The river is the same temperature all year and it's very clean. Take advantage of Sewell if you end up living close to it.

Speaking of living, our residence halls are pretty good. You get what you pay for, essentially. I lived in Butler, which was slightly cheaper because it was regular dorm room style (two beds, communal bathroom, the works) and I liked it well enough. If you want fancy, go to Gallardia or San Jac, but be ready with your pocket book. And don't do what I did and pick a dorm on the bottom of the hill. If I had a dollar for every time I had to walk up that [insert swear word here] hill between the Education building and Brogdon, I would have enough money to pay for college myself. (Ha!)

The food is slightly better I'd say than other places. You definitely have options. There's chain places (Chick-Fil-A, Starbucks, Panda Express, Pizza Hut, Einsteins, etc), there's buffet style (Commons and Harris), and there's the usual a-la-carte-style places where you choose different things or get a meal (the Den, Jones, and LBJ). My personal favorite is the Den because it has Einsteins, hamburgers, wraps, burritos and tacos, Pizza Hut, and our smoothie joint Freshens (I love Freshens, you can get a healthy smoothie or shake for a meal trade) but it isn't open all the time. If you have weird hours and want Panda Express at 11pm, Jones is where you go. Probably the worst quality out of all the dining halls, but hey, it's open. Just don't go to Commons or Harris every day, the quality is good but you WILL get bored. Shake it up every once in a while and you'll be fine.

The teachers are a mixed batch, but then again, every school is like that. I've never been able to say, however, that a professor didn't care. Even if I thought a professor wasn't very good, I knew they were trying their best to work with their students. I've had some really great professors and a few mediocre ones, so I'd say my overall experience was positive in that regard. Make sure to look them up before you register for their class though. I could've saved myself a semester's worth of [insert swear word here] if I'd done that. And really the classes aren't that hard (I might be biased since I took a lot of AP classes in high school), it depends on what class and professor you're taking. For your core classes, easy is good. For classes concerning your major, hard is good. More than anything, my classes have made me think, and that's what I think matters.

TLDR; Texas State is a good school with good facilities and pretty good academics. You get out of it what you put in.