Tarleton State University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Natural Resources (This Major's Salary over time)
The saving grace of my experience is that I have been able to work on my thesis out of the area (indeed out of the country and on a different continent). Thus I will have spent a mere 7 months in Stephenville. This is good as I find Stephenville to be an uncultured and uninteresting town.

My advisor has been good and has given me a great deal of freedom to pursue my own ideas. The conception of my thesis, proposal, field research, and analysis have been done with very little guidance which I find to be a beneficial learning experience. Although there has been funding for the project I will be in debt when I leave as I can not live off the stipend provided and the in-state part of tuition was not waved.

The incompetence of the library and information technology departments at Tarleton is astonishing. Though my time with Tarleton has been a wonderful international experience, the school is worse than you are imagining. Basic access to scholarly material is lacking. This is not a school that will attract or keep the exceptionally bright and motivated students of the world. I suppose sometimes you just have to go with what is available but my advice would be to use Tarleton as a contingency plan should other opportunities fall through. If you are hugely motivated with experience and there is funding for your project, you may be able to produce meaningful publications regardless of the school. Publications will get you further than a degree from Tarleton, or probably most schools for that matter. Keep in mind that although it has a long way to go, Tarleton may improve in the years to come.