Texas A & M University - College Station

Date: May 02 2005
Major: Civil Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
I went to A&M years ago and am about to complete law school in 2 weeks but looking in retrospect at A&M, here are a few thoughts. A&M is no diferent than most other large in state schools. The professors are generally not A&M grads themselves. My profs were from MIT, Illinois, etc. Usually they don't like to inbreed in their faculty and most schools generally do not do that. This is a research oriented school. Keep that in mind. If you are looking for quality in undergrad teaching, forget it. If you are looking for quality in graduate guidance and facilities for lab research, then this is one of the best in the country. But do not think that at another large state school, you will get top quality teaching. They are all pretty much the same. You want great teachers? Go to Tulane, U of Chicago or some smaller private school. Remember this though, you will spend up the wazoo in cash for private schools wheras A&M is by far much cheaper. The dorms are great, the students can park their cars in garages ON CAMPUS next to their dorms. That is very rare at other schools. So you cannot beat the conveniance. Great rec center. I am a pretty bright guy I feel but coming out of high school I had much to learn. I was an all state musician and went to A&M just to spite my parents. (They were always horn fans). What I found was how much I lacked as far as my math and scinece background. I hadn't taken Calculus or some of the other engineering core classes in high school because I concentrated on music. Here is a tip. If you are considering A&M for engineering, you better already be good at math and science. If you are not, one of two things will happen. You will either struggle all the way through like I did or you will fail out. And even if you were good in high school, you are competing against some kids that have a pretty good nack at that stuff themselves in general. As far as some of the comments about students at A&M not being very smart, I have a question. How many 17 and 18 year olds are that bright to begin with? A&M has one of the highest EIT passing rates for seniors in engineering than almost any other school in the US. That is not an easy exam to pass by nay means. As far as social goes, very pro Republican and I would say close minded for 1st and 2nd year students. This is because most of them take on their parents beliefs. That is not a surprise when you consider that the state of TEXAS in general is pro republican. As they get to be juniors, the students are a little more open minded about things because they have experienced more. SO, its not about the types of people A&M attracts as far as the close mindedness goes. Its more about lack of maturity, experience, and understanding. But that changes over time. Some of these kids come from small towns and that is all they know, buy that doesn't mean they are dumb kids. They just need to experience more which is one of the reasons they went to college. I grew up in a big city and some of my best friends at A&M were from small towns. I think the school is pretty good and I had some great experineces there (Bonfire, Sabissa Friday Yell, France engineering program) as well as making some good friends. I would make one additional comment. I think peoples' college experiences are what they make it in genral. If you go out, meet people,and join social groups then you tend to have friends no matter what school you are at. If you lock yourself in doors, then you don't tend to have friends. If you pay attention in class and actually go, you tend to make good grades. If you leave every other weekend for a trip somewhere else, you tend to experience more. Life and college is what you make of it.