You must not have spent much time there. I am white, but I hate country music, etc and I fit in just fine. In fact, I don't think I saw a single hick in the restaurant in College Station while I was eating Vietnamese noodle soup or sushi. College Station was a little hick town, but it is now one of the 5 fastest growing communities in the country, with a little something for everybody. There are 140,000 residents in Bryan/College Station, so it isn't like some 10,000 person town in the middle of nowhere. There are some amenities there. Look at the academic rankins from US News, Princeton Review, etc. We are mentioned near the top. 60th nationally I believe. This is based on your perceptions from afar rather than fact.
I really think that picture is fake A) Texas Tech does not have a swim team B) I am a swimmer, and those girls do NOT look like swimmers
In HS, I thought I would go to A&M. I researched majors, looked at potential housing, the whole nine yards. And then I took my college day to go there and see things first hand, and decided not to go there 4 hours later. I asked my parents about Tech (both of them are Raiders) and they said unless I'm dying to go there for a specific calling, don't go. In fact, they were kind of opposed to me going there. I never saw UT, never researched them, knew nothing about the institution other than the mascot was a Longhorn. It was the only school I applied to (I was also top 10%) purely because there was nowhere else that really jumped out at me. I loved every minute of it and I wouldn't change it for the world. But really, overall, academically, you're going to get about the same out of either college - with the exception of a few specialty areas. So what you really need to think about is lifestyle/social clubs/atmosphere. That's where the differences are.
Sounds like a classic defensive posture from a sensitive alumni who repeatedly has to listen and stomach about his school's national perception. I wasn't talking about academics, I'm talking about prestige and so called coolness factor. Whereas everybody knows UT in the nation, you'll get some Huh, where is that? about TAMU in alot of parts of the country. Look, Rice doesn't have a problem being known as a nerd school, so TAMU should embrace its kicker/dork image and lose the inferiority complex.
Refman, don't even bother wasting your time. If we try to reason with them they'll stop posting, and then I won't be able to laugh at the preposterous, elitist outsider-assessments of the school and its students. Seriously though, all I hope is that these people don't apply this same stereotypical outlook to race as they do to university. I mean sure that would make them shameless hypocrites, but it could be worse.
Rewind back to 1999, DCkid is an undergrad at A&M DCkid: Dude, you have got to hear this album!! It is "Soft Bulletin" by The Flaming Lips. It's the greatest thing I have heard since "Tonight's the Night" by Neil Young! Aggie buddy of DC's: Neil Young?? Who's that?? Didn't he open for Hootie and the Blowfish?
This is a pretty funny thread, since half of it is spent trying to convince this kid to go to UT. I went to UT and loved it...but everyone is different and I'm assuming you're pretty set on going to A&M already (based on the title of the thread being "future Texas A&M Aggie". Up to you, man...this is part of growing up. Visit both schools, do as much research online and through the admissions office as possible, and then make a decision. Having said all that, I believe a lot more aggies visit Austin than longhorns visit college station (to have fun). But yeah, like someone else said...Austin isn't for everyone.
Very few people outside of Texas and the surrounding areas know much about Texas A&M and consider it a premiere school.
I agree. Let me say that I don't think school rankings matter ( unless you go to the top 5). But I think it is silly that aggies brag about being a highly ranked university. US news has you at #62 tied with Worcester Polytechnic. People in other parts of the country don't even know that texas a&m exists just like people in Texas have never heard of Worcester Polytechnic.
That said, I don't want it to sound like i am bashing A&M I have fun everytime I go to cs to visit friends Being in a college town is hella fun. You will have a great time there. And if you apply yourself you will have no boundries once you graduate. A&M is just a vince young away from being a GREAT college.
Whatever. All I know is I didn't seem to have any problem getting a job in DC straight out of college. If you're ultimately interested in jobs outside of Texas like I was, the opportunity is definitely there. The career center at A&M is very well organized and companies from all over the country come for visits.
I didn't say that the degree was worthless and that you would starve, though I will tell you that I hae lived outside of Texas in some pretty large cities for well over a decade and that I have rarely (ever?) encountered too many people with Texas A&M degrees, though every now and then you run into a UT person. If I had to guess, I would wager that Texas A&M tends to self-select for people with designs on staying in Texas for various reasons as well. I am just telling you that nobody outside of texas really knows that much about Texas A&M and that it is perceived in the same way most schools with a "Tech" or a "State" in their names are perceived: something other than the flagship university in that state (with some notable exceptions, e.g. Penn State or Cal Tech). I personally know that Texas A&M is academically superior to Texas Tech - I grew up in Texas. I would wager that most informed people living here in Manhattan would not necessarily know that, or know much of anything about Texas A&M other than that it is a state school in Texas somewhere that is not the university of texas. This is not to say that UT is considered hyper-prestigious either, it is certainly considered a bit below Michigan, Cal, and UVa among the big state schools in my book.
I get what you're saying I just didn't understand whether it was meant as advice to the thread starter or just a somewhat random statement. Just wanted to make sure the kid understood he does have opportunities outside of the state. Since I've moved to the DC area, I've had to explain more times than I can remember where exactly I went to school. Even after I explain it they sometimes can't get it through their head that it's not the same as UT. I admit it is very eye-opening and hard to fathom if you've lived in Texas all your life. Then again, I had no idea what city or state Cornell was in until I moved to the East Coast, although I was aware it was a prestigious school. You're right though, unless the school has a University of <insert state> name or recent athletic success, the average Joe isn't going to know about a university a thousand miles away. I would venture to say that athletics is the biggest factor in nation-wide recognizability other than the few top academic schools.
You are probably right, very few people in Texas know what Middlebury, Williams or Pomona is but it is much more difficult to get into those schools than Texas or Texas A&M.
What has become of us, as educated college graduates, that we would hold Vince Young, a person who is barely LITERATE, and can barely utter a complete, grammatically correct sentence (and who substantiated that viewpoint by scoring BELOW LITERACY on an intelligence test), up as the symbol of an educational institution. How pathetic is that? So congrats, UT, you don't even have to know how to read in order to qualify to participate in varsity sports at your institution of 'higher' learning.
My younger brother got a good job in DC after graduating from Texas Tech, if we are using that as a measure on academics.
Vince Young, at the age of 24, has already given more to the community and the world than you ever will. But yah, he didnt get a 1400 on the SAT. He's worthless obviously.
Jeez...I'm not using it as a measure. I was attempting to refute what I thought was a statement saying that a degree from A&M isn't going to help much outside of Texas. This should have been pretty obvious. Kind of like when someone says A&M is not a good academic school, and then an Aggie, not having any other simple tangible way of discrediting it, say we have a decent ranking in US News. Then, said Aggie is accused of bragging about their ranking. Granted their are Aggies that brag about their school just like at every university, but can we at least differentiate between bragging about and defending one's school? Thank you.
