How is Texas A&M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

You should visit. It's a great school for engineering. But Texas A&M is a certain kind of Texas - pretty conservative, very clean cut, very traditional gender roles, very patriotic, very protestant Christian, very into football. It can be a little cultish. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people do really like it. It has a great professional network too. But Texas A&M is very much a love it or hate it school.

You just named all the amazing things that make Texas A&M great!
-UT grad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Texan and come from a long line of Aggies. A&M is a rock solid school academically and is pretty difficult for admissions, particularly for Engineering and Business. I have a number of friends whose kids are there now and they are top students academically. I believe the OOS student population is less than 10%, so it's heavily Texan. I agree that's it's culty school, but students get the big school experience and they do a lot around traditions and community building.

+1
It IS a “culty” school, but deliberately so. It’s what we used to call insider traditions! And they do these up right in Aggieland!
Walking across campus, you’ll still get a friendly “howdy” from everyone you pass—and that’s not because they grew up saying “howdy” as a kid. This is baked into their school culture, and passed down as a tradition. You’ll also hear a lot of “yes ma’am and yes sir” as standard responses to anyone who appears to be over the age of 22(and this IS due to upbringing, not campus traditions).

It’s a fantastic place for those who love Texas, farmers, God and country, family, apple pie, football, beer, country dancing in boots on a Thursday night, and traditions that go back decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's more Texas that UT, for better or worse depending on your kid's outlook

This.
UT is located in Austin where half the population of California has relocated in the past 15-20 years —and brought their $ and their politics in with them.
A&M is located in College Station (literally named for the train station that stopped “at the college”) and is surrounded by farm fields and not much else. It’s grown and developed a lot, but still maintains its Texas origins. People don’t move to College Station unless they are Texans who live A&M or they are attending there or they are employed by the university.

[Anonymous]

Op here: thanks all. Conservative/Traditional sounds good to me. Hopefully DC likes it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

I went to grad school there, a generation ago. I’m from NY and loved it the minute I set foot on campus. I have a master’s in mechanical engineering and had the opportunity to teach and interact with undergraduates. Engineering is hard but there is a lot of collaboration. I got a chance to see the Zachry Engineering Education Complex recently and was blown away.

Great school, great traditions, friendly students. It is very large, so if that’s not a hinderance, I would send my kid there in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here: thanks all. Conservative/Traditional sounds good to me. Hopefully DC likes it.

OP just roped that Steer... WHOOP! IYNYN.🤣

[Anonymous]

Texas mom here.
PROS: Great engineering school, very cohesive student body, can be greek or non-greek - plenty for everyone, there's tradition after tradition after tradition - to a cult like extent But once you are a student, you find that part fun. People are SUPER friendly.

CONS: It is in the middle of nowhere; conservative - yes it is; however, i know several super liberal girls who are there who are very happy. it's a huge school and plenty of people of all political leanings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

You should visit. It's a great school for engineering. But Texas A&M is a certain kind of Texas - pretty conservative, very clean cut, very traditional gender roles, very patriotic, very protestant Christian, very into football. It can be a little cultish. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people do really like it. It has a great professional network too. But Texas A&M is very much a love it or hate it school.

The schools - usually in the NE or California - that are highly liberal, progressive, assorted gender identities, protesting something or other every single day, burning U.S. flags, etc. are what I would call "cultish." YMMV.
DP

[Anonymous]

New Yorker. We visited and liked it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here: thanks all. Conservative/Traditional sounds good to me. Hopefully DC likes it.

+1
Sounds good to me too! Will research further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

You should visit. It's a great school for engineering. But Texas A&M is a certain kind of Texas - pretty conservative, very clean cut, very traditional gender roles, very patriotic, very protestant Christian, very into football. It can be a little cultish. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people do really like it. It has a great professional network too. But Texas A&M is very much a love it or hate it school.

You people need to stop using these things as a pejorative and calling it "cultish"... this is why main-stream Americans outside of your bubble dislike you, you're completely insufferable.

+100

As someone who called it cultish above, from Texas and also I am VERY CONSERVATIVE. I wasn't 'using cultish as a derogatory thing. You've got 100,000 people in the stands singing convoluted cheers, swaying, greeting each other and saying "Howdy", following tons of traditions. Call it cultish, call it "clique-ish". Call it "lots of inside jokes which they use to establish a huge sense of pride in school and camaraderie."

Maybe you need to chill.

[Anonymous]

People above have said traditional and conservative. Is it Reagan conservative or Trump conservative? My DC skews closer to the first so would be great to understand from recent alums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

You should visit. It's a great school for engineering. But Texas A&M is a certain kind of Texas - pretty conservative, very clean cut, very traditional gender roles, very patriotic, very protestant Christian, very into football. It can be a little cultish. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people do really like it. It has a great professional network too. But Texas A&M is very much a love it or hate it school.

You people need to stop using these things as a pejorative and calling it "cultish"... this is why main-stream Americans outside of your bubble dislike you, you're completely insufferable.

+100

As someone who called it cultish above, from Texas and also I am VERY CONSERVATIVE. I wasn't 'using cultish as a derogatory thing. You've got 100,000 people in the stands singing convoluted cheers, swaying, greeting each other and saying "Howdy", following tons of traditions. Call it cultish, call it "clique-ish". Call it "lots of inside jokes which they use to establish a huge sense of pride in school and camaraderie."

Maybe you need to chill.

+2 I grew up in Texas and both of my best friends went to A&M. It is cultish, deliberately so. Kids walk around dressed in pseudo military outfits and salute each other based on rank at every corner. Students line up to attend Midnight Yell in the middle of the night before every home game. You're not allowed to sit down during football games. People on a DC board who don't know anything about the school but want to be oppressed are just glomming onto the word conservative to make themselves a victim of a comment they don't understand.

It's not cultish because it's conservative. It's both cultish and conservative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

You should visit. It's a great school for engineering. But Texas A&M is a certain kind of Texas - pretty conservative, very clean cut, very traditional gender roles, very patriotic, very protestant Christian, very into football. It can be a little cultish. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people do really like it. It has a great professional network too. But Texas A&M is very much a love it or hate it school.

You people need to stop using these things as a pejorative and calling it "cultish"... this is why main-stream Americans outside of your bubble dislike you, you're completely insufferable.

+100

As someone who called it cultish above, from Texas and also I am VERY CONSERVATIVE. I wasn't 'using cultish as a derogatory thing. You've got 100,000 people in the stands singing convoluted cheers, swaying, greeting each other and saying "Howdy", following tons of traditions. Call it cultish, call it "clique-ish". Call it "lots of inside jokes which they use to establish a huge sense of pride in school and camaraderie."

Maybe you need to chill.

I think it's just one hyper-partisan, hyper-sensitive person. Nothing here is pejorative about conservatives or Texas A&M or the state of Texas. Some people are just looking to be offended 24/7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is considering UT Austin for engineering - but likely wont get an admit there.

However, Texas A&M seems to be a great choice too.. I have heard good things about their Engineering and Business Program - and also the Bush School of Govt and Public Policy.

Any first hand experience as a OOS at Texas A&M?

You should visit. It's a great school for engineering. But Texas A&M is a certain kind of Texas - pretty conservative, very clean cut, very traditional gender roles, very patriotic, very protestant Christian, very into football. It can be a little cultish. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people do really like it. It has a great professional network too. But Texas A&M is very much a love it or hate it school.

You people need to stop using these things as a pejorative and calling it "cultish"... this is why main-stream Americans outside of your bubble dislike you, you're completely insufferable.

+100

As someone who called it cultish above, from Texas and also I am VERY CONSERVATIVE. I wasn't 'using cultish as a derogatory thing. You've got 100,000 people in the stands singing convoluted cheers, swaying, greeting each other and saying "Howdy", following tons of traditions. Call it cultish, call it "clique-ish". Call it "lots of inside jokes which they use to establish a huge sense of pride in school and camaraderie."

Maybe you need to chill.

+2 I grew up in Texas and both of my best friends went to A&M. It is cultish, deliberately so. Kids walk around dressed in pseudo military outfits and salute each other based on rank at every corner. Students line up to attend Midnight Yell in the middle of the night before every home game. You're not allowed to sit down during football games. People on a DC board who don't know anything about the school but want to be oppressed are just glomming onto the word conservative to make themselves a victim of a comment they don't understand.

It's not cultish because it's conservative. It's both cultish and conservative.

That is the corps of cadets. A&M began as a military school and still has a corps of cadets. It is one of six “senior military colleges,” along with VMI, the Citadel, and VA Tech.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_A%26M_University_Corps_of_Cadets