danorou

Y'all: I thought I could breathe a bit of new life into this thread. I haven't read through all of it, so I may overlap with what other posters have said. Forgive me for that, but I thought I could provide a bit of insight, as I will be graduating with a B.S. in civil engineering in August and going elsewhere. I have done research and have heard quite a bit of input from the graduate students I worked with. I will try to share some of my own perspective. Also, some of my points are about Texas A&M University, but there is no reason that anyone would go to College Station if they weren't going to TAMU, so that shouldn't be an issue. First of all, my perspective is that of a kid who has lived in several different places, so I won't have a *native* outlook. Pros: College Station is very quiet. If you are a person who likes to study plenty or are content with hanging out with friends, it is a very welcoming suburban-type area. Even the rowdier part of town (Northgate, which has plenty of bars adjacent to campus), is very mild. Depending upon your major and how much effort you put in, you can get a high class education. I am only familiar with engineering, which is pretty well ranked in all disciplines. I know the business school is also well respected. That being said, I would say that you can coast through without anyone really checking if you have learned anything. To counter that, there are always professors who will bend over backwards to teach something to you, should you have questions. No one is really out to get you. I mean that in the sense that people will not be competing with you for things, directly. No one will want to sabotage your experiment/research. No one wants to see you fail. It leads to a pretty relaxed environment. The physical university is beautiful. The construction work has recently been trying to make a more uniform feel to the campus, and I would say that they are succeeding. Traffic is no big issue, transit works. The bus transit system is very effective if you live on a bus route. Bike routes are convenient, but there are few which extend out more than 2 or 3 miles from the university. The cost of living is very reasonable. Rent for me (about 1 mile from campus) was $750 total from my roommate and I for a 2 bed/2 bath, 1000 sq.ft. apartment. Utilities run about $100-150 per month. College Station is growing. Some people aren't happy about this, but it means that there will be more apartments closer to campus, and newer apartments all together. Cons: College Station might be too quiet. My brother goes to UT Austin (tu), and his constant jabs of "Aggies study because there is nothing else to do" holds some truth. There are no big bands that come here, no really large festivals or such. College Station is only 2 hours from Houston, or about 3.5 hours from Dallas, so plenty of students drive elsewhere to engage in some fun activities. You can slip through the cracks. This point ties in with the large size of the university. The university is even looking to expand significantly, and already it seems like professors are overloaded. A professor I worked for had 20 Ph.D. and Masters students at the same time, though it was an extenuating circumstance. I know for undergrad that no body really ever checked if I was learning, or just regurgitating. For grad, I don't think it would be too unreasonable to take 7 years to get a Ph.D. just because no one ever really checked what you were doing. Aggies are a little crazy. I should know this because I am an Aggie. It's a warming, family experience in some ways, but it is a little cloistering in other ways. I know that I enjoyed it, but it could be a hard cup to drink if you find the Aggie life isn't quite what you wanted. Just as an example, pretty much everyone is gung-ho to get their Aggie Ring. It's important, but it's also 1000 dollars or so for men, 800 for women. As much as I liked Aggieland and consider myself an Aggie, the pricetag was hard to swallow. If you have any questions about Aggieland, feel free to ask.