chem_hollas

If you haven't already decided yet, I hope I could give some insight into what has guided my decision for fall 2012 (and some info on TAMU which is where I went as an undergrad). First of all, not to be impartial, but TAMU is a great chemistry school. Funding is good, and there are lots of well known and well respected professors. Faclilities are also exceptional (NMR spectrometers, XRD, etc.) Guess that depends on what area of chemistry you plan on studying. Hopefully you found a couple of professors who you were interested in during your visitation. And as far as the yee-ha mentality, grad students in the chemistry department are predominately not from Texas. Those that are from Texas aren't really going to be of the "yee-ha" mentality anyway. You will of course encounter some undergrads in your classes, and wherever else that might be. View the College Station forum for info on the city in general. But yes, texas is hot from may to october, then becomes more mild and bearable. But like bardo-being said, do some investigating into the publications and funding from those profs that you think you would work for. Also, look at their web sites and see if it lists where their former students are working and see if that is in-line with what you want to do (i.e. academic vs. industry). Professors and their former students can have quite a network of friends and acquaintences that can be quite helpful come graduation. As for me, I actually also decided to attend UC-Irvine after meeting with professors and seeing some projects that I was really interested in. If you find a respected professor, and you honestly like what their project is, then I think that should be the biggest determinant. Any other questions, especially about the department at TAMU, let me know and Ill do my best to answer them.