<p>Howdy!</p>
<p>Academics and cost are the two obvious must-have criteria for all prospective undergrads. For me, A&M is a slam dunk on both counts. It's ranked in the top 20 in all my areas of interest and I would qualify for a very generous NMF scholarship. There really isn't anywhere else with that strong of a combination.</p>
<p>A couple questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How extreme is the weather? I don't really tolerate heat well, and I'm currently acclimated to a place where we already have had a sticking snowfall and won't see the ground again until late March at the earliest. Wikipedia says that the 90s are normal in August, but how bad is that with the humidity?</p></li>
<li><p>How "southern" is A&M? I've visited small-town southern VA a number of times, and some of the culture there is a little difficult for me. I have some trouble with people who keep Confederate flags on their wall, for example. Is this the prevalent culture in College Station?</p></li>
<li><p>95% of A&M undergrads are from in-state. Texas is a big state; are there still people from many different places and/or backgrounds?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<ol>
<li>It’ll be hot</li>
<li>My family comes from Alabama/South Carolina/Florida and I don’t consider Texas the deep south. While there may be a few country folks that do I have yet to see a confederate flag in my first semester here.</li>
<li>You will still meet the occasional out of stater and many people of different backgrounds.</li>
</ol>
<p>1) Hot and Humid… I think the 90’s start around May - I think 100+ is more common in August. Today is November 1st and it was 85. I am a Texan and the heat and humidity in College Station is hard on me… It did snow last year… I dont think it snows every year - very mild winter.
2) Texas is not the deep south. You don’t see a lot of confederate flags, though Texas was a confederate state in the Confederate War - there were no major battles fought here, our state was used for supplies in the confederate war.<br>
Texas is proud of the Texas Flag and you will see a lot of Texas flags…
3) Texas is a big state. You will find students from some of the biggest cities in the USA -Houston, Dallas, SanAntonio, Ft Worth, Austin. You will have students from small town Texas. A&M is a large Agriculture College & large Engineering College. You will find all kinds. My daughter’s roommates were from Houston & Austin - they were dismayed at the mall in College Station. We are from a small rural town - my daughter was thrilled to be closer than an hour from a mall. You have all kinds.</p>
<p>1) Hot and humid is all relative. It is hot, but I honestly don’t consider it to be that humid. Then again, I am originally from St. Louis, and it is roughly as humid as Houston there. On any given day in the summer, the heat index is roughly the same for St. Louis and College Station.</p>
<p>The summers do last a lot longer, however. Just yesterday it was 86 (though that isn’t the norm this time of year).</p>
<p>2) Deep south =/= Texas. Texas is sort of like its own little geographic region.</p>
<p>3) The 95% in-state statistic stems from several causes, but regardless, there are people here that are from out of state. I know from ■■■■■■■■ the engineering forum that you are looking at engineering, and at ANY school, there will be a more diverse crowd in engineering than in the school as a whole. So you’ve got that goin’ for you to!</p>
<p>it is humid…very humid…
I guess it is relative to what you are used to though. I am in north Texas and the humidity is now where near what it is in College Station.</p>
<p>So to answer the question about heat and humidity, noimagination, you need to tell us where you are living now.</p>
<ol>
<li> It is hot.</li>
<li> We live in the deep South. Texas isn’t southern to me at all. I can’t imagine there is a confederate flag anywhere on campus.<br></li>
<li> Son is an out of stater, not sure he is met many others, but has found almost every one to be very friendly. </li>
</ol>
<p>Texas is a huge state and students come from all over and from a wide variety of places and cultures.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. </p>
<p>I’m currently living in Alaska, so I’m not used to temperatures above 70 even during summer. I’ve also lived in Colorado and Missouri, where the temps were definitely a lot higher. A year or two ago I spent a couple weeks in Florida and elsewhere back east during the summer, so I do know what 100 degree heat and high humidity are like. Not pleasant.</p>
<p>I guess I’m more curious about how people deal with the weather. I can’t imagine spending any length of time outside when it’s that hot, so do most people just hunker down in the AC until the sun goes down?</p>
<p>We handle the heat. We gripe about it, but continue normal activities. We do not know how to handle cold… gets down below 50 and we don’t deal with it well. Thats when we hunker down
the first flake of snow and school is called off - people from the north laugh at us</p>
<p>"do most people just hunker down in the AC until the sun goes down? "</p>
<p>Honestly, we really do hunker down at our house. I grew up in north Texas but have lived all over including Connecticut and Nebraska. There is nothing quite like Texas heat in August when it seems there is no end to it.</p>
<p>If oppressively hot weather affects your mood or whatever, you might want to think twice.<br>
I handled the cold up north by bundling up, but there is something about Texas heat that makes me lethargic and depressed.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So, so true. I find it hilarious seeing people walking around in giant furry boots and winter coats when it is 55 outside, meanwhile I am still wearing a t-shirt (not a joke, this happened yesterday).</p>
<p>I also found it amusing at one of the tailgates I was at last year when it was about 60 out, they had a propane heater to warm everyone up as if it was actually cold. It never gets old.</p>
<p>It’s pretty cold by my standards today and yesterday as well and what was it like 60? </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say people hunker down in the AC, my friends and I always go play ball in the middle of the summer, just bring some water and you’ll be fine. it may take you a little longer to adjust since we’ve all been through 18 Texas summers before.</p>