Engineering Housing at College Station Campus

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
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All dorms are on campus so therefore have close college proximity. Most of the dorms are inhabited by freshman. The majority move off campus after freshman year but you can elect to stay on campus the whole time you are in college.

In January, everyone living in a dorm receives an email and they have around 30 days to reply if they want to renew to stay in a dorm for the following fall. At this time, if you want to switch dorms, you put in that. There is a process for this and it has easy to follow instructions in the email.

The Commons is made up of four buildings; Mosher, Kruger, Aston and Dunn. The first three are the Engineering Village Living Learning Community. Not every Engineer elects to live in the Commons.

Engineering Honors Community of Scholars (ECOS) is a little different and you can read about all of it here.
https://reslife.tamu.edu/living/llps/available/engineeringvillage/

Hullabaloo is one building and depending on when you were accepted into the university and when you applied for housing will have a HUGE effect on Hullabaloo being a possibility. It usually fills up very fast by auto/academic admits who were admitted when the first decisions were released (September/October).

If you elect not to live in the Engineering Villiage, you can live in any of the other dorms. Again, your date of housing contract will dictate your window for dorm selection. Make a list of where you want to live. If your first choice is a particular modular dorm, say McFadden, then your list needs to have your next choice if McFadden is full when your selection window opens. You should make a list of every dorm in order of preference, so that when your time slot opens, if something is already full, you can just go down your list instead of trying to figure it out during your selection time, as more and more rooms are reserved. Go in prepared. Better to have the whole list and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

You also can choose to live in one of the campus apartments, Whitecreek or The Gardens.

Here are links to apply for housing, explore and research all of the different types of dorms, campus apartments, their costs, their size. etc
http://reslife.tamu.edu/apply/
http://reslife.tamu.edu/apply/rates/
http://reslife.tamu.edu/options/halls/
http://reslife.tamu.edu/options/apartments/

Be sure to explore all of the links on the pages for the most information.

Here is a PDF of the process, once you are an accepted student. : http://oncampusaggies.tamu.edu/Images/Site/TAMU/Room Self Select Instructions.pdf

Here is a great map to show where everything is located on campus https://www.tamu.edu/map/index.html

It doesn’t matter where you reside your first year. Your freshman classes will be all over the campus anyway in most cases and you will spend a lot of time walking or taking a bus to and fro.

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@Thelma2 I believe you have said your son is in Engineering? Is he by chance part of the ECOS. I have read about it on the links, and was just curious about it.

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Have a son in ECOS this year. Anything in particular you were interested in knowing?

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He is in engineering but is not part of ECOS.

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@rosegeo I don’t have any particular question. Was just curious about it. Is your son happy with the program…has it been a help, just general stuff. All I really know about it is that it’s in Mosher.

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I’ll be honest, my son has really not done much with the program. He says they don’t really have any activities and such but that could be him not being that interested. I have heard that it is great for forming study groups and such because all of those around you are in similar classes. This may be but my son hasn’t joined any. He much prefers to study alone. On the positive side, he ended up with a room mate that he gets along really well with and they just signed a lease for an apartment together next year. You are much more apt to get a like minded roomie living in an llc like ECOS and that can really make all the difference in the world as far as your dorm experience goes. As far as the dorm itself, it is fine. He is on the second floor so not one of the rooms that has been remodeled. I’ve seen pictures of the remodeled rooms and they look much nicer and I think I have heard they are going to remodel the rest before next fall. The rooms are not very large but they are adequate. The location is good. The new cafeteria in the commons is nice since you can get to it without going outside, very nice in bad weather. The dorm is close to quite a few of his classes. I think my son really would prefer being in one of the modular dorms. The rooms are bigger and you only share the bathroom with your room mate rather than a total of 4 per bathroom. But, if he had gone that route he would have gotten a different room mate which might not have worked out nearly as well.

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Thanks @rosegeo. Do they automatically assign room-mates and then you can change them? That I think is my only other question. And yes, room mates can make a huge difference in college experience!

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Mosher was a fine dorm for my son. He was on the first floor and it had been remodeled with new flooring. I think the other floors are supposed to. The electrical and HVAC are supposed to be updated too if they have not been already. and the Commons Area is open (not so, when my son was there). There are several ways to configure the furniture in the room so you don’t have to have your bed lofted to nosebleed height.
You share a bath with your roommate and the suitemates. Not an issue at all. The toilet area has a locking door for privacy and the shower has a curtain already. Our room had a cabinet. Bought a shelf to put in the back so would have more storage and one plastic basket to contain smaller stuff.

For the closet, I bought some stackable storage bins and he had two on the floor for linens and it provided a shelf to stack stuff. He also had a 4 shelf Kallax from Ikea. 2 open shelves and 2 cloth bins. There is a dresser but the drawers are not deep. He was close to laundry facility and found a weekday morning was best for laundry when he had a later class. Forget the weekend.

He didn’t get as lucky on the roommate, as the only thing they had in common was not a main interest but something they had both done and there was no connection, mostly on the roommates inability to want to participate. But there were a ton of other kids he met and now lives with 3 others off campus and they are living together next year as well.

The biggest thing is you have to get involved. Even if you don’t join one of the clubs that are competitive to get into, join one that isn’t. Interactions is important. Making friends won’t be the same as in high school and for many engineer types, and even the social ones, you are not with students in class long enough to really connect. There may be 100 of you instead of 30. After 100 days, you have different classes again. The LLC tried with that and it was ok. But it is up to the kids to reach out and become involved.

Fish camp is important too. Your fish camp leader will have group get together’s during Howdy week and throughout the semester. It is nice to do things together on campus as Aggies after having been together at camp as Aggies.

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I agree with thelma2 your son will need to get involved. Fish Camp is a great way to get started. My son did a lot of stuff with his fish camp first semester, it was great. He has applied to be a fish camp counselor for this coming year, should find out this weekend. He has also joined the club water polo and club swim teams which keeps him pretty busy.

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Thanks for all the info!!! Great advice!!! Should be no problem with my son and getting involved, he has some plans for that already… we live by that philosophy with most things ourselves. We moved to TX from PA just as he started HS, so yes even though HS is a completely different level than college will be, it did give him a little experience as to how important and helpful it is to become a part of something early on. Thanks again.

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@Thelma2 “Even if you don’t join one of the clubs that are competitive to get into, join one that isn’t.” Could you explain for a parent of a future engineering freshman what you mean with clubs that are competitive to get into?

It is important to have hobbies and a real life outside the lecture halls. What would be the best way for a bit shy student to get familiar with the clubs and their members? Which clubs to start with? Living on campus should be a good start, but is Engineering honors housing (ECOS) ok, or would it be better to try to mingle with students from other majors?

A bit related, should everyone be prepared to go to football games? Coming from a high school where football was not such a big deal, at least not for the STEM oriented kids, it might be a bit difficult to get overly excited about sports. Should one anyway buy a season pass, and where and when it should be bought?

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Clubs like the Freshmen Leadership Organizations (FLO’s) are competitive. You apply and wait to see if you are chosen. Some apply for many things, then might be chosen for just 1, or none. But don’t let that discourage him. My freshman didn’t make a FLO and his best bud did. He was upset for a little while then decided to find something. At first, it was sand volleyball. He would just pick up a game with others who came out. Or disk golf. He found a church group he likes. He joined a car club and a dance club. Now, he’s going to open mic nights places to sing and play his instrument. The only thing he does engineering wise is the car club and Christian Engineers. He has so many other interests besides the engineering. There are some students who that’s what they love and can join those. They are not all competitive.

Here is a great link to explore https://maroonlink.tamu.edu/organization/studentactivities

Here is organizations http://studentactivities.tamu.edu/get-involved/join-an-organization/

When I click on a categories, like recreation, this comes up https://stuactonline.tamu.edu/app/search/index/index/search/category?q=Recreation

Explore all of the categories. They will tell you when they admit members, any costs, how often they meet, etc. There are two fairs a year where a student can go and check them all out and talk to people. It’s usually a multiple day event in September and January.