Is TAMs worth it and how should I prepare

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
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Hey, I just moved to Texas this year and heard about Tams. I’ve been looking online and there seems to be a split on if it’s good or not. Some saying it’s a great place, while others saying it’s a toxic and horrible place to be. I’m currently in 7th grade , and even though it’s a bit early to worry about this I really want to be prepared. I’m currently taking all pre-ap/GT classes(know that really doesn’t matter right now but why not mention it), as well as Algebra 1. I plan to take a CBE on algebra 2 after I pass 8th grade(because my district only allows CBE on math after that) as I’m currently studying it out of school and expect to finish it by the start of next school year, might this affect my chances. What is the best way to prepare for applying? I just took the sats and here are my scores.

SAT : 1360
Math: 730
Reading : 630

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@EpicPotato :
You sound like you have a very great start on being prepared for college. Great scores, high level classes, etc. Congratulations, you are ahead of many of your peers. :slight_smile:

I can only speak to the culture of TAMU: I think it is great. But it doesn’t work for everyone. Both of my daughters are Aggies, one graduated from TAMU in 2016 and is also married to an Aggie Engineer. My younger daughter is currently a Junior at TAMU.

I am not from Texas, went to college out of state from my home state, both are southern states, just not Texas. Both of the flagship univiersities in those states are much more similar than TAMU and UT are.

I had no idea about the whole “Aggie life in Aggieland” and the significance of an Aggie degree and gold Aggie ring in Texas until my oldest daughter started applying to colleges.

TAMU is located in College Station, TX, which is a college town. It is the friendliest place I have ever been. All of the businesses, etc are full of helpful people. But this is a small town, the engine of the area is TAMU. There isn’t a lot of extra entertainment/dining/shopping, but football is great entertainment! There is nothing quite like attending an Aggie home football game . The main campus is contained and walkable, but there is also a separate areas for Business classes and the Rellis facility. Buses go from one area to the other.

By contrast, UT is located in Austin, TX, the capitol of TX. The campus is also right in the middle of town and you have to cross major streets to get from one side of campus to the other. Not sure what the bus situation is there. There is a LOT of extra entertainment/dining/shopping, etc in Austin that is not found in College Station.

Aggieland is more conservative, but at the same time, everyone I have been around has also been very tolerant. Once an Aggie, always an Aggie is truely upheld.

Austin prides itself on being weird, that’s a slogan there. I have enjoyed visiting Austin and haven’t really had any negative experiences there either.

Please have your family visit both cities. As soon as you start High School, you can have excused absences to visit colleges. Make sure that you have at least one visit at any target universities on a REGULAR class day, when classes are in session and you can experience the real vibe of that campus. You will learn more about what the campus is truely like on one of those days, unlike just going to a football game. Going to football games is great, but just make sure that you also go on a regular class day.

Also check out the overall ranking for your intended major at each school you are interested in. See how you fit in the rankings of the students who are in those majors and how the after graduation employment percentage and/or grad school acceptance is for each school.

When you plan your official campus visit, book campus tours, dorm tours, etc through that school. Also contact the department where you hope to major and set up an advisor conference, and ask if you can also sit in on a class on that day. Have lunch on campus, go to the bookstore, look at the surrounding areas, check out apartments, etc.

Make a spread sheet of the pros and cons for each campus. Include everything you can think of, even how you feel about the drive/flight to visit that school. (The long drive to Dallas was what put my youngest daughter off of attending any schools in that area, and she didn’t even apply to schools further away. Texas is a big school and the drive between campus and home will be a frequent event!) WRITE your thoughts down on the day of the visit so that you can compare each experience without having to rely on your memory. Make a special note of how you feel while on campus, one of these places will be your home for 4 years!

You are getting a great early start, you will be hopefully be able to make more than one visit to your target schools. And you will continue to mature, and may change your mind on your intended major and various other things over the intervening years. But having a spread sheet of your experiences will help you to be able to evaluate everything when it comes to making your college application in the future.

Get your parents view on the schools also, as they will probably be the ones paying for your degree. Don’t blindly plan to attend a very expensive private University without knowing how to pay for it. If you can get through school with little to no debt, your future will be easier as you won’t have to wait as long to buy a house, start a family, etc.

Make sure that you have read EVERYTHING online about the requirements for the applications before you submit them, things can change each year. It is getting increasingly hard to get into the 2 main flagship TX schools. TX is a huge state with many more highly qualified students than there are seats in the freshman class. There are several more highly ranked universities in TX, please check them out also. You may find your “best match” at one of those schools.

And make sure that you are also engaged in some extracurricular activities that are fun and active. Enjoying life is also important. :slight_smile:

Good luck and keep us posted on your journey.

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Great, great advice @AggieMomAgain

I just want to make sure you are talking TAMU @EpicPotato and not https://tams.unt.edu/

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@BlueBayouAZ : Good call! I just thought it was a typo! :slight_smile: It showed up with the various TAMU threads so I thought that meant TAMU. LOL

@EpicPotato : If your inital question was about the HS/early college program at UNT, as a parent, I would not recommend a program like that. I don’t have a lot of info on it, just know one family who had one daughter who went through the program at UNT (but I didn’t know that was the name for the program)! :slight_smile:

I don’t know how they handled having their HS child move away from home so early. I could not have endured that, the time goes by so quickly anyway and can be stressful with all of the maturation happening. I would just prefer a more sheltered, family structured time during High School and then go out of town for college.

For the family that I knew, their child ended up going to a 4 year college near their home so basically they switched the usual procedure of HS at home and college away. I think that they were a transfer student since they already had so many college hours.

I don’t know if that sort of early college is really beneficial in the long run as it can limit you to being a transfer student. Many major 4 year colleges still instist on certain classes be taken at their campus and that could add more semesters to your time in school.

Please talk with as many people as possible who have students who have actually gone through that program. Get all of the info before making any decisions.

With your already high scores, I think that you would be accepted at all of the major TX univerisities when you are a HS senior if you stay on the same path. And then you will be much more ready to live away from home. Enjoy your time in HS, it will pass quickly and you can never get back that time.

Since you have taken the SAT as a 7th grader, I am wondering if you are a Duke TIPS student? Take part in some of those programs if you can.

My youngest daughter was in Duke TIPS, but she didn’t take part in any of those programs. Her path to TAMU was a bit difficult as she suffered a level 2 concussion in early 8th grade which affected her health and grades through most of High School. She ended up as a Blinn-TEAM Freshman at TAMU and is now a full time Junior at TAMU and just had a 4.0 semester. So everything is going well now!

My advice would be to stay in HS, take high level classes, keep up your grades so that you have a high class rank, get involved in an Extracurricular that means something to you and continue to work on getting close to a perfect SAT and I think you will absolutely ROCK your college admissions! And please take the opportunity to visit all of the universities that you are interested in as I mentioned previously. Get as much info as possible.

Please keep us posted!

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Hey, I’m a current TAMS senior, and I wanted to clear up a few things from my experience. First of all, TAMS is really nice for getting used to how college works, but with a lot of academic and personal help, in the form of peer tutoring and provided academic and personal counselors for whatever you need. While college credits are given and cover your first two years of college, it might not shave time off your after-high school college career (unless you stay at UNT). Texas public universities are required to take the credits, but outside that they aren’t going to accept the majority of those credits. Also, a lot of Texas schools are starting to require people to stay four years to get a degree even if you already have the credits they require.

Another thing is that TAMS is a great place, and I love it, but I do agree that it has some toxic traits. There are a lot of people with complexes that don’t really care about others here, but I’ve also met some of the sweetest, most caring people I think I will ever know. Many of the UNT professors that have TAMS-only classes are also really bad about assuming we’ve got it, so they make the tests and the class in general MUCH harder than the unt classes. Many people have gotten kicked because of that, including the majority of the friends that I’ve made here, which can make it really lonely sometimes. To be honest, the mental health of many of the people here is really bad as well, and too many people make a joke out of it.

Despite that, I know that it really has helped me get used to being more independent and give me more experiences. Don’t count out the fact that all of the clubs and like-minded people really make TAMS a lot of fun and really beneficial.