My DS has been accepted for 2022 Engineering. We just confirmed NMF status and he’s up for Brockton. Either way, it is very attractive financially and as a top engineering school.
Here’s the rub: He’s politically liberal. Not insanely left, but definitely left. One of the fairly consistent comments I see about TAMU is “it’s conservative.” He’s not.
My assumption is, like all other large groups of people, there are a wide range of people in College Station and he’ll find a home. Am I correct?
@green26knight I am class of '92. The overall community and campus is conservative in culture. This dates bask to A&M roots of being an all male military school and Land Grant institution. However, it is so large that your son will find a community. There is an old saying at A&M that “Highway 6 runs both ways” A&M is different for most other institutions and is not for everybody. However, there is much more to life and being an Aggie than politics. The quality of education and the Aggie network is first rate. Wearing that Aggie ring will open up countless networking opportunities.
There are all kinds at A&M. For the most part and for most people, no one really cares that someone else has a different ideology. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and views. Are there handfuls and pockets who are intolerant of, and therefore begrudge, anyone who holds different politics/beliefs? Absolutely. There will always be people who cannot rise above their political pedestal or their raising. I say this about intolerant democrats and republicans.
He will find his people and then some. One can be friends with someone who holds different views. We are all more than our politics, or should be, despite what the world tells us.
I have 3 kids there now that are all very different. They each have conservative belief sets but st very different levels. And they all have found wonderful friends, some that align with their beliefs and some that don’t. One of my girls is in a sorority and has made friends that stretch the gammot of belief systems. It’s been great for all of them! Your son will easily find his as well.
@green26knight one day your son will be at an airport waiting to board a flight and an older gentleman will walk over to him out of the blue and introduce himself as “Steve Smith, Class of 79”. There will be nothing about your son’s outward appearance that would have stood out to anyone else but “Steve Smith”. That one thing will be his Aggie ring. Aggieland is a special and unique place. He will find his spot. Gig’em!
Aggieland is the friendliest and most polite place I have ever visited. Doors will be opened with a smile and you will hear “Mam” and “Sir” and please and thank you.
Yes, the “outside” world still thinks it is very conservative as TAMU began as a male military college. And there are a lot of traditions and honor and respect are highly valued, but by no means does that mean that Aggieland is narrow minded! But the outside world is still biased.
Last May, as my easy going middle of the road daughter was happily looking forward to her future on Blinn-TEAM, a couple of her HS teammates started trashing TAMU, saying that only bigots and racists wanted to go TAMU. She spoke up and said SHE was going there and she was neither a bigot or racist.The teammates just smirked at her.
She walked away from them but was in tears whten she told me about the incident. She said she wouldn’t think of trashing the college choice of anyone else. And this was around the time that TAMU student body elected a gay man!
As we talked about it, she had a lightbulb moment : it was sour grapes, they couldn’t get accepted to TAMU! One of them went OOS and one now attends a small private church based college!!
And one of my daughter’s best Aggie friends is a gay guy. And several are more conservative. But they all get along.
Aggies ARE unique. Each and every one of them, but they are ALL Aggies. And they respect each other. It is a huge place and it is a good thing to find a small group of like minded students to join.
I love @tinley’ s story about the Aggie ring! That is one of the special Aggie things that I really like. I didn’t buy a college class ring and wouldn’t recognize one from my U if I saw someone wearing one.
IT depends what you mean by “liberal.” If you mean open-minded, intellectually curious, concerned for your neighbor, willing to critique yourself and others using reason, accepting of other points of view, your child will love A&M. However, if “liberal” means censorious disapproval of those less enlightened than yourself, emotive offence-taking, knee-jerk bashing of America, Texas, the military, you child will likely have trouble fitting in. A&M is what you make it!
He’s definitely of the open-minded variety @RecusantSam. I probably shouldn’t have used the term liberal. Both liberal and conservative have become trigger words to most of the outside world. It’s refreshing to encounter a group of people here who don’t ascribe to the hate-mongering that seems to be everywhere. Much appreciated!
And we are from Wisconsin. People bash us almost as much as they bash Texas, so he’ll be used to that. :))
My son is an intellectual and politically pretty open-minded, inquisitive, someone who originally liked to talk with people about issues. Around the time of the 2016 election, he was excoriated by the left at his school–Univ. of Texas (Austin)–even with mild questioning, not challenging, just asking. I myself am a political moderate. I grew up in Dallas but spent many formative years in a more liberal state. I don’t feel comfortable in conservative circles. I am saying what I am about to say as a moderate. Based on what I have seen and although it is strange to have come to the point where I would say it, I believe that your son could be better off in a non-“liberal” environment. Because it could be controversial, I hope it’s the right thing to push “Post Comment” with this. Nevertheless, I have studied this issue for a few years, and this is where I’m coming down.
Young people with political leanings tend to be more enthusiastic about their ideas and beliefs than most adults. You could say, new converts and zealots And by definition they don’t have lots of past campaigns and platforms stored in their memories, it’s their first time jumping into politics so they’re not jaded yet, their edges not blunted, their idealism not tempered, and they tend to be absolutists. It’s not a matter of politics but of age.
With the country more and more polarized (roughly along the lines of the 68-72 period but magnified by social media) being a moderate has become very rare among youths. Imagine being pro and against the Vietnam war on a campus in that period. You’d be yelled at from both outraged sides (Commie traitor! Child killer!)
UT and TAMU are opposites in environment, vibe, politics. It’s good for kids in Texas who have two superb flagships that have something for everyone.
Aggie pride is real and
TAMU is one the of the most conservative colleges in the country as per consistent, year to year answers by the students themselves compared to their whole group nationally, just like Oberlin would be one of the most liberal colleges as per answers to the same questions by the students themselves compared to their peer group nationally.
It also depends where you ‘come from’.
So, if you live in Waukesha, TAMU would seem a little conservative with more nuances and more extremes than what you’re used to, whereas if you live in Madison, it’d likely seem aggressively conservative.
For instance, some kids would consider the above mention of a gay kid attending as proof of anything as offensive and others would see that as a good example.
Only your kid can know how he feels about that environment, so I’d recommend he do an overnight, attend a Freshman seminar and a class in his major, go to the gym, eat in the cafeteria, hang out with students.
If we had anticipated what our student would experience, we could have tried to blunt its effect. In any event and just based on that one data point, liberal is not equivalent to tolerant. I personally cannot say more in a substantiated way.
I can say for certain; Texas A&M is one of the most friendly universities in the United States. Conservative or Liberal, we’re all Aggie brothers and sisters here. I haven’t once seen a student ‘harassed’ or ‘pushed aside’ because of their acclaimed political affiliations…and if you do see that, they certainly aren’t a brother of mine nor of the University, just a scumbag.
For example, just yesterday I witnessed a guy with a trump hat on eating dinner and engrossed in conversation with a guy who had Bernie stickers plastered all over his laptop…and I never thought anything of it until now.
My D’s AP Gov class gave the kids a survey to figure out where they are on the political spectrum. She ranked somewhere between liberal and communist
She’ll probably grow out of that, but for now I have no reservations about sending her to A&M. We had a chance to interact with several students on a recent campus visit, and were impressed by how friendly, outgoing, and helpful they were. Really cool vibe on campus, and seems like an easy place to fit in and make friends.
@green26knight There are like 10,000 incoming freshmen, and it will include plenty of students that think similarly as he does. Likewise, there are many conservatives at UT Austin.
Thanks for the great input everyone! @WineDrinker it is hard for me to get my head around the size of TAMU. I went to a small LAC of 2,000 students outside of Green Bay. Different worlds. And @kcheves our kids can hang out! Sounds like the are on the same page.
And by definition they don’t have lots of past campaigns and platforms stored in their memories, it’s their first time jumping into politics so they’re not jaded yet, their edges not blunted, their idealism not tempered, and they tend to be absolutists. It’s not a matter of politics but of age.