My DS has been accepted at Texas A&M in to engineering and engineering honors. I never realized what a small % of students are OOS. Is it hard for an OOS student to fit in?
@nogddg - My son is an engineering junior from Arizona. Fitting in will depend more on your son than on TAMU. My son tends to be introverted and is not interested at all in sports. But he has made an effort to join clubs and study groups. He now has some very good Texas friend, so it has worked out for him.
Overall, the students are very friendly and certainly not snobs, so that is a real plus. But coming to TAMU will be a bit of a culture shock. It’s certainly manageable as long as your son keeps an open mind and does not act like a snob himself. And thousands of freshman will be from Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio and their suburbs. They are much more “urban” than your stereotypical Texan who grew up on a ranch. And even just 3% of 10,000 freshmen means that there will be 300 or 400 OOS freshmen also looking for friends.
And it is a great engineering school!
Absolutely not! I’m from Japan and I LOVE A&M! People from outside of Texas tend to have a negative stereotype about Texans but it’s often wrong. I grew up in Hawaii and Los Angeles and always thought Southerners were racist and close minded. Couldn’t be farther from truth! I don’t know where y’all are from, but Southerners, especially Texans and even more so Aggies, are friendly, welcoming, inclusive people. Our son will be going to A&M from Tennessee in August. Even though he was homeschooled I know he’ll fit right in and make a ton of life long friends!
Thanks - we are from FL. I love all my Texas friends, universally friendly and polite, but I have heard of other places (not A&M or Texas) where it is very clique because so many of the kids are from the same state. We are going to the OOS Aggie for a Day so he should get a sense of it then. I appreciate the thoughtful comments.
@beaudreau what part of it was a culture shock? We were a little surprised by the gun question for student housing match.
@nogddg I’ve never heard of OOS Aggie for a Day! What is it?
They are running a program for admitted OOS students and 1 parent. We received a post card inviting us. I believe it is full as they told us to cancel if no longer interested so others can come off the waitlist. Both my husband and I want to go, but only 1 can attend.
@nogddg - Things that my son has mentioned: cowboy hats, cowboy boots. pro and college football obsession, modern country music on almost every channel, and even more big pick-up trucks than in Arizona. In general, Texans seem to be prouder of their state than residents of any other state and are very Texas focused. But Texans do have a lot to be proud of, so there’s nothing wrong with that to me or my son.
In the words of one of TAMU’s greatest alum’s, Lyle Lovett, “That’s right, you’re not from Texas, but Texas wants you anyway!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMhaehb5AnE