I know for the most part TAMU has everything i’m looking for including the big southern school feel and huge school spirit. But i don’t know too much about their communications school. I mean I heard it’s good but i want to hear what people actually think of their comm/journalism program instead of reading stats online. Also what is the area around texas a&m like? i would love to be able to leave campus to go grocery shopping or something but so many big schools seem to be in the middle of no man’s land. is there anything to do outside of campus? last question: how is greek life there? i would love to be apart of greek life and it makes it even better if they have a big presence at tamu. thanks!
Bryan/College Station is actually a fairly big town and there are plenty of things to do outside of the campus. I’m not sure about the journalism program, but from what I hear, it’s a top program. Greek life is alive and well at Texas A&M and it’s one of the largest in the country.
My daughter was accepted to Texas A&M (regular student) and the Univ of Oklahoma Honors College: which is a better choice? She’s really struggling with the decision.
I’ve never looked into Univ of Oklahoma but I think getting into an honors college is awesome so congrats to her! Personally, I would pick UofO just based off of the honors program and probably some good financial aid for getting accepted into that. But I also don’t know what factors of a school are important to her including the size, atmosphere, her major, internships etc. A few of the deciding factors for me are the area (for a journalism student I will want to be by a big market), cost, and INTERNSHIPS!!! They are so very important for a students early success after graduation so if she hasn’t yet compared internship opportunities at both schools I think she definitely should. Maybe make a pro’s and con’s list. Congratulations to her again!
In Texas the Aggie Network is priceless.
I don’t think it is hard to get into the honors program at Texas A&M because you can do departmental honors for nearly any major. as long as you have a 3.5 gpa after a year, you can apply to the honors departments rather then university honors and you will likely earn it and you will get the same benefits.
I personally would chose A&M because the aggie network and the enrichment programs are what made me want to stay in engineering and I don’t think UofO has any that freshman have access to. She should chose the school though that she likes the most. Hopefully that information was helpful in the process.( We can’t say much more without details! )
@jrlcc2019 : I can’t give any info on Communications/Journalism major, but I have one daughter who is an Aggie Class of '16 and one daughter who is currently a Freshman, Aggie Class of "21 so I’ll share general Aggie and CStat info.
College Station is built around the TAMU Campus.
The TAMU campus itself is huge, but the town isn’t. But it has everything you need within a short distance, HEB Grocery Store, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target plus a LOT of other stores. Not sure if all are on the TAMU bus line, but even if you don’t have a car, a friend is usually available to share a ride. TAMU and College Station are the friendliest place I have ever been, EVERYONE has been so nice since the first time I stepped on campus many years ago.
Both of my daughters went GREEK and loved it. Since TAMU is so large, it is vitally important to find a smaller group to belong to, asap. My daughters’ sorority is large, but still much much smaller than their class size. Being in a sorority has helped both of my daughters to make a lot of nice, like-minded friends who will hopefully be life-long friends. There were 6 sorority sisters who were in my older daughter’s wedding and a total of 15 sorority sisters attended her wedding! 
I hope for the same deep connections for my younger daughter. And so far, she has a group of amazing sweet, smart, funny friends who love her dearly. I have met several of the moms of her friends and they are also wonderful people.
The Aggie Network is invaluable if you plan to live and work in TX.
Thanks so much this was so helpful!
It sounds like you are currently a HS Junior and are in the planning stages for applying to be a Freshman in 2019. Kudos to you for planning ahead.
If at all possible, plan visits with a parent along to your target schools when you can visit on a regular college class day. Schedule an official tour and speak with an advisor in your target majors. When you are emailing them to get an advisor session, ask if you can sit in on a class in each major. Schedule a dorm tour and also visit nearby apartment complexes. Walk around the campus and see what it feels like to you. Eat lunch on campus. Shop for t-shirts, etc at a campus store. Take in the vibe of the school. Talk to actual students, asks questions like “what is your major, what are classes like, where are you from, what do you know now that you wished you knew while you were applying?” Or ask any question. You will get a feel for the type of people at each school. Talk with your parent about the pros and cons of this experience.
Afterward, drive around the town, go the grocery store or any place that interests you. Eat dinner at a place near campus. Go to the location of the Greek houses that you are interested. Not sure if they allow visitors, but at least you can get an idea of what sort of houses they are, how close they are to campus and see the students in the area and the type of cars that they drive.
All day long during your official visits, ask yourself, “Do I feel comfortable here? Can I see myself thriving here? Is this where I belong?” Make a list of what you like and what you don’t like at each school, actually write down your thoughts during the visit so you don’t forget anything.
Then compare the schools. Keep the list and add to it as you go through the application process, including all tuition and scholarships offered as well as Travel costs for Out Of State schools. This way you can see what place really fits you. Visiting on an official class day is a LOT different from visiting on the weekend or a football game day, but make it a long visit so you can go to a game too if you can! Your parents will have their perspective on each school too, and costs will probably be one of their main selection criteria.
We visited several schools with our older daughter, even though she was dating a guy who was already an Aggie. But even she didn’t want to blindly follow him. TX Tech was fine, just too far away. SMU had a beautiful campus and a great feel, she like the Dallas area, but she wasn’t offered enough scholarship money to make it the same cost as TAMU. Baylor offered her a lot of money but the town was too small and their Greek life was too small also, we did not actually visit Baylor, but she talked to people from there and looked online and decided that she would wait and see if she was accepted to TAMU or not. She was accepted to TAMU after holistic review and was graduated in 2016 after really enjoying her time as an AGGIE in AGGIELAND!
We didn’t want our younger daughter to “want to be an Aggie just because her sister was an Aggie” and there were concerns that her HS class rank was going to be a lot lower than her sister’s due to recovering from a concussion in the 8th grade. She had been with us for some of her sister’s college visits and knew that she did not want to apply to TX Tech as it was too far away, and she did not want to apply to private or Out of State schools. We have the TX Tomorrow fund guaranteed tuition so our girls will have no college debt if they go to a public TX school.
We visited TAMU in early September of her HS Senior year. She had a great advisor session, sat in on a class, ate lunch on campus and talked with students. She had already visited for football games, a couple of her sister’s sorority events, Aggie Ring Day and spent a few days staying with her sister over one Thanksgiving & football game when she got out earlier her sister, so she had an idea what TAMU would be like. But during lunch during our official visit on campus, she looked around and said " Thanks for bringing me on this visit, Mom, this does feel different than a game day! And I feel like I fit in here!" Knowing that her class rank was going to be probably in the 3rd quarter, I insisted that we drive to the Blinn Bryan campus just to see where it was located and how long it took to get there from TAMU campus, (about 15 minutes)!
We also visited UT Dallas on a class day in November, but the school was just too small for her and it is a long drive from home. They really wanted her, a Dean came to her advisor meeting and really tried hard to recruit her! After that visit, she cancelled a visit scheduled for UNT as she didn’t want to drive even further. She decided to wait on a couple of other visits until after all acceptance or denials arrived.
She was accepted at all of the smaller schools including U of H and was CAPped for UT Austin and offered Blinn-TEAM at TAMU. She accepted TX A&M Blinn-TEAM and is currently a VERY HAPPY AGGIE IN AGGIELAND!! I have a thread on CC about her Blinn-TEAM experiences as a Freshman for 2017-2018.