@2xAggieMom , good to know! I did college advising in a previous career. It’s a tough gig. Maybe she didn’t get the kind of training she should have. Maybe she was hungry or having a bad day. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I’m so sorry your meeting wasn’t very helpful, @daleNchip. I feel like the whole application and PSA process has been like that meeting. I get more info here than from the schools.
I have an unreturned voicemail from Molly, so good to know she is out sick. Everyone we met with on our tour was so helpful I felt like there was a reason we hadn’t heard anything. Hopefully I can learn the real answer on how much they get together when she calls me back. Good news is my daughter finally got the email late tonight that they have her paperwork. Not admitted, but received.
My understanding is there is a PSA pull out session at Duck camp and then they meet as a group with other PSA students in their major several times a year. I thought that was standard no matter the campus. There aren’t very many of them so I would think they get to know each other pretty well. My daughter and her friend will be there and they are both PSA so that is two he can meet! ?I’m sure she would be willing to start a group if there isn’t one already. She is all about meeting people who will be transferring to cstat next year.
I noticed the blue emergency boxes were missing as well. Overall it felt like a safer campus though. The area is much nicer than commerce, and the down home feeling hopefully means everyone looks out for each other more.
We didn’t notice a problem with our phones and we have ATT. Did yours not work?
Did you see the president just announced his retirement? I read SO many great things about him and now he is retiring in September. He is staying on as a professor, so hopefully that will ease the transition.
@daleNchip We have AT&T and there are definitely areas that I lose connection with my student (between Hico and Stephenville, inside the student center, the stairwell of his dorm, and it gets fuzzy in one tiny spot in his dorm room). My nephew lived outside Stephenville and had zero cell service. My sister would have to leave him voice mails that he could return when he got service in town. They had Verizon. I don’t know if they don’t have enough towers or what but I would quiz your provider about options.
Hi everyone. I am new to this site and am trying to scroll through all of the info but basically have one question that I hope all of you can share your knowledge on: What is the true sentiment re: TAMUCC vs. Tarleton as a PSA option? I have two graduating seniors: my daughter and my stepson. Both received PSA offers and A&M is their first choice vs. other colleges, so they plan to take the PSA offer. My daughter is leaning towards TAMUCC and my stepson likes Tarleton. We plan to tour them both. We live in the DFW area and these two campuses are the ones that our kids prefer as they haven’t heard good feedback on the others (aside from West which is not geographically preferred for us). Our teenagers are hearing comments about TAMUCC and Tarleton – NO judgement here – just passing on teenager talk 
… but they say that word on the street is that TAMUCC is more of a commuter campus while Tarleton is “hick” (again, I’m not trying to be rude… we love the conservative vibe at College Station but our KIDS relay that they hear there is nothing to do and it’s all Ag/Ranching students. Can anyone shed some true, unbiased, kind light on this? We would love for both of them to go to the same campus but it is so up in the air right now and it’s stressful 
@2seniors My son has friends that went to CC and have absolutely loved it. They live on campus and have made great friends. One has even decided to stay there (and I believe he got a 4.0 first semester so it’s not like he wouldn’t have qualified). Another kiddo, who is a year older than my son, went his freshman year, didn’t make the PSA cut and moved back to Cstat and is at Blinn. He’s applying for straight transfer. He liked CC but all of his friends are here and I don’t think he invested enough time and energy making new ones.
Tarleton is known to be a more country vibe kind of campus. But I have literally not met a single student who didn’t enjoy their time there (either as a PSA or staying all 4 years). It’s all what the student makes of it. You can be happy any where but you can also be miserable. So mindset is key!!!
@2Seniors I had 1 son go to each school on the PSA program. I am not sure that what your kids are hearing is completely untrue for either school but it is not completely true, either. No school is perfect for anyone. After sending my boys to each, I will say that both are really good schools with more positives than negatives. The most important thing I can recommend is to visit each on a class day and just see if your children feel like they belong. I preached to each of my children to get involved- even if you know it’s only for 1 year until you get to A&M. They will be MUCH happier if they get involved with the campus they are on, regardless of how long they stay there.
@2Seniors My son is planning on TAMU CC, and he loved the campus. I think the school is leaning more and more away from being a commuter school and more towards traditional 4 year university. One point I made was “how many commuter schools have Division 1 status in sports?” 
While they don’t have football and homecoming is on the basketball court, this did not phase my football loving son. He knows it’s for one year (9.5 months) and his focus is to do his best so he can move onto TAMU where his older sister is currently. And yes, he also heard about Tarleton being “in the middle of nowhere yee yee county”, and this completely turned him off. So much so that he won’t even visit…so I can’t speak for Tarleton at all - there are others here who can though.
Anyway, he was very happy with the visit to Corpus that you could just see the stress fall off his shoulders (he was a little uptight worried that he wouldn’t like it). The Corpus campus is situated so nicely on it’s own “island” - it really is a pretty campus. And the dorms/apartments (Miramar is the only one that offers 9-10 month leases - the other apartments require 12 month lease) are very nice as well.
Hope that helps!
thanks for the info @daleNchip . she said she was available to meet with us if we wanted to do so. I hope the PSA session tonight in Arlington will answer all my questions and concerns.
@2Seniors Tarleton is definitely more “country” than some of the other system schools simply due to it’s geographical location. the area surrounding Stephenville is primarily farm and ranch land. Any number of descriptive terms like hick, redneck, cowboy, farm boy etc. could be used to describe the population. there’s probably a time warp too…things just move slower and it’s less stressful.
I know of two kids that recently graduated and they didn’t fall into any of those categories…they were both raised in the DFW area. and, four years there didn’t turn them into hicks!
Yes we saw a lot of boots and trucks (and three members of the rodeo team in full boots, spurs and vests) when we visted Tarleton, but we also experienced super friendly folks with superb manners. On campus and off. The area surrounding the college was clean and well maintained. There seemed to be a pride in how they did things. Overall it was a slower, simpler way of life but one that everyone in our group could completely appreciate. There isn’t much night life. Even the tour guide said you mostly just hang out, but I think that is true for all the PSA schools. None of them are in booming towns. My daughter is already talking about buying her first pair of boots (which she will need in cstat too by the way) and learning to country dance. As was said earlier, it is what you make of it. It’s been my experience mamas raise their cowboys right. ?
Hi everyone- first time poster! I’ve been following this thread and the 2023 Aggie Admissions since beginning of March when we still hadn’t heard anything. My husband and sister are both Aggie and my husbands parents as well. Not too mention both sides of us have siblings and cousins that attended. My son was raised to be an Aggie and it’s the only school he applied to. He has a 99.7 GPA, 1280 SAT, 22 hours of DC and AP credits and a 3 page resume of leadership, organization and volunteer service. He was counting down the days until he could be a fish in the Corps. We were shocked and heart broken when he got his PSA letter. It took a couple of days and he became very excited. He goes to a very competitive high school outside of Austin and so many of his classmates were flat denied with no path offered. He has chosen Tarleton because he feels it most resembles the feel of BCS. the paperwork side of things seems slow. He accepted his PSA offer the night of 3/11 (he as informed that morning of A&M’s decision) and he just got the email last night confirming Tarleton has received his paperwork. It wasn’t as admission with an ID number but hopefully that will be coming soon? He is anxious to connect with other PSA kids. Is there a FB or social media group they are joining?
@Aggie1998 I know that your son was initially disappointed but remind him that after his PSA year, no one will know or care that he didn’t start in College Station. Also, I’m sure that you are aware but Tarleton also has a corps, if he’s interested.
@Aggie1998 welcome! if you’ve been following along, you may have seen some of my frustration with the delays in responses and action at Tarleton. They move at their own pace and I’ve finally come to terms with that. It took almost three weeks to receive his admission and 24 hours after that he received his ID number. Housing told me yesterday that it will be late April before he is assigned to a dorm. His housing application was submitted 3/25. They do a lot of manual processing.
@OMGdontblink Are y’all going this Friday or next? Now we are NOT going to the Islander day but will wait until 4/5 to put in Housing application. He also has to have complete series of bacterial meningitis done (I didn’t know it was a series - he just needs the last shot) before he registers for NSC? Sigh. Too much to get done - and trying to find time is killing me.
@JaceyK We are going on March 29th. I will ask about waiving housing the fees on Friday and hopefully they will let us. I already sent the meningitis form in to them because we had it for the dual credit courses he took in HS. It is overwhelming to say the least. I am hoping to also nail down the NSC because we need to make summer plans.
When I was scourging their website i noticed that Homecoming is a really big thing there, or seemed to be. So for sports feeling there’s that.
@OMGdontblink Our kids were not required to do the bacterial meningitis because the DC classes were either held in the HS or online. Please let us know what they say about capacity and about waiving the fees. I am hoping (actually praying) that 1.5 weeks won’t see much change in capacity. As of last Friday, they were at 50% capacity.
We had planned on going to Islander day, but my son didn’t put in the request to take off from work (and is leery about doing so after this past weekend and the rest of this week (he is on his way to a HOSA state competition).
@JaceyK Our DC classes were also in HS but we still had to turn in the form. Funny how things can be different. I really don’t think missing Islander Day is that big of a deal if you already toured. I will try to find out what the capacity is on Friday and let everyone know. Good luck to your son at state!
What is the meningitis stuff? They have until NSC to submit documentation, correct?
@52AG82 On the Texas A&M Corpus Christi site, they list it as a requirement in order to register for NSC:
To register, you must:
Be admitted as a first-year student for the Summer I, Summer II, or Fall 2019 semesters.
Claim your University-assigned Island ID. Click here to set up your account or reset your password.
Use your Island ID and password to access your Islander E-mail account.
Have TSI scores or proof of exemptions on file with the Office of Recruitment and Admissions. You can contact the Office of Academic Testing at 361.825.2334 to inquire about your TSI status.
Submit your bacterial meningitis vaccine (BMV) documentation. You can view the Bacterial Meningitis Policy on the Office of Recruitment and Admissions website.
If you have completed all the steps above, you are ready to use your Island ID and password to register for Islander Launch here.
@JaceyK thanks! My daughter will be at TAMU CStat. I’ll have to look up their requirements. Assume it is the same for all campuses?
@52ag82 you can register for NSC without having your shot. But must have it in order to register for classes (unless this has changed for tamu in a year)… lol, yeah go ahead and check but since you’ve already registered for NSC, I guess it hasn’t changed.