I was surfing the threads and noticed you posted a question without a response yet. My son just finished his first year at TAMUCC and got accepted to CS in the fall. Is there a specific area you would like some advice on?
I you would like to connect via email with my son - he has agreed if helpful - let us know.
one tip - buy books as early as possible and save money by searching Amazon, textbooks.com, etc. and the university website has a place where you enter the specific class and it searches for ISBN number to then search the internet for best price.
2nd tip - with next year mostly/all online try to get a meeting setup F2F or skype call just during the first month after classes start.
3rd tip - Dining hall food reported as pretty good, did not need a whole lot of dining dollars to find food elsewhere.
hope this get you started - and if you donât mind, best advice is make the best out of whatever the situation is - you are already in a good place being selected to go.
Thank you for taking your time to reply and I really appreciate all the tips and information. Iâm glad I came back to check the forum! Itâs all very useful and Iâm feeling a little better about it all. In the past months Iâve been able to apply for scholarships and all in all, including financial aid, I accumulated $16k and I will be living in Miramar Housing paying $778 per month over 10 months. I am starting to look for books now, but I am not sure if I should wait for the professors to communicate with us and tell us if the books are required or not.
I have the lowest meal plan for living in the apartments & I will try to use it for my advantage. I am pursuing computer engineering & really want to make it to CS. Congrats to your son for achieving that, Iâm sure he very well deserved it! My 1st semester classes are Cal 1 w/ lab, Chem 1 w/1, Univ 1101, & Musi 1306 (elective).
I think my main concern right now are books and finding a good and stable job. I am a big tech geek and Iâve had a few jobs (Cinemark & Fast Food) before.
Iâm basically all by myself because my parents cannot support me, but I have big goals to pursue what I want, so I am the 1st one to move out in my family elsewhere. Iâm sure I will make it through the year and will be very dedicated no matter what happens. As for Covid-19, I hope Tamucc does a good job on helping us be safe.
I really appreciate the reply and would really love to connect with your son via email,
This is mine: Robert14mata@gmail.com
I know u posted a year ago, but my daughter may be going through the same PSA decision. How did your girls end up liking Tarleton? How was PSA program and guidance? Thanks for any info.
Not 30 to move over. 30/year to graduate on time. The extra 6 hours will need to be made up somewhere. Several students wanted to take more than the 24 hour PSA load to make sure they still got in 30 hours but they will not let you take more than that Freshman year.
24 hours must be taken after high school. Dual credit counts in GPA but not the 24 hours for PSA. And I donât see any restrictions on how many courses a student can take at PSA program like @WWOODS1 Said.
Last year, my daughterâs PSA year at Tarleton, they were not allowed to take any additional courses outside the set PSA curriculum for their major. It might be different at other campuses, but that was the situation for her. She has plenty of AP credit so it wonât matter for her, but for some people it might be an issue later.
What intel are you wanting? What major is your son? For some psa can make sense, for others a straight transfer makes more sense. A lot depends on major and the students desire to be at a 4 year university freshman year or a junior college. 2 totally different feels.
He applied early and chose Sports Management in College of Education. He SO wants to go to A&M and he has good friends going too. My husband and I both went there and our kids love it. He is also accepted to Texas State and chose business major there. I think he chose those majors because he was not auto admit for A&M. He was awarded some scholarship money for grades at Texas State. Before he received the PSA offer, he had asked us if he could go to Blinn in Bryan to get some basics out of the way to prepare to transfer. My husband was leery of him moving to an apartment to go to Blinn in Bryan. My husband prefers he make the transition to a dorm. Just trying to weigh options and set him up for success.
So it is very unique here in Aggieland in my opinion. While your son couldnât live in a dorm, there are so many student only housing (not like when we were here). He could live in Park West for example. It is a stone throw to blue bell baseball park. Students only. Both Tamu and blinn. They are apartment style but also feel like a upscale dorm in the main building. It is resort style living with a pool, gym, coffee bar, etc. itâs cheaper than a dorm.
And he can eat on campus too, just canât have a dining card (just pay cash). It could be somewhat limited to so donât hold me to that part at 100%.
Oh park west does roommate matching, so if his friends are living on campus, he can go somewhat random at park west and get an Aggie roomie or blinn or team or whatever. He can still bike over to his friends dorms but more than likely, theyâd come to him. No one cares here, where you go. Everyoneâs just trying to get through life and college.
I suggest, if I may, yâall make a trip down here and tour some of these places next to campus. I think youâll see itâs totally not what yâall are envisioning. He will be embraced as a student, not just a kid going to blinn in a lonely apartment in Bryan.
I sent her a message about Tarleton specifically, but I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have. In general, I think everyone should look very carefully at the PSA program before choosing to go that route, especially if you son is considering business. If he is, he likely will only be able to choose business as a minor (which all had to be done online even before Covid), because Mays basically only allows you in if you are accepted straight into A&M as a freshman. They do allow 100 kids each fall to transfer in, but that is a VERY small percentage compared to kids on campus. There is also some hassle at the end of their Freshman year waiting for PSA paperwork to get processed before they can register for classes and camp. It worked well for my niece (she commuted to Commerce), but my daughter decided for her that it wasnât worth it. If your sonâs only goal is to be at A&M then PSA might be a good fit, but I highly recommend you call the college of the major he is interested in and find out all the details of what he would and wouldnât be able to do as a PSA student. In some cases it is definitely better to do the Blinn thing and transfer.
Thank you! Very helpful! I love how everyone is so helpful, encouraging, and provides great information. I willl chat with my husband and maybe we make a trip there this week. We are about 2 hours away. Is there a website or something that has the options for places just in case the one you mentioned is full?
Thank you so much! Great information. Now to decide PSA or just straight transfer and if itâs starting at Blinn in Bryan or Texas State and transfer. My son would prefer Blinn then transfer to be there in the Fall.
I would second Aggie mom. We know a lot of kids that went the straight Blinn route and most of the time you donât know where kids are taking classes unless they bring it up. There would be some issues trying to get tickets for games, etc. but that all might be messed up due to Covid anyway. Overall everyone said they loved it and were happy they went that route, so if he really wants to be in CS donât worry about the lack of dorm living. The apartment atmosphere is most definitely not what you are thinking. They are very college living vibe. I donât know about a list but my niece loved Park West. Her fiancee lived in Northgate and hated it.