Help! Help! I’m so confused about the dorm choices …
Thank you so much.
My son is a freshman engineering major living in Mosher as part of Honors Engineering. Many, but far from all of the engineering majors live in the Commons, which includes Mosher.
I looked at Google Maps to compare the distance of some of his classes from Mosher for a look at Southside and I l used Hullabaloo for Northside. I found that distance-wise, things would have been about the same.
Heldenfels Hall: 0.3 mile walk from Mosher, 0.7 mile walk from Hullabaloo.
Zach: 0.6 Mosher, 0.5 Hullabaloo
Blocker 0.7 Mosher, 0.4 Hullabaloo
Haynes 0.5 Mosher, 0.7 Hullabaloo
Chem 0.6 Mosher, 0.6 Hullabaloo
The distances above are for his engineering, math, and science classes. Beyond that, they have various general university required classes that can be anywhere depending on what they choose.
Ethics in YMCA 0.6 Mosher, 0.4 Hullabaloo
SCUBA 0.8 Mosher, 0.9 Hullabaloo
In general, it does not seem to matter too much whether Northside or Southside is chosen. It may be better to consider the various features of the dorms. Much less convenient but completely desired by some would be White Creek apartments. Those are 1.5 miles from Zach for comparison.
For a dorm, my son is quite happy in his engineering clustered choice of Mosher/Commons. He rooms with another engineering major, he is surrounded by other engineering majors (and others - you do not have to be in engineering to be in the Commons, but many are). It is convenient for study groups and for the fact that he does not even have to go outside to get to a dining hall. Other engineering majors are quite happy in other dorms or apartments though. My son will be in the nearby Stack apartments as a sophomore but I am glad that he started TAMU in a dorm.
To your question of Lechner or McFaddon, I have no clue.
Northside modulars are by sbisa (cafeteria and food court). Both lechner and McFadden are there. Zachary building (engineering building) is north side as well but not any closer than south side dorms. We’re talking 18 year olds. They can walk without an issue lol. Honestly unless you have back to back classes (within 20 minutes) then all class locations are easy to manage. And where your dorm is located is irrelevant. Once the student is up and moving? Where they live doesn’t matter. Seriously, do not worry about location. It just doesn’t matter. West campus is farther of course but besides classrooms, there’s everything you need is where you’re at. They will manage.
Thank you for your replies. One of my kids is a serious bathroom hogger so I’m hoping to get a dorm room with just 2 of them sharing the bathroom (that is, if both decide to go to TAMU). I’d prefer them to live in Mosher (closer to other engineering kids) if not concerned about 4 ppl have to share 1 bathroom. 
@ATTX , fwiw, my daughter says that all of her suitemates have such different showering schedules that it really isn’t a problem. In fact, she lamented more over having to share the bathroom with her brother over Christmas break than with 3 other girls in Mosher.
Also look at what the shower is like, my kid is in cheap dorms and the shower/toilet combo has nothing but a shower and a toilet, no surfaces, mirror, etc. There is no way to spend an excess of time in there.
Looking for some help/advice. My son has been admitted and has been accepted into engineering. We’re going to visit Texas A&M this week, flying in Wednesday and flying out Saturday afternoon late. He’s interviewing for a NROTC scholarship either Thursday or Friday and we’re doing the campus tour and engineering tour Thursday. Also we’re going to check out the basketball game Saturday. Here’s the question: What else do you recommend we see/do, including dining, etc.? We’re staying at the hotel by the football stadium and won’t have a car, but we’re not against doing a lot of walking. He’s very excited about A&M, his dream school, even though we’ve never been there. Thanks!
@Sybylla. That’s funny. After reading what TXRunningMom said … yes, if 4 girls can share a bathroom, I have to assume boys should be able to work it out the bathroom situation.
@JoeinNC so definitely need a car or Uber in college station. What you’re doing so far sounds great. If you’re wanting to see the community itself too, y’all can take a walk around downtown Bryan (shops, food, old movie theater, bars etc). Really neat area. Of course George Bush library on west side of campus is a great place to see. Not exciting but interesting for sure. Century square near bonfire memorial (also something to see on campus and near engineering building) has great restaurants and some shopping. All sorts of peeps there from college age to young families to empty nesters and geriatrics.
Not a ton to do here but always something to Do, if that makes sense. I’ve lived here since Tamu and I graduated in 93 and have a 2019 Aggie grad and a class of 2022 son.
Enjoy your stay and if you have any specific questions, message me.
@JoeinNC Even with the campus and engineering tour, I recommend some time of just walking the campus unguided. It was by just walking the campus that both my son and I could tell that he was in the right place.
As to in town, some simple places like Mad Taco and Dixie Chicken are each less than a mile from Zachary Engineering Building, therefore a decent walk if the weather is decent. Dixie Chicken is a bar of sorts but my family has eaten there and enjoyed it. We had no idea at the time that we were eating at a place of Aggie history (since 1974). If you end up with access to a car, or maybe you explore the bus system, go to the Warehouse(https://www.thewarehouseatcc.com/). It is a great place to start picking up some Aggie clothing, etc.
@attx My son is a freshman engineer living in Hobby and is not a Terry Scholar. For two students, the modular rooms are large and it has worked well for him and his roommate. No complaints! He also enjoys some of the eating places just north of Hobby. As others have said, there are so many possibilities and options, and the students will make their living situation work. For my son it was just a question between North side or South side dorms and either would have been fine.
Aggieland Saturday is coming up February 8th I believe and that’s a great time to tour all the dorms and white Creek. Congratulations!
One of my buddies from high school worked at the Chicken his freshman year and failed out of TAMU for that reason. Ended up at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State) where he was a better… err… fit. 
When do scholarships like Presidents Endowed, Lechner, and Opportunity Awards typically start showing up in the financial aid portal? February?
@Eggscapgoats, thank you so much for the info. Touring the dorms will definitely help us making decisions.
@BurOak. Presidents Endowed should already be there. I don’t know when the other 2 scholarships will be awarded.
@JoeinNC If your son likes to work out, visit the Rec Center. It is quite impressive. Walkable from your hotel. And if you are a history fan, the Bush Library can be reached via A&M bus ride.
Also wondering when we can expect scholarship information for engineering. Needing this info to help choose schools.
I am curious how good A and M is for engineering because some say it’s one of the most underrated schools, while others say it’s overrated. I am also wondering why texas a and m’s engineering program is ranked so high (15th above schools like Duke and equal to John Hopkins) on US news for engineering.
Also, how does TAMU compare to, for example, a school like UCSD? I am just genuinely curious and hope that someone can answer my questions, thank you.
i applied to economics liberal arts and a wave of liberal arts applicants heard back but i didn’t. does that mean i didn’t get in?
@ash980123 Rankings from US News and World Reports are very popular. In the link below is the comment:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights
“U.S. News uses multiple measures to capture the various dimensions of academic quality at each college. They fall into eight broad areas: graduation and retention; graduation rate performance; social mobility; faculty resources; expert opinion; financial resources; student excellence; and alumni giving.
The indicators include both input measures, which reflect the quality of students, faculty and other resources used in education, and outcome measures, which capture the results of the education an individual receives.”
Based on this explanation of how the main rankings are done, the larger universities are definitely at an advantage (more giving, resources, etc), so its hard to compare the really large schools with the small ones. There are also rankings based on best value, school size, etc, so it really depends on the ranking criteria and who is doing the ranking.
As far as engineering goes, you definitely want an accredited engineering program. My husband and I went to a small engineering college (which maybe shows up on the best value rankings) but our education was excellent and has served us well.
If you have the option of going to TAMU (ranked 15 for best engineering schools, US news) or UCSD (ranked 11), other criteria (location, cost, environment) should matter more than rankings. You can’t go wrong with either!