Help your child make the best decision by visiting both. I am 1 of 5 kids. 3 went to TAMU. 2 went to UT. UT is a city school. School buses are city buses. There are homeless. There is graffiti. Austin is the state Capitol - people visit Austin to protest. People visit Austin for their annual vacations. The music and film festivals and F1 track attract gobs of visitors from all over the world to Austin multiple times a year (in non pandemic days). Austin is NOT just a college town, it is a big city with high rise buildings, traffic, etc. There is a feeling of lots of diversity and one who goes to UT will want to be the profile of person who wants that diversity. For those who go to UT, their new favorite color is Burnt Orange, some love that, some can’t stomach it. Hook 'em is the greeting of choice at UT. TAMU is rural. TAMU historically has leaned more conservative than UT, but that is changing along with the world! TAMU is very patriotic and reverent to the military and has staunch traditions in which a future Aggie will be encouraged to partake with zest (avoiding sporting games would enable a student to avoid a lot of the pressure, but many Aggies would say that would mean missing out on the fun - to each his/her own, right?). TAMU is an AG school at its core. The TAMU greetings are Howdy or Gig 'em. The favorite color of loyal Aggies is Maroon. TAMU cheers with pride “Farmers Fight!” At TAMU, you will find: no graffiti & no homeless sleeping on the sidewalks surrounding campus. There is so much more to a school than rank. I have a junior at UT & know tons of kids at both places. I have happy, successful 50+ year old friends with degrees from both places. Go visit. I also have a high school senior looking at both now. Idea… At every school we visit we go to the Union (MSC at TAMU), the bookstore, the Catholic Church (insert your place of worship or skip this step if not applicable), we walk thru the exterior dorms area(s), we find a Starbucks & Chick Fil A and we walk - a lot. We try to come up with a short list of important spots on each campus we visit those places and walk inside them, not just by them, when possible - we find the spots to go based on reading and talking to friends/alums (like teachers at school who went there). Try to clock 5,000-10,000 steps. An official tour is great, but official tours are not available to many right now and even if you book one, independent exploration is helpful. The unions and churches and bookstores & the foyer areas to libraries and rec centers are all OPEN to those with masks on at all schools (we have visited many since last March when the pandemic seeming shut the world down). Walk in where you can and take a peek. Let your child see what auditorium sized classrooms look like if you can get a glimpse. Feel how far the spots on campus are from each other. How safe does your child feel going from one to another? See where your child feels like they fit. UT and TAMU could not be more different. You and your child will feel that after a day and 5-10k steps. Kids will spend 12-18 hours in a classroom in a week. They will spend every other hour somewhere else. So, make sure they like the “somewhere else” and the somebodies that will inhabit those many other places - do the places and people inspire them and make them proud (more important than the school rank!). Have them “people” watch. Listen. Smell. Touch. Double mask up and let your future Aggie or Longhorn expose all their senses to both places, then let them decide. If they want to do Greek life, do your research, again, rush is VERY different at the 2 places. If they are 1st Gen, make sure you look into resources and have your child looped into a 1st Gen program before school starts. If academics is the lynch pin, then look up what every professor in the college of interest is researching. Which list: TAMU professor research or UT professor research makes your child eager to learn? Hope that helps!!! They will LIVE there for 4 years. It is like buying a house. Ask your child which neighborhood and neighbors do they want to commit to for 4 years IN PERSON and for a LIFETIME as an alum!!! It is a huge investment of time and $$$ and they should like the neighborhood a whole lot before they pull the trigger and “buy”!!!
BTW: My husband and I are both lawyers. Have your child study whatever they are passionate about - all majors can apply to law school. Successful lawyers are analytical thinkers who can read lots, process gobs & write well - speaking well is a common but not essential trait. The LSAT entrance exam is a LONG way away. Undergrad grades are important for all grad school applications. So, tell your child to go where they see themselves succeeding. There will be gobs of competition at both places. Have your child go to the place that inspires them to read more, write more & think analytically about issues - lawyers must understand all sides of issues - only then can they know what the other side will propose & so they can prepare their approach for their own side. Don’t worry about picking the undergrad school with the best law school either, law schools recruit top students - all successful applicants will have great grades and analytical skills - and no matter the law school, they will recruit from all universities. Also, many need a change of scenery for grad school and want to move away from their undergrad town for grad school. Also, many have spouses by the time grad school rolls around and, therefore, they end up needing to pick a school in the town where their spouse has a job! That frames just how far away from today 4.5 years can be!!! Right?!?!??
Finally: Most kids are dreams at 18-years of age. College is long and hard. At 18 my husband thought he’d be President of the USA and I thought I’d be a doctor. The 4 years of college humbled him and honed him into a respectable lawyer (he has never run for any office) and my 1st semester of college math and science had be dash away from pre-med and I ended up with a business degree. At 18, kids have no idea (with good reason) what profession they will land in. So, encourage your kids to study something they will be proud of and happy with whether they end up in grad school (Law or Business or Vet or Med school) or not!!! Lots of careers need solid writers and those with a solid math foundation who have a network of similarly trained peers in a variety of fields. Most with an undergrad degree will find jobs that don’t require an advanced degree - advanced experience will move them along plenty. Some kids LOVE college. Others swear they will never take a test again. To that child (I have one and was of of them), I reply: you will be a learner your whole life. You will read and calculate, you will think you learned enough only to learn just how much more there is to know. That is life. The tests look different the older we get, but the tests continue too. As grown ups we know that and really the only way to learn it is experientially - at the ripe age of 18-22, grown ups sound like the adults portrayed in Charlie Brown films - Wah Wah, Wah Wah, Wah Wah! Ha ha!!! Good luck!!!