Please help and share opinions and experiences! I am very torn between these 2 options and honestly am unsure. I will be a future (Fall of 2019) Psychology Major and minor in Youth Development/ Social Work. TAMU is my family’s school and is only 1 hour away, versus TTU which is almost 8 hours, and the cost is virtually the same at both schools. Thank you for your input!!!
If you got team and the major you want… and you’re an Aggie family and it’s close to home… there’s your answer. Lol you’re going to love it. You have the same access as if you took all classes at tamu campus.
My daughter did RPTS youth development as major. Loved it.
@treehugger2023 Do you want a Tech ring or an Aggie ring on your finger for the rest of your life?
Same cost
Not bus or engr so can slot right in from Team. Smaller classes from Blinn but much bigger overall at A&M vs TT Honors Program.
Much closer and Aggie family. Lubbock is pretty remote.
A&M wins. Study hard and use professor office hours.
@treehugger2023 : What she ^^^^ said! 
As a mom of 2 Aggies, Class of 2016 (full admit) and Class of 2021 (Blinn-TEAM), I lean toward TAMU. My younger daughter is currently a sophomore on Blinn-TEAM and having a wonderful time as an Aggie in Aggieland! Blinn-TEAM is offered to students who TAMU thinks will THRIVE in Aggieland, but there just aren’t enough Freshman seats for everyone who wants to be an Aggie.
But this is YOUR first big decision that will determine the direction of YOUR adult life. It is a hard decision to make, but congratulations that you have 2 good options! Be very proud of your accomplishment!
Are you thinking that Blinn-TEAM is “lower quality” than TTU Honors full Admit? That isn’t true. Blinn-TEAM has ALL of the benefits of a Full Admissions TAMU seat, except that they can’t play an NCAA team sport for TAMU. The only people who think Blinn-TEAM is “less than” are not in Aggieland! Blinn-TEAM earns a TAMU degree, a TAMU Gold Aggie Ring and has the entire Aggie Network behind them when they enter the “real world”.
Even “Old Ags” might have an incorrect view of Blinn-TEAM based on old, outdated, incorrect info. Blinn-TEAM is not straight Blinn CC, and even straight Blinn-CC now is a lot more rigorous than Blinn CC of many years ago. Think of Blinn-TEAM as just taking some classes at a different location than the main TAMU campus. But STILL in Aggieland. A lot of the Blinn-TEAM profs are also TAMU profs, you probably won’t have Grad students teaching classes like you might have for the lower level but high volume TAMU classes. On Blinn-TEAM, the classes are smaller so there is more interaction with the profs. The class hours at Blinn campus are lower cost than hours on TAMU campus, so that may be a factor you and your family can discuss. (We pay cash for our daughter’s Blinn hours and she is saving her Texas Guaranteed Tuition hours for a graduate degree). On Blinn-TEAM, you will have an Aggie ID, you can choose to live on campus, choose to have a dining plan, buy a Sports Pass, and join any Greek or TAMU campus group. All of this is a great part of living the Aggie life in Aggieland!
I think you can apply for Honors at TAMU later if that is what you want. Check out all info online so that you get the correct current info. You don’t mention your major. That could also be a factor of where you go.
YOU have to go where YOU fit in, where YOU feel you will reach YOUR potential.
It is hard when your family bleeds for a school if you just don’t have that same feeling. Not everyone is comfortable with all of what goes into being an Aggie, is that part of the issue? Have you always wanted to be either an Aggie or a Red Raider? Was one of the schools your #1 and the other a safety? Is it an ego issue, is it that you feel TTU really wants you because they offered you a Full Admit seat and TAMU was so full of highly qualified students that they could only offer you a Blinn-TEAM seat? Do you like the vibe of the campus or school spirit for one better than the other? Do you like the location or town or size of the school or vibe of the campus and other students better for one or the other? Talk to people who have attended both schools, including recent grads of your HS and any teachers who are alums of either school.Make a list of all of the pros and cons you can think of and take a while to consider all of the reasons for or against each school. Don’t make a snap decision.
Have you visited TAMU and TTU on a regular school day to see what the vibe of the campus really feels like and whether YOU feel comfortable?
It was a TAMU campus visit on a regular school day when my younger daughter decided that TAMU was THE school for her. She had an official campus tour and a meeting with an English advisor and sat in on a class. Even though she had attended games and sorority events when her older sister was at TAMU, I wanted her to decide for herself. We didn’t want her to WANT to be an Aggie “just because her sister was an Aggie”. She visited UTD and decided it was too small and she didn’t like Dallas. She didn’t visit TTU while in HS but had visited TTU and Lubbock when her sister was applying, based on that experience, she felt like Lubbock was TOO FAR away and both the school and town were too small. She did not visit the UH campus but knew that it was in the middle of Houston and less of a traditional campus setting. She had visited UT in Austin when her sister was in HS and did not like that the campus was in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown Austin and also felt like Austin was “TOO weird!” LOL. But during the TAMU visit, she turned to me and said that she could see herself being very happy as an Aggie, she felt like she “fit in”. Receiving the Blinn-TEAM offer was disappointing at first, (as her sister was a Full Admit) but she soon realized that she would still be living the Aggie life in Aggieland.
If you can fit in a campus visit for each school, schedule a visit with an advisor and see if you can sit in on a class. It is getting close to graduation so you may not have the time to do this, though. Perhaps you can call the department of your chosen major at each school and ask questions. Print out the course requirements for your chosen major and see if the courses for your major are really what you think you want to take. And realize that you might change your major once you are exposed to many more types of classes. If you already plan on grad school, you might have several options for you Bachelor’s degree.
Check out my thread on TAMU Blinn-TEAM Fall 2017 Parent Perspective for more info on Blinn-TEAM.
And also, if you choose one school and then find out that you really aren’t happy there, transferring is possible, but you have to make sure that you are following all of the rules and regulations.
Good luck. Keep us posted.
@AggieMomhelp do you know anything about the minor? I was going to do it because I want to go into School Psychology or Counseling and it seemed like a good fit. Thank you again:))
@trinley to be honest, I am not sure what the big difference would be. I feel like both schools will prepare me for the work field/grad school and take me far. However, I honestly do not know.
Also, another question I have (to anyone that wants to answer it) why is TAMU so much better? Lol this feels like a dumb question to ask but honestly. why?
Wow, that was incredibly thoughtful and helpful, thank you @AggieMomAgain !!!
Until last year, I only had ever thought/dreamed of going to TAMU. I, however, moved throughout high school to a much bigger and more competitive school and lost a lot of confidence that I would get accepted (especially once my grades began to fall).
After that, I did go for a visit to TTU as a safety school and surprisingly loved it. It wasn’t quite as overwhelming as TAMU has seemed from my many visits there, and I felt very supported by all the staff/students/professors that I met.
I definitely love TAMU and am comfortable with the school as well. A&M’s Psychology program is better but if I decide that Psychology isn’t for me, TTU has more degrees that align with other interests.
I can honestly see myself thriving and being happy at both schools. Something that I have realized if I choose Tech is that I will have huge FOMO about all of the Aggie traditions and life in CS/B.
Something I am also waiting for is the LLP decisions because I applied for the Leadership one.
Eventually, I will make a decision and thank you for all the tips and thoughts again!
@treehugger2023 as a minor no. She was RPTS with a youth development certificate. So I’m not sure if it’s a minor or certificate.
Have you looked at childhood development?
@AggieMomhelp that was actually my 2nd choice major while applying.
@treehugger2023 the point I was attempting to make is this: How many Tech rings have you see people wearing vs how many Aggie rings worn? It is the network once you graduate. Both schools will teach you the same stuff. I attended both actually. My youngest son and I are going to visit Tech next week. But the Aggie ring is an instant conversation starter at networking events. Pick the school that you feel most comfortable with. No-one here can substitute their experience for yours. Good luck.
Honors College makes the large public U experience more manageable. I did it at UH. You get priority registration and much smaller classes.
@AggieMomhelp - I have heard from more then one old Ag who have kids currently with Blinn Team that the program is being phased out - what do you know about that if anything? Secondly, with the PSA offer my daughter’s major - Architecture was listed as one of the ones available for PSA yet she was offered just about all the schools as her PSA choice but none offered her major accept Prairie View and she is not interested in attending PV- so does that mean she is not able to go to another campus as the PSA courses she needs to take are core and could be taken anywhere?
@AggieGurl I have not heard anything about team being phased out. That would shock me 100%.
If it were my child, I’d do either straight Blinn and transfer ASAP or PTA. I wouldn’t do PSA if major not available.
@AggieGurl For PSA, the system school does not have to have the major what your daughter will be admitted to, upon completion of the program. All she has to do, is take the required courses at the PSA school for the specific A&M major.
The College of Architecture has 4 majors that are participating in PSA. Construction Science, Environmental Design, Landscape Architecture, and and Urban and Regional Planning.
If she wants construction science, she will follow this plan at her system school http://admissions.tamu.edu/admissions-staging/media/Main/pdfs-psa/ARCH-Construction-Sci1920.pdf
If she wants Environmental Design, she will follow this plan at her system school http://admissions.tamu.edu/admissions-staging/media/Main/pdfs-psa/ARCH-Environmental-Design1920.pdf
If she wants Landscape Architecture, she will follow this plan at her system school http://admissions.tamu.edu/admissions-staging/media/Main/pdfs-psa/ARCH-Landscape-Arch1920.pdf
If she wants Urban and Regional Planning, she will follow this plan at her system school http://admissions.tamu.edu/admissions-staging/media/Main/pdfs-psa/ARCH-Urban-Regional-Planning1920.pdf
@AggieMomhelp @AggieGurl when I went to the informational session for Blinn TEAM, they said that they cut the program to only 500 offers this year and plan to keep the numbers low (about only 1,000 students co-enrolled at a given time). I don’t know if that means they are phasing it out, or just controlling the class sizes. But that is everything that I know and I hope it helps:)