<p>Im an older student who transferred here from New Orleans last semester. I will give you my opinion of tech from the perspective of someone who from the opposite side of the tracks. </p>
<p>Lubbock sucks balls through a straw but tech makes it easy to stay here. It's a predominately white school. But diversity is not hard to find at all. I love the campus. It's gorgeous. And the students are very friendly. I also find that the whole town of Lubbock is almost built around tech. I love how much the town is supportive of tech. I'm in Engineering School here and I find the program quite adequate. </p>
<p>Having said that, I have issues with the school also. It is overwhelmingly conservative and super fratty. All of the bars near campus are also fratty. And if you're a guy and not in a big frat good luck finding a girl here. </p>
<p>As I mentioned before students are friendly here. But if you look closer, you can see that it's really superficial. It's amazing how fragile their "kindness" is. You will often spark up conversations or get pulled into conversations and it will lead to nothing. They are pretty much meaningless. On many occasions I've had very long conversations and have even been invited to random outings with people I've met at bars, clubs, etc and afterwards it means nothing because they either forget who I am the next day and pretend it never happened. And I don't know where all these so-called wild parties happen. But I haven't seen a decent party here yet. The social scene could be better here, and as a minority I often find myself going to the depot for fun because of the more diverse crowd. </p>
<p>TL;DR Relationships mean nothing here</p>
<p>Summers here are nice. I can appreciate the dryer weather, especially coming from the coastal city. But winters here are down right brutal. And I'm not a fan of dust storms either, thankfully they don't happen too often. </p>
<p>Great insight. I just have a few questions about the engineering school. I heard about the pre-engineering program, can anyone get into it or do your sat score have to be pretty high too. And also do you think it’s manageable to have an engineering major and be in a frat?</p>
<p>Sup with housing? The Gateway, Raiders Pass, or the Ranch? Any opinions? The books that are posted on raiderlink for courses that we’ve registered for with certain teacher, will those books actually what professor will use? Or should I wait for the syllabus to buy the book?</p>
<p>Besides needing to be calculus ready, i’m not sure what the requirements are for entry into the pre-engineering school. But it wasn’t too hard for me to get in.</p>
<p>@SobeGreenTea972</p>
<p>Housing around campus is really nice. But, I would avoid Raiders Pass. They have a really bad reputation. The Gateway and the Ranch are nice from what I gather. I haven’t lived in either of those places but usually the apartments further from campus offer alot more amenities… and rent is a lot cheaper also. If you want to live close to campus I recommend the Village at Overton… it’s expensive, but it’s a really nice place. Personally i’m moving to The Avenue this fall. It’s new located close to the gateway apartments right outside the loop. About a 5 minute drive to campus. I would check it out if I were you.</p>
<p>Thanks. Avenue looks very modern… I can’t go above $450 monthly though at Avenue or Village. I’ll probably stick with the Ranch.</p>
<p>What about the books? On raiderlink “order textbooks”, are they the books that the professor assigned to the course will use for the semester? I mean is it accurate, I don’t want to buy it and the teacher dont even require it.</p>
<p>When you say “overwhelming conservative” are you referring to students, faculty or both? Any comments on the liberal arts department that you might heard?</p>
<p>I transferred to Tech last semester too from Texas A&M. Coincidentally, tekboi, I’m from Kenner; well, that was the last place I lived before moving to Texas. </p>
<p>Anyways, before I start my nostalgic trip, I agree tekboi. Texas Tech is situated in a very supportive city. The people here seem to adore Tech students; and there is some diversity, especially compared to A&M. And maybe because my first school was A&M why my views may be skewed since A&M is a bit on the extreme, but I found Tech a little conservative - not much (outside the business school). Again, that’s probably because I am comparing Tech to A&M, which is known as one of the most conservative universities in the country, so don’t quote me.</p>
<p>I also agree that frat/sorority life dominate Tech, and the members tend to stick together in their group talking about the hottest and latest gossip.</p>
<p>It seems very conservative to me. But also consider the fact that i’m from New Orleans (which is very liberal). So my opinion might be a bit jaded.</p>
<p>@SobeGreenTea972</p>
<p>The avenue has rooms in that price range (I think). But I have a friend who lived in the Ranch and he said it was cool too. Honestly, you get what you pay for in terms of apartments (w/ few exceptions).</p>
<p>Just check, $499 was lowest + bills, think they only cover gas. Sup with your friend at Ranch though? Let me use him as a refer, he gets 200$ then he can split with me. Inbox me if u want my number too go thru with the idea, I could use the money for application fee.</p>
<p>I’m going into my senior year of Tech’s engineering program and I can agree with what tekboi is talking about. I live near all the bars close to campus and its frat/sorority central. The bars are cool to go to if you’re going with a couple of friends to loosen up a little after a hard week of studying. However, I must warn you that the girls are pretty hard to talk to if you aren’t in a frat for some reason. I don’t really like the frat/sorority community, they all seem to be too caught up into spending dad’s money. I actually have a crazy story to tell about me being invited to a frat party then being kicked out in less than a minute. I’ll write it up on the next post.</p>
<p>I have yet to go down to the depo area but I will consider it since it’s my last year up there. Ive been to a few cool parties but they aren’t wild parties. I’m from the Houston area so I know what a wild party is like. </p>
<p>Oh and one other thing I want to note that I find funny. Frat boys have a uniform they wear around campus, at least thats what I call it. Long sleeve Ralph Lauren button up shirts, khaki shorts, Sperry boat shoes and Oakley or Ray-ban sunglasses with that weird neck strap on them. Be on the lookout around campus I bet you’ll pass by at least 5 walking in between classes. *****!!! They crack me up every time I see them. </p>
<p>@SobeGreenTea972
As for books, I’ve always looked on that webpage to get my books. I don’t order my books from there I just get the ISBN needed for that class and go from there. I’m sure the teachers have to inform the school which books they are going to use for that semester and from there it gets past on to the local bookstores.</p>
<p>Sorry, forgot to mention books. NEVER. I repeat NEVER buy books before your first class. In fact wait a week or two to decide if you really need them. Sometimes teachers will tell you that you won’t need a book. And other times they will tell you that you do, and you will end up not even using the “required” book. </p>
<p>If you’re in engineering you will need a book for all of your core classes for sure.</p>
<p>Try to avoid buying from the bookstore. Go to varsity books on university ave or rent them online. Some books can even be found in PDF format for free online if you’re lucky.</p>
<p>@tekboi When you say you’re an older student; do you mean 25+ or simply older than 21?</p>
<p>With that said. I’ve already been accepted as a transfer student as a Computer Science major; I’m 28, I’ll be 29 next fall. In your opinion, will I have a difficult time making friends because of my age?</p>