<p>Sounds like you just described Texas A&M. Conservative, outdoors, family, and school spirit. You just left out better football team going forward that includes the first ever freshman Heisman winner.</p>
<p>is austin a very UT oriented city or is it just like a school that some people root for within the city? because i know that in college station A&M is everything.</p>
<p>The cities:
Austin - more to do, image is “keep Austin weird” and for some people that can be a little too weird. My first week as a freshman, someone sitting on the ground licked my leg as I walked by…to me that was weird but in Austin it is just another day and you eventually reach the point where nothing seems too out of the ordinary. Definitely more liberal and larger drug culture (family friend tweets about how cool it is to go onto the streets around campus and find strangers she can join in doing drugs). Town is more diverse and while UT is important to the economy, residents are definitely not focused mainly on UT (Austin is home to the state capital/government crowd, still heavily involved in tech related business/growth, has a huge artsy scene, etc.). Beautiful area of Texas and while there I enjoyed the hiking and clear blue lakes and rivers along with the live music scene you can enjoy.</p>
<p>A&M - much smaller town but residents have more of a “stake” in A&M and tend to support the programs there (sports of all sorts, fine arts performances on campus, speaker series, etc.). The surrounding area is not as pretty as the Austin Hill Country and lakes/rivers are not clear…good for fishing, less appealing to dive into. Fewer choices in dining and live music entertainment.</p>
<p>People and Culture?
At UT you could literally walk across campus for months without anyone bothering to smile or say “hello” to you. Many people like that anonymity. Reminds me of being in NYC. At A&M you will get more smiles along with greetings of “howdy”. </p>
<p>Involvment/Greek Life
Easier to get involved at A&M simply because of the friendliness factor. At UT, Greek Life plays more of a role in socializing and UT is known as one of the top Greek campuses. Greek life can be lots of fun, you always have activities to participate in and I enjoyed it at UT. A&M has fraternities too, but fewer students participate and their importance in campus life is lessened. Their fraternity houses are spread out and miles away from campus while at UT you walk a couple of blocks to the cluster of fraternity and sorority houses. Downside to the stronger greek life at UT is that it is much more difficult to get into the fraternities that are well respected (especially for out of state students). </p>
<p>After college?
Alumni Association for UT is “Texas Exes” and for A&M it is the “Former Students Association”. That sums it up when looking at alumni involvement in most cases. Once an Aggie, always an Aggie. While UT alums are always happy to meet one another, the feeling of family (and resulting career connections throughout life) that come with an Aggie ring is a much stronger bond. </p>
<p>I might seem like an Aggie supporter, but I graduated from UT. Enjoyed my time there but I discouraged my college age son from applying simply because he didn’t want to be just another number. Still love Austin though 
It just depends on you and both schools have their strengths and weaknesses. BTW, son is attending a smaller public U OOS and loves it there.</p>
<p>Texas. These are not comparable schools in the least. I’m not sure why you would even compare them.</p>
<p>Texas A&M and UT are not really that similar and have very different environments, so don’t be fooled by the geographic proximity. As a UT grad and UT Law grad from a family full of UT grads (and the father of a son who is strongly considering UT), a long-time Austin resident, and someone who currently knows and works with and has known and worked with many A&M grads as well as other UT grads, I would offer the following observations:</p>
<p>1) As mentioned above, UT has a much stronger drug culture;
2) Also as mentioned above, UT has a much more exclusive fraternity system, one that has quite poor relations with the non-Greek students;
3) A great many more kids at UT are from wealthy families;
4) A much higher percentage of rural and small town kids are at A&M;
5) Many more foreign students are at UT and there is a much more accepting attitude towards them;
6) There is a much greater and more devout Christian population at A&M;
7) There is a far more pro-military attitude at A&M (I believe that A&M has the largest ROTC program in the country);
8) UT is much more politically liberal – virtually any Democratic presidential nominee would win in a landslide at UT while virtually any Republican presidential nominee would win in a landslide at A&M;
9) There is a much more warm and friendly atmosphere at A&M (as stated in other comments, UT has more of an urban, cold, impersonal feel);
10) Students at A&M are much more supportive of traditional values while those at UT would be much more pro-same-sex marriage;
11) A&M students would be far more likely to go hunting and fishing in their free time while UT students would be more likely to become active in social justice or environmental movements; and
12) As others have said, Austin is a medium-sized city with the state government, a music industry, a high tech industry, and an arts scene so UT is not that dominant of a presence while College Station is a very small city that completely revolves around A&M.</p>
<p>I think these last few comments have really summed it up for me! Thanks and A&M it is! now it just comes down to money. And to the previous poster “informative”- you aren’t very informative and are actually very wrong in saying that.</p>
<p>My S struggled with this choice last year and flip flopped several times. In the end he chose to become an Aggie and is very happy with the choice. Interestingly enough he is neither conservative or Christian. He loves the football games, the Aggie spirit, the sense of tradition and family within the community and the general friendliness and politeness of the student body. I think he would say that he prefers to “chill” with a group of friends rather than go out a party hard. He is in engineering and while his program is more highly ranked at UT the difference didn’t seem significant enough to sway his decison. He felt that he could be more successful in the TAMU environment, probably because of fewer distractions. The summaries by Austinareadad and 247rtc are great and very much parallel the impressions we had. The feel of each school is very different and the choice is personal. My S grew up dressing as a longhorn, and visited TAMU just because I insisted that he see it before he decided he didn’t want to go. There are great things about both schools but if you are leaning toward TAMU it is most likely the better choice for you. Good Luck!</p>
<p>LOL at choosing A&M over UT.</p>
<p>informative: I am not going to get into any further discussion about this but I just want to point out that your attitude really looks bad on UT, although I believe it isn’t representative of the school, only your own narrow-mindedness. When any random student has a choice between schools there is never one right answer for every student.</p>
<p>My sister in law and her husband settled the question in the best way possible - they sent one twin to UT and the other twin to A&M! Everyone in the family owns one of those shirts that is half orange and half red. And everyone cheers equally loud and proud for both.</p>
<p>spectrum, I do not see how informative’s comments reflect poorly on UT. informative never attended UT, nor is he affiliated to UT in any way. Obviously, informative believes that students should choose the better university, regardless of fit. In the case of the OP, and I applaud him for his maturity, fit played a big part in his decision.</p>
<p>Thanks^ A&M is a great school, and if its a place that ill be happy then im choosing them.</p>