I’ve been accepted as a transfer student to both schools and I’m deciding between them. I’d be a telecommunication media studies major at TAMU or an advertising major at UT Austin. I know they’re both really good schools so I’m having a really tough decision because I want to make the best decision for me since I didn’t like the school I was at previously. What should I do??
Copied from one of your duplicate threads on this subject:
@turtlelover123: CONGRATULATIONS on being accepted as a transfer to BOTH TAMU and UT! Having to choose between the two schools is a “problem” that MANY people wish that they had! 
In other posts you mention that you were at OU for your Freshman year, did NOT like it there and are now planning to return to TX where you will have in state tuition.
My first suggestion is to write down all of the reasons why you originally chose OU and also write down all of the things that made you unhappy while you were there. Keep your PROS and CONS on opposite sides of one sheet or collected on separate sheets so that you can easily compare your notes.
Then you need to write down why you chose to apply to TAMU and UT. Use the same format that you used to evaluate your OU experience. Compare the PROs and CONs for OU/TAMU/UT. See if there are any common factors.
Did you visit the OU campus before you enrolled?
You need to take a trip to each school ASAP during the week when classes are in session. Austin and CStat are extremely different types of environments, UT and TAMU are very different types of campuses and the student body of each are also very different. The Summer classes won’t give you the complete picture of what classes/campus is like during the regular school year, but it will give you a glimpse of the vibe of the campus, a better view than not visiting at all and showing up after you have enrolled somewhere.
Schedule the following while you are on campus, and MAKE NOTES OF YOUR EXPERIENCES AS THEY OCCUR. Keep the same format for listing your PROs and CONs.
- Take an official tour, including
2)Visiting the dorms if you plan to live on campus - Schedule a meeting with a department advisor for your chosen major (and compare the 2 majors)
- While you are scheduling the department advisor meeting, ask if you can sit in on a class that is in session
5)Walk around campus (and compare the course selections for each major) - Have lunch on campus
- Walk and drive around OFF CAMPUS so that you can get a feel for the city surrounding the campus (including looking at off campus housing, even if you live on campus to begin with, you will probably move off campus eventually)
- Evaluate the drive to and from each campus to your home, (you will make that drive at least once each way during every semester of school, is it doable or will you dread the drive?).
11)Make notes of everything that you experience, the good and bad, your choice of school will affect your life.
Write down your experiences as they occur, and then also a few days later evaluate your experience again. You don’t have a lot of time to make your choice, but please evaluate everything carefully.
It was the college visits that cemented TAMU as the first choice for our daughters. Both decided girls one school was “too far away”, another was “too small”, another was “too close to home”. The older daughter had her choice narrowed down to SMU and TAMU, said she would be happy at either but based her ultimate decision on graduating with no debt, SMU didn’t offer her enough scholarship money to bring the tuition cost down to in state TAMU rates.
Since her older sister (5 years older) was an Aggie, and the younger one had visited her sister on campus, stayed with her over Thanksgiving, attended games with her sister and with us “old parents who are not Aggies”, attended sorority events and her sister’s graduation in 2016. But we didn’t want the younger girl to just want to be an Aggie simply because her sister was an Aggie, we wanted her to go where she fit in and felt like she would thrive. So we scheduled an official visit to a couple of schools during her HS Senior year on days when the college campuses had classes in session. During the visit to TAMU in Sept 2016 of her Senior year of HS, my younger daughter turned to me and said that she could see herself being happy as an Aggie. Then it was a LOONNNG wait until her offer of Blinn-TEAM in Feb 2017.
Neither of our girls applied to UT, as both were well below the top x %, so we don’t have any info to share for that comparison. But in their college visits, the driving distance from home, the size of the school, the size of the town, the “feel” of the campus and surrounding town, the vibe of the student body and the classes were what mattered to our girls.
Our oldest graduated in 2016 and our youngest is currently a Jr at TAMU, having successfully completed 2 years on Blinn-TEAM (her HS class rank was 53% even though she had good grades and an SAT/ACT score in the average range for TAMU). Both girls “drank the Koolaid” and are AGGIES. That is truly a different culture and it doesn’t suit everyone. The “Aggie life” may or may not suit you, so you need to evaluate each school for yourself, not just through the lens of your brother’s experience.
Which ever school you choose, you will also need to find a small group to belong to, as both campuses are large and you can end up feeling lost in the crowd. There are groups for just about anything you enjoy: all types of dance or music, Harry Potter and other books/movie fan clubs, dining groups, religious groups, Greek sorority/fraternities, non-Greek sororities/fraternities, all types of sports including frisbee/soccer/golf, outdoor hiking/kayaking, birding etc. Find a small group to belong to, it will be easier to make friends with people with whom you share interests.
I hope that you have a clear choice as to which school is the best fit for you. Keep us posted on your choice and your experiences. May all of your dreams come true.
@turtlelover123 That was very informative.
I was only going to say, if you like both majors equal then most important is how you feel on each campus.
Definitely visit each campus again during the week.
And what he/she ?? said ?
If you didn’t like OU, you’d probably prefer TAMU. But go visit and decide based on campus feel.
I would also look at what you want to do after college and the job placement of recent graduates of the two schools in your particular field of choice. I suspect one is stronger than the other, but I am not sure. (I have degrees from years ago - BS in Radio Television Communication and an MS in Mass Communication from two different schools). TAMU cut its journalism program for about 10 years and then restructured it. So my knowledge is based on a program before it was cut and brought back.
I second @itsgettingreal17! Had a child go to A&M and it was a terrible fit. He transferred to OU and absolutely loves it, said it’s as different as night and day. I’m a UT grad and have another child starting UT this fall. OU feels to me like UT did back in the 90s. I can’t really explain it but it has the same vibe and feel on campus. A&M is completely different than any other campus I have ever been on, and I have visited a lot.If you are looking for somewhere much different than OU, I would choose A&M.