Texas A & M University - College Station

In spite of the large student body, the social environment is shockingly incestuous. Instead of having lots of dynamics and opposing influences and "types"- Republicans and Democrats, intellectuals and businessmen, engineers and philosophers, artists and marketers- what I found was a bland suburban and small town mentality where people only wanted to get a sheepskin and then get a job and make babies. A&M isn't competitive (i.e., stimulating) at all, and it's racially very homogeneous. It's not preparation for the global world that is the 21st Century. Criticism of ideas and analyzing the world seemed almost discouraged by a strange kind of silence and assent.

Academics were simply not challenging and the students were, on the whole, uninterested in what they were doing. A certain amount of competition is good, and A&M seems to willing to give anyone a "C" just for showing up. It's an inferior learning and social environment. On the plus side, students are willing to help each other more than I expected, and professors are probably more approachable than they might be at some universities.

Finally, College Station is boring and ugly.

Not saying that there is anything wrong with being white, christian, small town or conservative, but the folks here have a way of making you feel bad for not being the above mentioned. Even worse, some go above and beyond making you feel bad as citied in some incidents in the school.

The ritual traditions are ok, its the close minded mentality that is sometimes unbearable, one wonders if they have experienced or even traveled anywhere else outside of their texas towns.Many elite schools students have in your face pride, I called them prima donnas, but with A&M pride, I refer to it as much ado about nothing.