Urban Ag said:

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I had a Rice grad that worked for me for years at two different companies. Great guy. Funny, smart, witty, good at his job (analytics type guy). His only downside was he was just so wonky he just couldn't make the case for leadership positions and struggled to climb the ladder.

We called him Waldo because he literally looked like the Where's Waldo character. He would laugh and just say that all the guys at Rice looked like Waldo. I don't think he was joking.

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The only thing more goofy looking than the guys at Rice were the women.

Gigem_94 said:

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Surprised Rice is so low. I thought they were the Harvard of the South (according to them anyway).

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So woke that old timer Rice grads will not hire them. Last President is like Mitch- married to Chinese.
So student body full of them.
So now whole university comes out of chinaman's ass.

When Rice started charging for tuition they went downhill.

Logos Stick said:

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Mostly student outcome.

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It's crap. I know all 3 of these schools well.

deddog said:

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Gigem_94 said:

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Surprised Rice is so low. I thought they were the Harvard of the South (according to them anyway).

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It's a woke magnet, just like Yale - and certainly of all the schools we visited was the least impressive.
Left Rice disappointed.

Imo, Princeton is the least woke of the ivy leagues ...still overwhelmingly liberal.

Surprised MIT wasn't higher than Princeton.

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I think UC Berkeley was woke when wokeness wasn't even a thing. Is that the case even now? Is it the wokest of the woke?

Urban Ag said:

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The biggest reason is not the "woke" at A&M nor the student body. Frankly, after spending some time on campus recently I am quite impressed with the students in general. Especially the cadets we had the pleasure of spending time with.

Texas A&M has some very good young people on that campus. They make me proud to be an Aggie.

I just have never wanted my kids to feel like they had to be Aggies because mom and dad are. And Papa, and two uncles, and a dozen second cousins, etc. Or because we were taking them to Kyle since they were toddlers. Or even because one of my son's initials is TAMU (I am dead serious about that).

I want them to chart their own path in life and be there own men. I support. I guide. I don't project my wants on them. They have to make their own decisions on certain aspects of their future.

My older son is a senior. He is not top 10%. He is right at 12% in a pretty large and highly competitive high school. To me, it's too much stress on him at that age. His application is in but we don't have guaranteed enrollment. I just want him to have other options he can be happy with. My other son is a freshman and he's literally off the charts. He can go wherever he wants. And who knows, maybe he will change his mind and look elsewhere.

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Makes sense, having just put three kids through college, figured that wasn't the case.
I did suggest tu to one of my kids, and he was appalled.
The other considered tu.
The 3rd applied to tu (didn't tell her, but i thought it was a horrendous fit) . Dodged that bullet.

In the end, ended up with at least two (very conservative) Aggies in engineering. Aggieland is a breath of fresh air, compared to their high school in Austin.

infinity ag said:

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deddog said:

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Gigem_94 said:

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Surprised Rice is so low. I thought they were the Harvard of the South (according to them anyway).

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It's a woke magnet, just like Yale - and certainly of all the schools we visited was the least impressive.
Left Rice disappointed.

Imo, Princeton is the least woke of the ivy leagues ...still overwhelmingly liberal.

Surprised MIT wasn't higher than Princeton.

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I think UC Berkeley was woke when wokeness wasn't even a thing. Is that the case even now? Is it the wokest of the woke?

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Well, there's woke.
And then there's UC Berkeley

Ironically, the only UC Berkeley grad i know is ultra conservative.

Urban Ag said:

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As much as it pains me to say it, I have really tried to get my boys to look hard at other schools than A&M. But both are hell bent on being Aggies. So be it.

In particular, Florida. Have also come to really like Arkansas.

But I tell you what and I never thought I'd say this. I would be perfectly happy for either of them to attend Texas Tech. As long as they wrap it up

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Nothing wrong with Arkie or Tech but they are definitely not the same level as A&M. Arkie is beautiful but it's not that impressive, decent business school but certainly well below Mays. HUGE Greek scene, if you aren't doing Greek there you are kind of left out. Tech is mixed bag. Some really interesting majors that pay well but a lot of garbage too. My friends with kids there all talk about how it isn't very safe either especially if you step off campus. Also a big Greek system and hard to have a social life without it.

A&M is just massive now though, ridiculously so. You are truly a number for the most part and the sheer amount of humanity and how spread out the school is can be overwhelming. It's much moreso than when I went to school in the early 90s. Engineering school is outstanding as is Business. Science is very good. Ag School is good but kind of overloaded with people that just want to go to A&M but couldn't get into Mays. A few others are decent. If your kid can get into Honors that helps too to get some preferential treatment on classes and such.

The biggest thing I would recommend is looking at majors not the schools. When you do college visits the tours are fine for general feel but call the college your kid is looking to major in and set up a meeting, hopefully with an advisor or provost and a current student. You will learn more in an hour of sitting down that way than anything else and it also will really help your kid understand what the school and major is like. You don't want them picking the school with the coolest gym or prettiest campus, they need to see what the academic buildings and classrooms look like and where they will be spending most of their time. It also gets them thinking about what they really want to study instead of where they want to go.

I know so many kids that just go to college like it's 13th Grade and either follow their friends or go some place they think is cool. A lot of parents also get caught up in the "I want my kid to have a great college experience" thing. While I get it the goal is around getting them ready to adult and get off the payroll not to recreate Animal House at $30-$70k per year. Most kids are wasting their time in college. I've got one of my son's friends who was a middling student so he decided to get a job. Eventually got someone to let him sell insurance and he will probably make $60k working from home at 19 with zero debt. Know a few that are doing great in trades. They can always go to school if they need to. Then I have friends who have kids who graduated with middling GPA's and are now 22 with no real experience outside of being VP of their Frat. They just spent a Hundred Grand or more for a Degree that really just kept them from getting experience based on the types of job they will get.

The biggest thing is take the ball on this stuff and guide your kid. Let them make the decisions but make sure you have research and information to get them thinking about the right things and asking the right questions. Schools do a crap job of this, they are more into "What color is your parachute?" idealistic crap and don't worry about costs or practicality. Kids are kids, they have a very limited viewpoint even if they do have their head screwed on right. It staggers me how many parents I know that just let their kids figure it out on their own.

How does Auburn shake out? Would be my preference for my kid if I'm left with non A&M sec schools.

And TAMU is 7th in Free Speech!

https://rankings.thefire.org/rank

Cal-Tech #18?

Laughable. I can see Sheldon, Rajesh, Leonard and Howard weep.

BCG Disciple said:

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How does Auburn shake out? Would be my preference for my kid if I'm left with non A&M sec schools.

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174

deddog said:

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infinity ag said:

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deddog said:

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Gigem_94 said:

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Surprised Rice is so low. I thought they were the Harvard of the South (according to them anyway).

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It's a woke magnet, just like Yale - and certainly of all the schools we visited was the least impressive.
Left Rice disappointed.

Imo, Princeton is the least woke of the ivy leagues ...still overwhelmingly liberal.

Surprised MIT wasn't higher than Princeton.

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I think UC Berkeley was woke when wokeness wasn't even a thing. Is that the case even now? Is it the wokest of the woke?

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Well, there's woke.
And then there's UC Berkeley

Ironically, the only UC Berkeley grad i know is ultra conservative.

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werent they the inspiration for PCU?

BCG Disciple said:

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How does Auburn shake out? Would be my preference for my kid if I'm left with non A&M sec schools.

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Ole Miss seems to be the soup de jour for suburbanites in Houston who made good grades and have decent test scores, but weren't in all AP courses and couldn't get over a 4.0 gpa and therefore couldn't get into A&M or sip (6.0 is required at some competitive big 6A high schools to be in top 10%). I think I'd make my kid at least visit Arkansas just because the hills and outdoors of NW AR seems like it would be great.

Urban Ag said:

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As much as it pains me to say it, I have really tried to get my boys to look hard at other schools than A&M. But both are hell bent on being Aggies. So be it.

In particular, Florida. Have also come to really like Arkansas.

But I tell you what and I never thought I'd say this. I would be perfectly happy for either of them to attend Texas Tech. As long as they wrap it up

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Absolutely. Sending my daughter to CO School of Mines was a great decision. I've also been intrigued by Arkansas and Florida for my middle one. My youngest is hell bent on becoming a vet. And if A&M isn't in the cards id be perfectly happy with her going to Tech's new vet school. To echo your statement…just get it done and get out. It's not daycare for young adults like a lot of parents treat it as.

#3 out of SEC schools behind Vandy and Florida

I see they ranked Rose-Hulman pretty highly. Just learned about this school this summer - seems like a great little engineering school. Somebody running their website and social media accounts is a far left ******bag, though. DEI propaganda and LGBT flags inserted into everything.

They also did a Salary Impact ranking. We were first in the state, and 62nd overall, in their ranking based in Salary Impact.
The Ivys, MIT and Stanford (usual suspects) made up most of the top 10 in that ranking.

Anybody found a way around the paywall yet? Would love to see the whole ranking.

Florida better than UVA? I don't believe it!

oh no said:

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BCG Disciple said:

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How does Auburn shake out? Would be my preference for my kid if I'm left with non A&M sec schools.

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Ole Miss seems to be the soup de jour for suburbanites in Houston who made good grades and have decent test scores, but weren't in all AP courses and couldn't get over a 4.0 gpa and therefore couldn't get into A&M or sip (6.0 is required at some competitive big 6A high schools to be in top 10%). I think I'd make my kid at least visit Arkansas just because the hills and outdoors of NW AR seems like it would be great.

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Know a few of kids who went there, an no one has been disappointed.
They aren't seniors yet, so don't know what the job situation is like getting out of school though

Kool said:

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One spot behind University of Chicago and one spot ahead of Georgia Tech???
I love my alma mater, but, uhm, no.

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Had a UChicago grad serving me dinner at the Chicago McCormicks with his "Humanities" degree as he struggled to find a job 4 years ago (pre-COVID).

Urban Ag said:

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As much as it pains me to say it, I have really tried to get my boys to look hard at other schools than A&M. But both are hell bent on being Aggies. So be it.

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Two of my sons wanted to major in computer science so I directed them away from A&M to UTD. Both are making bank now.

Keller6Ag91 said:

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Kool said:

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One spot behind University of Chicago and one spot ahead of Georgia Tech???
I love my alma mater, but, uhm, no.

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Had a UChicago grad serving me dinner at the Chicago McCormicks with his "Humanities" degree as he struggled to find a job 4 years ago (pre-COVID).

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I get it. And you can have failure wherever you are. I had a kid in my med school class who graduated from Harvard but failed out of my class (and not because of some external stress or an illness or whatever - he just struggled with the rigor of the first two years).

University of Chicago is a gorgeous campus. Their middle 50 SAT range is 1510-1580. Middle 50 ACT is 33-35. It ranks 4th in the world in Nobel Prize winners who were graduates or faculty. Its only negative is it sits right in the middle of a cold and dangerous city.

Buck Turgidson said:

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I see they ranked Rose-Hulman pretty highly. Just learned about this school this summer - seems like a great little engineering school. Somebody running their website and social media accounts is a far left ******bag, though. DEI propaganda and LGBT flags inserted into everything.

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Know a kid going there next year. Very small school in the middle of nowhere Indiana. 72% acceptance rate kind of throws me for a small school like that but they rate well and clearly have some companies that like to hire their grads.

Last time I pulled reserve duty at Ft Hood in mid eighties, there were bunch of Spec4's running around with degrees. Of course that was still a time where kids didn't expect to get handed a job and they were semi patriotic and Army made sense to them. Some even talked of being lifers. Lol, make E-7-E-8 and retire at 42 and then go do what they want with hopefully lots of practical experience- and college degree to boot!

fc2112 said:

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Urban Ag said:

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As much as it pains me to say it, I have really tried to get my boys to look hard at other schools than A&M. But both are hell bent on being Aggies. So be it.

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Two of my sons wanted to major in computer science so I directed them away from A&M to UTD. Both are making bank now.

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Interested if you could elaborate. Campus life isn't all that important to my son, and A&M is a little overwhelming to him. UTD is one place I'm having him consider.

While lists like these are always fun (especially poking holes in), they're worthless unless you're actually comparing specific degrees.

1. We graduate a lot of engineers, economics and business majors
2. These kids make a lot of money
3. Since that's the reason for college, they take this into account and we score very high.

This should only be shocking to A&M professors who have a way overvalued opinion of themselves, as this system doesn't put a high enough weighting for THEM (in their eyes) as it should.

Who gives **** if a school that's hard to get into graduates a bunch of journalism majors that end up making more money working at Dominoes.

Faustus said:

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Urban Ag said:

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I had a Rice grad that worked for me for years at two different companies. Great guy. Funny, smart, witty, good at his job (analytics type guy). His only downside was he was just so wonky he just couldn't make the case for leadership positions and struggled to climb the ladder.

We called him Waldo because he literally looked like the Where's Waldo character. He would laugh and just say that all the guys at Rice looked like Waldo. I don't think he was joking.

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The only thing more goofy looking than the guys at Rice were the women.

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Might want to check out their volleyball team.

And Harvard is the Vanderbilt of the north. HTH

deddog said:

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Urban Ag said:

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The biggest reason is not the "woke" at A&M nor the student body. Frankly, after spending some time on campus recently I am quite impressed with the students in general. Especially the cadets we had the pleasure of spending time with.

Texas A&M has some very good young people on that campus. They make me proud to be an Aggie.

I just have never wanted my kids to feel like they had to be Aggies because mom and dad are. And Papa, and two uncles, and a dozen second cousins, etc. Or because we were taking them to Kyle since they were toddlers. Or even because one of my son's initials is TAMU (I am dead serious about that).

I want them to chart their own path in life and be there own men. I support. I guide. I don't project my wants on them. They have to make their own decisions on certain aspects of their future.

My older son is a senior. He is not top 10%. He is right at 12% in a pretty large and highly competitive high school. To me, it's too much stress on him at that age. His application is in but we don't have guaranteed enrollment. I just want him to have other options he can be happy with. My other son is a freshman and he's literally off the charts. He can go wherever he wants. And who knows, maybe he will change his mind and look elsewhere.

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Makes sense, having just put three kids through college, figured that wasn't the case.
I did suggest tu to one of my kids, and he was appalled.
The other considered tu.
The 3rd applied to tu (didn't tell her, but i thought it was a horrendous fit) . Dodged that bullet.

In the end, ended up with at least two (very conservative) Aggies in engineering. Aggieland is a breath of fresh air, compared to their high school in Austin.

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My kiddos go to Georgetown HS and it's pretty conservative for the most part.

Your kids getting in to Engineering at A&M is certainly impressive. One of the hardest programs in the country to get in to. That is outstanding on you and them.

And the thing is, I feel like I am in the same boat. My sons have very conservative values. Not really worried about them being influenced in college or elsewhere. The foundation is strong. They're not going to show up on a campus and experience some cultural awakening in all things leftist. Just not gonna happen.

Kool said:

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Keller6Ag91 said:

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Kool said:

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One spot behind University of Chicago and one spot ahead of Georgia Tech???
I love my alma mater, but, uhm, no.

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Had a UChicago grad serving me dinner at the Chicago McCormicks with his "Humanities" degree as he struggled to find a job 4 years ago (pre-COVID).

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I get it. And you can have failure wherever you are. I had a kid in my med school class who graduated from Harvard but failed out of my class (and not because of some external stress or an illness or whatever - he just struggled with the rigor of the first two years).

University of Chicago is a gorgeous campus. Their middle 50 SAT range is 1510-1580. Middle 50 ACT is 33-35. It ranks 4th in the world in Nobel Prize winners who were graduates or faculty. Its only negative is it sits right in the middle of a cold and dangerous city.

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You think WSJ rigged the ranking? What are you saying? They clearly state what they look at. 70% is student success post grad. I'm sure the numbers are available if you want to see it.

Outputs matter, not inputs like SAT scores, profs with noble prizes, university reputation, etc...

Wait for the USA Today ranking then. I'm sure they'll do well there. Lol.

It's like they tried to figure out if a school's degree was worth it or something.

NoahAg said:

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fc2112 said:

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Urban Ag said:

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As much as it pains me to say it, I have really tried to get my boys to look hard at other schools than A&M. But both are hell bent on being Aggies. So be it.

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Two of my sons wanted to major in computer science so I directed them away from A&M to UTD. Both are making bank now.

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Interested if you could elaborate. Campus life isn't all that important to my son, and A&M is a little overwhelming to him. UTD is one place I'm having him consider.

While lists like these are always fun (especially poking holes in), they're worthless unless you're actually comparing specific degrees.

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UTD has a really solid CS program and it's improving rapidly as they have put a ton of money into it, basically it has become the overflow valve for all the kids that are trying to do CS in Austin but aren't Top 6%. Two others many don't think about are NC State and Arizona State for CS. I've done a number of recruiting events there and was really impressed with those 3 even for that major. ASU is particularly good if you want to go into Semiconductor, the other 2 are really more traditional programming. A&M is a great Engineering School but CS isn't really a big specialty compared to those schools, Computer/Electrical Engineering is great though.

BTW, A&M Galveston is a tremendous option if he has any interest in Maritime Transportation, Engineering, or Business. MART and MARE with License Option are the two highest paying Majors in Texas. Quiet and small campus (about 2500 students), super safe as it is literally on an island, and you still get your Aggie Ring and preference on football tickets to Kyle and you can always simply change majors and go to CS after a year if you want. It's as easy as changing majors if you are a student in CS. The rest of the majors though are fun but not very practical. They have a lot of girls who go there with a Marine Biology Major/Dive Minor because they want to play with Flipper or save the turtles but most realize just how few jobs there are for that and that they don't pay hardly anything. You really need a Grad Degree or two for the most part. Not easy majors either.

Great insight. I knew some of that but not all. Certainly having him check out Galveston too.
Thanks

aggie93 said:

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NoahAg said:

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fc2112 said:

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Urban Ag said:

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As much as it pains me to say it, I have really tried to get my boys to look hard at other schools than A&M. But both are hell bent on being Aggies. So be it.

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Two of my sons wanted to major in computer science so I directed them away from A&M to UTD. Both are making bank now.

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Interested if you could elaborate. Campus life isn't all that important to my son, and A&M is a little overwhelming to him. UTD is one place I'm having him consider.

While lists like these are always fun (especially poking holes in), they're worthless unless you're actually comparing specific degrees.

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UTD has a really solid CS program and it's improving rapidly as they have put a ton of money into it, basically it has become the overflow valve for all the kids that are trying to do CS in Austin but aren't Top 6%. Two others many don't think about are NC State and Arizona State for CS. I've done a number of recruiting events there and was really impressed with those 3 even for that major. ASU is particularly good if you want to go into Semiconductor, the other 2 are really more traditional programming. A&M is a great Engineering School but CS isn't really a big specialty compared to those schools, Computer/Electrical Engineering is great though.

BTW, A&M Galveston is a tremendous option if he has any interest in Maritime Transportation, Engineering, or Business. MART and MARE with License Option are the two highest paying Majors in Texas. Quiet and small campus (about 2500 students), super safe as it is literally on an island, and you still get your Aggie Ring and preference on football tickets to Kyle and you can always simply change majors and go to CS after a year if you want. It's as easy as changing majors if you are a student in CS. The rest of the majors though are fun but not very practical. They have a lot of girls who go there with a Marine Biology Major/Dive Minor because they want to play with Flipper or save the turtles but most realize just how few jobs there are for that and that they don't pay hardly anything. You really need a Grad Degree or two for the most part. Not easy majors either.

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Nice writeup.

UTD also tends to give you a lot of money, so it's definitely a cheaper and effective way to go to school. It is a smaller commuter school, so it's no A&M.

On the negative side: They kept touting their diversity, but its not as cosmopolitan a mix as A&M. When we visited the school, 90% of the compsci kids in the auditorium were Indian/Asian. A&M was more varied. They are both very competitive though