Recently in Boston, someone congradulated
me on such a great choice of school, pointing to my Aggie hat...

Our Visualization MS is very well known in the computer graphics, film animation, and special effects world. We have one of the best, arguably *the* best, records for placement with companies like Pixar, ILM, Dreamworks, Disney, etc. They frequently visit looking to recruit new talent.

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a&m is seemingly selected against at my medical school. there is the opinion that a&m is subpar academically. that said research oriented people regularly mention a&m as outstanding. in short undergrad a&m is pretty low ball. graduate degrees and research are, however, in the upper echelon.

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He doesn't go to any med school in Texas, apparently.

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Well I guess if you are interested in that one thing, then yes, the same deal with Swarthmore College.

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Actually, Swarthmore has a very respected engineering program.

(can't call it a school when there are only 20 people in it...)

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Georgia Tech should be who we are targeting.

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I moved up to NYC 3 years ago and realized that A&M is not as well known or respected as I thought. When I was applying to business school my boss at the time, who was a New York native and went to Penn put it very bluntly to me: a top business school admissions department perceives my degree the same as any other big state school - even worse, A&M is not even the "flagship" university from Texas and it's high ranking in engineering, etc. is not known to everyone.

Granted, he was exaggerating a little to make a point that I needed to find a way to stand out in a competitive application pool. However, his point is valid that A&M is a good regional school with a recognizable brand, but not much more. Personally I'm okay with that, especially when I talk to my friends that went to Ivy's and they tell me how everyone is stuck up and has a sense of entitlement.

There is always of course the whole NY/Northeast, if it isnt here it doesnt exist bias to overcome as well.

Im not sure that bias isnt even more obnoxious than the everything is bigger and better in Texas bias.

But yes .. regional good, national okay, international relatively unknown outside of O&G naturally .. why else do you think we are in Qatar?

NYC (or any north eastern inhabitant) will not look up to a flagship university from Texas or give much recognition. A&M was established much later in the Union and the south is much different in the north. An 'ol Ag high up in a company won't hire the guy from Penn, but rather the Aggie. Even a sip boss will do the same. Like the above poster said, there is a bias with Ivy Leagues in that area.

The Ivy bias is very big in the NY area. I am at a law school in NYC and a large majority of my classmates are from Ivy league schools. It is to be expected. Many people e do know about A&M though and think highly of it, especially those who have dealt with Aggies in the past. I think more than anything there is just not many Aggies in this region, so people don't know about us as much.