Tabasco said:
drwong said:
FWIW, we did the Discover Aggieland thing yesterday. If your kid is on the fence or hasn't had much exposure to a&m, it's worth checking out.
What is that exactly? We did a Saturday orientation thing several months ago, and A&M's entire process and the orientation was absolutely atrocious and horrible. I remember treading on this thread a few years back similar things.
The best thing to do is to reach out directly to the Department you are interested in and try to set up a meeting with a Counselor or Advisor and ask if they will invite a current student. Did that with both of my boys for Ag Business and Biomedical Engineering and it was 100x better than any regular tour, especially if you have a kid who is already familiar with A&M. Lots of chances to ask direct and relevant questions and see where they will actually be going to class and spending much of their time. Really find out about what is available resource wise. Usually the student will give you a tour afterward and you can just hang back and let your kid talk to them. I've done the same for both of my kids at other schools as well but at A&M it was really helpful since my boys both knew most of the other stuff anyway and have walked around campus plenty of times. As a side benefit you can really get a feel for what the Departments are like and how well they support their students.
I hate the regular tours and sessions btw, hell for my oldest son they spent half the time talking about the LBGTQ services and how A&M was dealing with their struggles from being so racist in the past. Then they get half the campusologies wrong. Seems to always be some Liberal Arts student giving them.
Spend the Night with the Corps is also really good if your kid has even an inkling of going that route. They get lots of time to talk to current students and the best thing to me is they attend a class with students the following morning, my son got such a better feel for what it was like by simply walking to class with a couple of fish and sitting in on a lecture, it made it all very real for him.
If you just do college tours your kid will end up picking the school that put on the best show and has the coolest rec center or something. Any school can put on a show if they want and make a kid feel special. After you do about 3 of them they all run together as well. See the Departments. Hang out where students hang out and strike up a conversation. You learn so much more than going on a tour.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan
