one MEEN Ag said:




And also, for as 'cheap' as college station is, it really isn't. Every home is priced to cash flow 3-4 college kids. Not be single owner occupied by a manufacturing operator with a family.

This is very true. The "rent by bedroom" formula does make it difficult for young graduates to start here.

I also think mistakes have been made which have created some structural impediments against the creation of high-paying companies here. For example, we have a medical school. But we do not have a teaching hospital here. (We send our med students to Temple or (more recently) to Houston for clinical training.) Hence we are missing the infrastructure that enables biomedical companies at a lot of other universities. This would be a difficult battle in any event given the amount of medical concentration in Houston, but we surrendered a long time ago.

With respect to computer/software firm employment, I know we suffer from being a small job market, but I am surprised that there have not been more spin-offs from the university in that area. I honestly don't know why this is.

I have heard for the past 25 years that the IP policies and offices at the university are not the friendliest towards commercial development. I can't give details without breaking confidences. But the track record is not stunning.