I didn’t attend any of these institutions but our daughter is now a FISH (Freshman)at TAMU. I think Bruno is right, it really depends on what you want. Our daughter looked very hard at VMI and spent the night with the Corps there. The son of a friend of mine (a Naval Academy graduate) is currently a RAT at VMI. VMI has some outstanding statistics of its own, the highest per capita endowment of any public college or university, and a placement rate of around 98% within 6 months of graduation (meaning finding a job or going to graduate school). I don’t think the value of direct access to professors who are concentrating on teaching can be overemphasized.
TAMU and its Corps of Cadets is a different type of experience. The Fish there live an austere lifestyle compared to the non-regs (non Corps members) on campus. Both Fish and “Pissheads” (sophomores) have mandatory study halls Sunday through and including Thursdays during the academic year. TAMU is large, just under 50,000 students on the main campus if graduate students are counted. The Corps, while the largest in decades, is small by comparison, a little over 2,100 cadets with the largest Fish class in a long time. TAMU offers students about 800 recognized student organizations. For the class of 2015 there were around 30,000 applications for about 8,000 spots.
All that said, TAMU does offer some outstanding credentials of its own regarding its academic stature.
●19th in nation among public universities (U.S. News & World Report, 2011);
●2nd in nation among public universities in "Great Schools, Great Prices" category (U.S. News & World Report, 2010)
● 2nd in nation for universities from which corporations prefer to hire (Wall Street Journal, 2010)
● 4th in nation among public universities for "Employment after Three Months" (Financial Times, 2010)
● 3rd in nation for research funding among universities without a medical school
● 10th in nation, 2nd among public universities, for number of National Merit Scholars enrolled (National Merit Scholarship Corporation, 2011)
● Top 20 nationally for number of doctoral degrees awarded to minority students
● Faculty includes several Nobel laureates
[ Source:
http://www.tamu.edu/about/recognitions.html ]
Overall U.S. News & World Report Rankings
●1st in nation among public universities — the biological/agricultural program, operated by the Dwight Look College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (U.S. News and World Report, 2010)
●9th in nation among public universities — The Dwight Look College of Engineering (U.S. News and World Report, 2009)
● 9th in nation among public undergraduate schools — with 8 departments in the top 10 — The Dwight Look College of Engineering (U.S. News and World Report, 2010)
● 6th in nation among public graduate schools — with 7 departments in the top 10 — The Dwight Look College of Engineering (U.S. News and World Report, 2010)
● 2nd in nation among public universities — Mays Business School's MBA program in "placement after three months" (U.S. News and World Report, 2011)
● Mays Business College and Graduate School of Business is ranked in the Top 20 among public universities (U.S. News and World Report, 2010)
● The College of Education is ranked 31st among public universities — a gain of 16 ratings points from the previous year (U.S. News and World Report, 2010)
[Source:
http://marcomm.tamu.edu/communications/recognitions.html#usnews ]
● Ranks as the nation’s fourth largest public university in enrollment, with close to 50,000 students – including 9,500 graduate students – on the main campus
● Holds membership in the Association of American Universities, a highly selective organization that promotes high standards for teaching, research and scholarship at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels – one of only 61 institutions with this distinction.
●Home to one of the largest chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and largest academic honor society, with its Kappa of Texas chapter having more than 150 members.
●Operates centers in Mexico, Costa Rica and Italy and branch campuses in Galveston and Qatar (the latter fully funded by Qatar Foundation).
● Ranks in the nation’s top 20 for total research expenditures ($689 million plus in FY10) and third behind only MIT and University of California-Berkeley for universities without medical schools.
●During the most recent fiscal year, researchers at Texas A&M and affiliated A&M System agencies formed six startup companies and executed 50 licenses, bringing the total number of active licenses to 441; 38 licenses for new technology were executed and 32 patents were issued.
●The average SAT score for the freshman class is 1210, well above the national average.
●Twenty-five percent of the freshman class are the first in their family to attend college.
●It is among the nation’s largest uniformed student bodies and commissions more officers than any other institution except for the nation’s service academies; approximately 2,000 men and
women participate on a voluntary basis.
[Source:
http://marcomm.tamu.edu/documents/tamuFacts.pdf ]
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very merry New Years. I don't think any applicant could go wrong attending any of these institutions. Best wishes to all.
Lawman32RPD