VMI to Texas A&M

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NYR1995

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
5
Hey everyone,

I am a Rat at VMI right now and I am finding that I am second guessing my decision of coming here. I was aware of all the warnings before I applied but being 17 and not taking time to think about it, I decided to apply ED and now I'm here. For some personal reasons I have been looking to transfer to Texas A&M but I have some questions that their website wont answer.

1. Has anyone made the switch from VMI to A&M?
2. Does A&M have a good reputation in military?
3. Can anyone who was/is a fish, give me an idea of what life is like as a fish?
 
NYR1995... I did not attend either institution, but I can tell you that one of my closest friends did go to VMI his Rat year then transfered to Texas A&M. So it has been done. He was a Marine NROTC scholarship. He said for him the switch was the best decision he ever made. He is a Texas guy to start with, so I think his heart was always partially there. He said the Corps environment there fit his personality better. He said he was glad he experienced Rat year at VMI was glad to have graduated from Texas A&M. Some of the items he mentioned that fit his personality better were the training environment, the overall academic environment and the traditions he really enjoyed there.

I have worked with officers from both schools. Both have produced great officers. Like any school, it is what you are looking for, what you put into it and what is the right fit. If you can, go and visit Texas A&M. If you did it in High School, do it again. You have a different perspective now and will see it in a different light. Best of luck in your decision.
 
Hey NavyHoops,

did your friend experience any negative views from the members of the corps at A&M by "frogging in." I have heard stories about cadets giving transfer students a hard time throughout their cadetship because they only go through one semester of fish year.

If you don't mind me asking, what major was your friend and did he keep the same major through the transfer? I am an ME major here at VMI but from small bits of information I don't know if I would be accepted to A&Ms engineering school.
 
He was a history major at both schools. He never spoke of any negative effects. I think folks respected the fact he did Rat year and then another semester of Fish year. Not many people willing to do 1.5 years worth of all that fun. I am sure there is some good nature joking and stuff, but I think as you progress that stuff wears off. He ended up serving pretty high within the Corps when he was as senior. I had a buddy at USNA who did Rat year at VMI then plebe year at USNA. Trust me... we never gave him a hard time. We respected the fact he spent two years doing all that stuff. Respect is earned... you know what you have to do to earn it amongst classmates at this point... it can be done.
 
do you remember hearing his reason for leaving VMI? I personally don't like the size of VMI being that it is just barely bigger then my high school, and the town of Lexington, being as nice on the eyes as it is, is a rather small town with not very much here. Just as you mentioned before, I want to make sure A&M would be worth the extra semester of being a "freshman" again because I do not want to go through it again just to find A&M is similar to VMI.

Thank you for being so helpful
 
There are simularities and differences between the two schools, and no one school is the right fit for everyone. A&M's application for fall 2014 closes on December 1st, so if are thinking of transferring you'll have to get busy. There are a higher percentage of out of state students who are members of the Corps than at TAMU generally, but neither is large. If you look around you can find an article from a few years ago in, I believe, Leatherneck regarding the TAMU Corps and the Marine Corps. Deputy Commandant at TAMU is a retired Marine Corps Colonel. TAMU's Corps is large, around 2,400, and is part of a large campus with more than 50,000 graduate and undergraduate students. You'll have a lot less "face time" with faculty at TAMU than you will at VMI, particularly as a freshman or sophomore. Because TAMU's Corps life is centered around your "outfit", what to except can be somewhat outfit specific. Incoming transfer Cadets go to, I believe, Squadron 18 for a "Fish" semester. As I understand it you can than either stay in S-18 or go to another outfit. Some of the outfits are all male and some are gender integrated. Some are for band members only. Some have a greater connection to a given service than do others. Good luck with your decision.
 
I have spoken with a retired coronel who works at A&M about the transferring process and he informed me that I would have to wait until next year to transfer. I honestly wasn't even considering transferring second semester because I want to finish the Ratline with my BRs. It would not be fair to them if I left without completing what we all started.

The class sizes are another trade off that I would have to make. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the small classes here but when there are only 7 people in your English class, it begins to feel a little too small. I really need to go and visit A&M because websites and peoples stories can only do so much for me.
 
Feel free to PM me. I'm a junior in the Corps at A&M and I am very closely involved with K-1, one of the transfer outfits here.
 
Thanks MorganC I'll definitely message you soon.

Does anyone have recent experience with transferring to A&M and dealing with the fish year stuff? It doesn't even need to be a transfer from a military school to there, I am just wondering about dealing with the change and overall experience. Any response will help
 
NYR1995

NYR1995,
I hope it works out for you, and you will have no problem with the first year at A&M after being a rat--you'll be fine.
I would encourage you not to completely rule out hanging in there at the Institute though. When I was in your shoes I thought long and hard about going to Virginia or Virginia Tech... It really wasn't until end-of-third/second class year that I discovered it may sometimes be the pits to be at VMI, but it is great to be from VMI. I still root for VT and Virginia in sports, but in retrospect, I'm so thankful I stayed at VMI... wouldn't change a thing!
Either way, best of luck and always be proud you made it through the ratline.
 
I would caution the OP to make sure that you are not judging what your 4 years at VMI are like based on your perception as a Rat. Life looks significantly different as an upperclassman than it does from the bottom. However, there are certainly a number of your classmates who will not return after the summer for a myriad of reasons. My youngest brother (30 years ago) went to Norwich for his Rook year and then transferred to the VaTech Corps of Cadets for the next 3 years because he wanted a major that Norwich didn't offer. Things work out- just make sure that you have thought it out and not just acting on impulse, and good luck.
 
I have a son who is a junior in the Corps at A&M with a Marine Corps contract. My husband was in the Aggie Band and both my daughter and I graduated from A&M. The corps is larger now than it has ever been and they have been standing up 1 or 2 new outfits every semester. The benefit for you is that with all the new outfits, there is a lot of moving between units and you wouldn't stand out as a "frog". There did used to be some negativity about missing out on your fish year, but with your VMI experience, you wouldn't miss a beat with military bearing. It will be a little different for you to have the Corps be only a small part of the university but it has a large, positive presence on campus. It was a little difficult for my son his freshman year because several friends from high school went to A&M and they weren't in the corps and didn't have the same restrictions he had with study time and other corps requirements. It may be difficult for you to be accepted to the engineering program, but A&M is trying to increase their engineering graduates and freshmen can only be accepted to general engineering and then apply to which discipline they want in their sophomore year. Good luck with your decision. My brother in law graduated from VMI and after he visited A&M he said he wished he had gone there. Both are great schools and you can't go wrong either place.
 
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