Texas or A&M

What’s the obsession with a power 5 school? It doesn’t mean anything. Vanderbilt is power 5.

On the men’s side the best track team in the state is Houston followed by A&M. In cross the smaller schools generally do a better job developing and putting a focus on distance.

The UT coach will be gone next year as well.

Best of luck... wrote:

I'm biased being an Austin local but if you can get into UT you have to go there. You're from out of state. Test scores are good, but you did t list them. What's good? Are you a white male? If so you've got another strike against you and those test scores will need to be better than good.

White male. Out of state, 3.9 with a few APs that should get GPA up over 4. ACT 32. Will take it again in June. Understand that I need help getting in either school for engineering and that is what I want to use running for.

I want a power 5 school because in addition to a great running experience with great facilities, I want the full big college experience with football on Saturday and huge crowds with spirit. I don’t know too many non-P5 schools that can give me all of that. I think Houston comes the closest but my concern is the heat.

n

Univ. of Houston sucks. Don't do it. You will get no "full big college experience" there.

Hey TX Dreaming, just a piece of advice.

You said you wanted to major in engineering. When you apply for admission to UT, you will be asked to choose your top two majors. For the first one, select whichever engineering field most interests you. For the second, select civil engineering. The reason for this is that all the different engineering departments have a different number of openings for freshmen, and historically civil is the easiest to get into. Once you are in civil, it is easy to internally transfer to another engineering major. However, transferring from another department, such as natural sciences, is very difficult.

Utstudent wrote:

Hey TX Dreaming, just a piece of advice.

You said you wanted to major in engineering. When you apply for admission to UT, you will be asked to choose your top two majors. For the first one, select whichever engineering field most interests you. For the second, select civil engineering. The reason for this is that all the different engineering departments have a different number of openings for freshmen, and historically civil is the easiest to get into. Once you are in civil, it is easy to internally transfer to another engineering major. However, transferring from another department, such as natural sciences, is very difficult.

Thank you, great advice. Are you on the track team? If so, how easy/hard is it to do class work and run at the same time? If not, what is your free time like and would 2-3 hours of practice time per day fit into your schedule?

Hey Dreaming, why don’t you look at some of the Big Ten schools? They have big football and most of the schools have better distance programs than UT and A&M combined!

TX Dreaming wrote:

There are only so many power 5 schools in Texas so I want to look at all of them. I know TCU focuses on their sprinters. What do you think of Baylor or Oklahoma? I ruled out Tech only because of its location. Any other programs I should look at? I am trying to set up my visits for fall so any other suggestions are welcome.

Baylor has been in decline since Todd Harbour took over (and what was the last fast male he coached?), and as for what I think of OU, I think they're not in Texas.

You can't compare UH with UT or A&M, for overall track program or for academics / college experience. A&M and UT seem to swing back in forth in everything but swimming as to who is better, and the engineering programs are close enough to be a wash. You have to spend a weekend or more in each place and get a feel for the town/campus. And also hope you get/keep a long term coach in Austin so you know what you're getting there.

B1G Son wrote:

Hey Dreaming, why don’t you look at some of the Big Ten schools? They have big football and most of the schools have better distance programs than UT and A&M combined!

I live in Big Ten country so I know what you mean but I want something different. Other than Michigan, who just signed a giant class, I don’t think I would be interested. Any suggestions?

el hombre wrote:

Baylor has been in decline since Todd Harbour took over (and what was the last fast male he coached?), and as for what I think of OU, I think they're not in Texas.

You can't compare UH with UT or A&M, for overall track program or for academics / college experience. A&M and UT seem to swing back in forth in everything but swimming as to who is better, and the engineering programs are close enough to be a wash. You have to spend a weekend or more in each place and get a feel for the town/campus. And also hope you get/keep a long term coach in Austin so you know what you're getting there.

Thanks for your thoughts on Baylor and UH. My only comment on OU is I’m told that the majority of kids are from Texas so it might as well be in Texas. No? I really like Herbster so I hope he stays. If they make a change at head or distance, when will that happen. I assume they want to do it in time for official visits in the fall. Yes?

I'm a sophomore mechanical engineering student, transferred from biology after my freshman year. Engineering at UT is definitely rigorous, but I still have time to work about 15 hours a week and run some. I'm not on the track team, but if I didn't work a job, 2-3 hours of practice would definitely be doable.

Utstudent wrote:

I'm a sophomore mechanical engineering student, transferred from biology after my freshman year. Engineering at UT is definitely rigorous, but I still have time to work about 15 hours a week and run some. I'm not on the track team, but if I didn't work a job, 2-3 hours of practice would definitely be doable.

Thanks. That helps! I hope to visit UT in the fall if the coach is still there. If not, I will try to make a new connection. My primary goal is to get an engineering degree from a great college and to run as fast I can with the time I have to devote to my athletic career. I think I can do that at UT or A&M. I hope to have that choice in 6 months and I am looking for all the help I can get making my decision.

I spend a lot of time around the Texas schools, though not associated with any team. UT seems to have a good program and Austin is a fun city. As others have pointed out already, it is an urban campus, which has its perks and downsides. Texas A&M has a weird vibe to it in my opinion. The campus is drab and the athletic program seems to be all business. The track facilities are top of the line though. TCU is a nice area, but isn't a strong program.

To answer your question though, Baylor is an absolutely gorgeous campus in a city thats really being revived. The track program is fairly sprint based, but they still have a few strong distance athletes. Every time I have been around their team they have seemed to be much closer knit than the other big schools. The head coach, Coach Harbour, was quite a miler back in the day, so he might be interested in adding a solid miler to the program. If I were you I'd at least check into it and see how you like it. In my opinion, they would develop you as an athlete.

Main thing is to find a school you'll like living at and being part of. Figure that out and the competition will fall in line.

el hombre wrote:

You can't compare UH with UT or A&M, for overall track program or for academics / college experience. A&M and UT seem to swing back in forth in everything but swimming as to who is better, and the engineering programs are close enough to be a wash. You have to spend a weekend or more in each place and get a feel for the town/campus. And also hope you get/keep a long term coach in Austin so you know what you're getting there.

This is the least biased post so far.

Texas and A&M are really close in academics.

A&M - better overall facilities with NCAA-level indoor and outdoor track (new in 2018) plus NCAA regional hosting XC course. You're going to be able to run in front of your friends a lot even if you don't make the travel team. McRaven has had several successful individuals at A&M. Team depth is a concern due to scholarships, but you get the NCAA Championship run in track. I will challenge you to find a better "big time" sports environment in Texas. A&M is in the SEC and they just shelled out a ton of money for Fisher. Half billion dollar stadium that is one of the top in college football. The fans are rabid. Basketball team is solid. Baseball is solid. Pretty much everything is ranked.

Texas - better overall in cross due to higher scholarship allotment for distance. Isn't much higher. Just enough to get those next 2 quality guys in. They have a big athletic environment, too. Good academically. Coaching staff up in the air right now. Great outdoor facility. Big XII.

I think it would come down to what style of living you want - college town vs. city, and cross vs. track.

btw the heat is going to be a factor in all of these cities. College Station and Houston are a little more humid than Austin. All of them are hot. You will run mostly in the morning at these schools during the summer and fall. Bright side is you can train year round and do afternoon runs in the winter and it is fine.

Thank you. I can’t wait to get on campus to see where I fit in!

I see how it might look that way, but you don't know their whole situation. Even though his water bottles aren't a very original idea, his following helped him to make a ton of money. Under the NCAA program he couldn't promote the water bottles under his name, making it harder to sell them.

uhhhhh wrote:

I see how it might look that way, but you don't know their whole situation. Even though his water bottles aren't a very original idea, his following helped him to make a ton of money. Under the NCAA program he couldn't promote the water bottles under his name, making it harder to sell them.

I agree that the situation is probably more complicated than we know but it’s more a reflection on the NCAA rules and not as much on A&M. If not, I would like to know before making my decision.

Others have posted about the UT girls class coming in next year and most of them are from other countries. Looking at the rosters for both UT and A&M, that looks like a trend, but not in the distances. Both things look bad for building up the distance programs at both schools, no?

A lot of people have made great points here. Both are good schools and programs and you can't say one is obviously better than the other.

All I want to add is this: The two school have very different vibes. Most people know which one they definitely prefer after spending about 15 minutes on each campus. I don't think you'll read anything that convinces you to pick one over the other, but when you're there in person, you'll know.

Good luck.