c-jags,

You ought to visit ASU in the near future. It's DEFINATELY an A&M oriented campus. It might not have been when you went to school there, but when I was there the past year, I could get at least six people (usually more) to watch the A&M game with me. Once I walked from Texan Hall (the new dorms on the east side of campus) all the way to the library and counted at least six different A&M shirts. I never counted that many Tech or UT shirts in one day there and I was looking. There's probably more country kids at ASU now than when you went.

That does make me feel better that you had the same experience with ASU that I did, especially with the San Angelo Central kids. Most of my friends at ASU were from back east or from the DFW area. I knew way more dudes than girls; most of the girls from the area at ASU were pretty nutty.

But screw them, I didn't like San Angelo anyway. I went to the ASU bonfire one night and there were more high schoolers there than college kids. The town has a four-year university, and not a lot of towns can claim that. Yet they don't give a damn about it. Rather you'll see San Angelo Central flags in the neighborhoods around the campus. It's not like the high schools in San Angelo are better than anywhere else; take a few steps outside of San Angelo and nobody cares that you went to high school there. I guess the San Angelo kids who are still stuck in high school mode at ASU are just suffering from the "big fish in a small pond" mentality.

So when the city of San Angelo doesn't care about the school that I go to, why should I stay in San Angelo? Why should they benefit from me living in San Angelo? That's why I left. I made some good friends there though but it took more work than it should have.

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The university is working itself up though. They have instilled a masterplan to get the university larger geographically and numerically. I hope San Angelo doesn't crap on that like they normally do.

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This isn't going to work. With ASU's easy admissions with the fact that the town is out in nowhere and offers little to college students, ASU will never be able to attract and retain a lot of decent students. I think the freshman retention rate right now is 59%. I met a lot of decent kids at ASU, but some others had such little class and upbringing that it embarrassed me to be at the same school with them. A lot of them had no business being in college, period. Then I felt alienated because I wasn't from San Angelo originally. Most of my friends at ASU transferred out or are in the process of transferring.

San Angelo is a pretty nice town considering it's location but I don't want to live there ever again.

[This message has been edited by WestTexasCat (edited 11/7/2007 3:40p).]

[This message has been edited by WestTexasCat (edited 1/12/2008 9:02p).]

i went last year. Graduated Dec. 2006.


I guess we just saw things differently. I was in the Rassman building the most of the time and that's where I saw the majority of fans of other schools. I will say that there is more parity now then when I started there in 02, but to me it was still slanted towards those 2.

oh well.

sorry you had a sucky experience there. Central kids definitely wear their letterman jackets well into their 3rd year. Thinking they're big fish in a small pond is definitely a good way to put it.

i was definitely there just for the education and actually planned on transferring to A&M till i met my wife my Sophomore year. We got married the next semester and I ended up staying. I met a lot of good people there that I still have good friendships with.... but none of them are from San Angelo.

I still live there because I like the town but I don't think I'll make this my permanent home. It's a good place: decent weather, green, low cost of living, river and 3 lakes, good mexican food, easy to get around for the most part, and the city goes all out for their Christmas celebrations every year..

and no they don't ring a bell @ ASU. that's funny. although they should for some D-bag professors who think we should leave when they're done talking 10 minutes after class should be over. i walked out every time.

You mean the Assman building? Hahaha. I can see your point then if you were in Rassman a lot.

The problem is that all the decent San Angelo Central kids go to college out-of-town; the losers and underachievers from Central go to ASU. Okay, I can understand if you want to go to ASU for your first two years to save money and live at home until you transfer. But going to ASU instead of A&M or UT when you have the grades and money to go to A&M and UT? Idiots. I guess for some of them their high school cliques are more important than career prospects. Hell, they probably wear their high school jackets to ASU because high school was the peak of their lives.

A lot of those kids are just too damn scared to be tiny fish in an ocean, which is what certainly happens once they drive five miles outside of San Angelo. Too scared to make friends with anyone they didn't go to high school with.

I stopped hanging out with my high school clique three years or so after high school, so I know that it doesn't last. I can understand your situation with your girlfriend keeping you at ASU.

One of the other reasons I left was because of my business classes. Some of the kids there don't have any business being in school at all yet they are majoring in business (no pun intended.) I didn't see myself getting any sort of career networking from that and I'm tired of being out on my own when it comes to that sort of thing. That's what attracted me to A&M; I spent several years of my life beforehand on my own. Sounds to me like you did pretty well though, you had more success at ASU than I certainly did.

I had this one professor at ASU who would start class 10-15 minutes early because the wall clock was slow even though we told him several times that it was slow. He had his own watch, too.

[This message has been edited by agclassof2012 (edited 12/2/2007 7:15p).]

Maybe the people who don't like TAMU could just transfer out and go somewhere else. That's why we have different kinds of universities with different leanings (conservative vs liberal). Take your choice and go to the one that fits you. Don't go to one and then expect it to change just to accommodate you.

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Maybe the people who don't like TAMU could just transfer out and go somewhere else. That's why we have different kinds of universities with different leanings (conservative vs liberal). Take your choice and go to the one that fits you. Don't go to one and then expect it to change just to accommodate you.

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I'm sure that the people who don't like TAMU do transfer out. What's your point?

What does conservative vs. liberal have anything to do with what we're talking about? Angelo State doesn't really lean in any direction because it's not a big enough school to support any sort of environment like that.

When I was at Angelo State I didn't know anything about it until I got there, so how was I expecting it to change to accommodate me? I wasn't expecting it to change at all, in fact I was planning on transferring out before the mid-terms of my first semester.

All the friends that I met there (which happened to be from Austin or DFW because the San Angelo kids were pretty weird) ended up transferring as well. One of them stayed but that was because he played baseball there.

I'm not quite sure how your reply has any relevance to what we were discussing.

Gettin in on this conversation late, but ASU does draw quiet a few good students with the Carr scholarship. FYI, I don't have a dog in the hunt as far as me going there. I do however live in SJT and my wife went to ASU. From what I've seen there are tons of kids from the small towns in this area that go to school here primarily because A&M, Tceh, and tu are all too big. If it weren't for the Carr scholarship though, I do think the student population would be only marginally better than a juco, but some are decent. I hire lots of ASU grads by the way, so I think I can make a valid statement with that one.

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Gettin in on this conversation late, but ASU does draw quiet a few good students with the Carr scholarship.

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No it doesn't. I mean I was a good student (the profs actually told me I was outstanding) and I was drawn to the school by the Carr scholarship but I felt that I was a rare exception compared to all the other Carr recipients at the school. A lot of the Carr recipients were the immature San Angelo kids who were too scared to move away from San Angelo and go to a real university. I didn't know any better until I got there for school.

If you are referring to the Honors students, there were a few that were good students but they were few and far between. Frankly, the best students I met were in the physics and mathematics departments and those departments weren't very large at all. The Carr scholarship really isn't recruiting a lot of "good students" when you consider that Angelo State is ranked at the bottom of the barrel for Texas schools. I think even Midwestern State is ranked higher.

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From what I've seen there are tons of kids from the small towns in this area that go to school here primarily because A&M, Tceh, and tu are all too big.

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Nope, there's a ton of kids from small towns in this area who go to ASU because they can't get into any other school and they don't have the motivation to excel academically at a stronger school. Every single blasted core class I took at Angelo the majority of the class was pulling Cs and Ds whereas I was pulling As without too much effort. Too many times I heard kids bragging that they made a 60-something on a mid-term without studying. That's just pathetic.

And Tarleton, Midwestern, A&M Corpus, Texas State, and a ton of other schools are too big as well? I doubt it. The kids might say that Tech is "too big for them" but the reality is that a lot of them would outright flunk out of Tech. It's too big for them because they want to continue to pretend to be in high school and put in high school level effort. It's also too big for them because they're more interested in gaining more popularity than they had in high school and they can do so at a small school like ASU. Generally, the "good students" who don't go to A&M or UT because it's too big for them end up going to liberal arts colleges.

What's even a bigger joke is that the top ten percenters from San Angelo Central and Lakeview weren't really exceptional students. They might have made good grades but they lacked maturity. But it's understandable considering that the mature, bright high school kids from San Angelo moved out-of-town and even out-of-state for school. The smart, mature ones knew better than to bust their busts in high school just to settle for a degree from ASU. Of course, from what I've seen from San Angelo kids in general I don't think it took much effort to be in the top ten percent at either high school there.

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If it weren't for the Carr scholarship though, I do think the student population would be only marginally better than a juco

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What do you mean? Even with the Carr scholarship right now the student population is only marginally better than a junior college. In fact, I've seen student bodies at junior colleges BETTER than Angelo State because some juco kids are trying to work themselves out of a rut.

You probably hire lots of ASU graduates because you're in West Texas and ASU graduates don't seem to venture out of the region.

I graduated from high school in Ballinger (35 miles NE of San Angelo), if you aren't from a small town around San Angelo you don't know what you are talking about by saying the Carr scholarships don't recruit some decent students. Kids from the small towns go to ASU because it's cheap, they get a scholarship & it's not too far away from home.

I had many classmates that got into A&M & tu but chose to go to ASU b/c it was cheap & they got a Carr scholarship. We had 3 straight valedictorians go to ASU b/c they gave them full scholarships. I know 2 were offered very good scholarships to A&M but even then free & close to home is pretty tempting, one in particular was accepted to NYU & Rice but still chose ASU b/c it was CHEAP & her family couldn't afford to put her through a private school. (Human capital means nothing to most people. All the stingy germans around Ballinger don't think student loans are a viable option, hence ASU it is.)

Small towns are different. If you lived in the same town with 3,000 people in it your whole life, a place like College Station or Houston can be extremely overwhelming. San Angelo is a comfortable place for a lot of those kids.

I was fortunate enough to have both my parents graduate from A&M so I always knew where I was going to college. Most of those farmer kids are the first people in their immediate family to attend college.

Also, not every school in Texas needs to be top flight. You need regional colleges like ASU & tt with lower standards to give more people an opportunity to get a college degree.

Joemeister summed up my thoughts exactly. Cat, have you got some sort of axe to grind?

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I mean I was a good student (the profs actually told me I was outstanding)

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maybe instead of grinding his axe he's blowing his own horn....

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if you aren't from a small town around San Angelo you don't know what you are talking about by saying the Carr scholarships don't recruit some decent students

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Considering that I spent a year at ASU and a lot of that time was up in the math labs in the MSC building around local kids, yes, I know what I'm talking about.

Your definition of 'decent student' is different than mine. Your definition of decent student seems to be someone who can make As or Bs at ASU. Outside of math and physics, that's not that hard to consistently do. My definition of a decent student is someone who's smart AND has the initiative and maturity to go out and make opportunities for himself. That means breaking out of his or her comfort zone and moving OUT of the San Angelo area. Personally, with the expection of the math and physics departments (it's pretty good there), if someone's from that area has the brains and the money to go to A&M or UT, but instead goes to an unranked school like Angelo State that hardly anyone's heard of outside of West Texas, I think that's pathetic. You're selling yourself short if you do that. Why compete against A&M, UT, or even Rice graduates for a career when you can just go to one of those schools? Why sell yourself short?

To me, decent students also are mature for their age, and I can count the number of kids I've met there like that on only one hand, maybe two. Most of the top ten percent students from that area I met at ASU weren't mature at all. Of course, I guess the mature kids that did well in high school and could afford it decided to go to a higher-ranked school.

As far as going to ASU only "because it's close to home," I don't think that's a real valid argument if you've got the grades, brains, and money to go to a well-known school. The majority of good careers and opportunities in Texas are on the OTHER side of the state. If you want a good job outside of San Angelo (and you should if you're capable), what's the point of going to ASU? Why do you want to be in class around a bunch of kids who don't give a damn and then have to struggle to find a career elsewhere later on because you didn't go to a well-known school with a career network?

I'm sorry if I'm stepping on any toes, but I just think that you're selling yourself short by going to Angelo State if you can go to a better-known school. Personally, I wanted a college experience, but Angelo State's just the "13th grade" for San Angelo residents. College should not be a continuation of high school life, yet that's exactly what happens at ASU. Lot of kids there stuck in the small town high school bubble.

And I really don't feel like I have to defend myself on the issue; there's a reason why Angelo State is ranked near the very bottom whereas A&M and UT are ranked much, much, much higher. If you've got big dreams and desires, don't be too scared to go after them, even if it means moving 200 miles away.

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maybe instead of grinding his axe he's blowing his own horn....

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No, I think the professor at ASU who told me that did so because he was tired of the kids there who have no direction and are content with pulling Cs and Ds, which was most of the class. I actually busted my butt there, even when I didn't need to.

And if you think I'm blowing my horn just because I stood out at ASU because I put in more effort than most of the kids there, you just proved my point about the school. The amount of work I put into the courseload at ASU was probably not much more than the typical Aggie in a decent major.

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The majority of good careers and opportunities in Texas are on the OTHER side of the state. If you want a good job outside of San Angelo (and you should if you're capable), what's the point of going to ASU?

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Sounds like it's time to change your username. Sounds like you're a little self-hating.

There's plenty of opportunity in West Texas, just depends on what you want to do.

Once again, I don't really get why you have a huge axe to grind with ASU, it's just another regional state school that does what regional state schools are supposed to do. Provide a college education at a good value for the surrounding region.

As far as it being the 13th grade, I think that a large number of small state colleges & junior colleges are viewed that way to a lot of kids who don't belong in college but go b/c it's the thing to do. Hold it against the students not the school. Believe me, there are plenty of kids at A&M and tu that also treat their freshman year like it's the 13th grade.

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No, I think the professor at ASU who told me that did so because he was tired of the kids there who have no direction and are content with pulling Cs and Ds, which was most of the class. I actually busted my butt there, even when I didn't need to.

And if you think I'm blowing my horn just because I stood out at ASU because I put in more effort than most of the kids there, you just proved my point about the school. The amount of work I put into the courseload at ASU was probably not much more than the typical Aggie in a decent major.

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if thats not blowing your own horn I dont know what is....do you really think anyone on an online forum gives a rats ass about your career as a student? You can debate this without throwing that trash in there.

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As far as going to ASU only "because it's close to home," I don't think that's a real valid argument if you've got the grades, brains, and money to go to a well-known school. The majority of good careers and opportunities in Texas are on the OTHER side of the state. If you want a good job outside of San Angelo (and you should if you're capable), what's the point of going to ASU? Why do you want to be in class around a bunch of kids who don't give a damn and then have to struggle to find a career elsewhere later on because you didn't go to a well-known school with a career network?

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what a load of crap. Everybody's situation is different. There are alot of kids that dont give a damn about living in Dallas or Houston or 'the other side of the state', whatever that means. Career networks are over-rated in ALOT of career fields. The field I work in doesnt care if you're an ag, horn, ram, etc etc.

WestTexasCat

Your view will change over time. Right now you sound like a know it all 20 year old from east Texas.

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do you really think anyone on an online forum gives a rats ass about your career as a student?

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Why do I care what you care? Sounds to me like you're some Angelo State graduate who didn't care much about his education and is now getting upset with me because I pointed out that the school is not that good.

Seriously, you're defending a bottom-tier school and yet you're giving me crap because yes, I admit, I was a way better student than the vast majority of the kids I was in class with there. How hilarious.
It doesn't even take much to be an outstanding student there, so it's not like I was special or anything. All you got to do is show up for class, take good notes, and study at night and you're better prepared than most of the students there.

But yeah, let's give me crap because I cared enough about my education and career prospects to transfer to a nationally-known school.

If you want to blow thousands of dollars to get a degree from a degree mill with no reputation and be around the San Angelo high school experience, be my guest. But if you want to pay time and money for a degree that will take care of you very well down the road, go somewhere else.

I've even heard that Angelo State is going to raise tuition another $500 a semester starting next semester. Good thing I got out of there because that $500 would've been a waste for me.

[This message has been edited by WestTexasCat (edited 1/22/2008 6:33p).]

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But yeah, let's give me crap because I cared enough about my education and career prospects to transfer to a nationally-known school.

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No, you're getting crap because you feel the need to come on here and tell us how "outstanding" of a student you are and bash ASU & San Angelo. So you did good at ASU and were able to transfer (presumably to A&M). Good for you! - A&M is a better school than ASU, and most people would prefer to go there. Like someone already said: ASU is a regional school, A&M is a flagship university. There will be more intelligent people on average at an A&M than at an ASU.

It sounds more to me that you didn't have a very good time there socially. I'm sorry. There are immature people in San Angelo, College Station, Austin and Cambridge, Mass. College students are just high school students on year older.

I say get over it. You seem to be happy where you ended up. It seems like it was a probably a mutually beneficial split anyway.

awh- You said what I have been thinking since following the track of this thread. Thanks.

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Sounds to me like you're some Angelo State graduate

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just like the rest of what you've posted, you are wrong. I didnt go to school there and I've never been to SA. I'm just saying get over yourself. If you come across in person like you do on the internet, you're in for a little surprise in the real world.

I was at Angelo State for two semesters. Like someone else said on this thread, Angelo State sucks. My friend's list on my Facebook account is now a collection of people from just about every school in Texas because most everyone I knew there transferred out, too. It's really just a community college for San Angelo kids which happens to grant four-year degrees. I was never under the impression that San Angelo ever really cared about the school.

Texas Tech might pay more attention to Angelo State than Texas State did, but Texas State is improving a lot faster than Tech. I think Texas State is even ranked higher than Tech now.

Hey Squid

I know you read up and check this page often

send me an email - iamthesheik at the gmail dot com place

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just like the rest of what you've posted, you are wrong. I didnt go to school there and I've never been to SA. I'm just saying get over yourself. If you come across in person like you do on the internet, you're in for a little surprise in the real world.

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I'm a 24-year-old who busted my ass working in mud 12 hours a day for five years before I was even able to think about going to school. Who in the hell are you to tell me what I can expect in the real world? It's hilarious that you would try and tell me what I can expect from the real world when you're defending an unranked slacker "university" out in a rural area. It's even funnier considering that you don't have any experience with the school or the town.

I know enough about the real world to know that my opportunities are going to be a hell of a lot more generous with a degree from A&M than from Angelo State. Obviously judging from this thread and the amount of people who also transferred out of there, I'm not alone in my conclusion.

I didn't have any experience with the school either until I got there. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's really trying to get ahead in life. It's just a college for people who don't really want to go to college; they just want the piece of paper.

If you didn't go to Angelo State and you've never been to San Angelo, then STFU. You don't have a clue about what we are talking about; you're probably just some skinny goof who doesn't have enough going on in his personal life so he has to come on an Internet message board to get into arguments. You bring absolutely nothing to this discussion other than to try and flex your "cyber muscles" because you probably don't have any in real life.

Jasper, when were you at ASU? Maybe I knew you.

Things we can derive from the WestTexasCat's posts:

"I'm a 24-year-old who busted my ass working in mud 12 hours a day for five years before I was even able to think about going to school."

- he's poor, and is that guy - you know, the annoying "non-traditional" student

"be around the San Angelo high school experience, be my guest. "
- as you can tell from his posts, he was then, and continues to be, a drama queen

"Your definition of 'decent student' is different than mine. Your definition of decent student seems to be someone who can make As or Bs at ASU. Outside of math and physics, that's not that hard to consistently do."

He can read our minds. He knows what we think even when we don't type it... and not only that, he thinks math is hard. ha.

"I guess the mature kids that did well in high school and could afford it decided to go to a higher-ranked school."
parents' income level is directly related to offspring(s)'maturity/ academic prowess.

"I was drawn to the school by the Carr scholarship but I felt that I was a rare exception compared to all the other Carr recipients at the school."
he is conceited

"But it's understandable considering that the mature, bright high school kids from San Angelo moved out-of-town and even out-of-state for school. The smart, mature ones knew better than to bust their busts in high school just to settle for a degree from ASU. Of course, from what I've seen from San Angelo kids in general I don't think it took much effort to be in the top ten percent at either high school there."

- he knows the career paths taken by every San Angelo ISD graduate. impressive, to say the least.

"All the friends that I met there (which happened to be from Austin or DFW because the San Angelo kids were pretty weird) ended up transferring as well."

- if you weren't from Austin, DFW, or San Angelo( but he didn't like them because they were pretty weird) he wouldn't associate with you.

"You mean the Assman building? Hahaha. I can see your point then if you were in Rassman a lot."

- he has a highly developed sense of humor and sharp wit that enables him to play with the english language

"it's DEFINATELY an A&M oriented campus. It might not have been when you went to school there, but when I was there the past year, I could get at least six people (usually more) to watch the A&M game with me. "

-1 out of every 1000 students will watch an A&M game with him. Its an Aggie campus

"I went to the ASU bonfire one night and there were more high schoolers there than college kids."

- and you'd better believe it. he effing carded them to prove it.

"You don't have a clue about what we are talking about; you're probably just some skinny goof "

-oh, i forgot. he's also fat, because we all know being skinny is an insult...

I stepped away from this thread for a while... but WestTexasCat went on to make an @$$ of himself.

ASU is not A&M. People get that. There's nobody arguing it.

But ASU does deserve it's fair share of respect. ASU has a top 10 physics program and one of the best education programs in the state. The math, nursing, and ROTC programs aren't chopped liver either.


Why you feel the need to continue bagging on a school that you transfered out of is beyond me.

WestTexasCat, where you at?

sheik, I finally got around to firing off the email you asked for.

Can you do something about that neighbor with the Longhorn curb markers over there?

I don't know why everyone is bagging on Cat, he sounds like a typical aggie.






"Fox News is a respected news agency." Tanya 93 posted 9:20a, 06/13/08

Why would getting a degree from Angelo State preclude you from getting a job in Houston, Austin, or the Metroplex?