Know someone who's kid is thinking about enrolling at this campus.

Anyone have any experiences or know someone that did? Good or bad.

I heard the nursing school is pretty good. Sounds like the kid wants to be a teacher (major in Education) though.

Two of my roommates go there. One is from corpus and other is from SA. Haven't heard them complain. It's laid back atmosphere and not too big. Had some from my high school go also

In my honest opinion, not sure why you'd want to pay a tuition like A&M 's only to get an education degree so in a money aspect I'd say it's smart.

It's still a good education and fun place to be. The beach is fun despite what you'll hear about trash or color of the water... In college you go to the beach to drink beer and see girls, which you can do. Or surf, which you can do also.

I wouldn't say if I could go back I'd go there instead of college station, but I'd at least tell him/her to make a trip down there

Thanks for the response tpnick. The kid is a little nervous about going off to college so this might be a good college for her, being a laid back campus and all.

The university has been doing some great things lately and making steps toward the better everyday. The education department is supposedly pretty decent (undergrad and graduate)
That being said I wouldn't trade my real A&M degree for any other diploma in the world.

I went to nursing school there after getting my psych degree from A&M college station . Really good program and from what I understand the new building is supposed to be excellent. I was not too involved in campus life (slightly older, off campus student) but there were plenty of things to do and clubs to join if I wanted and I met many of my best friends there. It was an adjustment going from TAMU to a campus you could walk across in 5-10 minutes and the furthest parking was closer than any where I ever parked at A&M. My former roommate had her master's and bachelor's in special ed from here and she was an admin in el paso the first year after finishing her master's and is currently in Hong Kong Teaching

[This message has been edited by sea pony 07 (edited 1/30/2014 10:39a).]

Thanks Lazuras and Sea Pony.

It's actually my daughter who is thinking of going there. We will be heading down in a couple of weeks to do a campus visit.

Didn't know much about the campus until a few weeks ago. Daughter's top two choices up until a little over a month ago was North Texas and A&M at College Station. Then we went to see my parents who recently moved to the island. When I saw an A&M Corpus billboard, I wisecracked to the daughter, "There you go. You can go to college here."

That apparently put the idea in her head and now it is her top choice. Wife looked into the school and saw the nursing program is actually pretty good. Daughter is leaning towards an education degree though. Sounds like that degree is okay too, so I'm okay with the academics.

My main concern is with the area, namely crime. Corpus is as bad as Dallas with regards to violent crime. However, it looks like the area close to the school is pretty nice, and since she would be commuting from the island (living with my folks initially), I think I'm okay with the area.

I live exactly 6 miles from the campus towards downtown. Never had a problem with crime. My only gripe would be the drivers. Boy they are horrible. I am a health nut and I fear for my life when I am doing a workout that involves being outside. I am more nervous here than when I lived in Houston or DFW. I am not sure if it is do to the old folks or just negligence. Other than that, the traffic is minor and A&M CC is expanding pretty rapidly. Actually debating getting an MBA from there.

Either way, college is a big step and its smart to analyze it all.

Thanks tpnick, just when I was getting comfortable with the thought of her going to A&M Corpus you have to go and give me so more heartburn.

Actually that is EXACTLY the kind of feedback I was looking for.

Thanks.

I still think she'll be okay driving from the island though, and more okay once she lives on campus.

And driving is getting crazy, and dangerous as hell, almost everywhere. The wife of my A&M roommate was killed in a car accident in Maine a little over 10 years ago.

[This message has been edited by AgBeliever (edited 1/31/2014 10:56a).]

The drive from Padre Island shouldn't be too bad to A&M-CC.

But be aware, while A&M-CC is technically also on an island, it doesn't seem like it. It's sort of deceptive advertising IMO. There are apartments attached to the campus but no dormitories. But a number have cropped up along Ennis Joslin Rd as well that seem to cater to students.

I agree that there are some bad drivers here too.

CCSU

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Corpus is as bad as Dallas with regards to violent crime

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Sorry but I call BS. Show me the stats...

I worked at the DA here in Nueces County for a short time and I'll tell you the majority of the cases aren't really around the university, other than your typical college stuff (possession of marijuana, DWIs, etc.).

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Corpus is as bad as Dallas with regards to violent crime

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Sorry but I call BS. Show me the stats...

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Dude, I'm a father researching where my little girl is going to be going to college. You don't think I am going to do my research?

I've seen this is a couple of places now. Here's one. Click on the violent crime arrow to sort by best to worst. Corpus is between Charlotte, NC and Dallas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate

But, like I said, it looks like the campus is located in a fairly safe area.

My main concern now, from listening to the comments, are the drivers. Although she has driven in the Metroplex so she has a taste of crazy driver already.

There are bad drivers everywhere. And MUCH more aggresive elsewhere (Dallas, Austin, Houston). The bad driving in Corpus is probably due to not paying attention (which im not sure is worse.)

Also in regards to your stats... Ok yes we are ranked above Dallas, however, Murders per 100k a dramatically lower, the categories where Corpus is significantly worse and hurts us in the overall ranking are
1) Theft/Burglary... Ok so you may not be able to avoid these but being smart and staying out of shady areas and keeping pepper spray on you and locking your belongings up and hiding them goes a long way.
2 ) property crime... which is defined as what? I mean graffiti, shop lifting, vandalism could all fall under this.

Any where you go there will be risk. I'm sure there are plenty of things in College Station to worry about. I'd be much more scared of people driving under the influence there than crime in Corpus.

very little crime in the quadrant of the city where the school is------most of it is in the areas on the opposite side of town, to wit: the northside and the westside.

The school did two things when it became part of the A&M system which were very smart: they set admission standards higher than the other schools in south Texas and they made the tuition higher. This guaranteed that they got less remedial students and less who are working full time to pay for it. The result was a more school oriented student body and an easy way to hire good faculty------I would guess they have less remedial classes than any school in south Texas and prospective faculty loves that.

I feel I should be a little more clear on my bad drover comment. Bad driver to the extent of large retirement population or northerners who come down for the winter. They have a hard time realizing merging on to the freeway at 45 is very dangerous and no idea what yield is. It is impossible to compare corpus to Houston or Dallas for traffic.
As far as crime, if you look hard enough the statistics will make you feel no place is safe. Got to put a little faith in her that she will not, like mentioned, put herself into some of the more obviously dangerous situations like dark alleys

TAMUCC is a very good university. Top notch faculty. Crime is usually found mostly in the northwest side of town. Great place for an education if like being on the coast. Old folks drive slow while college students drive fast. If she lives on the island, it's a quick trip to campus. I lived there for 30 years and my wife was a professor in the graduate counseling department .

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The bad driving in Corpus is probably due to not paying attention (which im not sure is worse.)

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Ah that makes sense.

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very little crime in the quadrant of the city where the school is------most of it is in the areas on the opposite side of town, to wit: the northside and the westside.

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Yeah, no doubt the bad parts of town skew the results for the city overall. I feel good about where the school is.

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The school did two things when it became part of the A&M system which were very smart: they set admission standards higher than the other schools in south Texas and they made the tuition higher. This guaranteed that they got less remedial students and less who are working full time to pay for it. The result was a more school oriented student body and an easy way to hire good faculty------I would guess they have less remedial classes than any school in south Texas and prospective faculty loves that.

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Very cool. I heard the A&M system is putting money into the school as well that it did not have before.

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Bad driver to the extent of large retirement population or northerners who come down for the winter. They have a hard time realizing merging on to the freeway at 45 is very dangerous and no idea what yield is.

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Old timers and Yankees. Got it.

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As far as crime, if you look hard enough the statistics will make you feel no place is safe. Got to put a little faith in her that she will not, like mentioned, put herself into some of the more obviously dangerous situations like dark alleys

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I agree 100 percent. The biggest part of avoiding being a victim is avoiding putting yourself in a bad situation.

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TAMUCC is a very good university. Top notch faculty. Crime is usually found mostly in the northwest side of town. Great place for an education if like being on the coast. Old folks drive slow while college students drive fast. If she lives on the island, it's a quick trip to campus. I lived there for 30 years and my wife was a professor in the graduate counseling department .

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We're heading down this weekend for a visit of the campus. The whole family is pretty stoked about it.

Came across this link.

It ranks A&M at Corpus as #29 in the state out of 83. That's pretty solid.

It ranks just below schools like Abilene Christian, and above schools like Dallas Baptist and Incarnate Word (all of which I have had friends graduate from, are are reputable).

http://www.4icu.org/us/Texas.htm

Got to hear Chancellor Sharp last night at the Nueces County A&M Club Banquet. Very promising things coming out of TAMUCC in the years to come. With the new Drone stuff coming to the area plus the school is looking to start tons of new engineering programs.
I've heard Flavius Killebrew (TAMUCC pres) speak about the same things last year. The only downfall is real estate. Theres not really much land on the "island" to grow. So they will likely have to relocate parking facilities or have a satellite campus across the bay or something.

Yeah, that ranking I eluded to earlier may have been a ranking for online courses. I saw Forbes ranked A&M Corpus between Texas Women's University and UT at San Antonio. TWU was another school I suggested (good nursing school too) but daughter wasn't interested. Sister went there (TWU) and has done well.

Regardless, I agree that A&M Corpus is a school on the rise. Being part of the A&M system is a definite plus. Spoke with a friend that said a kid from his church is going there. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with my daughter going to the school.

Real estate will definitely be an issue with regards to future expansions. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

The fam went on a visit this Saturday. I'm sold. Trying to sell it to a coworker now.

As for A&M CC,

On Academics: It’s among the nation’s best with regards to Marine Biology and Geographical Information Systems. Nursing is now one of the better programs in Texas (and its only been around for 10 years). The College of Education is now starting to get attention (I personally think it's better than that of North Texas or UTSA, both of which are good). As Laz eluded to, the Engineering dept was recently awarded 40 mil for research on unmanned flight (drones) so that dept is about to get a boost.

On Expansion:
The school has purchased 7 acres on Ennis-Joslin. There are plans to build additional student housing there for 350-500 students. The baseball field on the island will be getting moved there too. Currently they are building a dining hall on the island and it should be ready some time this Fall. Was told there are plans to tear down the current Student Center. They will no doubt be moving some of the student housing off the island as well at some point to build more academic buildings.

On the Atmosphere: It was great. It's kind of a combination of Aggieland and Hawaii (students were all wearing Hawaiian shirts and we were greeted with Leis). I was really impressed by the maturity and friendliness of the students and staff.


[This message has been edited by AgBeliever (edited 2/17/2014 11:04a).]

Glad you enjoyed it. If you get past the bad mouthing low lifes... Corpus is pretty fun

[This message has been edited by tpnick87 (edited 2/17/2014 4:37p).]

We live close to Dallas, so we see some of that already.

After we get the youngest through college (7 years until she is ready) we might look to moving there. It would have to be south of Everhart. Speaking of which, I don't want her driving north or that.

But yeah, as far as the campus goes, I'm pretty psyched about it. Kind of envious in some ways.

Toured UNT yesterday. Wasn't nearly as organized as A&M CC's. UNT's college of education is impressive but I think it is going more by reputation. A&M CC has a better college of education IMO.

We'll check out UTSA in a month but the daughter seems to be settling on A&M CC, and we are fine with that.

Laz, I went back and looked at the crime stats and Corpus is actually worse than Dallas in rape and assaults. The campus is in a nice location though.

They have an invite to the CIT. Will be playing Northern Colorado today.

I thought they might make it in to the Big Dance. They won like 6 or 7 in a row. Guess they lost out to Stephen F Austin in the tournament though.

http://www.kztv10.com/news/men-s-basketball-earns-cit-berth-will-face-northern-colorado/

Herd it was pretty good

FoxNews had a segment on the drone technology last night. A&M Corpus was a large part of it, and the only school in the segment (no doubt as a result of the 40 mil grant for the drone study).

Dr. Killebrew and a few others from A&M CC were interviewed in the segment.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/22/drones-are-coming-faa-approved-labs-test-uavs/

Been on 3 campus visits now. A&M CC was by far the best of the three. Other two were UTSA and UNT. Unless we get a full ride at another school (also looking at A&M College Station and Texas State), it looks like the daughter is going to A&M CC. And even if we get a full ride somewhere else, we still might go with A&M CC. We're really impressed with their teaching program and the Early Childhood Development Center. It's pretty state of the art.

good to hear.

A&M CC's teaching program was recently ranked among the top 20 in the nation. The only 4 schools from Texas also in the top 20 were A&M College Station, tu, Dallas Baptist and Cougar High.
http://tamucc.edu/news/2014/06/063014%20Teacher%20Prep.html#.VCLBR5RdXQg

The President says 1600 kids were denied admission this year (actually that is a good thing since that helps academics). He says the school plans to lobby for 200 mil in addition funds for expansion.
http://www.kiiitv.com/story/26580787/tamucc-president-says-lack-of-space-could-stunt-university-growth

Here is the live cam for the construction of the new University Center. Should be ready next summer. Looks way cool.
http://expansion.tamucc.edu/uc.html

great post! Appreciate it!