Does a freshman have any real use for a car? As much as I would like more cars moved out of my driveway, i am concerned that his car will sit in the sun for 5 months, only to be moved every Friday of a home game to make way for football parking.

He won't need it everyday, but it will get used. Running errands, going to tutoring(is 4.0 and go still around?), haircuts, dry cleaning, etc. We never had to move our cars for football, so that is something new, but guessing that is dependent on which lot you are assigned.

There will be buddies and upperclassmen with cars so won't be an issue getting off campus if your cadet doesn't bring a car.

Who's gonna mule the goods tho?

Use Uber
Drop him from your insurance
Profit

Does any freshman at A&M really need a car? Especially if you live on campus. Isn't the off campus bus system pretty good?

Recalling my friends who were in the Corps, freshmen have almost all of their time taken up during the week. And any weekend free time will be with their buddies.

Thank you everyone.

I didn't mean borrow car but hitch a ride to the store or going out to eat.

My son did not have a car his fish year, but will his sophomore year. His buddies get together and run errands all the time. I was unaware, but pleasantly surprised in how the "buddy system" worked. They truly have each other's backs and the bond is strong. It should give you piece of mind as a parent.

akm91 said:

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I didn't mean borrow car but hitch a ride to the store or going out to eat.

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Guess we had different experiences. Upperclassmen never gave us rides for errands or took us out to eat. Only time they drove us somewhere was to the barber shop during FOW to get our first fish cuts.

TXAG 05 said:

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We never had to move our cars for football, so that is something new, but guessing that is dependent on which lot you are assigned.

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Really? Did CT's get their own parking lot? If we were lucky enough to get a spot my our dorm, it was fine. But Fish Lot (everything around Reed and West Campus) had to be cleared for game weekends or get towed and ticketed.

I think we moved ours out to the giant mud lot by Northgate, but don't that's there anymore.

Let your son find out all of this on his own. Let him go

Jugstore Cowboy said:

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TXAG 05 said:

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We never had to move our cars for football, so that is something new, but guessing that is dependent on which lot you are assigned.

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Really? Did CT's get their own parking lot? If we were lucky enough to get a spot my our dorm, it was fine. But Fish Lot (everything around Reed and West Campus) had to be cleared for game weekends or get towed and ticketed.

I think we moved ours out to the giant mud lot by Northgate, but don't that's there anymore.

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Parked in the big lot by Duncan field behind the quad and BQ practice field.

I can't imagine being trapped on campus my freshman year without a car.

But I wasn't in the Corps, so I had a lot more freedom to move about.

And, we didn't have Uber.

Freshman don't need a vehicle. I parked mine in the fish lot my freshman year and the only thing I got for my effort was a parking bill and about an inch layer of bird poop on my truck.

I used mine a few times. Handy on the weekend to hit the laundromat and the dry cleaners instead of having to use the ones on campus. Also went to a couple of bonfire cuts and drive to some required road trips. Not every fish needs a car, but a few pretty much do, or they're all collectively screwed.

Drive home a couple of times in there as well to get laundry done (theme) a real meal or two, and ensure my parents I was alive and well.

Both of my sons had cars. My oldest was one of a few in his class with a car so he did a lot of driving for buddy errands. A car is very useful for dry cleaning drop-off and pickup, haircuts and just getting off the quad occasionally. Also, you don't have to drive to campus to pick him up or take him back on a free weekend or holidays.
My youngest drove quite a few fish taxi's for uppers which earned favors.
We live in the DFW area, I was quite happy they had cars.

He probably won't need his car every day, but it is very useful for doing things off campus. When I was at Texas A&M from 2013-2017, I lived off-campus and usually took the bus to campus, including to football games. I did not have a regular parking pass, but I had the night and weekend parking pass from spring 2015 to spring 2017. That parking pass was very beneficial for me because I would go to the campus during some evenings and weekends.

I had a vendor's pass my last year. Parked anywhere except reserved spots.

Had a beautiful Chrysler Imperial from Lee Iacocca that enjoyed collecting parking tickets for illegal parking.

I didn't have a car my freshman year and got along just fine, but I did have buddies that had cars, so I was able to easily hop a ride wherever we needed to go. If you do let him take it, my advice is try to get a parking pass for the garage. At least back then in the garage over by the dorms, we didn't have to clear out for Football weekends, but many of the surface lots did.

This. I had my 78 Bronco. As unreliable as it was, I was one of the 24 of us that took buddies around for the occasional errand. The old "fish lot" seemed like the other side of the world back then.

tokyoag said:

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Does a freshman have any real use for a car? As much as I would like more cars moved out of my driveway, i am concerned that his car will sit in the sun for 5 months, only to be moved every Friday of a home game to make way for football parking.

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I didn't have one when I was a fish. But I did get rides from buddies who did have cars. One of my buddies just left his at one of the lots on west campus under a tree for the entire semester and came back to about 4 inches of bird **** on his car.

I had one. Necessary? Maybe not, but it's a lot more convenient when you need to run errands. You don't have to wait til one of your buddies with a car can get away. You're usually running errands either during the day, or on weekends. It can be a challenge to get away during the day because everybody has a different class schedule. If your class schedule conflicts with your Ol' Lady, or other buds, it's nice not having to wait. Dates are much nicer with a car, obviously.

Back then, the campus dining facilities were closed Sunday night, so our whole class ate together as a group on Sunday evenings in one of several off campus eateries. It was nice having the car there to get around.

Also nice to be able to drive home on an open weekend. There are not many of them in the fall, so the rare one where you CAN actually get away if you can swing it is nice if you can drive home because you had a car there. In the fall, the few times when there's not a home game, many times it was required for you to stay on campus for some Corps activity.


Also great for the two Corps Trips a year. I don't know if they have those anymore, but maybe they bring it back for the tu games in Austin. Very nice when you have your own car for this so you can go where you want with your fish buds.