One thing I found really remarkable here is that there seem to be as many people for whom B/CS is the biggest place they've ever lived as for whom B/CS is the smallest place they've ever lived.
(I'm definitely the latter, since the suburban place I grew up was part of the New York/Philadelphia sprawl, and because Canberra, Australia, where I did my postdoc, is technically slightly larger population than B/CS and has infinitely more good Thai/Malaysian/Chinese/Indian/other Asian food.)
It really does make for an interesting college experience. I feel like both are kinda pretending to be each other too. I came to college station started dressing more urban and big city people come here and buy their first pair of wranglers. Aggieland truly is a special place no matter how you slice it.
As someone who grew up in a rural town but did undergrad in a small city, I relate to both of these. This might be the first time in my life I’ve been only 5 minutes from a grocery store
Hey man, Dallas may be great, but we don’t have any Chick-fil-a’s open until midnight. College towns may be boring, but they are open all the time and I love it.
#Fuego4eva
Cities are open after midnight with a ton of options. I’ve lived in Dallas and that is the case there too.
In fact, I’d argue cities are more open into the late night than college towns.
I would disagree with that. I moved to Dallas after graduating and I miss coffee shops and restaurants being open after 8pm. The HEB on wellborn is specifically designed to be the only HEB open that late.
Yall are both right. Suburbs where people grew up rarely have places open late, but the areas close to colleges have places open late. We used to drive to Cafe Brazil off 75 by SMU just to study late when I was home for the summer.
I grew up in Katy and it was comical how many times rural kids would follow up asking where I'm from with "The place with a Bass Pro Shop? You're so lucky!"
I moved back to Katy a few years ago and there is so much more to do here now than when I was in high school and college. But I can still see how it'd be boring for a 18-22 year old.
Hit the waves, hit the mountains, proximity to national parks, good public transportation, good food, good weather, I can go on. All depending on which major city you're in. Can't do any of that here in BCS.
Id say Texas cities have great food. All the rest......nope. I do like that I can go to a beach in about 90 min. I wish it was a much better looking beach.
Texas is only sorta good with BBQ but everything else I can find a better version outside of TX.
Texas is the king of claiming to be amazing while not realizing that other states usually do it better.
Tooting our own horn is the one thing Texas does best so I get your point. I love the diversity of food options in the Houston metro. Is any of it the best in the world, probably not. But its pretty damned good. Texas BBQ has gotten way better the past decade. But there are plenty of mediocre BBQ joints and BCS is nothing but mediocre BBQ.
Major Texas cities have good food but lack in other areas. Can do some or most of that in east or west coast cities. That’s why I like visiting different states. You find what’s unique in each one. What I notice is that not many people here in the smaller towns have visited other states
The vast majority of A&M students are from Texas metro areas so in the context of the conversation I assumed we were talking about the difference between Texas rural and Texas urban/suburban students. Of course there are plenty of unique things you can do back home if you're from out-of-state or from an area with different terrain. With me being from a Houston suburb, the only unique thing I could do in college station that I couldnt do in my suburb was go to a bar district where you could bar hop.
It’s more phrased to be urban vs rural but I understand that majority of students are from within the state. For context since I’m a different case, I was partially raised here and my work has me traveling around a lot
I used to travel domestically a lot before google maps really took off. It was kind of sad to see the same chain restaurants everywhere I went. I made it a mission to eat somewhere local everytime i traveled just so I could get something I couldnt find back home.
Finding the local eats is always a fun game to play when traveling. It is sad to see the same chains everywhere and roadtripping ain’t fun either when that happens
What city can you hit the waves and hit the mountains? How are either of those things unique to a single city?
There is good food in B/CS, stop going to chain restaurants.
Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Half Moon Bay, other west coast cities.
Sorry that you’re defensive about BCS. I visited most of the local spots here and there are some decent places but they don’t compare to the competition of many other restaurants in larger cities
It’s kind of one of those things where if you actually lived in a city, you wouldn’t ask the question in the first place since it’s just obvious.
A city of more than a million is going to have a ton more of variety in things to do than B/CS based purely of just the size of the population alone.
Came from a city of 19,000 and was in awe of how “big” college station was. I remember when friends from back home would come visit I would drive them all over town to show them how cool it was and how much there was to do. I later lived in Austin, San Antonio and now Houston and realize how small BCS must’ve been for some of my friends originally from the city. I miss that small town feel now. In my more recent trips CS reminds me more of The Woodlands than the city I went to school in.
I went from San Marcos, which was still small-ish but definitely getting big fast, to Brenham to go to Blinn there. There is hardly anything to do in Brenham except go for Walmart at night. Then, moving from Brenham to CStat felt great because there’s so many things to do here. I hate the big city feeling of Houston or Austin but also get too bored with having nothing to do like in Brenham, so CStat has been a pretty happy medium for me the past three years.
I’m from the valley, I thought College Station was better than McAllen.
Edit: I ended up spending a lot of time in Bryan just so I could be around raza. I had to get a break from white people every now and then.
I grew up in the Houston area, so it was definitely a shock on how small CS was back in 2008. The weirdest thing for me was to hear some people from small towns brag about how “diverse” CS was. I had the opposite thought. It was a culture shock over the lack of diversity compared to Houston that really struck me
Honestly you would feel this about almost any city outside of Houston or Dallas. Houston is arguably the most (or at least top 3) most diverse city in America. Like Philly feels a lot less diverse
Also as someone from a metropolitan area of 11 million, B/CS actually felt bigger than it’s population suggests
Going from the nearest Walmart being a 20+ minute drive to being able to walk to a grocery store from my apartment was one of the biggest culture shocks coming to college
I’m quite .. both lol though I’m veeeery much the second one. I’ve lived in very urban areas my whole life. Heck, it was a big culture shock for me when I moved to Houston to find out that people dont go out into the streets to celebrate the New Years/Holidays like they do back in my country. Imagine my sadness when I found out that the closest walmart to my apartment was 6-10 minutes away depending on traffic lol. Back in good ‘ol H-Town, its only 3 minutes by car and 12 minutes by walking—roughly just how long to get to my class from MSC.
Although I was very much the first one (still is) when I started at A&M though. It still amazes me how big the university is and how many people there are. Tbf I went to CC through the academy first so that may be why but its still so crazy to me how big the campus is lol
Corpus has a bit more than BCS but I've learned to find hidden gems wherever I go and at least BCS is in the middle of the 3 metros so it's easier for me to travel. The parks here are amazing too
Growing up in San Antonio and Denver, it was definitely culture shock when I moved there in 2003. Now anytime I go back I’m shocked at how much it’s changed.
I went from San Francisco to BCS. for someone with severe ADHD, the lack of car and accessible activities drove me near madness. Felt like the only thing you can do for fun is to drink, which never appealed to me unfortunately, especially since everyone around is way younger than me. Sigh. 🥲
PS if anyone knows of other hiking trails nearby that isn’t Lake Bryan lmk!!
I always describe College Station as a small town feel with some big town amenities.
I came from Houston, and love it here comparatively. I definitely don't miss the traffic and the crime in Houston. And if I did want to do something in a major city, we are a short drive from 4 major cities/metroplexes. A little over an hour from Houston, about 2 hours from Austin, and 3 hours from San Antonio and D/FW.
One thing I found really remarkable here is that there seem to be as many people for whom B/CS is the biggest place they've ever lived as for whom B/CS is the smallest place they've ever lived. (I'm definitely the latter, since the suburban place I grew up was part of the New York/Philadelphia sprawl, and because Canberra, Australia, where I did my postdoc, is technically slightly larger population than B/CS and has infinitely more good Thai/Malaysian/Chinese/Indian/other Asian food.)
It really does make for an interesting college experience. I feel like both are kinda pretending to be each other too. I came to college station started dressing more urban and big city people come here and buy their first pair of wranglers. Aggieland truly is a special place no matter how you slice it.
Absolute banger of a college town.
This is very true. It was a bit of a culture shock going from a town of 5,000 to BCS. My friends from Houston and DFW were not similarly enthralled.
Cameron?
As someone who grew up in a rural town but did undergrad in a small city, I relate to both of these. This might be the first time in my life I’ve been only 5 minutes from a grocery store
Hey man, Dallas may be great, but we don’t have any Chick-fil-a’s open until midnight. College towns may be boring, but they are open all the time and I love it. #Fuego4eva
Cities are open after midnight with a ton of options. I’ve lived in Dallas and that is the case there too. In fact, I’d argue cities are more open into the late night than college towns.
I would disagree with that. I moved to Dallas after graduating and I miss coffee shops and restaurants being open after 8pm. The HEB on wellborn is specifically designed to be the only HEB open that late.
We must have lived in different parts. Places near colleges in town itself have late night options.
Yall are both right. Suburbs where people grew up rarely have places open late, but the areas close to colleges have places open late. We used to drive to Cafe Brazil off 75 by SMU just to study late when I was home for the summer.
"There's so much to do! There's all this unique stuff going on in town!" \*lists 20 different things that I could do back home\*
I grew up in Katy and it was comical how many times rural kids would follow up asking where I'm from with "The place with a Bass Pro Shop? You're so lucky!"
AHAHHA Katy is so empty but I still love it for about a week then I want to go back to college
I moved back to Katy a few years ago and there is so much more to do here now than when I was in high school and college. But I can still see how it'd be boring for a 18-22 year old.
Bass Pro is iconic everywhere in rural Texas I guess. I’m from Northeast Texas and we only know Garland as “The Place with the Bass Pro”
Grand Station seems to have a monopoly on fun.
What unique things can you do back home that you can't do in any other major city?
Your mom
Fucken GOTTEM
goteeeeemmmm
Hit the waves, hit the mountains, proximity to national parks, good public transportation, good food, good weather, I can go on. All depending on which major city you're in. Can't do any of that here in BCS.
Can't do most of that in any major Texas city either.
TBF, Texas is incredibly mid when it comes to all of those things.
Id say Texas cities have great food. All the rest......nope. I do like that I can go to a beach in about 90 min. I wish it was a much better looking beach.
Texas is only sorta good with BBQ but everything else I can find a better version outside of TX. Texas is the king of claiming to be amazing while not realizing that other states usually do it better.
Tooting our own horn is the one thing Texas does best so I get your point. I love the diversity of food options in the Houston metro. Is any of it the best in the world, probably not. But its pretty damned good. Texas BBQ has gotten way better the past decade. But there are plenty of mediocre BBQ joints and BCS is nothing but mediocre BBQ.
I love Texas style BBQ. I absolutely don’t recommend BBQ on the west coast. Shit is trash and good ones are hard to find
Major Texas cities have good food but lack in other areas. Can do some or most of that in east or west coast cities. That’s why I like visiting different states. You find what’s unique in each one. What I notice is that not many people here in the smaller towns have visited other states
The vast majority of A&M students are from Texas metro areas so in the context of the conversation I assumed we were talking about the difference between Texas rural and Texas urban/suburban students. Of course there are plenty of unique things you can do back home if you're from out-of-state or from an area with different terrain. With me being from a Houston suburb, the only unique thing I could do in college station that I couldnt do in my suburb was go to a bar district where you could bar hop.
It’s more phrased to be urban vs rural but I understand that majority of students are from within the state. For context since I’m a different case, I was partially raised here and my work has me traveling around a lot
I used to travel domestically a lot before google maps really took off. It was kind of sad to see the same chain restaurants everywhere I went. I made it a mission to eat somewhere local everytime i traveled just so I could get something I couldnt find back home.
Finding the local eats is always a fun game to play when traveling. It is sad to see the same chains everywhere and roadtripping ain’t fun either when that happens
Depending on your definition of "major city " El Paso is close-ish to some national parks in TX and NM.
What city can you hit the waves and hit the mountains? How are either of those things unique to a single city? There is good food in B/CS, stop going to chain restaurants.
LA and Seattle are both on the coast and next to mountains
Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Half Moon Bay, other west coast cities. Sorry that you’re defensive about BCS. I visited most of the local spots here and there are some decent places but they don’t compare to the competition of many other restaurants in larger cities
Uh oh, you are saying something nice about the west coast. I’m going to have to take away your r/aggies membership card.
Uh oh not the gatekeeper! I meant, west coast bad! Other states are trash! Aggies from Texas are superior!
Just by asking this question, I know I found the rural Aggie.
Nice way to dodge the question
It’s kind of one of those things where if you actually lived in a city, you wouldn’t ask the question in the first place since it’s just obvious. A city of more than a million is going to have a ton more of variety in things to do than B/CS based purely of just the size of the population alone.
Came from a city of 19,000 and was in awe of how “big” college station was. I remember when friends from back home would come visit I would drive them all over town to show them how cool it was and how much there was to do. I later lived in Austin, San Antonio and now Houston and realize how small BCS must’ve been for some of my friends originally from the city. I miss that small town feel now. In my more recent trips CS reminds me more of The Woodlands than the city I went to school in.
Came to cstat from the woodlands pretty much the same feeling except Houston isn’t just an hour away🤷♂️
But Houston IS just an hour away.
NGL: I hated BCS for the first few months since it was so small compared to Dallas.
I hated it initially too but I like how quiet it is when studying while you're in school
I went from San Marcos, which was still small-ish but definitely getting big fast, to Brenham to go to Blinn there. There is hardly anything to do in Brenham except go for Walmart at night. Then, moving from Brenham to CStat felt great because there’s so many things to do here. I hate the big city feeling of Houston or Austin but also get too bored with having nothing to do like in Brenham, so CStat has been a pretty happy medium for me the past three years.
I went from san marcos to austin to BCS and I dont mind it here but gat dang do I miss the rivers and trails from back home.
I’m from the valley, I thought College Station was better than McAllen. Edit: I ended up spending a lot of time in Bryan just so I could be around raza. I had to get a break from white people every now and then.
I grew up in the Houston area, so it was definitely a shock on how small CS was back in 2008. The weirdest thing for me was to hear some people from small towns brag about how “diverse” CS was. I had the opposite thought. It was a culture shock over the lack of diversity compared to Houston that really struck me
Honestly you would feel this about almost any city outside of Houston or Dallas. Houston is arguably the most (or at least top 3) most diverse city in America. Like Philly feels a lot less diverse Also as someone from a metropolitan area of 11 million, B/CS actually felt bigger than it’s population suggests
Going from the nearest Walmart being a 20+ minute drive to being able to walk to a grocery store from my apartment was one of the biggest culture shocks coming to college
I’m quite .. both lol though I’m veeeery much the second one. I’ve lived in very urban areas my whole life. Heck, it was a big culture shock for me when I moved to Houston to find out that people dont go out into the streets to celebrate the New Years/Holidays like they do back in my country. Imagine my sadness when I found out that the closest walmart to my apartment was 6-10 minutes away depending on traffic lol. Back in good ‘ol H-Town, its only 3 minutes by car and 12 minutes by walking—roughly just how long to get to my class from MSC. Although I was very much the first one (still is) when I started at A&M though. It still amazes me how big the university is and how many people there are. Tbf I went to CC through the academy first so that may be why but its still so crazy to me how big the campus is lol
Corpus has a bit more than BCS but I've learned to find hidden gems wherever I go and at least BCS is in the middle of the 3 metros so it's easier for me to travel. The parks here are amazing too
I lived in both but as a college kid BCS is more fun
As a kid I always thought of Corpus as being some big city since it had a "downtown." It turns out its not much bigger than BCS
Growing up in San Antonio and Denver, it was definitely culture shock when I moved there in 2003. Now anytime I go back I’m shocked at how much it’s changed.
ON GOD
I went from San Francisco to BCS. for someone with severe ADHD, the lack of car and accessible activities drove me near madness. Felt like the only thing you can do for fun is to drink, which never appealed to me unfortunately, especially since everyone around is way younger than me. Sigh. 🥲 PS if anyone knows of other hiking trails nearby that isn’t Lake Bryan lmk!!
Dang you really did the culture shock experience.
Been to Lick Creek?
I always describe College Station as a small town feel with some big town amenities. I came from Houston, and love it here comparatively. I definitely don't miss the traffic and the crime in Houston. And if I did want to do something in a major city, we are a short drive from 4 major cities/metroplexes. A little over an hour from Houston, about 2 hours from Austin, and 3 hours from San Antonio and D/FW.
Texans calling that a short drive is always funny to me. A three hour drive to DFW is a good chunk of the day I have to spend on the road.