Texas A&M Aggies

[Fedog]

WHo cares! I have Aggie friends but why make this post. No one on this board really cares. Maybe they do but I do not know why. We care about Texas!!!! We are TExas!!!!!!Bring on the Aggies

 

[BudreauReye]

WHo cares! I have Aggie friends but why make this post. No one on this board really cares. Maybe they do but I do not know why. We care about Texas!!!! We are TExas!!!!!!Bring on the Aggies

Why would you even post this? I think that some of us have a certain level of distaste for all things aggroid for historic reasons. And other than the usual adversarial distaste that is found in intercollegiate athletics, lo and behold!, some of it may be justified. Some on this board do care. In case you did not know it, there are more than a few olden fartes on this board. Maybe there are reasons why some feel the way that they do. Maybe you should consider that, instead of assuming that your version of Texas athletic reality is the same that everyone else sees or experiences. As a beginning, try reading a few of the posts on this thread. If that does not enlighten you, try asking someone who has been around a while. You might learn something.

 

[Bear19]

McPhaul

You have indeed been very fortunate.

 

[monarch]

one of my sister's is an a&m aggie

one of my sister's is a baylor bear

i'm one of the all time greatest texas longhorn fans

our parents are just "texans" what do they care.....

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

Today, I had an aggy TASO football officiating associate ask me, "Who is Coach Strong?"

No, he wasn't being facetious or condescending. Just being an ignorant aggy. You can't make this stuff up!

 

[Randolph Duke]

Today, I had an aggy TASO football officiating associate ask me, "Who is Coach Strong?"
No, he wasn't being facetious or condescending. Just being an ignorant aggy. You can't make this stuff up!

Here is something to keep in mind when dealing with aggys. UT Austin has about 36,000 undergrads and about 48,000 total students on campus. TAMU College Station has a couple thousand more undergrads and about 54,000 total students. The operating budget of UT Austin (just the main campus, not the system) is right at $2.4 billion. The operating budget at TAMU College Station is right at $1.3 billion. The ags have about 10% more students than UT Austin but the annual operating budget for TAMU Farmville is a BILLION DOLLARS less than the budget for UT Austin. UT Austin spends ONE BILLION GODDAMNED DOLLARS more to educate fewer students. One billion dollars is more than the entire operating budget of OU Norman (which has roughly 26,000 undergrads). I don't care if you start with the ballet majors, move to the pottery majors and go from there. ONE BILLION DOLLARS each and every year is going to eventually result in some serious effects on the overall quality of the educational experience offered to the students on campus.

Don't ever kid yourself that the quality of the education offered at UT Austin and that of TAMU College Station or OU Norman are in any way similar. Ask anyone in academia at any university what an increase of a billion dollars a year to the operating budget would do to improve the quality of the education offered to students on campus.

I give the aggys a lot of sh!t and for good reason. Just wait until you see what happens to the "quality" of the graduate from their university once Rick Perry's "reforms" start running their enrollment up to 70,000 with a cap on tuition at $10,000 for four years. Meanwhile, $100 crude prices continue to pour billions more into the PUF so the endowment continues to grow both from new contributions as well as from investment returns. Additions to the PUF from royalties total almost a billion dollars a year. I can't think of any state that adds a billion dollars a year of state funds to their university endowments and I can't think of any private university that gains close to a billion dollars a year to its endowment from alumni gifts.

 

[BudreauReye]

Here is something to keep in mind when dealing with aggys. UT Austin has about 36,000 undergrads and about 48,000 total students on campus. TAMU College Station has a couple thousand more undergrads and about 54,000 total students. The operating budget of UT Austin (just the main campus, not the system) is right at $2.4 billion. The operating budget at TAMU College Station is right at $1.3 billion. The ags have about 10% more students than UT Austin but the annual operating budget for TAMU Farmville is a BILLION DOLLARS less than the budget for UT Austin. UT Austin spends ONE BILLION GODDAMNED DOLLARS more to educate fewer students. One billion dollars is more than the entire operating budget of OU Norman (which has roughly 26,000 undergrads). I don't care if you start with the ballet majors, move to the pottery majors and go from there. ONE BILLION DOLLARS each and every year is going to eventually result in some serious effects on the overall quality of the educational experience offered to the students on campus.
Don't ever kid yourself that the quality of the education offered at UT Austin and that of TAMU College Station or OU Norman are in any way similar. Ask anyone in academia at any university what an increase of a billion dollars a year to the operating budget would do to improve the quality of the education offered to students on campus.

I give the aggys a lot of sh!t and for good reason. Just wait until you see what happens to the "quality" of the graduate from their university once Rick Perry's "reforms" start running their enrollment up to 70,000 with a cap on tuition at $10,000 for four years. Meanwhile, $100 crude prices continue to pour billions more into the PUF so the endowment continues to grow both from new contributions as well as from investment returns. Additions to the PUF from royalties total almost a billion dollars a year. I can't think of any state that adds a billion dollars a year of state funds to their university endowments and I can't think of any private university that gains close to a billion dollars a year to its endowment from alumni gifts.

I must say. That does explain a lot.

 

[Randolph Duke]

I must say. That does explain a lot.

Yep. The total operating budgets of LSU and Univ of Alabama are less than $1 billion. The total endowment of U of A is less than this year's addition to the PUF. The numbers are just insane. By almost any metric, UT is an incredible place. The only area we are failing is in athletics.

 

[Agmaniacmike]

Yeah, I despise Rick Perry's vision for public schools in this state, and I hate the idea of becoming a degree factory, something that we have slowly been moving towards for years. With a billion dollars more in the budget, the ROI isn't substantially higher in education as it should be, although it seems like both our schools are constantly in the news for research and the like consistently. UT-Austin hasn't expanded much recently due to being essentially landlocked and embedded within the area outside of downtown Austin. Is the plan to continue to build up the satellite campuses to eventually become tier 1 quality campuses (UTSA)?

 

[Randolph Duke]

Yeah, I despise Rick Perry's vision for public schools in this state, and I hate the idea of becoming a degree factory, something that we have slowly been moving towards for years. With a billion dollars more in the budget, the ROI isn't substantially higher in education as it should be, although it seems like both our schools are constantly in the news for research and the like consistently. UT-Austin hasn't expanded much recently due to being essentially landlocked and embedded within the area outside of downtown Austin. Is the plan to continue to build up the satellite campuses to eventually become tier 1 quality campuses (UTSA)?

It is next to impossible (unless you rely on the payscale.com survey) to quantify a return on the investment (ROI) of a college education, so any "ROI" on a college degree is meaningless. UT Austin is about to expand to the tune of a half a billion dollars with the system's fourth med school to start with and to grow from there. That, in addition to the other improvements on campus.

Try and convince anyone a BILLION DOLLARS every year is meaningless. The only people that will insist it is are associated with TAMU Farmville.

I guarantee you the plan is not to make sure UT Austin is on par with UTSA. LOL. Aggy, lol.

 

[Agmaniacmike]

I would expect UT-Austin to be set apart from A&M with that kind of budget, but the reality is that the schools are relatively close given the difference in budgeting: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public (take whichever ranking you wish they tend to be close). I'm asking what is the extra money going towards to improve the school and widen the gap? I can agree that UT is more well rounded as a university, there are very few weaknesses within the different colleges of the university like A&M (liberal arts and lack of renowned medical/law school are just a few examples), so maybe there is where the extra money is beneficial. Arguing that there is a major difference in degree quality across the whole spectrum seems far-fetched though, the schools have relatively similar sample ROIs (not sure of validity), similar rankings in most publications, and there has never been feedback either way about one or the other being more beneficial from my correspondence with prospective employers.

 

[GARCH]

The two are not close. Get over it aggy, a degree from your school is worth about as much as a ged

 

[Davharjac]

I miss the point in bad mouthing Aggies school system...thought this was about football? The lets play who's degree is more powerful game is silly in my opinion. It's about the person and what they do with it. I mean some of you guys are essentially trashing kids who attend colleges for the sake of the rivalry..as if graduating from college isn't in it's own right an accomplishment. Things like this strengthen my feeling that the Texas V Aggie game needs to come back. The rivalry is spilling into areas that it need not.

 

[Randolph Duke]

I miss the point in bad mouthing Aggies school system...thought this was about football? The lets play who's degree is more powerful game is silly in my opinion. It's about the person and what they do with it. I mean some of you guys are essentially trashing kids who attend colleges for the sake of the rivalry..as if graduating for college isn't in it's own right an accomplishment. Things like this strengthen my feeling that the Texas V Aggie game needs to come back. The rivalry is spilling into areas that it need not.

Graduating with a college degree isn't in its own right an accomplishment simply because the mission of various universities differs greatly. The experience at selective universities that are intellectually challenging isn't the same as universities with open enrollment and are less academically demanding. We can all cherry pick given individuals such as Bill Gates or Michael Dell who dropped out of college and became highly successful and claim there is no value in a college education. The value of a college education isn't measured by the outliers. The value of a college education is measured by the collective contributions of those who had the opportunity to broaden their knowledge. As graduates of UT, we as a collective of individuals define the value of the UT experience.

Discussing the difference between the UT experience and the aggy experience is largely a matter of discussing two very different cultures. The UT experience has long been one of demanding a measured contribution from young individuals and nurturing intellectual curiosity. The aggy experience has long been one of being taught what to think and not how to think. Aggy does well in regimented disciplines such as engineering, but they fail miserably at open and creative thinking. They fail miserably at changing the world we live in. They fail miserably making our world a better place for future generations. The aggy experience is fundamentally different from the experience one gains from studying at UT Austin.

No university's degree is "more powerful" than a degree from another university. However, when proven educators are given enough resources and charged with creating an environment where individuals are exposed to new ideas and challenged intellectually, lives are changes. My point was that the resources given the administration at UT Austin dwarf those given to administrators at most universities, including aggy. Much like the Wizard of Oz handed the scarecrow a diploma and declared him to have earned a Doctorate in Thinkology, aggy can hand out diplomas, but the piece of paper means little.

The game between UT and aggy needs to remain dead. For decades, the ags have bolstered their reputation by declaring themselves to be "just as good as UT." When have you ever heard anyone declare UT to be the equal of aggy? The measure is taken by the ags applying the burnt orange yardstick to gauge their relative importance. There is no maroon yardstick. We don't measure ourselves in terms of aggy. No one aspires to be what aggy is, so there is no desire to use aggy as a benchmark. The state of Texas will be much better off as the aggy culture gains greater separation from that of the University of Texas. More importantly, the state of Texas will be much better off as the culture of the University of Texas gains greater separation from that of aggy. It isn't a rivalry as much as it is a difference of cultures. We need to go our separate directions.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

Yeah, I despise Rick Perry's vision for public schools in this state, and I hate the idea of becoming a degree factory, something that we have slowly been moving towards for years. With a billion dollars more in the budget, the ROI isn't substantially higher in education as it should be, although it seems like both our schools are constantly in the news for research and the like consistently. UT-Austin hasn't expanded much recently due to being essentially landlocked and embedded within the area outside of downtown Austin. Is the plan to continue to build up the satellite campuses to eventually become tier 1 quality campuses (UTSA)?

I don't see how the UT System has any other choice. There's no room for expansion on the 40 Acres. UTSA, UTA, and UTEP should benefit from TX's growing educational needs. Perry's vision for higher education needs to be reevaluated.

Bigger isn't necessarily better for TAMU. But I guess y'all have a 102k seat stadium to fill now.

 

[Randolph Duke]

I don't see how the UT System has any other choice. There's no room for expansion on the 40 Acres. UTSA, UTA, and UTEP should benefit from TX's growing educational needs. Perry's vision for higher education needs to be reevaluated.
Bigger isn't necessarily better for TAMU. But I guess y'all have a 102k seat stadium to fill now.

UT Austin is spending a half billion dollars as a down payment on building a whole new medical college that will occupy four city blocks. How does that not qualify as expansion?

 

[Agmaniacmike]

Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to make you feel better about your education because there is little to no tangible evidence to say that there is a massive difference between the schools in quality (not like it should matter). Aggies are supposed to be the delusional ones, but you are essentially claiming that an Aggie education or experience as faculty doesn't change lives for the better which is constantly found to be to the contrary. Our schools are in the news constantly for game changing research and bringing further grants to the schools for further exploration of useful research. However, your biggest claim basically is that UT excels in disciplines not involving a regimented approach therefore they are changing the world through thinking; these disciplines involving science and math will be the ones to change the world much more than the main areas that UT has us beat in (liberal arts). Also, I highly disagree with the idea behind this statement, "More importantly, the state of Texas will be much better off as the culture of the University of Texas gains greater separation from that of aggy". Not in whether or not it is true but rather in the premise that A&M and Texas are moving apart in every way, our schools are more intertwined than ever within academia, both sets of faculty and administrators are both fighting the same fight against Perry and there is constant feedback between the two schools through delegations. Degree holders from both schools are much more tolerable in any discussion and tend to have much more respect for each other, I would suggest you follow suit and not downgrade an education for the sole purpose of propping up your own.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

UT Austin is spending a half billion dollars as a down payment on building a whole new medical college that will occupy four city blocks. How does that not qualify as expansion?

Good point. Can't believe I forgot about that! D'oh...

 

[Randolph Duke]

Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to make you feel better about your education because there is little to no tangible evidence to say that there is a massive difference between the schools in quality (not like it should matter). Aggies are supposed to be the delusional ones, but you are essentially claiming that an Aggie education or experience as faculty doesn't change lives for the better which is constantly found to be to the contrary. Our schools are in the news constantly for game changing research and bringing further grants to the schools for further exploration of useful research. However, your biggest claim basically is that UT excels in disciplines not involving a regimented approach therefore they are changing the world through thinking; these disciplines involving science and math will be the ones to change the world much more than the main areas that UT has us beat in (liberal arts). Also, I highly disagree with the idea behind this statement, "More importantly, the state of Texas will be much better off as the culture of the University of Texas gains greater separation from that of aggy". Not in whether or not it is true but rather in the premise that A&M and Texas are moving apart in every way, our schools are more intertwined than ever within academia, both sets of faculty and administrators are both fighting the same fight against Perry and there is constant feedback between the two schools through delegations. Degree holders from both schools are much more tolerable in any discussion and tend to have much more respect for each other, I would suggest you follow suit and not downgrade an education for the sole purpose of propping up your own.

lol. Both sets of faculty and administrators are not fighting the same fight against Perry and his "reforms." Bill Powers risked his career to resist the stupidity that Perry is successfully pushing on TAMU. The administrators at A&M wrote a letter three years ago and then turned predictably meek and compliant. At the end of the day, Bill Powers and the Texas contingent will provide the leadership on the issue and that aggys will demand the benefits from the UT side's efforts in the name of "fairness." We are all familiar with the TAMU modus operandi.

I laugh tat that TAMU administration for what I believe is good reason. The intellectual dishonesty repeatedly displayed by the school's administrators and alumni in perpetuating the false and contrived history of the school is an embarrassment to the state.The "12th Man" fairy tale, the false claim to be the oldest public university in the state and the refusal to admit the university is still constitutionally a branch of the University of Texas are part of the false image TAMU has created for itself. Those things are indicative of a school that seeks to present itself as more than it is. Doing so is intellectually dishonest and appalling from an academic institution. Sending individuals into the world having knowingly taught them a false understanding of history is something that doesn't bother TAMU administrators, but I believe you will find few others in academia who believe it is acceptable. I am not "downgrading an education." I am downgrading the quality of the TAMU education and stating that the quality of the education at TAMU is below that offered at UT Austin and has been for decades, notwithstanding the insistence of TAMU alumni who believe differently. Objective assessments of the quality of education offered by the two schools consistently rate the education offered at UT Austin higher in every single discipline other than veterinary medicine. In fields of law, medicine, the arts, business education, architecture, you name it.

What TAMU excels at is churning out engineers as a commodity, none any better than the other, with barely an exception each skilled only at executing the plans and visions of others and lacking unique qualities save and except the inflated self importance instilled in them by the false narrative perpetuated by TAMU administrators. As individuals, aggys are largely polite and hospitable people. In groups they are renowned for being insufferable. I firmly believe the more separation between UT Austin and TAMU College Station the better for the state and the better for UT Austin. Once TAMU is forced to stand alone, possibly the institution's flaws will become more evident to aggys themselves and change for the better may ensue.

Again, it is not the education that sets the two institutions apart as much as the difference in culture between the two institutions. Aggys have an unquenchable need to convince themselves they are the equal of UT Austin, yet the experiences offered at the two institutions are incomparable and have been since the two institutions were established. If you really think aggy can offer exactly what UT offers on billion dollars less each year, you are nuts. Like I said earlier, a billion dollars is more than the entire operating budget of OU Norman, LSU Baton Rouge or Alabama Tuscaloosa. An extra billion dollars a year is meaningful.

 

[doc longhorn]

Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to make you feel better about your education because there is little to no tangible evidence to say that there is a massive difference between the schools in quality (not like it should matter). Aggies are supposed to be the delusional ones, but you are essentially claiming that an Aggie education or experience as faculty doesn't change lives for the better which is constantly found to be to the contrary. Our schools are in the news constantly for game changing research and bringing further grants to the schools for further exploration of useful research. However, your biggest claim basically is that UT excels in disciplines not involving a regimented approach therefore they are changing the world through thinking; these disciplines involving science and math will be the ones to change the world much more than the main areas that UT has us beat in (liberal arts). Also, I highly disagree with the idea behind this statement, "More importantly, the state of Texas will be much better off as the culture of the University of Texas gains greater separation from that of aggy". Not in whether or not it is true but rather in the premise that A&M and Texas are moving apart in every way, our schools are more intertwined than ever within academia, both sets of faculty and administrators are both fighting the same fight against Perry and there is constant feedback between the two schools through delegations. Degree holders from both schools are much more tolerable in any discussion and tend to have much more respect for each other, I would suggest you follow suit and not downgrade an education for the sole purpose of propping up your own.

Mike - I agree with you as far as the quality of degrees - either from UT or A&M, they are both the same. A&M is a fine academic school and to say otherwise is ridiculous. However, pointing out that A&M does not have a Liberal College, like UT, is no more significant then me pointing out that A&M has a College of Agriculture. So, what is your point?

Let's clear up a few things, while we are at it. There IS a cultural difference between TAMU and UT - and you know it. It historically began with your ridiculous little ROTC cult called the Corps and it remains today because of it. Your premise is that aggys stick together and support each other and UT doesn't have this kind of wonderful comradery. You also promote your "honor code" and "traditions" as part of your culture. All of these things you feel make you superior to other schools, but particularly to UT. Your Fish camps indoctrinate and brainwash incoming freshmen with this unadulterated bulls**t. Your whole school persona is dedicated to the hatred of UT. In the medical field we call this paranoia. The fact that you use "tu" instead of UT is a blatant admission that you refuse to admit that UT stands for University of Texas, because you think it diminishes your own schools perceived value. In the medical profession, we call this an inferiority complex. Furthermore, after moving to the SEC, SEC, SEC you wanted all of them to admire your "credentials", so you fabricated national championships and conference championships and posted them on your stadium for all to see. In the medical profession, we call this delusional.

The bottom line is A&M is, for sure, neurotic and borderline psychotic. The overt symptoms are sword wielding seniors, mob rage at the Rice band, killing and mutilating of mascots, billboards in Austin, etc., etc.

Your so called "honor code" was revealed as BS long ago - with your schools position as the 7th biggest perpetrator of cheating in the history of college sports. As far as your so called love of traditions - you obviously didn't care if you continued the longest tradition in the history of your school - when you ended the rivalry with UT, by lying to UT AND the Big 12 and by running to the SEC. So that is BS as well.

Yes, there certainly is a cultural difference and your retreat to the SEC has only created that much more separation. I cannot believe you think that UT and aggy are more entwined than ever. I think what you were really trying to say is, because you have moved to the SEC, you believe you are achieving more equality with UT.