Dear Incoming A&M Students,
I’m sure you’ve been bombarded with TONS of advice about your first year of college — don’t skip class, beware of the “freshman 15”, never sign up for 8 a.m. classes, always form study groups and so on. While these might be legitimate tidbits of information for you to store in your memory bank, no one ever gives it to you straight. Real talk — this is what you truly need to know.
First of all: please do yourself a favor and never sign up for a class in Blocker. It’s practically on another continent on the far edge of campus, and you’ll hate your life while walking there in the 100 degree Texas heat. Not to mention the fact that it smells like mold when the building floods, which happens way too often to be acceptable. I’ve never understood why, even though there’s a million engineers on campus, no one can figure out how to stop the rain from engulfing the basement. (Classes DO get cancelled there sometimes, though, which is essentially as exciting as Christmas morning.) Also, be prepared for the leg work-out of your life if you have a class in Heldenfels. There’s no elevators in the building … So let’s just say four floors + 40 trillion flights of stairs + 400 students crammed in the stairwell = negative amounts of fun.
The horror stories about foreign professors are always circulating around campus; however, I’m going to go ahead and shoot that misconception down. To give it to you simply, foreign professors are NOT a bad thing. They were some of the most compassionate teachers I’ve ever had, and a lot of times, they’re even more willing to help you than the “American” professors. To be honest, you’re going to have bad professors of any nationality, and you’re also going to have amazing ones. Don’t judge someone based on their name while you’re signing up for classes during registration week — it’s dumb, and you could miss out on meeting a truly awesome person who could teach you a lot.
Speaking of classes — bookstores are a total waste of your money. This is the 21st century, after all, and everything you need is online. Chegg and Amazon are by far the way to go while buying your textbooks. Not only are they way cheaper than anything you’ll see on campus, but you also won’t see any upperclassmen in the bookstores getting their textbooks. It’s a rookie mistake to make. So do yourself a favor and learn your lesson before you practically throw your money into the wind and blow a $1,000 or more on books you’ll never use again in four months.
Also pertaining to saving money, tent sales will be your best friend. These holy grails of savings are scattered around town in the fall, and always pop up on home game weekends. Typically they’ll be open from Thursday-Sunday, and it will be well worth your trip to go to one (or four). They have t-shirts, hats, koozies, flags and other assorted A&M memorabilia for obnoxiously cheap prices. Let’s be real — college kids are poor, and any potential way we can conserve our dwindling amounts of cash is much appreciated. Hit a few tent sales up this fall, and thank me later.
Be prepared for traffic to be awful in town…absolutely awful. Granted, it kind of sucks all the time, but certain peak times are even worse. These include, but are not limited to, Gig’Em week, dorm move-in/move-out day, home game weekends, Tuesday nights before Breakaway and Ring Day weekend. Typically on the busy weekends, if I wasn’t participating in said events, I’d stock up on junk food, barricade myself in my apartment and binge-watch Netflix for three solid days … but maybe that was just me. Seriously, though, I’d advise that you avoid the roads when traffic is going to be insane; if not, you’ll spend a solid hour or more on the parking lot of a road that is supposed to be George Bush.
In regards to getting around on campus: please, for the love of God, WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING! I can’t even count how many collisions I witnessed on campus because someone was so immersed in their phone, or was too busy talking to their friend to pay attention to their surroundings. This applies to everyone, whether you walk, longboard or ride your bike on campus. Don’t walk and text, or ride and text or whatever way you want to put it…just don’t do it. With hundreds of buses and cars zooming around you, there’s a strong possibility one might graze you if you don’t act right. It’s a daily battle on campus to safely arrive at your destination, so be smart and keep your head up (pun intended).
Now, to arguably the most important thing I’m going to fill you in on. This is a way for you to quickly build or break friendships. The biggest debate amongst College Station residents is Layne’s versus Cane’s. I know you’re probably thinking about how preposterous it sounds to actually argue about which chicken tender restaurant is better, but for real — people get worked up over this stuff. Layne’s opened in College Station in 1994, whereas Cane’s didn’t make its first appearance until the mid-2000s. So if we’re discussing which was the original chicken place, Layne’s would win hands down. Also, Cane’s is a chain restaurant that can be found around the state, and Layne’s is exclusively found in College Station with only two locations. Heated debates are held about virtually everything with the two places, including their toast, sauce, fries and chicken (obviously). You should try out both places so you can formulate your own decision on which is better, but be hesitant to share this with too many people because, like I previously said, people get heated about Layne’s vs. Cane’s. (P.S. Layne’s is totally the way to go, just saying.)
The next four years of your life are yours to do as you please — a chance for you to have the time of your life at A&M, to become your own person living away from your parents, to make new friends, and to truly decide what you want your college experience to be like. All of these are things that I wish people would have told me when I first moved to College Station in the fall of 2010, as a nervous yet enthusiastic 18-year-old. Be thankful for every experience that comes your way in college, good or bad and remember to have fun (just not too much fun).
Thanks and Gig ‘em,
Kori Reininger
Class of 2014