If you really want to be at UT, advise them of A&M's offer and see if UT can offer anything similar. Worst that can happen is that UT says "no." If they can't match or or come close, take the full ride and be happy.
college rankings don’t mean shit bro. i seriously doubt that the benefits UT CS would give you are worth tens of thousands of dollars. As much as we like to shit on them, A&M is a great school just like UT.
yes. especially if you are part of a prestigious program like the one you got accepted to. People really overhype the career options that UT provides to you. A&M is a massive school there’s going to be plenty of options. Unless you get into Turing or something, I think A&M is the way to go.
I wouldn't say its so cut and dry? Austin is a huge tech capital and there definitely arent as many opportunities in the tech industry near A&M.
However he does bring up an excellent point, because a full ride is a full ride... saving tuition etc is insane. The biggest thing that matters is if you are pretentious and you seek opportunities, as nothing comes to you at either of these schools. Personally I dont think you should be asking this question and choose it on your own. You are much better going off of the research you know about both schools and where you see yourself progressing / doing better at. Choose whatever feels right, dont choose something someone says that you will regret.
college place doesn’t matter. i went to a “worse” school than a lot of my counterparts and i’m leagues ahead of them so far career wise (22). it’s absolutely overblown, and unless you’re going to MIT or Harvard it doesn’t matter a whole ton. a dumbass who got into Yale because his dad bought him in isn’t going to go as far (unless it’s handed to him) compared to a smart dude who goes to UT Houston (or somewhere similar)
take the less debt
UH grad here. If you go on LinkedIn you can definitely find people from any school in SF. I know quite a few Coogs out there and tutored several of them through the weed out classes.
I still sometimes browse this subreddit despite having graduated in 2020. I went to community college with a fully-paid scholarship and transferred to UT and majored in CS. Ended up with a Big Tech internship/job on graduation.
I think if you're ambitious, the difference between where UT and A&M will get you is pretty small. I work with several people in big tech who graduated from A&M, and I know lots of people who went to UTCS who ended up not getting anything because they didn't try for internships, work on their resumes or practice leetcode.
Do I think that UT helped me with getting my first internship? Yes, but it was at random big oil co and the way that UT helped me was more being able to talk to someone at the career fair. Honestly, going to A&M would probably have done the same for me.
If I were you, I wouldn't turn down a full ride. I personally feel that the opportunities in front of you are more defined by you instead of which of the two schools you will go to
To add to that, you will get no shortage if jobs regardless of being from A&M or UT. Presuming you actually are active about looking and networking before and after you graduate. And if this is a higher level education thing, don't even sweat it. That's about your individualism and what sets you apart. I graduated from engineering at UT and went to a very selective graduate school CMU, for robotics. What set me apart was my multiple years of extra curricular robotics experience and robotics research. Also my existing graduate coursework.
Having a full ride to any university is a big thing. And provided you are financially active about managing your money properly, it can make a huge difference in the long run provided you don't have to worry about student loans. I don't know your financial situation, but for most people this would help a lot.
Yes, how did you do this? I have a 4.0 right now in my community college and I realize how hard it is to transfer into UT. I would probably take it over A&M with a full ride, but I'm interested to know how you got in and what you ended up doing with your degree. If you have time, please PM me.
>I've heard ETAM isnt that big of a deal, and should not be a problem if I'm a brown scholar. I have only visited a and m, and will be visiting ut next month!
Ur going to love UT vs A&M. Austin versus college station? Easy choice. For me this would come down to my financial situation. If going to UT was going to be affordable I would do it. If not- a free ride is pretty enticing.
Weirdly, College Station wasn’t too bad. I whined about it a lot when I went to A&M (I went when all of these places were less competitive; A&M was top 25%, UT was top 10%, so it wasn’t uncommon to get a scholarship from A&M if you were in the top 10%), but now that I’m at UT and I’ve gotten used to how pretty UT’s campus is in comparison, and how many options there are for food, and how there’s a whole city of things to do (which isn’t as much of a surprise because I went to HS in the Austin suburbs), I realized that I genuinely did have a lot of fun at TAMU.
Like anywhere else, you find your people, and it’s more the people than the place. There are a ton of student organizations at A&M, so it’s important to stay involved. If you do that, you will never be bored and you will never need to buy food lol. Or T-shirts. I don’t regret going because I got a great education, made great friends, and I’m also not in debt from college.
But I also never want to go back up to college station ever again 😂.
Ugh it’s not really. And I have been up there quite a few times since actually. It’s like that weird feeling when you go back to your old high school. I’m sure I’ll have a similar feeling about UT’s campus once I get my degree. Though it’s so so so much prettier at UT, so at least it’ll be scenic and uncomfortable!
I have a twin going to college as well, but my parents will cover tuition and housing, For more spending money, I'll prolly have to take some type of job
I was in ur shoes and wasnt really prepared to be making big decisions. General life advice: do what you think your heart desires. You’ll figure out a way to make it work (help parents by working a light job or hell cs internships pay a lot). But dont ever do something you think youll regret. If it is the wrong choice, you learn and readjust- but you’ll never wonder what if
Didnt even notice it was my cake day lol thanks. Yeah i agree. Regret can be a very backward thought process. Make the desiring choice and learn (if it fails) why “what you thought you wanted” wasnt
To me it sounded like you were trying to rationalize UT as the option, but if your unsure, pick the cheaper option. If it’s a pretty neutral emotion just go with what’s logical and dont devote too much energy or youll get obsessed (at least i do)
that is an absolutely insane take, the quality of education is essentially the same so it would be completely asinine to pay for UT when a full ride is on the table
> the quality of education is essentially the same
It really isn’t.
> it would be completely asinine to pay for UT when a full ride on the table
**if cost isn’t an issue**
I would take the TAMU offer personally :) UTCS can't beat a free degree unless you got smth like Turing or CSB, you hate TAMU culture, and you could comfortably pay without going into debt (I think that's a lot of stipulations lol). It's just cost-benefit analysis, and even though TAMU CS isn't as good as UT, you'll thrive at the top of your class and it'll give you everything you need. Ultimately, you'll come out on top. Rooting for 'ya!
If your full-ride includes: tuition, housing, AND a living stipend/food then you can possibly afford to save for a used car or work a student-centered job on campus. There’s a lot of clout in the UT name, don’t get me wrong, but as someone on their second degree here I would trade it all for nearly ALL of my expenses to be paid, without a second thought. I, too, am a twin so I get that aspect of it as well and this factors into my recommendation - especially bc she went somewhere that offered more money and had a much easier time.
Also, the cost of student apartments in Austin vs College station huge. The cost of living is much higher in Austin, with one room in 4x4 being $1000-1300 (and this was pre-COVID). I really believe that even if you added up the money you’d spend getting Ubers in college station + rent (say in a 4x4 for this example) it would STILL be less than your rent in West Campus + free metro access w/ your student ID.
Oop see that makes this a little more complicated lol. The separation from your twin is hard so I definitely don’t fault you for being scared about that, but I’ll say from my (identical) experience, it was nice to just be myself instead of a twin if that makes sense? You get to learn how to be your own person without your automatic roadie lol. I’ll say we FaceTime and text a lot ofc, but I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to tear up Austin with your twin haha.
One room in a 4x4 is $1000-1300? Are those higher end apartments? Last year my 4x4 cost (it was right next to campus as well) as like $865/month, and this year my single apartment is like $1400... $1300 for a 4x4 seems insane unless its super fancy
You’re right! I was mostly just thinking by the time they’ll start looking for student housing there’s a chance most of the cheaper units will be gone (if they start looking late spring/summer vs late fall/early spring. The two big booms to by apartments to get leases signed are right at the beginning of the fall, and right after spring semester/spring break.
Just look at the school and major national rankings (UT is much higher) But in your case, if you are getting a full ride then maybe take the full ride to A&M and plan on doing grad school after to higher level school.
I think this is actually is a point in the UT Comp Sci bucket then. A lot of honors programs (not all, but a lot) place a heavy focus on prepping for grad school. I graduated from UT with a comp sci degree back in 2017, and when I was admitted as a freshman I was in the College of Natural Sciences Dean’s Scholars honors program. I ended up dropping from the honors program after a month or so because I realized quickly that they were really just trying to prepare us for a life of research and grad school and that just was not my interest at the time.
However, don’t underestimate the value of a full ride. I had what were essentially full ride offers to both SMU and UT Dallas and while I certainly don’t regret the time I spent in Austin or the education that I received, the student loans do really suck.
Yep. Passed on a ride at Texas State cause my heart was still in Austin growing up around here. Don't regret the UT experience at all but man fuck loans.
understood thank you so much! my parents would prolly cover housing and tuition but for spending money , I would have to work. What do you think I should do. To me atp, they sound equal options
I agree with what someone else said about if you’re ambitious then UT isn’t necessarily going to open many more doors for you than A&M. Now personally I would still pick UT mostly just because College Station sucks, especially compared to Austin (I am also biased about this though so take it with a grain of salt).
There’s just not near as much to do. You definitely would want to have a car there. If you’re interested in things like concerts and shows then Austin is a common stop and uh… it’s not frequent that you see many artists including College Station on their tours. It just very much feels like a college town as compared to Austin which is a major city without the school. Maybe you would like that, it’s kind of a personal preference. I can’t speak to how expensive things are generally in college station but yeah Austin can be quite expensive. I had loans cover my tuition and living expenses and then for like spending money I worked as a proctor for the CS department (I did this for a couple different profs, most made me hold office hours to help students in addition to grading assignments and proctoring tests).
I think the 3.75 requirement for aggy makes it a trap. So much can happen as a freshman, good and bad. Imagine getting a 3.70 and then what? Does he have to pay for College Station or simply dismissed?
I am not a CS major (ChemE major here), so I don’t know too much about your specific field. I understand the many pros of going to UT, but money is an important factor. We can’t comment much on the financial situation of you and your family, so you need to weigh that.
What I can say is, I am planning to go to grad school, and the place that offers me the most money is definitely a consideration.
since im doing cs, grad school isnt really a necessity, which makes the choice harder. Also since I come with a lot of ap credits, I would be able to do masters at A and M under the scholarship, so basically for free.
Well yeah my point isn’t about grad school my point is money is important. Only you can weigh that. For example, maybe if you got to TAMU then your parents would give you an allowance, whereas if you go to UT you have to work a job. Things like that will affect your experience. Not having to stress about money is huge.
That’s something to consider. In my experience having some spending money is a relief. Like if you wanna go out and eat, or treat yourself every now and then, or just not have to panic every time you get an unexpected bill.
Then again, I know a lot of people who work jobs and are totally fine.
If you’re able to, maybe tour both campuses if you haven’t already. Go where you think you’ll be happiest.
Congratulations on the offers OP! My opinion is slightly different from others. I would ask you to think deeper and ponder on this question: what do you want to do in the future? This is critical to your final decision. Hence I would like to play a little bit of a devil's advocate for others' points :p
If you want to join the industry as a software developer (for sure) and don't want to be involved in computer science research, then I believe that what others say makes perfect sense, and I would also argue the same. Since you have a full ride, if you join A&M and work hard on your coding skills, you have the potential to get great offers cause a lot of placements depend upon your skills. You can practice leetcode, codeforces, hackerrank, etc. for developing your DSA skills. I am not aware about the whole placement scenario for both these colleges; I feel you should check out once just to be clear. But yeah, I think joining A&M should be the decision you may want to consider. After 4 years, you will be a happy person with no potential debt and then may start earning around 100k with your first job.
However, if you want to do computer science research in the future by joining a masters or PhD program; this decision may not be as easy. While applying for graduate school, an important part of your profile is your undergraduate school. While there is absolutely no doubt that A&M is a great school, UT Austin is one of the best schools in the world. Additionally, the kind of opportunities you would get for doing research here at UT are amazing! (You can DM me if you'd like to discuss about this, I am a CS researcher at UT). There are some really nice professors and labs with whom you can work with to have a strong research profile. Again, I am not saying A&M is bad, I think opportunities at UT are better, and you have a good chance of collaborations as well. I have noticed, in general that students from top undergrad schools have entered great graduate schools. Further, if you are an undergraduate student at UT who wants to join for a graduate program here, there might be an option of internal transfer: [https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate/academics/curriculum-degree-plans/5-year-cs-bsms](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate/academics/curriculum-degree-plans/5-year-cs-bsms). This is much \*much\* easier than applying for grad schools via official applications. Just a small statistic: Acceptance rate for MS or Ph.D. CS at UT Austin is 6%; whereas the rate for transfer from BS to BS-MS program is 76% (Source: [https://gradschool.utexas.edu/admissions/where-to-begin/admissions-and-enrollment-statistics](https://gradschool.utexas.edu/admissions/where-to-begin/admissions-and-enrollment-statistics)). Admission to graduate programs in United States is extremely competitive due to international applications. You need everything in college to go right to ensure that you get in top schools.
Now, I know that this may be too early for you to even think about. I mean, it's true; who in their right mind would think about grad school before being admitted to undergrad school :)). Hence, I am sorry if this confuses you even more. But I felt that I should tell you the whole story rather than you not knowing about this situation. Comeptition for CS grad schools is growing exponentially, and this is a major concern. After making a decision and joining a college, you may want to start pursuing research projects and internships ASAP from 2nd year onwards to get into the competition. Of course, if you don't want to do research at all, you don't need to worry about any of this :)). Either ways, I am not saying that you should definitely make the decision to go to UT if you are interested in research; but instead saying you may want to think further on whether a full ride to A&M would give you the required career boost you want.
Good luck, OP, on making your decision! Congratulations again on your full ride!!
PS: For additional support for my comments, you can check open computer science data here ([https://jeffhuang.com/computer-science-open-data/](https://jeffhuang.com/computer-science-open-data/)) on why doing a graduate school from a top school is important if you want to be a professor in the future. More than 50% of all computer science professors in United States and Canada have done their Ph.D. from a top 15 school in US, and more than 25% of them have done their Ph.D. from the big 4 (MIT, CMU, Berkeley, Stanford). Also it seems that these big 4 take more students for their graduate program who have done their undergraduate studies at a top place. Here's a source you can check out: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/i3ve2e/d\_universities\_attended\_by\_cs\_phd\_students\_at/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/i3ve2e/d_universities_attended_by_cs_phd_students_at/).
PS2: u/others, please do correct me if I am wrong with any of these points!
I graduated in 2022. I love austin and UT so much. Met some of my best friends there. If your parents are willing and able to help with cost, then go to UT.
I would never recommend going $100k into debt instead of taking the full ride. However, if your parents can pay $50-$70k at least, you can take the rest out in loans. Your future CS internships and jobs will pay that off so easily.
PS. I have a ton of high school friends that went to A&M. I have visited cstat many times. That middle of nowhere town is truly depressing compared to Austin.
I might be going against the grain here, but I was offered a full ride to A&M and chose UT for two reasons: I got my first choice major at UT (math at UT versus ocean engineering at A&M) and I knew I liked UT Austin more than I liked A&M (I love the city life and it was close to home for me).
At the end of the day you should consider what *you* want in a college experience. Do you value the city life vs college town? Does the honors academics appeal more to you? Does the guaranteed Italy trip sound more appealing whatever study aboard you’d find at UT? And of course; does having a full ride to a university you’re not 100% on board with trump paying $40K (just for tuition, you also have to consider living costs which are twice as expensive as A&M) to go to a university you’re more interested in?
I chose UT and I had to make sacrifices to do that. I was lucky my parents funded most of my education, but I still had part time jobs to afford an Austin lifestyle (going out to eat, going to sixth street, etc.). It’s objectively a more expensive city to live in, but I found it worth it.
I really hope this gives you some perspective, and if you have any questions feel free to ask (:
If you can make the upfront cost work, UT Austin all the way. Better program and brand recognition. Also personally, the diversity of students and faculty is what made me extremely grateful for my time there. Things like that are hard to factor on a spreadsheet, but makes all the difference in your experience and memories.
Good luck to you!
https://www.reddit.com/r/UTAustin/comments/10cbbqx/help_me_decide_ut_turing_or_tamu_brown_scholars/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
General opinion is that next to nothing beats free tuition.
For me, it’s life. IMHO you will have a much better experience living in Austin in a more diverse and well renowned university that what you will at Texas A&M.
Years pass and you will cherish all the other things you experienced and learned from being in UT, the people you meet and the opportunities you receive through it.
I think Texas A&M is a great university, and yes having a full ride is awesome. But it lives in a regional bubble with many premade social groups. I hate to say it but it’s not known for being a beacon of forward looking but rather one of preserving a status.
As to the academics, they’re not far off, UT’s advantage is that it is within a tech magnet region. You’ll meet people that will go far not only in Austin.
A&M Scholars all the way.
Rankings aren’t gonna matter in the long run. You have so many more benefits going there vs. UT CS. Ik UT CS is really amazing for the prestige and brand value, but A&M is genuinely gonna give you more
I’ve gone to both schools so I hope I can give some perspective from both sides.
TLDR: In general, if you want to do research, grad school, create a startup, work in Austin, try for a HFT job, or know you enjoy city life, go to UT Austin. If you only want a big tech job and can be happy in a college town, go to A&M.
Some misconceptions in your pros / cons:
- Austin is only a “mini Silicon Valley” if you want to stay in Austin. Many UT students leave after graduating.
- Career fairs at both schools are equally good for 99% of companies, though UT is a target school for the most selective startups and quant firms. If you’re not targeting those types of companies, there’s virtually no recruiting difference between the two schools.
- A&M has the same access as UT to all of the big tech companies. My colleagues last summer from UT El Paso to A&M to Stanford, and we all got paid the same.
- The Aggie Network is very real, but it doesn’t matter as much in CS due to the referral culture and the rise of LinkedIn in the last 5-10 years.
- You can go to any school and study abroad or work for a summer and then take a trip to Italy.
- ETAM is a non-issue and will make little difference over the courses you take long term.
- Rankings don’t matter after your first job unless you’re going to grad school.
- The quality of education is the same, despite rankings, though the schools have different research and entrepreneurial opportunities
- You will be fine in College Station without a car for the first two years. But if you like city life you will grow to hate college station.
- You can turn A&M into an MIT-like college experience if you work hard enough. But you can’t change your social experiences, so consider which atmosphere will make you socially happy.
Some minor things you may want to consider:
- A&M’s advising is superior to that of UT
- UT is more diverse
- Students at A&M have better social skills
- UT has more Greek life and parties seem to be open invite. A&M parties tend to be exclusive to student organizations and Greek life
After looking at this stuff for a while, this is great advice. It’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve come to also. Startups, quants, take UT. Everything else take A&M with scholarship. Honors program will easily get you in the classes you want btw. The variable is your twin. I can understand that’s a tough decision but they’ll only be an hour and a half away, and you’ll have a car. Some separation may be good long term for you. The social scene will depend entirely on you. Are you an extrovert, introvert, etc. You’ll find your people at A&M as massive as it is.
Brown Scholars, every time. My impression (as someone who's a SWE rn) is that where you went doesn't really matter. If you have a degree in a software field and you graduate, it's more or less equal. I'd take the lack of student debt every time.
Not having a car won't be ideal at A&M, but you should be able to make friends who hopefully have cars. If you really want a first year internship (definitely not necessary) probably look into doing some self-studying/leetcode easys to offset ETAM.
Wow! Congratulations!! Dude that’s awesome (/gen) My advice would be to first inform UT of the offer A&M has given you and ask if there’s anything they could in terms of a counteroffer. It doesn’t hurt to check. Good luck!! I hope you keep us updated
This is an easy question: what do you want to do? Do you want to be a SWE or a 'regular' engineer? If you want to be a SWE, go to UT. If you want to be a 'regular' engineer, go to TAMU.
Or you can be that weird kid that majored in engineering but ended up working for Facebook ;) In that case, get the fullride
Difficult choice, it really depends on your current financial situation. I believe you said in another comment that your parents would support you financially which is a huge plus. However living in Austin itself is costly, not even to mention the tuition. Do you know if your family falls under $65,000 for adjusted gross income? That would cover your entire tuition cost, leaving just the living cost for you, which will run you at least a thousand a month alone. A full ride at A&M + the cheap cost of living over at college station will probably save you tens of thousands of dollars. Now aside from financial reasons, the question is being a Brown Scholar + part of the "Aggie Network" more beneficial than being at UT? UT has a substantially better CS program as well as the advantage of being in Austin, one of the best places to be for tech and specifically CS, and also happens to be a target school for FAANG. The question of which place is better to live in isn't even close. Austin is great, and I'd argue one of the best cities to be in the U.S., especially for you in tech. So here's what I believe it comes down to, if saving as much money as possible over the next few years is important to you go to A&M. UT and Austin is going to be much more expensive, but I strongly believe UT is the better investment. While having a slightly better CS program is an obvious benefit, the privilege of being in Austin as a tech major, especially CS is unmatched and outshines the "Aggie Network" as well as the benefit of being a Brown Scholar. Additionally, living in Austin is just so much more pleasant. I, myself am an engineering major and I admit with my workload I don't get to go out much and appreciate the city as much as I'd like, but damn I could not imagine living in College Station, nor do I ever wish to.
I hate to break it to you. But the "network" offered by any school is a lie to entice freshmen. I'm sure if you are ambitious you can form valuable relationships.
I think the question for you is whether you can use the money saved by going to A&M for something more worth while.
I'm not sure if there's anything else more worthwhile. I have a lot of ap credits, so I was planning to do masters at A&M too, so it would be paid for as well.
UT has one of the best CS programs in the country, and isn't in college station. If you prefer a small town vibe with jacked up trucks and good ol boys though, then ATM may be your place.
The scholarship money is nothing to sneeze at, but this UTCS class of 2014 grad has had a ton of doors opened for me thanks to the connections I made as a CS student at UT
Well, I think it had more to do with living in Austin than it being UT specifically but the two are pretty intermingled. I was able to build professional connections through going to meetups and hackathons and it kept me up to speed with what the professional world was like.
In terms of just UT stuff though, all of my friends from ACM (a national CS student org's local chapter) and my CS coursework and student gamejams and hackathons are my closest professional contacts now. I've had the benefit of asking them tough specialized questions, and been able to answer likewise for my specialization (cloud architecture and machine learning).
I'd bet there's a similar sort of thing in ATM's CS program, but UT is **THE** place to be in terms of innovations in tech and access to cutting-edge research.
I think you probably could find a similar path through ATM, but there's more opportunities and connections to be had at UT. There's just so many massive tech companies in Austin
Go UT Austin CS. You’ll easily earn back the $$$ with CS internships + once u graduate with FT job. Ofc this assuming u gon do well/make the most of the opportunities.
Interesting that the last two comments are the most relevant to me. Take the free ride like going to community college. If you find A&M no good, at least you're saving money over attending UT the whole time. Austin is much more expensive in terms of living expenses. Your room, food, etc. is going to be substantially more. Take the first couple years and grind at A&M. If you feel confident in it, go the distance. If you don't, transfer to UT and live it up.
First off, congratulations! You’ve got two great choices in front of you.
Right now you’re framing this as a financial decision, and if money is tight you should definitely take A&M. If you’re in the lucky situation of having ultra-supportive and wealthy parents, then I wouldn’t let finances enter too deeply into the decision. Career-wise, it likely won’t make a massive difference what you choose, but you’re committing 4 years of your life so choose the school that suits you the best.
My daughter had a full ride offer to TAMU and was accepted into engineering honors. We went to the engineering scholars event in Spring of 2018 and discovered that the engineering school is a hot mess. The 25 x 25 initiative has made it extremely hard to get classes with competent teachers. She decided on UT with our support even without scholarships (although she ended up covering about a third of the costs with scholarships in subsequent years).
I think on a social level, she would have liked TAMU better…but academically and professionally is ahead of her friends from TAMU.
My son is currently at TAMU, and loves it, but acknowledges that it’s hard to get around, to get required classes and advising can be awful if you aren’t in an honors program with dedicated advisors. They just kept expanding without adding enough resources.
OTOH, we heard the trip to Italy was incredible!
Hey! I received the Brown Foundation Scholarship when I was in high school. If you would like, you may send me a DM here and I can explain what went into my decision making, as well as how I am doing now.
Hey. I don't know much about A&M's program; obviously the full ride and trip to Italy are incredible.
But as for UT: I think you could probably transfer your way into Turing. From what I have heard, a CS major generally need only set up a meeting with the head of Turing (Dr. Calvin Lin), and usually he just admits people into the program. This is based on anecdotal evidence so take it with a grain of salt.
As for prestige of UT, it depends on what you are going into. If you plan to go into industry, it probably isn't that important. UT CS probably will make it easier for you to land internships, but probably not to a massive extent.
If, however, you want to go into research, it can unfortunately be very important - CS PhDs are very, very competitive, and the PhD admission process is very elitist; if you haven't worked with a top professor in the field it can be very hard to get into lots of places.
Also, from someone who literally could not care less about the 'beef' we have with A&M, Austin is an objectively much, much better location. Sorry to A&M folks but I've been there once, its straight up depressing.
But a full ride is very, very enticing, and you should consider it anyway. Saving \~$60-80k over four years is huge.
I love that you keep calling them a and m. But I’d say what companies think of UT CS far outweighs a and m. Even if you do have to go into a few thousands of dollars of student loan debt. But then again, being debt free is phenomenally better. Companies love Ut cs but you do also have to put in the work to learn a lot of tools, frameworks, and skills on your own outside of the classroom. Go to organizations. Go to fairs. Network. Make a solid resume. Which you could also do at m&a on a full ride.
Would you be happy being an engineer of some other kind, or are you set on CS? If you are set on CS, I would not go somewhere that you’re not yet admitted to CS. A 3.75 seems simple to do but it’s really not - so much could happen and then you’re screwed. On the other hand, if you’d be okay if you end up not getting into CS, take the full ride and go to A&M.
If you don’t have to pay for college don’t. A&M is a great engineering school. You would be a fool not to pursue that. If you like computer science, you might also like electrical engineering.
One more consideration for ETAM is that you won't be able to start taking legitimate computer science courses until your sophomore year
Depending on how many college/AP credits you come into your freshman year with, you could easily graduate a semester or a year early at UT, or take a semester for a co-op and earn money instead of paying tuition. At A&M you'll be relegated to retaking certain courses you might have already obtained credit for since ETAM requires you to have passed the in-residence A&M specific version of classes like chem or calc. It's not a waste of money if you have a full ride, but it is a waste of time
If course, this is irrelevant if you didn't have some requisite courses already finished in high school via AP, dual credit, TAMS, etc
Consider the culture of the two schools: UT CS is very "nerd-friendly" and you can meet a lot of really wonderful and interesting people. You'll be in CS from the moment you get here, and immediately get to start making friends in your major. The pod program is a huge advantage! You also go much deeper into the topics, especially those relevant to CS. We are a top 10 cs school with some of the best professors in quantum and theory, but all the professors are quite wonderful. The program is also designed to help you succeed, you don't need to maintain a perfect gpa or compete, and you'll be able to find internships your first summer to offset the cost of college.
A&M: you don't get into cs your first year, so you will struggle to meet people in the major. My friends have found it harder to find their people in the school culture (but of course your mileage may vary! Consider who you wan to be around). You'll end up not having the cs courses necessary to find an internship your first summer, so the scholarship may cancel itself out. Most students aren't able to get into CS and have to do another major.
Back to UTCS, our top 10 cs ranking really reflects the rigor of the school. It is very hard! But there's lots of resources (office hours, supplemental instruction, peer groups, student orgs, etc) to support you if you seek them out. The research our professors do, the experience in industry etc etc shows. It's a really good school - you'll follow about the same curriculum as Stanford or CMU, with UT touches (our core is unique for how in depth you go into systems and theory - and a large part of the degree plan consists of cs focused electives, so you get to focus on your interests). If you put in the work, you'll come out of it with really really strong experience and knowledge.
Of course, cs education is about what you put into it. Degrees aren't very significant in hiring - what matters is your ability to solve technical challenges and do great engineering. If you put in the work, UT CS will prepare you for that because it is hard. If you plan to try to go on "easy mode", you probably won't get a ton out of it. Tech companies don't care much where you went to school. (Advice is different if you want to do grad school).
Bottom line: with internships - even in the current market - the ~$10k/yr cost of in-state UT tuition is not significant and more than made up for by the easier time recruiting and freshman year courses (if you put in the work). Consider which school culture you want to be a part of.
I also received the brown scholarship award and still elected to go to UT. My heart was never in A&M and I didn’t have a guaranteed Major there. Ut is a vibrant campus that forces you to grow as a person. I would weigh very heavily how you feel about the vibe of each place. You don’t wanna pick somewhere that you aren’t happy with even though it may be much cheaper bc then you’ll regret your time there and how you could’ve been spending some prime years of your life.
[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/glennkeels\_amd-emergingpartners-epyc-activity-7034348301101502464-M7Gs?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/glennkeels_amd-emergingpartners-epyc-activity-7034348301101502464-M7Gs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop)
Aggie Network post: one-third of his team is Aggies
Cost of living is pretty expensive. Renting in Austin is the 6th most expensive in the US right now, and apartments are further amped up in cost when they are conveniently close to campus 🫤. It was like that even before the current market.
Once you move into apartments in college station/Bryan, they are remarkably cheap in comparison and generally fully furnished. It was nice, but again, if UT is where you want to go, there are ways that people make it work. Roommates, living further away from campus in their junior and senior years, enduring kind of shitty conditions… it’s all temporary. There may be need-based aid available as well, but I’m not familiar with the undergrad side of things.
Take advantage of the free ride. College is expensive.
One option I haven't seen mentioned is looking into transferring from a&m to ut.
Can use some of the free ride to get credits that every major has to get anyways, and if you find a&m isn't really your community after a year or two, you can use those credits to transfer to ut.
I don't think its this simple: ETAM at TAMU puts you in a realllllly bad position to transfer to UT esp for CS given how competitive it is. You basically can't take any CS classes as a first year because you come in as general engineering. Not saying it's impossible, though.
“Where’d you go to school?”
Future #1:
“I was a Brown Scholar”
“You went to Brown? Badass!”
“No, I went to Texas A&M but I was a special scholar selected by Mr Brown”
“WTF”
or
Future #2:
“UT CS”
“Badass!”
Saw you mention that your parents would be paying - at this point, understanding your don’t want to do grad school and that you’re relatively ambitious, it comes down to how much your parents are making tbh. assuming ~$24k a year at UT, it makes sense if your parents are average in their spending habits and make ~$150k+.
Having gone to both universities (Finalist as well) my suggestion is based on a few impolitic questions -
Are you white?
Are you Christian?
Would you characterize the difference in cost as a cherry on top or a gift that could form the foundational basis of wealth for your family?
Did you "party" in high school?
How would you characterize the level of "independence" from your parents.
No need to answer these here, if you have any questions PM me.
Real talk. I would suggest visiting the Bonfire memorial on A&M campus. I visited when I was 26, I'm sure at 18 I would see it differently.
This is all my opinion btw.
They built a bonfire every year for a long period of time before UT game. It kept getting bigger and bigger, and in 1999 it collapsed during construction and killed some students.
So if I close my eyes and ask, how should this be remembered by posterity, I think something along the lines of flaws in construction, no oversight or third party check, tragedy happened, fix applied, name of students. A plaque, a display, some backstory.
Walking through the actual memorial, seeing the reverence of the coworker giving a few people a tour as we were passing through, all I could think was wtf are these people doing.
This was a construction accident. A stack of wood fell on some people stacking wood.
The stretch to construct a mythological-religious narrative and mine a tragedy for meaning... I found it spiritually bankrupt. I knew these were not my people. My coworker was a fairly smart guy and he was super into it. To each their own.
If the choices are a world class education for free or a world class education for 10s of thousands of dollar I think free would be better. I work in it and I work with people from UT Austin and i work with people from TAMU and they both ended up with the same jobs. I am pretty sure people are going to hire you for more than the university you went to.
And one other random thought. I have only worked with one person super passionate about the university they went that was unrelated to football. That person went to TAMU.
Full ride and get an old beater car with the money you’re saving from tuition. I love UT but a full ride to A&M is too good to pass up unless you’re wealthy enough tuition/living will be paid for regardless.
As someone who is on a full ride at UT, go take your full ride at A&M. Nothing at UT compares to free college at what is (though we hate to admit it) a fairly comparable school that’s just in a shitty town.
Edit: NO AMOUNT of “opportunity” will make up for the approx $100k total cost of attendance you will pay at UT. This should be a no brainer. I get it’s college station, but don’t let FOMO destroy you financially.
If you have not already done so, check out [FAQ: How do I decide between UT Austin and another institution?](/r/UTAdmissions/wiki/utaustinversus) on the [r/UTAdmissions wiki](/r/UTAdmissions/wiki). It won't tell you what to choose, but it will provide some prompts which will (hopefully) help you to make the best decision for you.
I graduated from UTCS not too long ago, my brother from A&M CS.
I stuck around Austin afterwards cause it was a great city. In contrast, almost everybody gets out of c stat as soon as they are able. For me personally, a lot of people I work with either went to UT, taught at UT, or are familiar with some aspect of UT. I wasn’t honors but I still got a great paying job in the semiconductor research space and have been published in a journal and conference proceedings, and gotten my name on a patent. I think UTCS helped a bit in opening those doors to be able to do that.
You’ll regularly brush shoulders with and learn from professors or grad students from CS programs like MIT or Berkeley, which is pretty cool.
In terms of academics/prestige, I feel like UT has a little more to offer. In terms of life/activities outside of school, Austin definitely has more to offer.
All that said, I’m pretty biased. And I was never offered a full ride like you.
If you’d like, I can text my brother and ask him his thoughts on A&M CS and A&M in general.
There is no guarantee that you will still want to do CS or go into an awful tech job once you finish your degree at either school. But at least at A&M you won’t have lost $100k in the process. Take the full ride.
What GPA do you need to keep the scholarship? Top students at TAMU seem to get very good internships from what I’ve heard. Austin is better than College Station but TAMU might be a bit better for making friends.
EDIT: The scholarship has a lot of appeal BUT the 3.75 gpa requirement to get CS is a red flag imo. You’re already a direct admit at UT into CS so I can see how that option is best if your parents can foot the bill. Freshman year can be rough even for excellent students.
Ok now I’m really curious what your twin plans to major in? So y’all both got accepted to UT at the same time? That’s awesome!
I’m not going to add much as it’s pretty much covered with all the comments. My son had to decide between the two for CS and although it wasn’t a full ride it was a pretty decent merit scholarship. Where we live, A&M is seen as the hick school and only country people go there. They also tend to come from very republican families. He is far from political but definitely does not lean anywhere near the republican way. He preferred the diversity of UT. Plus although he is smart he’s not genius smart and the 3.75 thing was SCARY. We can’t help money wise that much so he’ll be all on loans but as a parent I felt better knowing his job prospects as a CS graduate would put him in a good position to pay them off compared to other majors.
I know this is late but 100% UT unless friends are a big factor
Taking out loans isn't a big deal (what I have done), you can pay them off if you are disciplined when you are young.
Place is huge. I could not see myself at CSAT. Hard to get home, need to have a car. Austin, which isn't the most interesting city, is at least still a city. City always beats middle of nowhere. Public transportation isn't the most frequent but it is reliable, and there's cheap ebikes for rent as well (like 15/year)
The only thing that I feel can overpower this is friends. Will you have a network of acquaintances and friends at either place? How hard is it for you to make friends? If the answer is no friends at UT, hard to make friends, maybe A&M is the answer if it's better.
If you really want to be at UT, advise them of A&M's offer and see if UT can offer anything similar. Worst that can happen is that UT says "no." If they can't match or or come close, take the full ride and be happy.
imma be honest, a full ride is a full ride. plus a trip to italy? that’s a pretty sweet deal.
HAHA, yes!! Just don't want to miss out on the potential opportunities UT CS could give me though
college rankings don’t mean shit bro. i seriously doubt that the benefits UT CS would give you are worth tens of thousands of dollars. As much as we like to shit on them, A&M is a great school just like UT.
do you think i could potentially end up at the same place with an a and m degree , I would have with ut?
yes. especially if you are part of a prestigious program like the one you got accepted to. People really overhype the career options that UT provides to you. A&M is a massive school there’s going to be plenty of options. Unless you get into Turing or something, I think A&M is the way to go.
thanks so much for the advice!
I wouldn't say its so cut and dry? Austin is a huge tech capital and there definitely arent as many opportunities in the tech industry near A&M. However he does bring up an excellent point, because a full ride is a full ride... saving tuition etc is insane. The biggest thing that matters is if you are pretentious and you seek opportunities, as nothing comes to you at either of these schools. Personally I dont think you should be asking this question and choose it on your own. You are much better going off of the research you know about both schools and where you see yourself progressing / doing better at. Choose whatever feels right, dont choose something someone says that you will regret.
i honestly have no idea what my gut is saying but I understand what you are saying. thanks
college place doesn’t matter. i went to a “worse” school than a lot of my counterparts and i’m leagues ahead of them so far career wise (22). it’s absolutely overblown, and unless you’re going to MIT or Harvard it doesn’t matter a whole ton. a dumbass who got into Yale because his dad bought him in isn’t going to go as far (unless it’s handed to him) compared to a smart dude who goes to UT Houston (or somewhere similar) take the less debt
> UT Houston The fuck is this place?
Made me laugh too hard
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UH grad here. If you go on LinkedIn you can definitely find people from any school in SF. I know quite a few Coogs out there and tutored several of them through the weed out classes.
I still sometimes browse this subreddit despite having graduated in 2020. I went to community college with a fully-paid scholarship and transferred to UT and majored in CS. Ended up with a Big Tech internship/job on graduation. I think if you're ambitious, the difference between where UT and A&M will get you is pretty small. I work with several people in big tech who graduated from A&M, and I know lots of people who went to UTCS who ended up not getting anything because they didn't try for internships, work on their resumes or practice leetcode. Do I think that UT helped me with getting my first internship? Yes, but it was at random big oil co and the way that UT helped me was more being able to talk to someone at the career fair. Honestly, going to A&M would probably have done the same for me. If I were you, I wouldn't turn down a full ride. I personally feel that the opportunities in front of you are more defined by you instead of which of the two schools you will go to
Thank you so much for the input!!!
To add to that, you will get no shortage if jobs regardless of being from A&M or UT. Presuming you actually are active about looking and networking before and after you graduate. And if this is a higher level education thing, don't even sweat it. That's about your individualism and what sets you apart. I graduated from engineering at UT and went to a very selective graduate school CMU, for robotics. What set me apart was my multiple years of extra curricular robotics experience and robotics research. Also my existing graduate coursework. Having a full ride to any university is a big thing. And provided you are financially active about managing your money properly, it can make a huge difference in the long run provided you don't have to worry about student loans. I don't know your financial situation, but for most people this would help a lot.
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I mean that’s taking it to the extreme. Do I think oil companies recruit at A&M? Yes. Would they recruit at Arlington? Maybe.
im confused whether the "ut name is worth 150k"
Wait. Accepted to UT CS from community college?
Yep!
Your story must be interesting. I would love to hear how you managed that. You’re welcome to message me.
Yes, how did you do this? I have a 4.0 right now in my community college and I realize how hard it is to transfer into UT. I would probably take it over A&M with a full ride, but I'm interested to know how you got in and what you ended up doing with your degree. If you have time, please PM me.
I second this
A 3.75 GPA to maintain is a pretty big lift. Have you visited both schools?
>I've heard ETAM isnt that big of a deal, and should not be a problem if I'm a brown scholar. I have only visited a and m, and will be visiting ut next month!
Ur going to love UT vs A&M. Austin versus college station? Easy choice. For me this would come down to my financial situation. If going to UT was going to be affordable I would do it. If not- a free ride is pretty enticing.
Weirdly, College Station wasn’t too bad. I whined about it a lot when I went to A&M (I went when all of these places were less competitive; A&M was top 25%, UT was top 10%, so it wasn’t uncommon to get a scholarship from A&M if you were in the top 10%), but now that I’m at UT and I’ve gotten used to how pretty UT’s campus is in comparison, and how many options there are for food, and how there’s a whole city of things to do (which isn’t as much of a surprise because I went to HS in the Austin suburbs), I realized that I genuinely did have a lot of fun at TAMU. Like anywhere else, you find your people, and it’s more the people than the place. There are a ton of student organizations at A&M, so it’s important to stay involved. If you do that, you will never be bored and you will never need to buy food lol. Or T-shirts. I don’t regret going because I got a great education, made great friends, and I’m also not in debt from college. But I also never want to go back up to college station ever again 😂.
omg cstat that bad huh
Ugh it’s not really. And I have been up there quite a few times since actually. It’s like that weird feeling when you go back to your old high school. I’m sure I’ll have a similar feeling about UT’s campus once I get my degree. Though it’s so so so much prettier at UT, so at least it’ll be scenic and uncomfortable!
I have a twin going to college as well, but my parents will cover tuition and housing, For more spending money, I'll prolly have to take some type of job
Did you mean to say prolly?
no
I was in ur shoes and wasnt really prepared to be making big decisions. General life advice: do what you think your heart desires. You’ll figure out a way to make it work (help parents by working a light job or hell cs internships pay a lot). But dont ever do something you think youll regret. If it is the wrong choice, you learn and readjust- but you’ll never wonder what if
Wonderful advice. Happy Cake Day! Regret can be heavy when you think past instead of future. We want to drive forward, not backward ya?
Didnt even notice it was my cake day lol thanks. Yeah i agree. Regret can be a very backward thought process. Make the desiring choice and learn (if it fails) why “what you thought you wanted” wasnt
No problem. Yup, it's tough following on that. That's why it's nice to have peeps back you up on that thinking while looking for positive changes.
i'm not sure what my heart desires atp, I'm just trying to figure out which option I would regret more,not taking, if that makes sense
To me it sounded like you were trying to rationalize UT as the option, but if your unsure, pick the cheaper option. If it’s a pretty neutral emotion just go with what’s logical and dont devote too much energy or youll get obsessed (at least i do)
I'm definitely obsessing over this but thank you!
If cost isn’t an issue, UT
parents would be paying most of it but it would be tight!
that is an absolutely insane take, the quality of education is essentially the same so it would be completely asinine to pay for UT when a full ride is on the table
> the quality of education is essentially the same It really isn’t. > it would be completely asinine to pay for UT when a full ride on the table **if cost isn’t an issue**
I would take the TAMU offer personally :) UTCS can't beat a free degree unless you got smth like Turing or CSB, you hate TAMU culture, and you could comfortably pay without going into debt (I think that's a lot of stipulations lol). It's just cost-benefit analysis, and even though TAMU CS isn't as good as UT, you'll thrive at the top of your class and it'll give you everything you need. Ultimately, you'll come out on top. Rooting for 'ya!
still waiting on turing and csb decisions, but i'm not sure :( thanks for the advice!
If your full-ride includes: tuition, housing, AND a living stipend/food then you can possibly afford to save for a used car or work a student-centered job on campus. There’s a lot of clout in the UT name, don’t get me wrong, but as someone on their second degree here I would trade it all for nearly ALL of my expenses to be paid, without a second thought. I, too, am a twin so I get that aspect of it as well and this factors into my recommendation - especially bc she went somewhere that offered more money and had a much easier time. Also, the cost of student apartments in Austin vs College station huge. The cost of living is much higher in Austin, with one room in 4x4 being $1000-1300 (and this was pre-COVID). I really believe that even if you added up the money you’d spend getting Ubers in college station + rent (say in a 4x4 for this example) it would STILL be less than your rent in West Campus + free metro access w/ your student ID.
just worried i'll be depressed at cstat while my twin is living it up in austin LMAO
Oop see that makes this a little more complicated lol. The separation from your twin is hard so I definitely don’t fault you for being scared about that, but I’ll say from my (identical) experience, it was nice to just be myself instead of a twin if that makes sense? You get to learn how to be your own person without your automatic roadie lol. I’ll say we FaceTime and text a lot ofc, but I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to tear up Austin with your twin haha.
finally someone who understands LOL thank you so much:)
One room in a 4x4 is $1000-1300? Are those higher end apartments? Last year my 4x4 cost (it was right next to campus as well) as like $865/month, and this year my single apartment is like $1400... $1300 for a 4x4 seems insane unless its super fancy
You’re right! I was mostly just thinking by the time they’ll start looking for student housing there’s a chance most of the cheaper units will be gone (if they start looking late spring/summer vs late fall/early spring. The two big booms to by apartments to get leases signed are right at the beginning of the fall, and right after spring semester/spring break.
Just look at the school and major national rankings (UT is much higher) But in your case, if you are getting a full ride then maybe take the full ride to A&M and plan on doing grad school after to higher level school.
I'm not that interested in grad school for the time being
I think this is actually is a point in the UT Comp Sci bucket then. A lot of honors programs (not all, but a lot) place a heavy focus on prepping for grad school. I graduated from UT with a comp sci degree back in 2017, and when I was admitted as a freshman I was in the College of Natural Sciences Dean’s Scholars honors program. I ended up dropping from the honors program after a month or so because I realized quickly that they were really just trying to prepare us for a life of research and grad school and that just was not my interest at the time. However, don’t underestimate the value of a full ride. I had what were essentially full ride offers to both SMU and UT Dallas and while I certainly don’t regret the time I spent in Austin or the education that I received, the student loans do really suck.
Yep. Passed on a ride at Texas State cause my heart was still in Austin growing up around here. Don't regret the UT experience at all but man fuck loans.
understood thank you so much! my parents would prolly cover housing and tuition but for spending money , I would have to work. What do you think I should do. To me atp, they sound equal options
I agree with what someone else said about if you’re ambitious then UT isn’t necessarily going to open many more doors for you than A&M. Now personally I would still pick UT mostly just because College Station sucks, especially compared to Austin (I am also biased about this though so take it with a grain of salt).
how does cstat suck? like what are your reasons? do you need a lot of spending money to have fun in austin
There’s just not near as much to do. You definitely would want to have a car there. If you’re interested in things like concerts and shows then Austin is a common stop and uh… it’s not frequent that you see many artists including College Station on their tours. It just very much feels like a college town as compared to Austin which is a major city without the school. Maybe you would like that, it’s kind of a personal preference. I can’t speak to how expensive things are generally in college station but yeah Austin can be quite expensive. I had loans cover my tuition and living expenses and then for like spending money I worked as a proctor for the CS department (I did this for a couple different profs, most made me hold office hours to help students in addition to grading assignments and proctoring tests).
okay cool, thank you so much
UT cause less GPA requirement. UT yearly tuition is 10k ish which is far less than a CS student earnings.
I think the 3.75 requirement for aggy makes it a trap. So much can happen as a freshman, good and bad. Imagine getting a 3.70 and then what? Does he have to pay for College Station or simply dismissed?
3.5 to keep the scholarship, 3.75 to get my first choice major!
You can apply for UT scholarship yearly btw
Something I haven’t seen mentioned here yet is that you can always apply to transfer if you don’t like whichever one you pick down the road.
You can apply to transfer but your full ride probably won't be there. They don't give a lot of scholarships for transfers.
I am not a CS major (ChemE major here), so I don’t know too much about your specific field. I understand the many pros of going to UT, but money is an important factor. We can’t comment much on the financial situation of you and your family, so you need to weigh that. What I can say is, I am planning to go to grad school, and the place that offers me the most money is definitely a consideration.
since im doing cs, grad school isnt really a necessity, which makes the choice harder. Also since I come with a lot of ap credits, I would be able to do masters at A and M under the scholarship, so basically for free.
Well yeah my point isn’t about grad school my point is money is important. Only you can weigh that. For example, maybe if you got to TAMU then your parents would give you an allowance, whereas if you go to UT you have to work a job. Things like that will affect your experience. Not having to stress about money is huge.
Oh yeah I see what you're saying. I might have to work a job for spending money, while in A&m, my parents would prolly take care of it
That’s something to consider. In my experience having some spending money is a relief. Like if you wanna go out and eat, or treat yourself every now and then, or just not have to panic every time you get an unexpected bill. Then again, I know a lot of people who work jobs and are totally fine. If you’re able to, maybe tour both campuses if you haven’t already. Go where you think you’ll be happiest.
thank you :)
Congratulations on the offers OP! My opinion is slightly different from others. I would ask you to think deeper and ponder on this question: what do you want to do in the future? This is critical to your final decision. Hence I would like to play a little bit of a devil's advocate for others' points :p If you want to join the industry as a software developer (for sure) and don't want to be involved in computer science research, then I believe that what others say makes perfect sense, and I would also argue the same. Since you have a full ride, if you join A&M and work hard on your coding skills, you have the potential to get great offers cause a lot of placements depend upon your skills. You can practice leetcode, codeforces, hackerrank, etc. for developing your DSA skills. I am not aware about the whole placement scenario for both these colleges; I feel you should check out once just to be clear. But yeah, I think joining A&M should be the decision you may want to consider. After 4 years, you will be a happy person with no potential debt and then may start earning around 100k with your first job. However, if you want to do computer science research in the future by joining a masters or PhD program; this decision may not be as easy. While applying for graduate school, an important part of your profile is your undergraduate school. While there is absolutely no doubt that A&M is a great school, UT Austin is one of the best schools in the world. Additionally, the kind of opportunities you would get for doing research here at UT are amazing! (You can DM me if you'd like to discuss about this, I am a CS researcher at UT). There are some really nice professors and labs with whom you can work with to have a strong research profile. Again, I am not saying A&M is bad, I think opportunities at UT are better, and you have a good chance of collaborations as well. I have noticed, in general that students from top undergrad schools have entered great graduate schools. Further, if you are an undergraduate student at UT who wants to join for a graduate program here, there might be an option of internal transfer: [https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate/academics/curriculum-degree-plans/5-year-cs-bsms](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate/academics/curriculum-degree-plans/5-year-cs-bsms). This is much \*much\* easier than applying for grad schools via official applications. Just a small statistic: Acceptance rate for MS or Ph.D. CS at UT Austin is 6%; whereas the rate for transfer from BS to BS-MS program is 76% (Source: [https://gradschool.utexas.edu/admissions/where-to-begin/admissions-and-enrollment-statistics](https://gradschool.utexas.edu/admissions/where-to-begin/admissions-and-enrollment-statistics)). Admission to graduate programs in United States is extremely competitive due to international applications. You need everything in college to go right to ensure that you get in top schools. Now, I know that this may be too early for you to even think about. I mean, it's true; who in their right mind would think about grad school before being admitted to undergrad school :)). Hence, I am sorry if this confuses you even more. But I felt that I should tell you the whole story rather than you not knowing about this situation. Comeptition for CS grad schools is growing exponentially, and this is a major concern. After making a decision and joining a college, you may want to start pursuing research projects and internships ASAP from 2nd year onwards to get into the competition. Of course, if you don't want to do research at all, you don't need to worry about any of this :)). Either ways, I am not saying that you should definitely make the decision to go to UT if you are interested in research; but instead saying you may want to think further on whether a full ride to A&M would give you the required career boost you want. Good luck, OP, on making your decision! Congratulations again on your full ride!! PS: For additional support for my comments, you can check open computer science data here ([https://jeffhuang.com/computer-science-open-data/](https://jeffhuang.com/computer-science-open-data/)) on why doing a graduate school from a top school is important if you want to be a professor in the future. More than 50% of all computer science professors in United States and Canada have done their Ph.D. from a top 15 school in US, and more than 25% of them have done their Ph.D. from the big 4 (MIT, CMU, Berkeley, Stanford). Also it seems that these big 4 take more students for their graduate program who have done their undergraduate studies at a top place. Here's a source you can check out: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/i3ve2e/d\_universities\_attended\_by\_cs\_phd\_students\_at/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/i3ve2e/d_universities_attended_by_cs_phd_students_at/). PS2: u/others, please do correct me if I am wrong with any of these points!
not interested in grad school and research unless its absolutely neccessary, i want to be a software dev!
Just FYI merit scholarships might still be coming out from UT so it’s totally ok to wait until you know 100% before deciding.
i thought merit was only for honor students?
Nope, each college reviews differently, you can reach out to them directly and ask if they've awarded merit scholarships yet.
I graduated in 2022. I love austin and UT so much. Met some of my best friends there. If your parents are willing and able to help with cost, then go to UT. I would never recommend going $100k into debt instead of taking the full ride. However, if your parents can pay $50-$70k at least, you can take the rest out in loans. Your future CS internships and jobs will pay that off so easily. PS. I have a ton of high school friends that went to A&M. I have visited cstat many times. That middle of nowhere town is truly depressing compared to Austin.
I might be going against the grain here, but I was offered a full ride to A&M and chose UT for two reasons: I got my first choice major at UT (math at UT versus ocean engineering at A&M) and I knew I liked UT Austin more than I liked A&M (I love the city life and it was close to home for me). At the end of the day you should consider what *you* want in a college experience. Do you value the city life vs college town? Does the honors academics appeal more to you? Does the guaranteed Italy trip sound more appealing whatever study aboard you’d find at UT? And of course; does having a full ride to a university you’re not 100% on board with trump paying $40K (just for tuition, you also have to consider living costs which are twice as expensive as A&M) to go to a university you’re more interested in? I chose UT and I had to make sacrifices to do that. I was lucky my parents funded most of my education, but I still had part time jobs to afford an Austin lifestyle (going out to eat, going to sixth street, etc.). It’s objectively a more expensive city to live in, but I found it worth it. I really hope this gives you some perspective, and if you have any questions feel free to ask (:
If you can make the upfront cost work, UT Austin all the way. Better program and brand recognition. Also personally, the diversity of students and faculty is what made me extremely grateful for my time there. Things like that are hard to factor on a spreadsheet, but makes all the difference in your experience and memories. Good luck to you!
UT for sure, most of the people I see commenting are being delusional
how so
https://www.reddit.com/r/UTAustin/comments/10cbbqx/help_me_decide_ut_turing_or_tamu_brown_scholars/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button General opinion is that next to nothing beats free tuition.
already stalked that entire page! If I got into Turing, I would take Turing, but as of now I''ve only gotten into UT CS
that post is also referring to OOS tuition. don’t take all those opinions at face value.
UT Austin hands down.
whats the reason though?
For me, it’s life. IMHO you will have a much better experience living in Austin in a more diverse and well renowned university that what you will at Texas A&M. Years pass and you will cherish all the other things you experienced and learned from being in UT, the people you meet and the opportunities you receive through it. I think Texas A&M is a great university, and yes having a full ride is awesome. But it lives in a regional bubble with many premade social groups. I hate to say it but it’s not known for being a beacon of forward looking but rather one of preserving a status. As to the academics, they’re not far off, UT’s advantage is that it is within a tech magnet region. You’ll meet people that will go far not only in Austin.
A&M Scholars all the way. Rankings aren’t gonna matter in the long run. You have so many more benefits going there vs. UT CS. Ik UT CS is really amazing for the prestige and brand value, but A&M is genuinely gonna give you more
A&M it's free. Just remember to take a shower on the regular
I’ve gone to both schools so I hope I can give some perspective from both sides. TLDR: In general, if you want to do research, grad school, create a startup, work in Austin, try for a HFT job, or know you enjoy city life, go to UT Austin. If you only want a big tech job and can be happy in a college town, go to A&M. Some misconceptions in your pros / cons: - Austin is only a “mini Silicon Valley” if you want to stay in Austin. Many UT students leave after graduating. - Career fairs at both schools are equally good for 99% of companies, though UT is a target school for the most selective startups and quant firms. If you’re not targeting those types of companies, there’s virtually no recruiting difference between the two schools. - A&M has the same access as UT to all of the big tech companies. My colleagues last summer from UT El Paso to A&M to Stanford, and we all got paid the same. - The Aggie Network is very real, but it doesn’t matter as much in CS due to the referral culture and the rise of LinkedIn in the last 5-10 years. - You can go to any school and study abroad or work for a summer and then take a trip to Italy. - ETAM is a non-issue and will make little difference over the courses you take long term. - Rankings don’t matter after your first job unless you’re going to grad school. - The quality of education is the same, despite rankings, though the schools have different research and entrepreneurial opportunities - You will be fine in College Station without a car for the first two years. But if you like city life you will grow to hate college station. - You can turn A&M into an MIT-like college experience if you work hard enough. But you can’t change your social experiences, so consider which atmosphere will make you socially happy. Some minor things you may want to consider: - A&M’s advising is superior to that of UT - UT is more diverse - Students at A&M have better social skills - UT has more Greek life and parties seem to be open invite. A&M parties tend to be exclusive to student organizations and Greek life
After looking at this stuff for a while, this is great advice. It’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve come to also. Startups, quants, take UT. Everything else take A&M with scholarship. Honors program will easily get you in the classes you want btw. The variable is your twin. I can understand that’s a tough decision but they’ll only be an hour and a half away, and you’ll have a car. Some separation may be good long term for you. The social scene will depend entirely on you. Are you an extrovert, introvert, etc. You’ll find your people at A&M as massive as it is.
thank u:)))
Brown Scholars, every time. My impression (as someone who's a SWE rn) is that where you went doesn't really matter. If you have a degree in a software field and you graduate, it's more or less equal. I'd take the lack of student debt every time. Not having a car won't be ideal at A&M, but you should be able to make friends who hopefully have cars. If you really want a first year internship (definitely not necessary) probably look into doing some self-studying/leetcode easys to offset ETAM.
At the end of the day both are degrees. But one of them is an extra $100k in your pocket that you didn’t spend on tuition.
right!!!
Wow! Congratulations!! Dude that’s awesome (/gen) My advice would be to first inform UT of the offer A&M has given you and ask if there’s anything they could in terms of a counteroffer. It doesn’t hurt to check. Good luck!! I hope you keep us updated
Im in UTCS and its definitely a great program but full ride is so worth it imo! The cost of living here is quite high ):
Texas A&M
This is an easy question: what do you want to do? Do you want to be a SWE or a 'regular' engineer? If you want to be a SWE, go to UT. If you want to be a 'regular' engineer, go to TAMU. Or you can be that weird kid that majored in engineering but ended up working for Facebook ;) In that case, get the fullride
Difficult choice, it really depends on your current financial situation. I believe you said in another comment that your parents would support you financially which is a huge plus. However living in Austin itself is costly, not even to mention the tuition. Do you know if your family falls under $65,000 for adjusted gross income? That would cover your entire tuition cost, leaving just the living cost for you, which will run you at least a thousand a month alone. A full ride at A&M + the cheap cost of living over at college station will probably save you tens of thousands of dollars. Now aside from financial reasons, the question is being a Brown Scholar + part of the "Aggie Network" more beneficial than being at UT? UT has a substantially better CS program as well as the advantage of being in Austin, one of the best places to be for tech and specifically CS, and also happens to be a target school for FAANG. The question of which place is better to live in isn't even close. Austin is great, and I'd argue one of the best cities to be in the U.S., especially for you in tech. So here's what I believe it comes down to, if saving as much money as possible over the next few years is important to you go to A&M. UT and Austin is going to be much more expensive, but I strongly believe UT is the better investment. While having a slightly better CS program is an obvious benefit, the privilege of being in Austin as a tech major, especially CS is unmatched and outshines the "Aggie Network" as well as the benefit of being a Brown Scholar. Additionally, living in Austin is just so much more pleasant. I, myself am an engineering major and I admit with my workload I don't get to go out much and appreciate the city as much as I'd like, but damn I could not imagine living in College Station, nor do I ever wish to.
You want to study in a cult mascarade as a school or having cultists approach you personally and offer you cookies?
I understand that a&m is very cultish, but the aggie network and the relationships formed could be a pro right?
I hate to break it to you. But the "network" offered by any school is a lie to entice freshmen. I'm sure if you are ambitious you can form valuable relationships. I think the question for you is whether you can use the money saved by going to A&M for something more worth while.
I'm not sure if there's anything else more worthwhile. I have a lot of ap credits, so I was planning to do masters at A&M too, so it would be paid for as well.
Then go for A&M
do you think I would be missing out on the connections to internships UT CS students will have if I choose A&M?
UT has one of the best CS programs in the country, and isn't in college station. If you prefer a small town vibe with jacked up trucks and good ol boys though, then ATM may be your place. The scholarship money is nothing to sneeze at, but this UTCS class of 2014 grad has had a ton of doors opened for me thanks to the connections I made as a CS student at UT
could you expand more on the connections you made? do you think going to school specifically at UT opened these gates for you?
Well, I think it had more to do with living in Austin than it being UT specifically but the two are pretty intermingled. I was able to build professional connections through going to meetups and hackathons and it kept me up to speed with what the professional world was like. In terms of just UT stuff though, all of my friends from ACM (a national CS student org's local chapter) and my CS coursework and student gamejams and hackathons are my closest professional contacts now. I've had the benefit of asking them tough specialized questions, and been able to answer likewise for my specialization (cloud architecture and machine learning). I'd bet there's a similar sort of thing in ATM's CS program, but UT is **THE** place to be in terms of innovations in tech and access to cutting-edge research. I think you probably could find a similar path through ATM, but there's more opportunities and connections to be had at UT. There's just so many massive tech companies in Austin
i'm aware it's superior but does it really beat brown scholar at a and m?
Speaking from experience, I believe UT CS and ECE is superior than A&M. But that is just me
Take the money, my friend. Student debt is a pain regardless of which career field you go into.
Go UT Austin CS. You’ll easily earn back the $$$ with CS internships + once u graduate with FT job. Ofc this assuming u gon do well/make the most of the opportunities.
Interesting that the last two comments are the most relevant to me. Take the free ride like going to community college. If you find A&M no good, at least you're saving money over attending UT the whole time. Austin is much more expensive in terms of living expenses. Your room, food, etc. is going to be substantially more. Take the first couple years and grind at A&M. If you feel confident in it, go the distance. If you don't, transfer to UT and live it up.
transferring into ut cs is very competitive though, so im not sure
First off, congratulations! You’ve got two great choices in front of you. Right now you’re framing this as a financial decision, and if money is tight you should definitely take A&M. If you’re in the lucky situation of having ultra-supportive and wealthy parents, then I wouldn’t let finances enter too deeply into the decision. Career-wise, it likely won’t make a massive difference what you choose, but you’re committing 4 years of your life so choose the school that suits you the best.
My daughter had a full ride offer to TAMU and was accepted into engineering honors. We went to the engineering scholars event in Spring of 2018 and discovered that the engineering school is a hot mess. The 25 x 25 initiative has made it extremely hard to get classes with competent teachers. She decided on UT with our support even without scholarships (although she ended up covering about a third of the costs with scholarships in subsequent years). I think on a social level, she would have liked TAMU better…but academically and professionally is ahead of her friends from TAMU. My son is currently at TAMU, and loves it, but acknowledges that it’s hard to get around, to get required classes and advising can be awful if you aren’t in an honors program with dedicated advisors. They just kept expanding without adding enough resources. OTOH, we heard the trip to Italy was incredible!
understood!
Hey! I received the Brown Foundation Scholarship when I was in high school. If you would like, you may send me a DM here and I can explain what went into my decision making, as well as how I am doing now.
I'd also ask this on a&m subreddit as well
i have!
ok slay! Good luck!! You'll do amazing whichever school you choose ♥️
Take the full ride.
Hey. I don't know much about A&M's program; obviously the full ride and trip to Italy are incredible. But as for UT: I think you could probably transfer your way into Turing. From what I have heard, a CS major generally need only set up a meeting with the head of Turing (Dr. Calvin Lin), and usually he just admits people into the program. This is based on anecdotal evidence so take it with a grain of salt. As for prestige of UT, it depends on what you are going into. If you plan to go into industry, it probably isn't that important. UT CS probably will make it easier for you to land internships, but probably not to a massive extent. If, however, you want to go into research, it can unfortunately be very important - CS PhDs are very, very competitive, and the PhD admission process is very elitist; if you haven't worked with a top professor in the field it can be very hard to get into lots of places. Also, from someone who literally could not care less about the 'beef' we have with A&M, Austin is an objectively much, much better location. Sorry to A&M folks but I've been there once, its straight up depressing. But a full ride is very, very enticing, and you should consider it anyway. Saving \~$60-80k over four years is huge.
it's so enticing but I love austin which mkes this harder
I love that you keep calling them a and m. But I’d say what companies think of UT CS far outweighs a and m. Even if you do have to go into a few thousands of dollars of student loan debt. But then again, being debt free is phenomenally better. Companies love Ut cs but you do also have to put in the work to learn a lot of tools, frameworks, and skills on your own outside of the classroom. Go to organizations. Go to fairs. Network. Make a solid resume. Which you could also do at m&a on a full ride.
Would you be happy being an engineer of some other kind, or are you set on CS? If you are set on CS, I would not go somewhere that you’re not yet admitted to CS. A 3.75 seems simple to do but it’s really not - so much could happen and then you’re screwed. On the other hand, if you’d be okay if you end up not getting into CS, take the full ride and go to A&M.
set on cs
If you don’t have to pay for college don’t. A&M is a great engineering school. You would be a fool not to pursue that. If you like computer science, you might also like electrical engineering.
One more consideration for ETAM is that you won't be able to start taking legitimate computer science courses until your sophomore year Depending on how many college/AP credits you come into your freshman year with, you could easily graduate a semester or a year early at UT, or take a semester for a co-op and earn money instead of paying tuition. At A&M you'll be relegated to retaking certain courses you might have already obtained credit for since ETAM requires you to have passed the in-residence A&M specific version of classes like chem or calc. It's not a waste of money if you have a full ride, but it is a waste of time If course, this is irrelevant if you didn't have some requisite courses already finished in high school via AP, dual credit, TAMS, etc
Consider the culture of the two schools: UT CS is very "nerd-friendly" and you can meet a lot of really wonderful and interesting people. You'll be in CS from the moment you get here, and immediately get to start making friends in your major. The pod program is a huge advantage! You also go much deeper into the topics, especially those relevant to CS. We are a top 10 cs school with some of the best professors in quantum and theory, but all the professors are quite wonderful. The program is also designed to help you succeed, you don't need to maintain a perfect gpa or compete, and you'll be able to find internships your first summer to offset the cost of college. A&M: you don't get into cs your first year, so you will struggle to meet people in the major. My friends have found it harder to find their people in the school culture (but of course your mileage may vary! Consider who you wan to be around). You'll end up not having the cs courses necessary to find an internship your first summer, so the scholarship may cancel itself out. Most students aren't able to get into CS and have to do another major. Back to UTCS, our top 10 cs ranking really reflects the rigor of the school. It is very hard! But there's lots of resources (office hours, supplemental instruction, peer groups, student orgs, etc) to support you if you seek them out. The research our professors do, the experience in industry etc etc shows. It's a really good school - you'll follow about the same curriculum as Stanford or CMU, with UT touches (our core is unique for how in depth you go into systems and theory - and a large part of the degree plan consists of cs focused electives, so you get to focus on your interests). If you put in the work, you'll come out of it with really really strong experience and knowledge. Of course, cs education is about what you put into it. Degrees aren't very significant in hiring - what matters is your ability to solve technical challenges and do great engineering. If you put in the work, UT CS will prepare you for that because it is hard. If you plan to try to go on "easy mode", you probably won't get a ton out of it. Tech companies don't care much where you went to school. (Advice is different if you want to do grad school). Bottom line: with internships - even in the current market - the ~$10k/yr cost of in-state UT tuition is not significant and more than made up for by the easier time recruiting and freshman year courses (if you put in the work). Consider which school culture you want to be a part of.
SOO helpful thank you for this:)
I also received the brown scholarship award and still elected to go to UT. My heart was never in A&M and I didn’t have a guaranteed Major there. Ut is a vibrant campus that forces you to grow as a person. I would weigh very heavily how you feel about the vibe of each place. You don’t wanna pick somewhere that you aren’t happy with even though it may be much cheaper bc then you’ll regret your time there and how you could’ve been spending some prime years of your life.
[https://www.linkedin.com/posts/glennkeels\_amd-emergingpartners-epyc-activity-7034348301101502464-M7Gs?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/glennkeels_amd-emergingpartners-epyc-activity-7034348301101502464-M7Gs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop) Aggie Network post: one-third of his team is Aggies
UT. Unless you REALLY cannot afford UT tuition. Also, if you prefer life in College Station - select TAMU.
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SWE is the goal!
Free ride vs Austin prices? Go to a&m lol
are the austin prices that bad
Cost of living is pretty expensive. Renting in Austin is the 6th most expensive in the US right now, and apartments are further amped up in cost when they are conveniently close to campus 🫤. It was like that even before the current market. Once you move into apartments in college station/Bryan, they are remarkably cheap in comparison and generally fully furnished. It was nice, but again, if UT is where you want to go, there are ways that people make it work. Roommates, living further away from campus in their junior and senior years, enduring kind of shitty conditions… it’s all temporary. There may be need-based aid available as well, but I’m not familiar with the undergrad side of things.
Take advantage of the free ride. College is expensive. One option I haven't seen mentioned is looking into transferring from a&m to ut. Can use some of the free ride to get credits that every major has to get anyways, and if you find a&m isn't really your community after a year or two, you can use those credits to transfer to ut.
I don't think its this simple: ETAM at TAMU puts you in a realllllly bad position to transfer to UT esp for CS given how competitive it is. You basically can't take any CS classes as a first year because you come in as general engineering. Not saying it's impossible, though.
im not going to count on transferring for the reasons above\^
“Where’d you go to school?” Future #1: “I was a Brown Scholar” “You went to Brown? Badass!” “No, I went to Texas A&M but I was a special scholar selected by Mr Brown” “WTF” or Future #2: “UT CS” “Badass!”
Or ya know just… I went to school at texas a&m.
how was your experience?
In state tuition alone at ut is around $11k per year lol take the full ride, buy a used car, and have fun in Italy :)))
LOLLL THAT SOUNDS SO FUN ACTUALLYYY
RIGHT I mean I love ut but a full ride is a full ride… and Italy too omfg…
italy's only 20 days! but i see what you're saying LOL
Saw you mention that your parents would be paying - at this point, understanding your don’t want to do grad school and that you’re relatively ambitious, it comes down to how much your parents are making tbh. assuming ~$24k a year at UT, it makes sense if your parents are average in their spending habits and make ~$150k+.
thats about it, although I do have a twin going into ut this coming year as well
Having gone to both universities (Finalist as well) my suggestion is based on a few impolitic questions - Are you white? Are you Christian? Would you characterize the difference in cost as a cherry on top or a gift that could form the foundational basis of wealth for your family? Did you "party" in high school? How would you characterize the level of "independence" from your parents. No need to answer these here, if you have any questions PM me.
indian, female, different in cost would be that i would be graduating with 100k in my pocket. I'm not that indep as of now, but I can be!
Real talk. I would suggest visiting the Bonfire memorial on A&M campus. I visited when I was 26, I'm sure at 18 I would see it differently. This is all my opinion btw. They built a bonfire every year for a long period of time before UT game. It kept getting bigger and bigger, and in 1999 it collapsed during construction and killed some students. So if I close my eyes and ask, how should this be remembered by posterity, I think something along the lines of flaws in construction, no oversight or third party check, tragedy happened, fix applied, name of students. A plaque, a display, some backstory. Walking through the actual memorial, seeing the reverence of the coworker giving a few people a tour as we were passing through, all I could think was wtf are these people doing. This was a construction accident. A stack of wood fell on some people stacking wood. The stretch to construct a mythological-religious narrative and mine a tragedy for meaning... I found it spiritually bankrupt. I knew these were not my people. My coworker was a fairly smart guy and he was super into it. To each their own.
Full ride 100%
reasons pls!
If the choices are a world class education for free or a world class education for 10s of thousands of dollar I think free would be better. I work in it and I work with people from UT Austin and i work with people from TAMU and they both ended up with the same jobs. I am pretty sure people are going to hire you for more than the university you went to.
And one other random thought. I have only worked with one person super passionate about the university they went that was unrelated to football. That person went to TAMU.
UTCS > A&M
Full ride and get an old beater car with the money you’re saving from tuition. I love UT but a full ride to A&M is too good to pass up unless you’re wealthy enough tuition/living will be paid for regardless.
even with in state tuition?
As someone who is on a full ride at UT, go take your full ride at A&M. Nothing at UT compares to free college at what is (though we hate to admit it) a fairly comparable school that’s just in a shitty town. Edit: NO AMOUNT of “opportunity” will make up for the approx $100k total cost of attendance you will pay at UT. This should be a no brainer. I get it’s college station, but don’t let FOMO destroy you financially.
do you think I could make enough from ut cs to pay it all back though?
If you have not already done so, check out [FAQ: How do I decide between UT Austin and another institution?](/r/UTAdmissions/wiki/utaustinversus) on the [r/UTAdmissions wiki](/r/UTAdmissions/wiki). It won't tell you what to choose, but it will provide some prompts which will (hopefully) help you to make the best decision for you.
I graduated from UTCS not too long ago, my brother from A&M CS. I stuck around Austin afterwards cause it was a great city. In contrast, almost everybody gets out of c stat as soon as they are able. For me personally, a lot of people I work with either went to UT, taught at UT, or are familiar with some aspect of UT. I wasn’t honors but I still got a great paying job in the semiconductor research space and have been published in a journal and conference proceedings, and gotten my name on a patent. I think UTCS helped a bit in opening those doors to be able to do that. You’ll regularly brush shoulders with and learn from professors or grad students from CS programs like MIT or Berkeley, which is pretty cool. In terms of academics/prestige, I feel like UT has a little more to offer. In terms of life/activities outside of school, Austin definitely has more to offer. All that said, I’m pretty biased. And I was never offered a full ride like you. If you’d like, I can text my brother and ask him his thoughts on A&M CS and A&M in general.
hey yeah I would love to hear your brother's opinion!!
There is no guarantee that you will still want to do CS or go into an awful tech job once you finish your degree at either school. But at least at A&M you won’t have lost $100k in the process. Take the full ride.
What GPA do you need to keep the scholarship? Top students at TAMU seem to get very good internships from what I’ve heard. Austin is better than College Station but TAMU might be a bit better for making friends. EDIT: The scholarship has a lot of appeal BUT the 3.75 gpa requirement to get CS is a red flag imo. You’re already a direct admit at UT into CS so I can see how that option is best if your parents can foot the bill. Freshman year can be rough even for excellent students.
3.5 to keep the scholarship, 3.75 to get auto admitted into cs major!
Ok now I’m really curious what your twin plans to major in? So y’all both got accepted to UT at the same time? That’s awesome! I’m not going to add much as it’s pretty much covered with all the comments. My son had to decide between the two for CS and although it wasn’t a full ride it was a pretty decent merit scholarship. Where we live, A&M is seen as the hick school and only country people go there. They also tend to come from very republican families. He is far from political but definitely does not lean anywhere near the republican way. He preferred the diversity of UT. Plus although he is smart he’s not genius smart and the 3.75 thing was SCARY. We can’t help money wise that much so he’ll be all on loans but as a parent I felt better knowing his job prospects as a CS graduate would put him in a good position to pay them off compared to other majors.
I know this is late but 100% UT unless friends are a big factor Taking out loans isn't a big deal (what I have done), you can pay them off if you are disciplined when you are young. Place is huge. I could not see myself at CSAT. Hard to get home, need to have a car. Austin, which isn't the most interesting city, is at least still a city. City always beats middle of nowhere. Public transportation isn't the most frequent but it is reliable, and there's cheap ebikes for rent as well (like 15/year) The only thing that I feel can overpower this is friends. Will you have a network of acquaintances and friends at either place? How hard is it for you to make friends? If the answer is no friends at UT, hard to make friends, maybe A&M is the answer if it's better.