A few weekends ago, I embarked on a road trip to visit a few friends at Texas A&M in College Station. I stayed for the weekend, visited the bonfire memorial, went to a football game and otherwise meandered across the town and through campus. Overall, I greatly enjoyed my stay and had a wonderful time visiting.
On the Sunday-afternoon drive back to Arlington, I couldn’t help but compare my observations of Texas A&M with my experiences living and learning at UTA. Both schools offer their students an opportunity for an excellent education and a successful future. Both perform a tremendous amount of valuable research that positively affects Texas, the U.S. and the world. However, there are a few areas UTA has A&M beat.
I live in an on-campus apartment, but I toured several dorm rooms before choosing my current living arrangements. The ones I remember seeing certainly seemed to best the residences I visited in College Station. I’m not sure if the former are actually larger, but they are constructed in a way as to make them feel more open and inviting. The facilities overall appeared less clean and up to date as ours in Arlington. I will admit they had more dining options than UTA, but the advantage goes to the latter with the rooms themselves.
UTA is also a more diverse campus than Texas A&M. We boast a wonderfully eclectic population comprised of students from almost every adult age group, ethnicity, nationality, religion, creed and background. This fact is apparent to anyone who takes the time to walk across campus or stops to converse with the people passing by. This is not to infer Texas A&M is a purely homogenous place. But the uniqueness of our student body is a distinctive feature of UTA nobody can miss, and it’s something we can be proud of.
Finally, Arlington has College Station beat on location. We are in the heart of the vibrant and sprawling Metroplex. Our town hosts the Texas Rangers, Six Flags Over Texas and the Dallas Cowboys. There is never a shortage of things to do and activities to take part in. College Station, while a fair size town in its own right — as is neighboring Bryan — just can
’t hold a candle to the opportunities Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth and all the suburbs thereof offer residents. Our location is prime, and something almost any other school ought to be quite envious about.
We’re a cosmopolitan and forward-looking university. Mavericks should celebrate that.
