College Station? (Bryan, Caldwell, West: how much, house, job market)

[amberk]

Is College Station a good place for a family??? I'm married and have a 1-year-old. We currently live in Southern California and are tired of the high cost of living. My hubby has family in College Station, so that would be an option for us; however, being a college town and all, I'm not sure that would be the best choice. Anything anyone can tell me about it??

[Steel Man]

Truthfully, I have not been there, but I have read good things about there. I also see every month that College Station has the lowest unemployment in Texas (somewhere around 2-3%). Here is the city's web site:

http://www.cstx.gov/home/index.asp

[Trainwreck20]

College station has some very positive points about it, but there are also some downside. It has a very robust economy for a relatively small town, but it is pretty much full of college students. That can get old real quick, although you might also consider the energy that comes from the college population.

Also, it tends to be very conservative, or at least, relative to southern cal.

[laurav]

college station is a nice place. It is a great place to raise a family. But unfortunately, the job market is tough. That is why we will be moving away pretty soon. If you get on at the university (Texas A&M) it is great but that can be hard to do. Lots of retail. Experienced professionals can do well. If you are not too far out of college, it is tough. It is a very conservative town, not sure how you feel about that. Overall, I really like it here.

[Aggie01]

I'm an Aggie (Class of '01--Whoop!) and the others are right about College Station. Be prepared for a bit of culture shock. It's all about Aggie football (not that it's a bad thing ), college students and Aggie Everything. The community is quite conservative, but I could see it working well for young families. It's certainly safe. But it's certainly a bit boring too. The students like to think they run the town. There will be the occasional letter to the editor in the local paper where a local will complain about something to which the students tend to respond that the town would be what it is without the students. (Which, to some degree, is absolutely right) Without A&M College Station wouldn't even exist. Bryan would exist as the Brazos County seat, but it would probably more closely resemble some of the smaller county seat towns in the area---Anderson, Caldwell and the like.

I loved College Station as a student, but I couldn't see being there as a working man now. There's simply not an industry for most professions there.

I believe the unemployment statistics are a bit misleading, to be honest. There is no real industry in Bryan/College Station, apart from the University. The love to tout job growth in the area, but that is only based on the fact that tons of restaurants and retail are being added to the area. There aren't any major companies moving in at all.

[stargazer]

Ever since I was a child and I am in my 30's, College Station has touted that they have the lowest unemployment rate. I am glad that someone has said it is misleading. I am sure anyone can get a job if they wanted, but it might not be what they want. LOL.
Coming from a child of a Aggie, it doesn't surprise me a student wrote a letter to the editor about them supporting the town. This leads me to some points and I am so sorry to offend my Aggie parent but he knows how I feel.
There resides a strong arrogance amongst the student population and even amongst the graduates. My husband who is a CPA and actually a UTA graduate over the years in job situations where he would be over someone from A&M would be arrogant to him and tell him directly they won't do that because they went to A&M. My husband also had a manager over him when he was young who told him that because he went to A&M versus his UTA he was better than him and that his degree was BETTER even though my husband graduated Summa Cume Laude versus the fact that this man was Cume Laude. Guess who did better on the CPA exam? My husband. He passed 3 parts the first time and passed the last part on the second try. This man took a total of 8 or 9 times, I remember it was higher than the average. Who was better prepared? This same man is not in the financial world anymore and somehow fizzled out and I knew he would because he was so arrogant and knew it stemmed from being at A&M. Most people there are like him.
Ya remember the bond fire incident?
12 people were killed because of the collapse. My father was very upset because they kept saying it was traditional to build it like that. They never built a bond fire quite that big and complicated in his day. In fact he said they would dig a pit and burn old boards the would find for free, he was disgusted by how much they paid for that disaster. He was astounded too at how arrogant they had gotten over that. He along with our family were disgusted to find out that they would pee on freshmen from upper levels of the bond fire who had to build that frame.
I think that A&M would be a great college if somehow they can breed a bit of humility into their population. There is something about that. Trust me, I have seen them paint their house trims maroon, drive maroon cars, fly the flag and then tell you to your face they are better than you because they went there. I remember a engineer couple when I first got married who had moved from there. The wife told me she wanted to go back and get a masters and I said naively, well you have lots of choices as far as universities here. SMU, UTD, UTA. She shook her head at me and sneered and said, " Oh god NO It has to be A&M, I won't go anywhere else for my masters!" I wondered why in the world they would move hundreds of miles away from a town like that if they only wanted to leave so quickly. AGGIE THINKING<- trust me there are plenty of AGGIE jokes and their is a reason. They were in town for maybe a year and then moved. I did not care to talk to them much after that. She acted like I was a moron for talking to her. I did tell her that I knew engineering was good there, my father did in fact graduate with 3 engineering degrees from there but he never pushed us kids to go there and he wasn't arrogant or rude to realize that you could get your masters else where. Hey the rule of thumb anyways is, better to get your masters in a seperate system.

Hmmmm the good point of this post I suppose it to tell you to be prepared for that attititude when you move there. Also too, remember a bigger city is going to have more opportunity and if a job is not working out, you won't have as hard of a time in finding a new one. You want to be in a market that is thriving with plenty of qualified opportunities. I don't think that is there in College Station unless it is teaching or somehow attached to the University.
The pros to you being there would be your family. Sometimes that is all you need, and the whole world could go to put as long as you have grandma and grandpa, uncles and aunties near by. Truly that can make something survivable.

[Cathy4017]

There resides a strong arrogance amongst the student population and even amongst the graduates.

AMEN to that!!!! Everything else in your post is SO, SO true!!! I run into it all of the time, even though I am in West Texas. I graduated from Texas Tech, so I've also seen the arrogance, rivalry, etc. that exist with football, et al!!!

College Station is pretty, but you couldn't pay me to live there.

[Stasco]

Stargazer, are you drunk? Bond fire?! You have got to be kidding me. Please learn how to spell before you bash an entire University. The most embarrassing part of your post for Aggies is that you were reared by Aggie parents.

[sweetclimber]

I went to Texas A&M (just graduated last may, whoop!) I also delivered pizzas as a job while in school. There are a number of nice family communities in College Station, namely Pebble Creek, Emerald forest, Castlegate, Raintree etc. Lots of families, these communities also have nice parks and are safe. The schools are pretty good in College Station and traffic is only an issue on home football game saturdays.