Texas a&m san antionio grad school (Dallas, San Antonio: apartment complex, credit) - (TX) - City-Data Forum

aliah12392 · 06-10-2015, 09:36 PM

Hello,

I am moving from Seattle, to Texas to attend grad school. I am still debating between Texas and California at the moment. Texas would be a lot cheaper, compared to Washington anyway.
Anyway my question is regarding Texas a&m - san Antonio. Where are the best places for graduate students to live near campus? Does the university offer grad housing? I don't want to be living with a bunch of undergrads

Second, would you recommend Dallas over san Antonio and why?

Neshomamench · 06-11-2015, 11:50 AM

It is a brand new school. There really is no living infrastructure for the main campus. You would just live somewhere on "that side of town" which is not in any way a college area. It is mostly working class Hispanics. The immediate area around the campus is actually rural. There are vast cattle and horse fields around campus and that part of town is very sparse. If you are standing at the main building on campus, if you look across the street there is likely to be cows looking back at you. (this is where I insert a "Texas Heck yeah!") The closest place to live is at least a few miles away and students wont be the majority of people living there. Most of the people attending are women. They are either married or still living at home. Not really living the life of a "student" and most of the males attending are working or freshly out of the military.

If they are still holding most of their business classes at the Brooks City Base campus, that is an area of town that is getting nicer. While still mostly working class Hispanics there is a slight growth of middle class Hispanics and lots of government and military workers. The area is also much more urban but again, there is nothing "college" town about it. You simply find a place to live in the area. In an apartment complex you could have a lawn care guy living on one side of you and a guy who has been in the Air Force for 20 years on the other side. It is unlikely you will have a college student.

There are hundreds of thousands of people on the South side of San Antonio and about 4000 people at A&M San Antonio. While I have great hopes for the future of the School, it simply doesnt have much of a foot print in the area right now.

Good luck. It is one of the least expensive Universities in the Country right now and being a part of one of the best endowed and one of the largest university systems in the world (Texas A&M) their future is guaranteed. While it may never become a prestigious university, it will always have the advantage of name recognition.

As for San Antonio over Dallas, I would take San Antonio on a bad day over Dallas on a good day but I am biased and from the area. It is less expensive. Mellower. Is well diversified, friendly, growing and I think has a stable future.

aliah12392 · 06-11-2015, 12:10 PM

Thank you so much for replying to my post. I am not really looking for the typical college experience as I already had that. As I will be new to the area and won't know anyone, I wanted to live somewhere where I could meet people my age. I will be studying my MBA therefore I will be on the brooks city base side of the city. I was also looking at the U of T at San Antonio. Would that university be better? or look better on my resume? I didn't realize when applying how new of a school the San Antonio campus was. I guess my biggest concern is just meeting new people and making friends in the area. I just assumed maybe living near college students would make it easier.

I am happy to hear that it's not so city like (living in a city now, I don't really like it) I have always living in rural areas. I like the city but I want more of a middle ground between city and rural. Big enough to do stuff but not to big of a city. How is the traffic over there? How are the people?

Neshomamench · 06-11-2015, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliah12392

Thank you so much for replying to my post. I am not really looking for the typical college experience as I already had that. As I will be new to the area and won't know anyone, I wanted to live somewhere where I could meet people my age. I will be studying my MBA therefore I will be on the brooks city base side of the city. I was also looking at the U of T at San Antonio. Would that university be better? or look better on my resume? I didn't realize when applying how new of a school the San Antonio campus was. I guess my biggest concern is just meeting new people and making friends in the area. I just assumed maybe living near college students would make it easier.

I am happy to hear that it's not so city like (living in a city now, I don't really like it) I have always living in rural areas. I like the city but I want more of a middle ground between city and rural. Big enough to do stuff but not to big of a city. How is the traffic over there? How are the people?

Traffic in San Antonio is mild for a major metro. The only people who argue that dont really know what bad traffic is. I do admit it is getting worse but it is still mild.

UTSA is a better school and probably always will be. Its reputation is growing and it is on the verge of becoming a flagship university with a national ranking. Similar to how several University of California campuses are nationally ranked, the hope and seeming inevitability is UTSA will become the prestigious number 2 in the UT system. For an opinion, the value of the UTSA brand is going to rise a lot in the coming years.

UTSA is also on the "nice" side of town and unlike A&M SA (TAMUSA) is a well established university. (a fully developed campus, TAMUSA is in the country on the less desirable side of town and only has three standing buildings. The Brooks Campus in an old high school on a decommissioned military base. It is in an area of town that is getting much nicer but isnt "the nice side of town)

UTSA is also going to be a lot more expensive and the immediate area around campus will have a college feel.

TAMUSA is likely to grow into the "lesser" choice in public universities in San Antonio. That doesnt mean it is a bad choice, far from it but it is unlikely to ever catch up to UTSA and I dont think it is designed to do so. The San Antonio and South Texas area, specific to Hispanic populations, are behind the curve in college education. TAMUSA is located to change that. It is a wonderful and important missions and I think it will succeed very well in that role. To be blunt, UTSA is moving in the direction of becoming a top pubic university. It is located in the right area for that, and that is what people want from it. They are tightening standards and working very hard on that goal. TAMUSA is designed to provide opportunities to an underserved area. Yes, UTSA will be more "prestigious" and as the years pass probably even more so.

As for a social life, the UTSA area is going to have far more things to do.....FAR more things. Again, the area around TAMUSA looks like a ranch. Brooks City base has things to do but isnt the side of town with the night life and all the fun things to do.

L210 · 06-11-2015, 02:03 PM

TAMUSA is not the type of school you move across the country to attend, in my opinion. It's more of a school of convenience for people in the region. Their business school doesn't even have AACSB accreditation yet. You can earn an MBA online or on campus at Texas A&M Commerce. They have AACSB accreditation. West Texas A&M is another cheap school with AACSB accreditation that offers its MBA online and on campus.

Whether or not you'll like San Antonio or Dallas more depends on your personal preferences. I like ethnic/racial diversity, so I would choose Dallas over San Antonio. I would also choose UTD over UTSA because it has a much higher-ranked business school, but admission is likely to be more competitive. They also offer their MBA program online.

pobre · 06-11-2015, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L210

TAMUSA is not the type of school you move across the country to attend, in my opinion. It's more of a school of convenience for people in the region. Their business school doesn't even have AACSB accreditation yet. You can earn an MBA online or on campus at Texas A&M Commerce. They have AACSB accreditation. West Texas A&M is another cheap school with AACSB accreditation that offers its MBA online and on campus.

L210 brings up a good point, accreditation. UTSA's business school is fully accredited by AACSB.

ashbeeigh · 06-11-2015, 07:28 PM

While UTSA has a college feeling in the immediate area the school is large enough to have a large grad program with older students. The health science center is also very close so there wil be lots of grad level students in the area. The opportunity to meet more people in there at UTSA. The opportunity to find a group within the A&M community is not. Like others have said it is still a new school and is a school of convience for many. And accredidation? That would be the nail in the coffin for me as far as any program is concerned.

aliah12392 · 06-11-2015, 10:13 PM

Thank you all for the replies. it was incredibly helpful. I have decided I don't think I will pursue TAMSA, but I don't have the best undergrad grades, I am deciding between UofT - San Antonio and University of North dallas as well as some California schools. I originally planned to move down to Texas mainly to get away from Washington, it is very expensive here and the traffic is horrible. I am looking more to Texas over California because of those reasons and Texas is where my Significant other would like to build his roots. So if you could share any other points of Universities in Texas that would be awesome, thank you all for the help.

Neshomamench · 06-11-2015, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliah12392

Thank you all for the replies. it was incredibly helpful. I have decided I don't think I will pursue TAMSA, but I don't have the best undergrad grades, I am deciding between UofT - San Antonio and University of North dallas as well as some California schools. I originally planned to move down to Texas mainly to get away from Washington, it is very expensive here and the traffic is horrible. I am looking more to Texas over California because of those reasons and Texas is where my Significant other would like to build his roots. So if you could share any other points of Universities in Texas that would be awesome, thank you all for the help.

California and Texas are fairly different although some people like to think of Austin as somewhat California like.

Having said that, San Antonio is affordable and has an easy pace compared to many other places.

The real question is, what are you trying to accomplish? What do you want an MBA for? There are thousands of schools that offer an MBA, and plenty in Texas although many will be closed to someone with poor GPA in undergrad. If you crush the GMAT or in some cases the GRE, it can make up for some level of bad GPA.

CyVaquero · 06-12-2015, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L210

TAMUSA is not the type of school you move across the country to attend, in my opinion. It's more of a school of convenience for people in the region. Their business school doesn't even have AACSB accreditation yet. You can earn an MBA online or on campus at Texas A&M Commerce. They have AACSB accreditation. West Texas A&M is another cheap school with AACSB accreditation that offers its MBA online and on campus.

Thanks for the info L210, I've been going back and forth on whether and where (TAMSA or WTAM) to pursue my MBA (as a working professional). Accreditation does take TAMSA out of the running and makes WTAM the better option.