The oldest public college in
Texas, Texas A&M was founded in 1876 in
College Station. College station was named for the rail depot which was for a while he only way in or out of town. The station is gone, but the tracks are still very active, and only about 100 yards from my dorm.
A&M is home to about 40,000 students, known as
Aggies. It's a slightly
conservative school, if you define "slightly conservative" to mean "somewhere to the right of
Gengis Kahn". It's probably the second most
homphobic school in the state (where else could students get away with wearing "NO FAGS" T-shirts?).
The mascot is a collie named Reveille, kept by the corps of cadets (our version of
ROTC). The corps is a throwback to the "old army" days when this was a military school. They wear uniforms to class, yell "sir" a lot, go running
en masse at 6AM, and other things that no rational being would understand. It's a lot like trying to take
boot camp and fresman year at the same time. Poor masochistic fools...