Helping out like you asked, Bevo, I promise! I hope we don't have it out by PMs like we did last time...
No one in the Corps salutes that bitch. Truth be told, after Rev VII bit half a dozen cadets and generally pissed everyone off, the reputation of the dog has tarnished significantly. The only outfit that cares about Rev is E-2...
Not sitting down at football games?
How many schools have insignificant little traditions like this one? Oregon does their little O-face hand signal thing...Illinois had the Indian dancer dude, Oklahoma has the wagon and horsies thing, Baylor has........well, anyways, and Texas has their steer that stands at the field. We all have those dumb little things that makes each school unique.
Not being able to wear a hat to a football game?
See above. The actual tradition is that you uncover when you are doing a yell. People (read as 'idiots without their priorities straight') get uppity about it, and I never understood why.
Some others like (help me out here) "roll call" where they honor classmates who have died are kind of neat.
The "Roll Call" is called Muster, and honors Aggies who have died in the past year. Held on April 21 each year, Muster, along with Silver Taps, are two of the most revered traditions at A&M. The saying goes, from the 1923 Texas Aggie, "If there is an A&M man in one-hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas."
No need for the super-moto-corps-cut.
Agreed. But then again, the Senior Militaries are supposed to emulate the service academies, and THEY have the super-moto-corps-cuts. No real harm there. I know I never had trouble picking up women when I had my fish cut...
There is no comparison to night life in Austin vs. College Station. There just isn't. Austin has more clubs/bars/resturants in a half mile on 6th Street than all of College Station. Enough said.
I'll concede it...Austin is a great place to go party.
If you like sports, either as a fan or participant, Texas is the clear choice.
Anyone who has been following sports and is a resident of Planet Earth knows that one. Our rebuilding year is turning into a highly embarrassing rebuilding decade...no worries though. The A&M - Texas game is still a really really good show.
I know that high school students at Texas seem to keep the reputation that The University is ultra liberal, anti-military, anti-conservative, etc? I honestly never experienced any of that. I came from a small town, grew up on a ranch, am gun owning, and was very outspoken in class (I was a Government major,BTW [what Texas calls Poly-Sci]). Sure, Austin has more that it's share of granola crunching hippies. So what? If you fear hippies and out-of-the-box thinking, then go to a place where "tradition" is the rule of the land. If you want to be a grown up and have a well rounded college experience, then Austin is the place for you.
As a high school hippie and someone from one of the most liberal places in the United States, I was admittedly nervous going to A&M. Everyone who knew that I was from Portland (Oregon) though that I should have gone to Texas. Truth is, there are liberals in the Corps, there are liberals at A&M, hell, there are even full-blown hippies in the Corps! The school has expanded from the one-sided image that dominates its history, and there's a lot more diversity of thought than people will admit. Like Bevo said, though, reputations die hard...so I'm sure it will take many many years to break that one. I'm ok with it!
Either way, you're going to get a great education. I'm not posting on this thread anymore, as I've put in my two cents...twice over!
Best of luck in your education, wherever you end up.
However, I would choose College Station over Austin any day! 