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college student looking down sadly at her computer
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Life > Experiences

Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming to TAMU

Meredith Andalis
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TAMU chapter.

I am the first person in my family that went to Texas A&M University. Other than my initial campus tour, I had no way to gauge TAMU’s culture or student life until I arrived. However, when I arrived on campus my freshman year, I still didn’t know much. My freshman year was impacted by COVID-19 which meant I spent most of my time in the dorms. So, I had a year delay before I finally started to learn about what my school had to offer. 

Now that I am a graduating senior, there are so many things that I learned that I wish I knew before getting here. While I am happy with how these past four years have been, these are things these are things that probably could’ve helped me adjust to life in College Station sooner!

  1. Take Advantage of the Aggie Network

While a lot of people talk about how connected the university and its former/current students are, there are still many resources that go unknown. One of my favorite resources is titled, “Find an Aggie.” This is a database that lets you look up a specific field and show you all the Aggies with a career of your interest. Typically you can find their email address or LinkedIn pages and connect. I wish I took advantage of this earlier so I could talk to people that are working in the fields I am interested in and have a connection in the industry!

  1. Everybody is so nice, don’t be scared to ask questions

I remember being so nervous to ask anybody a question. I refused to go up to resource desks or ask people in my class for help because I wanted it to look like I knew what I was doing. But, the longer I’ve been here, the more I realized that everyone is very happy to help each other out. It is better to ask for help than to be confused longer than you have to be! 

  1. Try to participate in everything, but don’t feel like you have to

One of my stresses about going to school with an intense tradition like TAMU, I was scared I was going to be judged for not going to everything like football games. Not every tradition or event is for everybody, and that was something I learned as I went on. While I think it is important to try everything at least once, there are going to be some traditions or parts of campus culture that you connect to more than others! Another thing to note is, as I mentioned, everyone is happy to help you. So, if you don’t know a yell or the history behind a tradition, people are happy to talk about it.

Meredith Andalis is a member of the Texas A&M University chapter of Her Campus. In addition to being part of the social media committee, she enjoys writing about her personal experiences, discussing local restaurants, and covering events on campus. As a member of the social media committee she submits posts once a week for the chapter’s social media pages. Outside of her role at Her Campus, Meredith has had a variety of on campus jobs. She is continuing her over two years of work as a residence hall tour guide and spent the last year helping revise a textbook for one of the English courses at TAMU. Recently she started a new position as a consultant at the University Writing Center. She is also in her final year at TAMU finishing her degree in English with a minor in Communication. For fun Meredith enjoys reading, watching movies, and spending her paychecks on coffee. Her favorite movies include “When Harry Met Sally” and anything from the Captain America trilogy. She is also committed to finding cute coffee shops and bookstores wherever she travels to. She also enjoys writing which is why she loves being a part of Her Campus TAMU!