College Station for a long time has come to be known as Aggieland, land of the Aggies. Students enrolled at Texas A&M University are called Aggies, and hence the name.
When the University was founded in 1876, it was called as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (AMC) — the first public University in Texas. A&M therefore stands for ''Agricultural and Mechanical''. Years later, the college was turned into a University and many more departments were added. However the name stuck and so it is still called Texas A&M University. (Don’t be surprised if you find some of the mechies constantly bragging about how they put the ''M'' in ''A&M''!). We even have songs that address the college as Texas AMC.
Howdy (How are you doing in short) is the Aggie (let’s say Texan) way of greeting everyone. Y’all better get used to the Texan way of mixing up the words. It's common here even for strangers to exchange Howdy. So whenever someone greets you, put up a smile and reply back Howdy!
''Does'' A&M have any?! Gear up fellas! Texas A&M University is probably one of the only Universities where a lot of emphasis is placed on traditions. Many things like The 12th Man, Gig 'em, Midnight Yell, Silver Taps, Muster, etc. have come to be a cherished part of A&M. There is a lot to write about these, so we encourage you to visit these websites to learn more about Aggie Traditions. It's always good to sink in the Aggie spirit before you come here.
You will anyway be exposed to lots of the traditions during the orientation and new student conferences.
Reveille, the first lady of Aggieland, is the official mascot of Texas A&M University. She is the highest ranking member of the Corps of Cadets, and she is a Five-Star General. Having said that, may we point out that Reveille is a dog! Reveille is the most revered dog on campus. Though it seems humorous, Company E-2 has the privilege of taking care of Reveille. If she is sleeping on a cadet's bed, that cadet must sleep on the floor. Cadets address Reveille as "Miss Rev, ma'am". If she barks while the professor is teaching in class, the class is to be immediately dismissed. No less than any celebrity, a pic with Reveille is what most of the students vie for badly.
College Station (CS) is a city with a population of about 70,000. The neighbouring city, Bryan, is very close by (just about a mile) that these two are usually called the twin cities. CS has all sorts of facilities, lots of good restaurants, shops and a mall too. It’s not as big as metro cities, but it’s still a good place to live in.
College Station has a varied climate from really hot summers to really cold winters. Right now it’s the end of Winter and it will get pretty hot by the time you reach CS. For those of you who are from North India, the climate of College Station is more or less like what we have in New Delhi (that's for a reference in case you need to know what to expect). More or less this is the year-round climate: April mid-Sep: Summer Season (Temp reaches 35deg-40degC; very hot in the afternoon, occasional rains) Sep-Nov: Fall Season (Warm in the afternoon, but pleasant otherwise; occasional rains) Nov-Feb: Winter Season (temp goes as low as 0deg-3degC. It's quite windy here, due to which the weather gets chilled and the temperature may actually feel like sub-zero. It doesn't snow here, but there have been rare incidences of ice formation. Feb-April: Spring Season (Best time of the year. Weather is pleasant and there are occasional rains)
Remember to bring a good umbrella as the rains are pretty heavy out here. When it rains, it pours!
College Station is a pretty much safe place and we don’t have issues like racism. There have been stray cases of problems so we suggest that you try not to stay very late out by yourself. Emergency services - 911, Campus Police, EMS, Corps of Cadets Escort service are available 24/7; 'round the clock.
College Station comes in the ''Central Time (US and Canada)'' time zone. Here they use the concept of Daylight Saving Time - DST (a correction factor used to accommodate for duration of day during winters and summers). When DST is switched on, College Station time is 8:30(eight and a half) hours behind Iran. When DST is off, CS time is 9:30 (nine and a half) hours behind Iran.
As the name suggests, the time is set in such a way that maximum daylight could be used. Eg. During summer, the sun rises at around 5 o'clock. So the clock is set forward by one hour. This forces all activities to start one hour early so that maximum daylight is used till late in the evening. Therefore: The clock is set back by one hour on the first Sunday of November 1 (Fall Season) at 2:00 am. Clock is once again set forward by one hour on the first Sunday of April at 2:00 am (Spring Season). The easiest way to remember this is FALL BACK, SPRING AHEAD. By the way, Arizona is the only state, which is not affected by day-light saving. People there do not ever change the time in their clocks