What is it Like to Attend Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

What is it Like to Attend Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Brianna graduated from Texas AM University-Corpus Christi in 2016 with a bachelors degree in integrative biology. She is primarily a science tutor specializing in biology tutoring. Interested in attending Texas AM University-Corpus Christi? Check out Briannas review of her experience. Describe the campus setting and transportation options. Brianna: I attended Texas AM University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) for my undergraduate education. The campus is located on its own island so it feels somewhat rural despite being in the city. I own a car, so I was able to drive to campus, but there are buses that provide transportation to and from school all throughout Corpus Christi. You get to ride any bus for free with your student ID! I felt completely safe on campus except for the animals at night. There are a lot of raccoons, cats, opossums, skunks, and other animals on the campus that can be seen frequently at night. How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? Brianna: TAMU-CC is a very small campus; I can walk across the whole campus in about 15 minutes. The largest classroom on campus only seats about 200 students. Since there are a small number of students in each class, professors and advisers are very available and open to meeting and working with students. If I was unable to attend a professors office hours, they were always willing to schedule a meeting at a different time. This allowed me to make a lot of professional connections during my undergraduate career to be involved in research and work opportunities. How would you describe the dorm liferooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Brianna: Since the campus is on an island, there are awesome opportunities to connect with other students and socialize! I didnt live in the dorms, but I have friends who did and they loved it. They only had a 5-minute walk from their dorms to classes. There are several dining options available on campus; there are kitchens in every dorm, theres a dining hall, and several restaurants across campus. The campus also hosted several activities, almost every week, that students could attend to socialize with each other. Which majors/programs are best represented and supported? Brianna: TAMU-CCs best represented major and program is the nursing program. Its one of the top-rated nursing programs in Texas, and it gets a lot of advertisement and support. I studied biology and chemistry for my bachelors degree because I have always been committed to studying science in the hopes of being a college professor one day. I think the university did an okay job of supporting the biology and chemistry programs. Because I was able to co-teach the freshmen biology courses, I was able to see a lot of what happened behind the scenes. The planning and organization for the biology and chemistry programs was very poor, in my opinion. A lot of times, the university wouldnt tell a professor they were teaching a class until a week before classes started. This resulted in very poor lectures for certain classes. How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Brianna: One of the things I loved about TAMU-CC was that they have learning communities to aid freshmen in the transition from high school to college, and to help students make friends on campus who are in the same classes. A learning community is a group of ~25 students that will attend the same triad or tetrad of classes that you do. For example, I was enrolled in biology 1, chemistry 1, composition 1, and freshman seminar 1 as a tetrad and took a math course separately. There was a group of 25 students that also attended those same four courses with me, even though biology 1 and chemistry 1 were large lecture courses. Because I saw the same 25 people every day in nearly all of my classes, it was very easy for me to make friends and form study groups with people in the same classes as me. Greek life doesnt play a significant role in the campus social life. I was not part of Greek life and it had no impact on my social life at campus. However, many of the students on campus do like to be a part of Greek life and participate in the events they hold. There are a variety of clubs on campus that students can join other than Greek life as well. How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services? Brianna: Career Services, Student Support Services, and all of the tutoring services offered on campus were very helpful. The career center allows you to do mock interviews, write your resume or CV, help you apply for jobs, and many other things. It was very helpful to be able to have professionals look over my application materials and catch little mistakes that I missed. They also hold career fairs several times during the year where a lot of large companies and businesses will come to campus and recruit students. Some of the companies from the science and engineering fair include Valero, Coca-Cola, Texas State Aquarium, and many others. How are the various study areas such aslibraries, the student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? Brianna: All of the study areas are easily available throughout campus. However, they do become over-crowded very quickly. Forget going to the library during finals. I need to study in quiet areas, so I was unable to study in the library on campus because it was always too noisy and crowded for me. There are a lot of small quiet areas across campus that many students dont know about that I was able to find and study at though. Describe the surrounding town. Brianna: Corpus Christi is a relatively small city. I was raised in Corpus Christi so I didnt have the experience of going to a new city and getting to explore it excitedly. Corpus Christi is only a 15-minute drive from the beach on North Padre Island, but there is a campus beach. There are tons of restaurants, malls, shops, and fun activities (bowling, movies, go-karts, roller-skating, sports, etc.) to do in Corpus. Students will occasionally go downtown for the nightlife, but to experience the nightlife you dont have to go downtown. There are a lot of places to hangout only 5 minutes from campus. How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Brianna: Currently, there are ~12,000 students total at TAMU-CC. My graduating class was ~1,000 students. I really enjoyed having the small class sizes. My largest class was 185 students, and my smallest was 10. The small class sizes made it a lot easier to connect with professors in class and made it more enjoyable. You werent just another face in a large lecture. Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. Brianna: I was a Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leader for three years during my undergraduate education. As the SI Leader for biology 1 and biology 2, I was able to work alongside the biology professors and the students in those courses. My favorite experience at TAMU-CC was being able to teach freshmen and help them pass a difficult course. I had an SI session (basically a large tutoring session), where over 100 students attended. The biology students had a test the next day over evolution and they were struggling with the concepts. I ended up using a completely ridiculous situation regarding earlobe shape to help students understand the concept. This resulted in the whole lecture hall laughing at my bad attempt to help them understand evolution. The professor was also in the room laughing. I was teased for the rest of the semester by the students for that SI session, and still occasionally run into past students that will bring it up. They all passed their test though! Check out Briannas tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.