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Graduate Life
Contents
Beyond the sprawling, oak-lined lawns of the university, alumni Aggies have established vineyards, restaurants, hotels and enough bars and honky-tonks to claim plausibly that College Station and the neighboring town of Bryan have more drinking establishments per capita than anywhere else in the United States. College Station also has the George Bush Presidential Library, extraordinary Texas Deco architecture and the sort of relaxed cowboy atmosphere where, even if you’ve never uttered a y’all in your life, you’ll feel downright natural about putting on a hat and boots for the weekend. - New York Times, 22-IX-06
Area and climate
Bryan/College Station is a community of about 200,000 people in the Post Oak Savanna region of central Texas. We are about 90 minutes from central Houston, two hours from downtown Austin, and one hour from the Sam Houston National Forest. The cities of Bryan and College Station are confluent, with the boundary just north of campus. The weather is wonderfully mild from about late September to late May, with occasional cold snaps in winter. June through September are scorching and humid, but everyone has air conditioning and swimming pools abound.
Getting here and away
If you don't have your own vehicle, your options are limited. Greyhound in Bryan serves Austin (a five-hour trip via Killeen) and Houston, but you may be better off renting a car. Small operators provide minibus service to the Rio Grande Valley, with bus connections throughout Mexico and Central America - inquire at Aranda's. Easterwood Airport provides commuter air service to Houston and Dallas. Houston's Intercontinental Airport, 90 minutes away (longer during rush hour) has nonstop flights to hundreds of destinations in the US and the Americas, several cities in Europe, Tokyo and Dubai. Southwest, JetBlue, and Aerobus fly out of Austin's Bergstrom Airport, an hour and 45 minutes away.
Getting around
Public transportation is good for getting you to and from the lab during normal business hours, but not much else. Bicycling is a great way to navigate our sprawling campus. Many people ride motorcycles, with one perk being that you can park right in front of the Biology complex. Parking your car on campus is an expensive proposition during the day, but a car is indispensable for weekends, shopping, and going out.
Places to live
Biology grads often cite the low cost of housing as one of the best things about College Station. From lofts in Old Town Bryan, to condos on the TAMU bus network, to bungalows within walking distance of campus, you'll have a lot of flexibility in housing, whether you want to share a big place with roommates, rent a one-bedroom for yourself, or purchase a house with a partner. If you've got kids, you may want to consider living in the College Station school district, ranked one of the best in the state. If you're single, you may want to consider living within stumbling distance of Northgate.
Lifestyles
B/CS is Texas friendly with a cosmopolitan outlook. No matter who you are, you're likely to find a niche in this big university town. Our department prides itself on an environment congenial to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender faculty and students, and is accommodating of students' family needs. The University provides high-quality, subsidized day care for students, although there is a long waiting list for slots for very young kids. B/CS has numerous parks, play areas, and activities for young children.
Our racial and ethnic diversity increasingly mirrors that of nearby Houston, and faculty and students come from all over the world. There are numerous ethnic and cultural organizations on campus. If you're looking to recreate home cooking, La Michoacana on Texas Avenue has a wide array of Mexican and Latin American products, and H-E-B in College Station has a selection of West African, British, and South Asian foodstuffs, as well as an array of European gourmet products. Nothing epitomizes B/CS more than the strip mall at the corner of Texas and Harvey Mitchell: a good-sized Asian supermarket stands next to the Tractor Supply Company, where cowboys and ranchers go to stock up. If you're a carnivore, support your fellow grad students with a visit to the Rosenthal Meat Science Center, where you can buy the tasty results of student projects - the lamb is an exceptional deal, and the beef jerky has earned national recognition.
Eating
This old porch is a steamin' greasy plate of enchiladas
With lots of cheese and onions and guacamole salad
You can get them at the LaSalle Hotel in old downtown
With ice tea and a waitress who will smile every time...
- The Front Porch Song, by Robert Earl Keen '80 and Lyle Lovett '80
The LaSalle no longer serves food, like it did in the days when Robert Earl and Lyle played Northgate with retired Biology Professor "Sneaky Pete" Rizzo. But you can get great enchiladas right across the street at Los Norteños in Old Town Bryan, and exceptional Mexican food at Coco Loco on Texas Avenue. For Tex-Mex, try Los Cucos and Cazadores, both on Texas Ave. in College Station. If you're in the mood for Anglo-Texan food and honky-tonk ambiance, the chicken fried steak is phenomenal at the Koppe Bridge Saloon. C&J's and Junek's both offer good Texas barbecue, but for a truly mystical experience you need to get up early on a Saturday morning and drive to Snow's BBQ in Lexington, recently rated best in the state by Texas Monthly. Along with barbecued brisket, breakfast tacos are Texas' great contribution to cuisine. Get 'em at Los Nortenos, at Mi Cocina, or from the unassuming EZ Stop on Harvey Road, where the barbacoa tacos will rock you.
Texas has the finest regional cuisine in the US, but there are plenty of more globalized options in B/CS. Pho John's and Rosie's Pho offer outstanding Vietnamese and pan-Asian respectively. The Spice Bowl serves up Indian, but it's worth the drive to Houston for truly amazing South Asian food. Haiku offers Korean and Japanese, and several other restaurants serve sushi. Both Blue Baker locations have vegetarian-friendly, California-style sandwiches and pizza. Chef Cao's and other restaurants offer Chinese food from a variety of regions; for a more authentic experience, ask your server for the "Chinese menu". The Hook on Lake Bryan has bar food and live music on a 5000-sq ft. (465 m2) lakeside deck .
Aggieland Menus has an exhaustive list of area restaurants.
Coffee and such
In addition to the usual array of corporate coffeeshops like Starbucks, B/CS has a couple of independent coffeehouses that are great for studying and meeting. Our favorite is Sweet Eugene's at Harvey and George Bush (Sr.), a big place with couches and comfortable armchairs and the usual array of coffee drinks plus crepes and kolaches (a locally abundant Czech pastry stuffed with jam, cheese, and/or spicy sausage). The Station, nearby on Harvey, also has free wireless. Revolutions, in Old Town Bryan, also serves coffee drinks when it opens in the early evenings. Go to Rosie's for your bubble tea fix.
Drinking
There are innumerable bars in B/CS. On any given afternoon, you're likely to run into your colleagues at Mad Hatter's on Northgate, a funky place with an outdoor deck and the best value anywhere on happy-hour drinks: $2 for imported beers and New Orleans-style bloody marys. Grad students also enjoy the Ptarmigan, a Bryan dive straight out of a David Lynch movie, and the more conventional Dog & Duck. Ozona, on Harvey, is a great place to kick back with a margarita when the weather's nice. Revolutions has an art gallery and lots of live events. If you prefer to drown your sorrows in the privacy of your own home, check out Spec's, a giant liquor store at Harvey and Texas. The Messina Hof winery makes Sicilian and German-inspired local wines. For something different, try the cranberry mead produced in nearby Navasota and available at local supermarkets.
By day
You should be working in the lab. But if you're not, go play Frisbee golf at either of two courses around town, or regular golf right next to campus. Wolf Pen Creek Park, between Harvey Road and Southwest Parkway, offers numerous trails for running and biking, as well as an outdoor amphitheater for live music and theater and an indoor skating rink. TAMU has world-class athletic facilities including "Mount Aggie", an artificial ski slope. Check out the Brazos Valley African American Museum, the Stark and Forsyth Galleries on campus, the Natural History Museum, and take the kids to the Children's Museum. The Texas Renaissance Festival, held over several weekends in the fall, is great fun whether or not you ever played a 7th level cleric.
Bike the open country roads around town, or go squirrel-hunting with your neighbors. Take an 8-mile hike in the Little Lake Creek Wilderness, less than an hour away in the Sam Houston National Forest, or explore the trails around Lake Somerville. The Post Oak Savanna region of Texas is at a biogeographically interesting junction between eastern and western North America, and between the Neartic and the Neotropics. Watch out for roadrunners, armadillos, and American chameleons.
At night
You should still be working in the lab, but if you're not, you might as well dance with cowhands at the Texas Hall of Fame or drag queens at Halo. Go catch a show: Texas country at the Tap, salsa at Margarita Rocks, rock at Revolutions. Two live-music highlights are the annual Northgate Music Festival and the Big State Festival. There are musical events all the time on campus, sponsored by student organizations, the performing arts department, and the MSC OPAS, which brings in international acts like violinist Yitzhak Perlman and traveling Broadway musicals.
Two huge movie theaters along Highway 6 have super-comfortable seating and show Hollywood fare. The Palace walk-in, in Old Town Bryan, has free movies on weekends. Various organizations on campus also show documentaries as well as independent and foreign films. There are several independent stage production companies in the area, including Shakespeare at Winedale.
Texas A&M home football games are the major event in town; Aggie women's soccer and men's basketball are nationally competitive. Get the skinny on these sports and many more at aggieathletics.com. You can also catch a race at the Texas World Speedway south of town.
First Fridays in Downtown Bryan, held on the first Friday of each month, feature live music, art shows, and carriage rides.
Shopping
There is the standard array of national and international chain stores in College Station, as well as a gargantuan outlet mall enroute to Houston. Old Town Bryan features some charming locally owned stores, including Catalena Hatters and EarthArt.
Media
The local newspaper is the Bryan/College Station Eagle. Pick up a copy of the Maroon Weekly in local shops for information on upcoming events. KEOS community radio (FM 89.1) carries eclectic music programming and news shows from Pacifica, NPR, and the BBC. The more mainstream KAMU (90.9) carries classical, jazz, and NPR news programs. KAMU-TV carries PBS and local university programming.
Excursions
Houston, about a 90 minute drive, is America's fourth-largest and, by some measures, most diverse city. There's an overwhelming array of first-rate restaurants featuring every kind of cuisine, as well as world-class museums and vibrant music and theater scenes. Austin, live-music capital of the world and a two-hour drive, also makes for a great day trip. Go canoeing in Caddo Lake State Park or backpacking in West Texas.
