Sitting in the car with her mother, senior Madeline Phillips looked at the campus of A&M. As she walked the campus with her tour guide, a specialized tour for her engineering emphasis, she was flooded with new information.

This summer Phillips scheduled a college tour to the A&M campus. She went with her mother and while she was there learned about the heavy traditions of the school. The college had been low on her wish list, but during the tour she learned so much more. She supports other students to go and schedule college tours so they, like her, can broaden their horizons and learn amazing things about the school and themselves.

“[The visit] was really interesting,” Phillips said. “I figured out they are a really tradition heavy school. They do certain things on certain days. They have a bunch of memorials. Every first Tuesday of every month they have a memorial for any student who died the previous month. And one a year they have a memorial for all passed aggies. It’s just really cool how tradition heavy they are.”

Phillips family is also very tradition heavy. From dinners to holidays. Discovering that her values aligned with A&M’s values was an amazing surprise to Phillips. Something she would never have learned if she had not gone to the campus.

“We have family dinner once a week,” Phillips said. “Our Christmases are always the same, our thanksgivings are always the same. Sometimes there will be little changes, but I will always know ‘okay we are going to grandma’s this year then this and this.’ So it connected me to my family and how we are really close and really tradition heavy, to go to a school that is also tradition heavy. I was attracted to A&M, but I didn’t know they were that tradition heavy. I’m going into engineering and they have one of the best schools.”

If she decides to go attend A&M, Phillips also learned of a group she could join while at the school. The Core Cadets.

“I barely knew the Core Cadets existed and I didn’t know how tradition heavy they were,” Phillips said. “I didn’t know how they did certain things and how hard they had to work. It looked so cool when I was walking around, seeing them do this this and this. How invested they are in the school and I have always liked getting involved, not just a student but being in the program.”

Phillips knows now that not attending a school in person isn’t a smart idea. She had gone on many other college campuses because according to her, you can’t make an educated decision without seeing the college in person.

“Any ole person can go ‘yeah A&M, it’s great,’ ” Phillips said. “Being able to go to the school, look around, talk to the people there and see if everyone is like ‘A&M is great,’ or if some people are like ‘I hate this school,’ [College Visits are important]. A&M was at the bottom of my list and then when I went there I was thought ‘this is one of my top choices.’ You never know what’s going to pop out at you and you have to know that because you are going to be there for the next four years. You are going to be paying for this school for a year so you have to know you like this school and don’t mind giving them money.”