Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is also known as A&M or TAMU. Texas A&M University is a public, land-grant, research institution. It was established in 1876, and in 1948 it was selected to serve as the flagship university for the Texas A&M University System. Texas A&M is the only university in Texas to have simultaneous classifications as a land-, sea-, and space-grant college. Since 2021, it has enrolled more students than any other school in the United States, making it the school with the biggest student body in the country. In addition to being a member of the Association of American Universities, it has the distinction of being one of the "R1: Doctoral Universities – Extremely high research activity."

Under the terms of the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act, the university was the first public higher education institution to open its doors in the state of Texas. It was originally known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (A.M.C.). Classes began at the university on October 4, 1876. The following decades saw the institution develop both in terms of size and breadth, reaching its maximum enrolment during World War II before experiencing a considerable plateau in enrollment for the first time after the war. The college desegregated, became coeducational, and did away with the necessity for membership in the Corps of Cadets under the administration of President James Earl Rudder, who presided over the institution throughout the 1960s and led the charge to increase enrollment numbers. The Texas Legislature changed the name of the college to Texas A&M University in 1963 so that it would better represent the expanded functions and academic offerings of the school. Nonetheless, the initials "A&M" were kept in the name as a monument to the university's previous classification.

The main campus of the institution covers an area of more than 5,500 acres (22 km2) and is home to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. The university is home to 21 different research institutions and confers degrees in more than 130 different fields of study via its 17 different colleges. Cadets at Texas A&M University, which is a senior military institution and one of only six colleges in the United States with a full-time, voluntary Cadet Corps, study alongside undergraduate students from other academic disciplines. On-campus housing is available for about one fifth of the total student population. At Texas A&M University, there are over a thousand student groups that are officially recognised. A significant number of students uphold the norms established by the university's traditions, which regulate behaviour in academic and extracurricular activities. The institution's students, alumni, and athletic teams are all referred to collectively as Aggies. The university is a member of the Southeastern Conference, and its athletes play in eighteen different varsity sports.