What Does Texas A&M Stand For?

The letters "A"&"M" stand for AGRICULTURAL & MECHANICAL.

The letters A&M are generally applied to "land-grant colleges" and refer to the agricultural, technical and engineering curricula offered by such schools as opposed to the Liberal Arts, Law, Medicine et al curricula offered by Universities such as Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi), Texas (The University of Texas), North Carolina(The University of North Carolina) etcetera. These universities are generally called by their shortened names such as Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina, Michigan and so on. Most "A&M" colleges have now changed their name to "STATE". Most states have a "University of ..." and a "....State" college in their educational systems and the rivalries between such schools are traditionally fierce and eternal.

The letters "A"&"M" can be found in the names of several other colleges and universities:

Louisiana State University, better known as LSU, is officially named Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College. Oklahoma State University was formerly know as Oklahoma A&M College.

Mississippi State University was formerly "Mississippi A&M College". My grandfather attended this school. Its name was subsequently changed to "Mississippi State College" and later to its current name of "Mississippi State University".

Texas A&M, the state's first public institution of higher education, was opened on Oct. 4, 1876 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, and at that time the "A" and "M" initials were used to abbreviate the name components. When the institution gained university status in 1963, the "A&M" representation (no periods, no spaces and with an ampersand) was incorporated into the official name in deference to the institution's history and rich traditions, but the individual letters no longer explicitly stand for anything.