I am sorry your son is not happy with his admission decision at Galveston. I know the disappointment all too well. My son was a NM commended (2110 old SAT= 1470 new SAT) just out of top ten with high achieving stats, leadership and awards, and an aerospace engineering internship during his Sr year that is ongoing every summer full time. He was denied UT engineering. He really wanted UT. It is where his dad went (and still bleeds burnt orange), his uncle and his cousin of the same age was accepted into engineering. So, A&M was his back up along with one other that offered full tuition for 4 years in engineering. He was offered wait list, CAP and PACE and through wait list, was offered full admission to any open major, which did not include STEM. So, with acceptances to engineering elsewhere, he declined. It took him until Fish Camp to really get excited about A&M and he’s really enjoying it. It has been a good fit, more than he realized it would be as a 17 year old when he got accepted.
Your son absolutely has two great options in UT or College of Mines if he elects not to accept A&M Galveston.
As a transfer student, your son will face several factors that are considered in the admission decision for transfer students. If he is really considering transferring, it is something to look into wholly. It may be harder to transfer than it was to be accepted as a freshman. Both colleges told us this in our campus visits when my son was a Sr.
These include, but are not limited to:
1.number of students currently enrolled in the majors,(Petroleum took 2 transfers in the fall per the fall transfer thread).
2.projected number of admitted first-year students who will enroll in the major for the semester under review,
3.the projected number of admitted transfer students who will enroll in the major for the semester under review,
4.the number of transfer applicants under review, and
5.the academic record of those transfer applicants under review.
He also cannot have a C in any class during the semester prior to applying to transfer
All math and science must be an A or B to be competitive.
To prepare for transfer, each department in the college of engineering has identified a list of courses students should complete. https://admissions.tamu.edu/transfer/majors
He is guaranteed his college of choice with a 3.5 after two semesters and more of a chance getting the major he wants with lower GPA from GV (the lowest for Mechanical acceptance was 2.5 last cycle) As external transfers to Look COE, which are very competitive, a 3.5 may not be competitive to even get accepted. Both first year programs have weed out classes. Several of my son’s first semester classes ended with a fraction of the students they started with. Here are the stats of the applicants from the last apply to major cycle. https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major/resources/analysis-spring-2016-admission-cycle
Perhaps an option would be to go ahead and fill out housing for GV (you have until March 1 for guaranteed), as you do not have to accept admission for A&M GV or UT until May 1. Then, have him visit GV and check it out. Would he rather be an Aggie freshman year in GV or another mascot on a big 12 campus his freshman year and hope to transfer?
If he does decide GV is not what he wants to do, then you can decline the A&M admissions offer and get a refund of the GV housing. Go ahead and do the UT housing too if you have not, as UT doesn’t make you wait until you are accepted for apply for housing, so, a lot of applicants applied for housing as soon as their applications were turned in.
Good luck in his decision.