What bothers me is the unknown. In another year, there will be a lot of information and advice available to help in the decision making process, from this source and others. For example, if a major clearly prefers candidates take math 151 on campus, the student can keep that in mind when registering for classes. I want my S to be able to say to himself - to be accepted in MEEN or Aero, I know I need to aim for at least a ## gpa and also get an A in Phys 218…or whatever. I’ve advised my son to NOT take AP credit for Math 151 or Phys 218 so he can aim for a high GPA, but I now wonder if that is wrong advice - based on the stats of kids above, maybe the Majors favored kids who had moved ahead. Not enough data yet to know.
Right now, it seems like to be pretty sure they can get into a first choice competitive major, they need to be darn near perfect, as are some of the great students above in this thread, and also be seeking out co-curricular opportunities. That pressure to pull a 4.0 in their first semester of college, along with all the normal adjusting to college classes and living away from home, seems like a lot to put on the shoulders of an 18 year old. If they mess up and pull a 3.0 first semester (not a bad gpa for an engineering student in my opinion) are they immediately tracked to a less competitive major? We can speculate that the bar to get in will be lower after the next round, but we don’t have any data yet to support that.
TAMU needs to do a much better job of explaining this new program to current and prospective students. How many students were accepted in the first round? How many are expected to be accepted in the next round? How can students make a decision about degree plans without more information? Really good students will walk away from engineering and just apply elsewhere to avoid the uncertainty. Who can blame them? The fairer approach to me would be to accept the desired number in each discipline now and let those not accepted transfer to another school or to another TAMU college.
@lee6666, EASA told me that they will be allowed to register for major specific courses sophomore year as long as they are making acceptable progress, but if they end up not getting into that major they may lose ground.
Has anyone heard yet any word on how many spots were available and/or filled in the more competitive majors? Were there definitely spots held open for the next round?
I agree that the whole process needs to be more transparent. I hope that Dean Banks will be borrowing even more successful initiatives from Purdue. When we attended the Purdue engineering presentation two years ago, they said that the biggest challenge faced by engineering colleges is freshmen retention. This is a challenge faced by all engineering schools. Students are admitted that the college believes can succeed, but too many change majors or drop out after their freshman years.
Purdue was in the middle of implementing a number of new programs to improve their rate. I did not take notes on the specifics, but they said that the engineering retention rate (from 2012 to 2013) was 88%! Their goal was 90%. These figures are way above average, which is around 60%, I believe. Here’s a short article about what Purdue has done: http://blogs.ptc.com/2012/08/06/high-dropout-rates-prompt-engineering-schools-to-change-approach/ Purdue also makes it a priority to be sure that each engineering student gets time to evaluate the specific engineering majors and makes it relatively easy to change majors in the first couple of years. The student giving her part of the presentation had finally settled on Chemical Engineering after trying two other engineering majors.
To achieve TAMU’s 25 by 25 goal, improving the retention rates, particularly the freshman retention rate, is key. As of Fall 2013 (the latest year compete data are available), TAMU was third nationwide in undergraduate engineering enrollment, but fifth in undergraduate degrees awarded. This means that too many students that enter the College are not graduating with engineering degrees. By contrast, Purdue was sixth in enrollment, but 4th in degrees awarded.
@beyondtx I’ve added some of the other data from the report that you have probably reviewed. It shows the student does not need to be “darn near perfect”. It appears students around the 2.0 mark were offered a major. It makes sense to believe that those students with the lower GPAs had good co-curricular activities and most likely good essays, etc.
More data would give a better picture and clear up the unknowns of who was and wasn’t admitted but as we know admissions offices like to keep some things secret. One would assume that as the waves progress more data will be available to help future students. The current batch of freshman are the guinea pigs of this new process.
Agreed that more data, which will come eventually, will help clear up the picture. However, for those making final decisions right now, this is all the data we have. And for my S, who is sure he wants ME or Aero, based on the data currently available, he needs to attain a 3.8 (ME) or a 3.6 (Aero) to be competitive with those admitted this cycle. The lowest accepted GPA you posted could be a single outlier, we just don’t know. Sure, some will get in with lower stats, but we don’t know enough yet to know what other factors mattered in the decision process. So its a risk. it may be an acceptable risk, but that is for each to decide for themselves.
@kldat1 Thanks for posting the numbers! I’m going to A&M next year and hope to be accepted in to Petroleum. The average GPA is high, as expected, but I must admit I thought it may be a bit higher (3.8). Any idea how the 2.9 GPA got in? Could an excellent interview help? Nervous. Any tips on how to maximize my chances of getting that high GPA and grtting in to Petroleum?
@Chelsea75, a lot of students go to outside group tutoring at places like A+. A season pass is very affordable. My son tried 3 different private tutors for math & liked the one from Aggieland the most. For Math 151, watch Amy Austin’s online videos, Go to week in review (taught by Amy Austin this semester). I think you can also find previous exams online for extra practice.
Just to clarify, I asked my civil adviser about the stats for the round of general engineering students they just accepted. He showed me where they sent out 149 offers and 112 of those students accepted the offer (75%). He told me he did not know how many actually applied though.