So it turns out that VIZ doesn’t have an honors program. My daughter isn’t interested in the university honors program and was planning to check out the department level honors program since the advice seems to be the department honors programs are better than the university honors program and I think that is true for the business majors. I see online that the business department has a large independent honors program that students can do in addition to or instead of university honors. A&M has university level, college level, and department level honors programs. But not all colleges have an honors program (college of architecture does not) and not all departments have an honors program (Architecture department does, but Visualization department does not). It’s fine. It sounds like the VIZ program and projects are plenty challenging without the added extra work of an honors program. According to the stories VIZ students have been know bring a dog bed to nap in the lab. 
Now you know what to get your DD for graduation! She will do great
@martinezcs i have also heard that, about bringing in large dog beds to sleep! I think she will spend a LOT of time in the Viz building.
Biggest perk to being in Honors is early registration. Viz is so small, once she’s upper level, she shouldn’t have an issue getting those Viz classes anyway.
Whenever the topic of Honors comes up, the general consensus from folks on this board is it’s worth it for the early registration.
Can we hear some real-life examples?
For instance:
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Honors student X got a great schedule with MWF classes at 9:30, 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and TR classes at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. and then got an early start to his weekend.
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Whereas, non-honors student Y in the same major got a lousy schedule with MWF 8:00 a.m., 12:30, 5:00 p.m. and TR classes at 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
I just wanted to understand how much better a schedule might be just by registering early.
Of course, if only 10% of the students in a given department are Honors, then the remaining 90% can’t be that bad, right?
Great or lousy schedule may not be their first priorities. Students want easier professors. An 8am class can fill up fast too.
Right now, pre-registration is happening for spring semester. And during this period, honors students register first, then its by seniority, with freshman having the last time slot.
On Nov 22, open registration begins and continues till mid Jan, excluding Dec 22 to Jan 3. During this time, students can add/drop as they please.
Junior DS is not honors and has never been able to get many classes, if any, during pre-registration. However, during open registration, many more classes are added and lots of seats open up to meet demand and he has always gotten the classes he needed. He says that he gets the better teachers by waiting till open registration, based on friends who registered early vs him waiting. Who knows? But he is just one person…
@NDTA96 it’s more than the best schedule time. TAMU is so huge, that many classes fill up, almost instantly. If you’re in HNR, you register 1st day, so you’re more likely to have a chance at getting a seat in the mega classes that fill up so quickly. And you have better professors to select from also. With 70k students, registration is a BEAST. The earlier the better, for sure!
My student is BusHonors, which has their own HNR sections of classes-usually the best professors, and MUCH smaller class size.
Even being in HNR, my student still has Tuesday afternoon classes, one online (I think), so it isn’t as much about schedule as it is getting in the needed classes, and getting to choose professors. Smaller class size is a HUGE perk, too. Having to wait and trudge thru open registration would be a nightmare (at least for my student). You’d be shocked at how many parents gripe Every Semester, on the parent pages, that their kid can only register for 6-9 hours, everything else is full. They have to be ‘forced’ into a class by advisor, have to suffer thru open registration and some have to delay graduation by a semester…because they simply can’t get the classes needed.
My son isn’t honors and honestly hasn’t had any issues with schedules. In Mays I would say the profs teach both honors and regular. Yes some class sizes are smaller and it will look great on resume so that’s a perk.
I just don’t want non honor students/parents worrying about it. The process has been simple. I’ve been in it for 7 years now and no issues (2 kids lol not one for 7 years).
Thanks, all, for the wide variety of feedback on Honors early registration, particularly the non-honors perspectives.
@Eggscapgoats, that’s an interesting example. It reminds me of buying concert tickets one time during a busy pre-sale. Then the next day, during the regular sale, I noticed that more seats were unlocked, and had I waited a day, I could’ve gotten closer seats. So I can see that happening with classes, at least in some cases. (And I do recall it mentioned on this board as happening between NSC sessions.)
My daughter will still apply to Engineering Honors, but it’s not the end of the world if she doesn’t get in. I agree with @ChristiR93; non-honors students/parents shouldn’t stress over it.
@NDTA96 you’ve heard the good & not as good. Definitely apply, but if she doesn’t get in, not the end of the world!! A lot depends on major, too (some majors are known for much better advising then others, which can make a big difference when registering). And obviously the smaller majors have an easier time registering, especially once they reach upperclassman level.
If you’re on FB, this would be a great page to join-
(Be sure to answer questions, and must be admitted/accepted to TAMU to join)-
I would like to join this Facebook group, but it says for incoming student that has received and accepted admission offer. And my sons have received acceptance but they haven’t accepted the offer yet. I do have questions that worry me about the scheduling of classes I read above. How hard is it to get classes for engineering majors? Do students have to take online classes because the in person classes fill up quickly? This is a big concern of mine and one of the reasons I’m not thrilled about our flag ship university here in Florida because classes fill up so quickly. Online learning was not ideal during Covid and they’d like to avoid that as much as possible. Does anyone have some insight on this for engineering students?
Junior DS’s experience has been that new classes become available as the present classes fill up during open registration. I think tamu does this on purpose - they dont want a bunch of half filled classes - they want to have the minimum number of full classes. I truly believe tamu wants their students to graduate ASAP so they continue to make classes available during (and maybe towards the end of) open registration to meet demand. Patience is needed
He doesn’t have any online engineering classes this semester (aero eng) but that is a department decision, I’m guessing. If an in-person class fills up, there is not an added online option.
As others have said - it all works out, although there is surely exceptions - like when the desired class has low demand so therefore is not offered or canceled.
I fret over this way more than my son. Add/drops are also allowed the first week of the semester but DS has always had a full schedule by then.
@aalv can’t help you with Engineering, I’ve got a Mays kid. There are certain classes that are always hard to get, one is a basic Communications class, for some reason.
Engineering parents say that page is very helpful. I’m an admin on one of the Mays pages. We require that student be admitted to Mays-not trying to transfer in-just to keep the questions relevant about current Mays info. Same is for Engineering; they don’t want a bunch of parents coming on, asking how their kid can transfer into the program. I’d request to join, then use the 
to search thread about classes, registration.
When I requested to join this group, I indicated my daughter has been accepted, but not yet committed to TAMU Engineering. I added a note that we could gain some insight to help with future decisions. They added me without any other questions. It is informative.
Thank you. This is very informative. I will ask to join the page.
I have two kids in engineering at TAMU, one is now a Master’s student and one is a freshman. In their experience with pre-registration, it is a big benefit to have honor’s and the ability to register on the first day. Yes, seats/sections are opened here and there as registration goes on but there is a big difference in engineering classes between teachers and the times offered. The last sections to be taken are always at 8am or at night 6-7pm, or have a teacher assigned that has a very bad GPA average teaching that course. They will not add new seats/sections until what is there is mostly taken. Another benefit to early registration is the ability to get coveted Core Electives before they are completely gone. The kids know which electives are fairly guaranteed A’s and which are not. My freshman son enrolled in one on 11/4 that had over 300 seats available, every one has been taken for a few days now and the sophomores/freshman hadn’t even enrolled yet. They will likely add a few more here and there but there are many more sophomore and freshman then the few spots they will add. There is not an online section of the class that they have to take during normal non-covid semesters. At TAMU the freshman level classes in engineering are very large lecture halls for Math, Science courses in the 300 student range. The Engineering classes are typically in the 50-80 range in person at Zachary.
@pbleigh, great feedback. Thanks.
Since you and others have mentioned picking good professors, other than word of mouth, what are some reliable sources? Rate My Professors? Uloop?
Yes those are both good sources and my kids also use the grade distribution reports that TAMU produces and the course evaluations.
Housing’s Phase 2 is open. We started, selected LLCs, and checked the box of Participate in Roommate Search but did not complete the step, as we don’t know how it will turn out and were a bit overwhelmed by a number of halls, locations, comparisons, etc. OOS, never visited campus, but maybe do that in Jan or Feb.
It also asks to enter a brief description about the student to show to potential roommates. Not sure how easy to come back to correct that if needed later. So do we need to rush the Phase 2 like Phase 1; if not, when should we complete it by? Thank you.
@ForU, no rush on Phase 2.
Are you going for an LLC? If so, your dorm answer is only where that LLC is located. If no LLC, then your dorm choice in Phase 2 doesn’t really matter because what dorms are available in Phase 4 based on your time slot is what counts. The options in Phase 2 are more for (1) those who don’t pick later and ResLife has to assign one to you and (2) office tracking purposes.
Regarding roommate preferences, my understanding is you can change answers later (before the roommate search opens in the spring for Phase 3), but I don’t recall where I read that before. Or just wait to do it later when you’re ready.