We are heading to NSC in late June and are reviewing the steps to take care of ahead of time. Our son has taken multiple Spanish classes via dual credit. The statement below leads us to believe he shouldn’t schedule a placement test. Does anyone know how his dual credits would apply to his engineering degree plan?
Students who intend to enroll for the first time in a college foreign language course, who have previous knowledge of the language, however acquired, and who have no college credit in the language MUST take a placement test to determine the appropriate course for their level of ability.
As long as he has 2 years of foreign language in high school, he doesn’t need any more FL in college. So correct… no placement test needed. That’s only for those wanting to take higher level language courses.
As far as your question about how his dual credits apply to his engineering degree plan, you will want to look up the engineering degree plan and go through it so you have an idea. My daughter and I sat down with the Viz degree plan and her DC transcripts and her AP list and figured out what will count towards her degree plan. Unfortunately her degree plan only allows one general elective. So several classes that she took aren’t on her plan, so they will be extra unnecessary credits. Fortunately all the core courses apply. We received a one page degree plan sheet at Aggieland Saturday at the program tour but they probably have that online for each major. Some people will tell you don’t worry about it, the advisor will tell you what to register for at NSC and that is true. At NSC the advisor will answer all questions and advise on what classes to register for, but they do expect the student comes prepared and has completed a registration worksheet prior to the meeting and has a flexible plan for what classes they need to register for.
In regards to foreign language only, TAMU requires 2 years and high school FL counts for that. Now if someone is a liberal arts major getting a BA vs. BS… then you need more foreign language for the degree plan.
If they have college credit for FL and want to continue to pursue the language, then no placement test is required. If one is spanish speaking, for example, and has no FL courses, then they have to complete the placement test.
I understand about the placement test and the high school requirement to have completed two years of the same language and you explained that well . It sounded like they also wanted to know if the FL DC credits would count towards their degree plan, unless I misunderstood. They will count towards requirements on the plan if they are on the degree plan or if they have general electives on their plan, otherwise they will just be extra credits. My daughters degree plan (Visualization) only allows one general elective, for example. I don’t know without looking if it fits in a category on his degree plan or how many non-engineering electives engineering students have on their plan. If they have general electives on the degree plan then the DC FL credits can fulfill that on the degree plan and save time not taking those elective credits at A&M. But the published degree plans are pretty helpful for checking to see what the requirements are so families can figure out what has already been completed via DC.
Those DC credits make the semester loads lighter! Anything to knock down those 120 hours!
My daughter doesn’t have any dual credit, but she has lots of AP credit, including Spanish (SPAN 201 and 202). Looking at her engineering degree plan, she plans to apply that towards the University Core Curriculum under “Language, Philosophy, and Culture” (3 credit hours required).
I assume that’s how it works and it’d be similar with dual credit.
Of course, it’ll be done at NSC. Didn’t think it was even possible to do so otherwise.
The A&M Testing Services website clearly states: “Students will not be able to ‘accept’ AP credit until they have attended their New Student Conference and met with an advisor.”
It can be done anytime, and many students accept it all as soon as scores come in. Definitely need to wait, and be strategic about accepting. They’ll explain it all at NSC.
That’s the joy of AP-they can be accepted sporadically, or not at all VS dual credit which apply automatically.
Dual credit will be applied to its corresponding course and course attribute. It’s done for you on the degree planner in Howdy. In fact it may already be there. This is not something you decide.
Yes, it’s not about deciding. It’s about understanding. Understanding what credits are already earned, where they count, what’s left. So families can figure out what has already been completed via DC. Chance favors the prepared mind! It’s nice to know and our checklist says to do the registration worksheet prior to NSC so part of that is identifying what credits are already earned and what you still need to take so you have a plan for registration before you meet with the advisor. My daughter’s degree plan has 16 credits for fall but she already has 7 of them from dual credit. She has to take at least 12 for her scholarship so she is going to pull forward a course from a future semester on the plan. So she will take 12 credits and has identified the courses.
The degree plan along with DC transcripts and the Texas common course numbering system website (tccns) make this pretty simple. The information is not in the degree planner in howdy for new students until 7 days after the first semester has started and they are expected to have completed a registration worksheet in howdy prior to meeting with their advisor at NSC.
There is a new “Aggie Schedule Builder” highlighted in Howdy Registration that made this really easy. You just enter the courses you need (after you have figured that out) and it creates all possible schedules for you. It created over 100 possible schedules which I’m sure will be narrowed down quickly as other students register and classes fill. We checked out the traditional option (class search/registration worksheet) too and that was a bit cumbersome.
Foreign language was off my radar as my son will be a geosciences major and had completed enough in HS. With the combination of liberal arts, geosciences, and sciences into one college, have you seen anything about whether a foreign language is required for these incoming students who will be part of the “College of Arts and Sciences”?
@hockeymom987 you have asked a great question! I think there is so much ‘unknown’ about President Banks new ‘plan’. I’m sure day 2 NSC will address the foreign language, and many other things. But like @ChristiR93 said, your student should be fine. It may change in the future (doubtful), but they would have to grandfather in current incoming students.
I’ll be interested to hear…keep us posted!
It should be like any other Liberal Arts… if you go the BS route, you aren’t held to the foreign language requirement like a BA. I cannot see that changing just because they combined the departments. It’s like econ being in CoLA… my son was going to do BS route and didn’t need anything other than what he did in high school. If he went BA then he would need 14 total FL credits. Eek!
Hi, what should we wear to the NSC? Is it super casual? Shorts? It’s going to be hot but I am not sure how much to dress up? Also my daughter is planning to wear athletic shorts and and A&M shirt. Is this okay?
We’ve been to visit twice this year for national scholars recruitment events and everyone was dressed casually. We plan to dress casual and comfortable for NSC (which is next week for us!). Dress for warm weather!