Howdy! I am confused. Should I place engineering as both the first and second choices for TAMU if I am an academic auto admit? Does it make a difference to apply early or later (sometime in August)? Can someone give me some advice? Thanks!
@texasguy2019 I am not the end all for knowing about Engineering… but what I’ve seen is if you put both for first and second, you need to be willing to take an alternative campus for freshman year. You’re auto into TAMU but they could still place you at Galveston or Blinn Team or even McAllen. If you have other interest, then I would list it as 2nd choice. BUT that is my opinion. I wonder though, and if someone knows this… please fill us in, if you put them both as choices and they offer you another pathway, could you then change your major to something at college station campus like Math or something. OR would you be locked into Engineering and nothing else… @THELMA2 or @pbleigh do y’all know?
Thanks @AggieMomhelp, I don’t know much about Blinn Team but the campus seems to be close to TAMU. What are the cons of being in the Blinn Team? If I really need to put a 2nd choice, I may put biomedical science, but if I don’t put engineering as both 1st and 2nd, will the admission officers think I’m okay to go to my 2nd choice and just put me there? And this is exactly what I wanna ask → if you put them both as choices and they offer you another pathway, could you then change your major to something at college station campus like Math or something. OR would you be locked into Engineering and nothing else?
The College of Engineering does a holistic review so even though you are an auto admit to the University that does not mean you are guaranteed to get into the College of Engineering. Also make sure you understand the ETAM process. Based on 2018 statistics published almost 1 in 4 students were not granted admission to their first choice of Engineering major. If you want a 100% guarantee on getting the major you want you should explore other schools. But to answer your question, if you are only interested in Engineering then I would list two Engineering majors as your two options.
If you want to live on campus there is a benefit to getting your application in by the early deadline. Housing priority is based on when you are accepted into the University. Best of luck to you.
And how about this question–>Does it make a difference to apply early or later (sometime in August)? Does anyone know? Thanks!
@TEXASguy2019 as long as you are in by Oct. 15 for early action, you’ll be fine, but I always go under the premise of better sooner than later.
As for Blinn Academy (Team is for non engineering students)… it’s a one year program if done as intended. You have all the benefits of being an Aggie (sports pass, parking, resources, housing, dining, etc.). The only difference is you take some classes on the Rellis campus (10 -15 minutes from TAMU campus. You would apply (ETAM) like every other engineering student at TAMU, Galveston, Academies, etc. Everyone follows the same freshman requirement.
Thanks@TexasAggie, great advice! So if I put them both as choices and they offer me another pathway (like Blinn or others), can I change my major at that point? Or would they ask me to change my major (instead of giving me the pathway choices) cuz I’m an auto admit?
@AggieMomhelp Thanks for your useful, speedy response!
@TexasAggie For the ETAM, that means 75% of the engineering students have a 3.5 GPA after their freshman year? Is there any testing component in the ETAM process besides having a 3.5 GPA?
The acceptance percentage for each major is different and they do not disclose that information. I believe Industrial Distribution is one of the easiest majors to get in with 100% acceptance. There is no testing component to ETAM. They look at GPA and responses to short answer questions.
I highly recommend to visit this webpage to make sure you have a good understanding of what you are getting into. https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/entry-to-a-major/index.html
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I’m not sure what your options are if they offer you pathway. My guess is your only option is to accept or decline the offer.
For the first time applying early to AM Eng does nothing for you.
The deadline is Oct 15th. No engineering applications will be considered until then. This is the first year that all engineering applications will be holistically reviewed by the Eng department and not be “first come first serve” by the admissions office.
If you have all materials submitted by the deadline it is possible that you will hear back early in December… but no guarantees.
Also if you apply to Eng or CS it HAS to be your first choice.
Saying “History” 1st, Engineering 2nd will result in your application being held till Oct 15. They might even ignore the application.
Thanks @Greymeer, you said that no engineering applications will be considered until Oct 15th and the applications will be reviewed by the engineering department. May I know where you got this info? Do you mean being an auto admit will not put me in any advantage at all? I will be putting engineering as my 1st, just don’t know if I should also put it as my 2nd. Do you have any tips for me?
@TexasAggie Thanks for the link! I did read it… just wanted to know what it doesn’t show.
"Due to the continued increase of competitive applications, the Texas A&M College of Engineering moved to a total holistic review process. This policy applies to all applications to engineering, including Texas A&M automatic admits. "
https://engineering.tamu.edu/admissions-and-aid/prospective-students/admissions.html
@TexasGuy2019 As I mentioned in my first post auto admit does absolutely nothing for you when applying to the College of Engineering. If you are only interested in engineering then put it as your first and second choice (but it really won’t change your chances of getting in). With the exception of BA in Computing all engineering students are placed into the general engineering program. After you meet certain qualifications (typically after 1st year) you can apply for a specific major. Information on deadlines can be found here: https://engineering.tamu.edu/admissions-and-aid/apply-now.html
Auto admit simply means that you will be accepted… but not necessarily into your desired major.
@greymeer @TexasGuy2019 I’m not sure that is exactly correct @greymeer. A&M has been doing total holistic reviews of all engineering applications since the 2017/2018 fall entering class. That year and since if you were an academic or auto admit you could fairly quickly gain entry into the university but without a major assigned. This allows you to get in the housing queue early. They start reviewing the engineering applications as they come in but wait until you are admitted to the university; they do not wait until October 15th. That is just the deadline to get an “earlier” answer as to whether you will gain admission into engineering. My son got his engineering acceptance in early November.
Thank you @pbleigh I couldn’t type fast enough! Your response is spot on.
Do you know though if he doesn’t get engineering, and is auto admit, can he change his major to something other than eng if he doesn’t like the pathway?
@TexasGuy2019 If you put engineering as your first choice then you are not going to be put into a major until after engineering does their holistic review. If your second choice is a very competitive major such as Mays it likely will be filled by then. If you really want engineering it probably increases your chances to have two engineering choices because it seems when you are admitted into general engineering (which is the same for everyone) they have a specific engineering major in parenthesis next to General Engineering under major choice. This perhaps gives you two chances to be selected by a department.