Class of 2028 - General Engineering admission advice needed

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
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My daughter is a junior. She will be applying to A&M this summer and would like to major in Aerospace or Biomedical Engineering. Her second choice would be marketing. She is nervous that she won’t be accepted into A&M bc of how competitive both of those majors are. My husband and I are both Aggies and she has always dreamed of going to A&M. If she puts those two majors for her choices and she doesn’t get either one, will they still accept her and have her choose something else? Stats are below. How are her chances looking?

GPA 3.8 W/ 3.8 UW
Top 15% as of last year. Hoping it will be a little higher next time the school does ranking.
1300 SAT (600 math/700 verbal) That was her first time. She is taking SAT test prep and will take again in March.
AP Physics
DC History
DC English
Pre Calculus
Mostly Advanced Classes - I see lots of posts about kids having 10+ AP classes. Our school doesn’t allow most AP or DC classes until junior year.
Senior year will take AP Calculus and DC Gov/Econ as well as an Engineering Capstone project class
Robotics team qualifying at competitions
4 years school dance team
NHS
Mu Alpha Theta
Volunteer hours
Has a weekend job

I would appreciate any advice. I was Class of '98. Things are a lot different now!

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Has she taken ACT? Will definitely need a higher SAT and/or 33+ ACT. Tell her to finish strong this semester, to try & raise that rank.

She would enter as General Engineering or BUAD, not Aerospace or Marketing specifically.

@FriscoDad can give the best chance…

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She has once but only made a 25. She may take it again but was told by an SAT and an ACT prep teacher she should stick with SAT since she did better.

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Engineering and marketing are vastly different majors. Is she still deciding which direction to go or is her intent only on getting into Texas A&M?

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Engineering holistic will need 1400+ SAT or 32+ACT to be safe. If your student checks the SAT score sheet, that’s only a few extra correct answers in each section so it is very achievable. Be practical in preparation (see which part math or science or reading needs improvement) and focus on the weakness.

Private high schools tend to limit students AP due to cost/profit concern. Public high schools are more flexible and negotiable (don’t just follow their rules without challenging). So feel free to ask for more in senior year. Student (not parent) can talk to convince counselor to take more AP classes.

Try to sense if student hesitates in taking tough AP classes. In many cases the issues are how teachers grade students. Easy-A teachers tend to give students more confidence but that may not do student favor in preparing for college. So as a parent, it is important to observe if student is really enjoying the subject.

AERO and BMEN are very unforgiving majors. BMEN routinely give MCAT questions in sophomore year (3rd semester). Helping students feel comfortable in Calculus is also critical. Calculus tests in TAMU are not time-crunch, but old-school hard. Your student still have time to prepare for the ETAM year before getting the major in sophomore year.

Essay will be tough to cover engineering and marketing. Make sure essay is done during the summer before application opens. Many good essay writers spend too much portion writing their past, they forget to express what they want to do with a TAMU degree.

If planning for Mays, it may not be a good idea to take DC Econ. DC credit automatically transferred, but TAMU wants to see how student performs in ECON202/203. Econ 202 is a GPA killing class in Mays freshmen. So if possible take AP Macro/Micro Econ for showcasing course strength, don’t take the AP credit and take the Econ at TAMU.

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Note that Texas A&M engineering has secondary admission to major after frosh are admitted to first year general engineering (i.e. not specific majors). Aerospace and biomedical are among the more competitive majors, so it can be a stressful first year experience trying for the 3.75 college GPA for auto-admit, or wondering whether a GPA lower than 3.75 + essays is enough to be admitted to the desired major.

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Thank you for the information. There is so much to know and I feel like we are already behind! She has been preparing herself for engineering all throughout high school and now she is second guessing herself and may want to change to something else. She has her heart set on A&M, just isn’t sure what she wants to do now.

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@FriscoDad How do you know Econ202 is tough?

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To clarify, the content for the class ECON202 is very entry level, but the grading and competition is the issue. The class is taken by a lot of majors (all Mays, Econ, Blinn Team, AG and many other Arts and Science majors) And it was likely many of them had AP Econ in their high schools

From GDR (see below), 33% and about the same throughout the years. Many Mays students already top academically. For those trying to transfer to Mays, getting an A at TAMU carries better consideration in transfer holistic review especially transfer is reviewed by departments (they know students dodging competitive classes). Students can claim this class away (AP/IB/DC) only if they are confident in getting 4.0 in the rest of the classes.

econ202
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@LuviasTexas entry Econs are also more difficult at TAMU because they are huge (many, many hundreds +) AND always online only. Not the easiest curriculum & online only, it definitively isn’t a blow off class, especially for freshman.
Take the AP Macro/Micro.

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My guidance is to follow rule #1 - NEVER fall in love with a college. Ever.

Find the right school - if you make it A&M or bust, she is going to be potentially very disappointed. And it sounds like you are heading down that path.

Marketing and engineering are far different - so it seems as if she really doesn’t know. Is she super strong at math and science?

It’s typically easier to start in engineering as it’s harder to transfer in and make up the work. The engineers that don’t make it, 40-60% based on various studies, often end up in the b-school on their respective campuses.

That assumes each major is of equal desire but that doesn’t seem realistic.

Best of luck to your student.

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Have her check out the options under industrial and systems engineering on this page, it’s kind of a combination between engineering and business so it might be a better fit for her?

As far as preparation, what you want to do is have her focus the most on her math SAT score improvement. And then make sure she takes AP Calc as a senior.

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I got in for A&M engineering this year! Here are my stats!

Race: African American
Gender: Woman
SAT: Test optional

GPA W: 99.4/100
GPA UW: School only does weight
Rank: 61/656 (instate + auto admit)(top 9%)

APs (did not send scores): Calc BC, Physics C, CS, USH, WH, Physics 2(senior year)
Honors Classes: All that my school offered(besides Spanish 1 bc it was not offered)
DC/DE: English 3(Northeast Lakeview), Pre Cal(UT Austin), English 4(North east lakeview)(senior year), Econ (North east lakeview)(senior year), gov(North east lakeview)(senior year)

ECs:
-SkillsUSA English and Architecture, President(1yr), 3 years total
-Girls Who Code, Vice President(1yr), President(1yr), 2 years total
-MathUIL, Co Captain(2yr), 3 years total
-STEM Goes Red, 4 years total
-Club Soccer, 2 years in HS, 8 years total
-Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program
-Student Council, 1 year
-Code Ninjas, job, 2 years total
-HEB, job, 1 year
-SK Help, School Volunteering, 1 year

Honors: NHS(1yr)
Awards: State Finalist for SkillsUSA Robotics Compitition
Letters of Rec: Engineering teacher, English teacher, a Civil Engineer I met through my dad :slight_smile:

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I feel like TAMU Engineering is not as hard as people claim it is to get into, it was my safety school

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Don’t forget - A&M is not direct admit for a specific Engineering major so that’s another hurdle to overcome once you get there although 80% ultimately land their top choice major.

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You were top 10%. OP is not.

I have no clue if OP gets in. Not suggesting they won’t.

I am suggesting those who fall in love with a school often face disappointment.

OP does not have auto entry like you did.

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oh you are right, thats my bad

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that is very true, going for mechanical and my masters in biomechanical. My top choice is UT but I prob wont get in bc my rank and I don’t have an SAT score

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My son is applying for Engineering '28 in August. He is top 6% and has a good stats, honors, AP classes, DC Classes, awards, volunteer, work etc… I had a question about how they look at electives for Engineering.

His electives have been:
*Art 1 and 2
*Principles of Engineering
*Rocket 1 and 2 and has with his class deigned, built, and flown his rocket at Systems Go (last year and will this year), also this year he was 1 of 3 students in school that presented their Transonic flight patterns to NASA this fall with other schools across the state.
*Welding 1 this year
*Varsity Golf (4 years)

Outside of School, I would consider almost as an elective:
*He is also in the NASA HAS program this year and has almost completed it. It ends in 2 weeks.

As far as electives go, how will this look for him? He wants to take Welding 2 next year which takes the up 2 class periods. He will have to drop Rocket 3 to take Welding 2.

Do they look at having taken Welding as a plus? He really enjoys the class, and is doing really well in it. Seeing if he should stick with Rocket or if welding 2 will look just as good. Any other suggestions before they make their schedule for next year? Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks so much.

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For top6% (auto) they basically don’t look at anything else. Just verify official high school transcript and your son will be accepted.

If your son is NMSF/NMS, apply early for Brown Scholarship consideration. The Brown Foundation will look into all these amazing electives.

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