<p>Hi,
can anybody give insight into aerospace program, likes, dislikes,
overall quality of professors? 1st year, are there big lectures with lots of students? Any tas involved in teaching at a&m?</p>
<p>Also honors program, how big are classes in general?</p>
<p>Size of first year classes will vary. Generally, a helpful rule for honors at A&M is that the class size will be half as big as the size of that class offered non-honors. Intro Physics and Calculus will be ~100 ppl. Once you get into your aerospace classes (at earliest sophomore year), they’ll be max 50 people, honors will be half of that. My aero classes have ~50 ppl in them, some are smaller, and that’s the biggest they’ve been in years. After that first semester or two, you’re aero classes get smaller from there (10-30 ppl for non-honors). The biggest benefit of honors is that they give more generous curves = better GPA. So far I like my professors, one of my favorite is Dr. Carlson who is insanely knowledgable about anything related to aerospace.</p>
<p>Here’s a little bit from what I PMed Jevy, who asked similar questions:</p>
<p>I love my aero classes, and I’m learning alot (although it is quite a bit of work). I’m freshly into my aerospace classes, and I’ve already been interviewed by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Continental Airlines for potential internship positions. Most of these “big aero companies” interns I’ve heard are offered jobs after graduation, so IMHO it’s important to land one. I contribute this to both me and this school. A&M has an amazing engineering career fair (largest student run in the nation) that give students a great opportunity at both jobs and internships/co-ops. Monday was actually my first day working at the Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel that A&M operates, so there’s just another example of opportunity. I’ll have that job throughout this summer and until I graduate. I’ve also recently received an aerospace scholarship through A&M for next year. I’m also a member of an A&M chapter of the organization called AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), they have meetings roughly weekly/every other week, and there we hear speakers who are currently in the aerospace industry and what they do. The organization also gives career opportunities as some of the speakers are looking to hire. And one last A&M organization I’m involved with is called AggieSat Lab. We are a undergrad and grad student run organization responsible for launching A&M satellites into space. AggieSat2 will be launched this June aboard space shuttle endeavor, STS-127 I believe. We build the satellite, build the ground station, and test NASA’s GPS equipment once it’s in space. I’m on the Ground Operations Team, which is responsible for communicating with the satellite. After it’s launched AggieSat3 will start commencement (I believe this contract is through the Air Force).</p>