So when you apply for your major in engineering, let’s say you do not get accepted into your first or second choice. What then? Does TAMU offer you some other engineering major that has space? Also, by putting down a certain major as your second choice, does that reduce your chances of getting into that major than if you had put it down as your first choice? Thank you to anyone who has some insight.
My son’s advisor recommended he apply for only his preferred major on his first application. They told him that each department would not know what he chose as first or second, but my son wanted to be safe. My son was also told that there are enough seats in engineering for everyone, but not necessarily in their preferred major. If you don’t get your first or second choice in the first round you would probably need to look at the other options and rethink your plans. My son was only interested in Mechanical Engineering and if he didn’t get it, he was looking to transfer schools. Fortunately, he did get it this round.
wow, if this process done without eliminating those who already got their first choices, someone should re-think this. So one student will get two majors even though they have pre-ranked? What’s the point of that? It takes up time of the review board for an applicant who already is going to pick their #1, and possibly knock out another candidate who was in the pecking order. Maybe the engineering board should go talk to the sororities and find out how mutual selection works!! They do a good job at recruitment 
It’s funny how different advisors suggest different things. My son was told to apply to two majors as opposed to @whciv01 son.
TAMU’s reasoning for how selections are done is for each department to be independent of each other. Mechanical shouldn’t care what Civil thinks about a student and vice-versa. Would the department accept this applicant not caring what any other department says? Makes sense to me. The two departments do not share information or selections. Yes it may be double work for the departments but they had to realize that when they devised this system.
Here is why I think it so OK. Some students aren’t quite sure what they want and would be happy with either. Allowing them to pick 2 allows them that option whereas a single option would not. I know a couple of students who actually accepted their second choice major when offered both.
This does create this issue where some students may get denied though via the pecking order scenario. Maybe doing the sorority method is an option. I think the 2nd wave will be a little more generous in offers since they have some solid numbers to go by from the first wave.
The reality is this: There are 17 Engineering majors at TAMU, and there will be room for all who apply to get ‘A’ major. However, competition to a few majors will be fierce. Not all of those majors are interchangeable, and a few you could argue represent a ‘less rigorous’ track, though possibly to an equally successful career path. This way TAMU gets to continue accepting applicants to engineering automatically on a rolling basis yet gets to keep retention numbers high. Students are weeded out to the less competitive majors instead of out of engineering completely. Interestingly, they also state that in round 1, “1517 eligible applicants applied to 13 engineering majors”. That means 4 majors received no applicants at all?
On the applying to 2 majors - I think advice was given differently based on the students desired major, as each major was able to devise their own rules. I have only communicated with the Mechanical Dept, but their advice includes the following: “The essay must convince the committee that the applicant has a well-vetted and succinct understanding of the degree and career path they wish to pursue.” How you can do that, AND pick a second competitive major that leads to a substantially different career path, I do not know, Hence possibly the advice to go all out and select just ME the first round.
ME also indicates that the second round of selections will actually be MORE competitive, not less, as they expect the 1000 additional students who did not apply the first round, plus all of those who did not get into a major from the first round, to reapply. They filled 65% of the 288 available slots in the first round (yes, some will reopen because kids who were admitted to two majors and chose the other one, but they do not yet know how many).
Not really. There are not really 17 engineering majors. Industrial Distribution is in the engineering department but is not engineering. Engineering Technology is not an engineering major. Computer Science is not engineering. Computer Engineering is, but I think it’s part of the electrical engineering department. There were applicants to all engineering majors.
The competition for the more “popular” majors such as Mechanical and Chemical were fierce. The average GPA was a 3.8 for entry and some 4.0s were denied. Needless to say, its created a process that weighs in favor of the most popular majors by giving them an additional process to “weed out” the weaker students.
Before, they had to depend on the students being admitted into their major, which included a top 10% kid with a 900 SAT. Data suggests that the vast majority of these students will initially struggle in college and will certainly have trouble hitting elite benchmarks of a 3.5 or higher. Approximately 15% of the student body achieves scores this high which makes the students preparation before college all the more important.