External transfer to Texas A&M with 63 hours

Looking at the Transfer Course Sheets for Mays (1st Choice) and Economics (2nd Choice). My son is a sophomore finance major at the University of Arkansas and is applying for Fall 2023 admission to Texas A&M. He’ll have 63 hours completed at the end of this fall semester, which is when he applies for fall admission. The Economics fact sheet state that the maximum transferrable hours are 60. What exactly does this mean? He’s got some dual credit and AP credit included in that number (from high school) that are included on his UARK transcript. Do those 3 additional hours hurt his chances of acceptance?

I’m a Mays mom. Mays doesn’t allow more than 60 total hours for students trying to transfer (change major) within the university, not sure about external transfers.
External transfers will need a 3.9-4.0, specific classes taken and they only accept 100. Extremely competitive.
I don’t know about Econ.

https://admissions.tamu.edu/getattachment/0801de47-88f5-4f10-bea4-2f26c0c4ea65/2022-2023-Business-TCS.pdf

Is there any way around this? Is is possible to abandon some of his hours?

He’s actually signed up to take a wintermester class to “retake” a dual credit data class that he took as a HS Senior that the A&M site says will not receive transfer equivalency. Arkansas gives him 3 hours for the class but A&M says the class does not transfer. That class will actually bump him up to 66 hours of college credit. But if A&M does not give transfer credit for the class, will any of those hours not count against him?

The class he’s taking at wintermester shows it will come over as credit for the Fundamentals of Information Systems (BCIS 1305/ISTM 210).

@ChristiR93 is the transfer expert, she can weigh in.

You probably want to ask Texas A&M transfer admissions directly whether:

  • Having more than 60 credit hours is a disqualifier or disadvantage for transfer admission.
  • The limit of 60 transferable credit hours applies only to the credit hour count, or also excludes from subject credit the courses that make up the credit hours beyond 60. If the latter, how is it determined which courses are included and excluded from subject credit.

If there is no class equivalency then those credits do not factor into the max credits or the transfer gpa.

Do not take the minimester. It will bump him over the 60. I would look at each course on his transcript and see if there are any more that may not transfer.

What is his gpa?

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He has a 3.906 GPA. The A&M Transfer Advisor indicates that the number of hours is not an issue for Mays, but he states that the hours might be an issue for Economics. This is such a quandary. He needs the course to transfer as a prerequisite for Mays admission, and A&M indicates it it may not transfer, which is why he wants to take it again in the Wintermester. But he definitely does not need the course for Economics admission.

Istm is required for transfer and if they told you max credits won’t hurt him then take it! His gpa is stellar so he should not have any issues with having that gpa and all required courses complete and core courses done or almost done.

Keep us posted please!!

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I sure will! Thank you to each of you for taking the time chat with me here.

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I’m writing an update in case anyone looks at this thread later. My son has applied to TAMU as an external transfer and is applying to Mays with Economics as his second choice. While we are still waiting on a response to his application, I am happy to report that his big pile of hours ended up not being a problem. The 9 dual credit hours that his current university gave him credit for are not being awarded transfer credit by TAMU. Also, his 4 hours of physics AP credit are not receiving transfer credit on the transfer of audit report. I don’t know how that will play out eventually–whether he’ll have to take another science class or not–but the audit has him at 53 hours, which is below the Economics cutoff of 60 hours. His audited GPA is a 3.89. Fingers crossed this means we’ll have an Aggie this fall.

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Oh I’m so sorry. I was totally thinking change of major when i said that. Not sure why but yeah… I’m wrong. BUT what stat class number did he take? I can’t imagine them holding him back because of it. Any reason he took that class vs the one that is on the transfer sheet?

I think our conversation has hopped threads . . . but my son took the required stats class that is part of the Walton College of Business curriculum at UARK. It’s called WCOB 1033. When you search course equivalency for that class on the TAMU website, it comes over as accepted transfer credit, but it doesn’t show up as satisfying BUSN 203. But it is business statistics at Walton. My son submitted his syllabus through the application portal. He has also emailed about this specific item through the portal. He plans to call tomorrow.

The equivalency page specifically states that transfer courses can be considered or even reconsidered, but we just don’t know how that process happens.

I have faith it will work out! Please keep
Us posted on what he finds out.

Did he get in?? I have a student in almost this exact spot this year. So just curious how it turned out for you guys!! Thank you!

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He did! He was accepted into Mays. There’s a difference between the hours your student has at their current school (including AP and any other credits on their transcripts from transfers) versus the hours the transfer audit shows then having. Once the audit was performed, he was under the 60 hours. I think he came in at 54.

Also, for what it’s worth, he was accepted even though he was considered as missing one of the prereqs (statistics) despite the fact that he had already taken that class at his prior university. He appealed and still wasn’t given credit for it during the admissions process.

So my advice is to proceed and see how it shakes out

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@RichardsonRoo awesome! Hope he’s enjoying TAMU & Mays!
Make sure you’ve joined Aggie Moms/Dads of Mays page, super helpful (must answer all questions