Freshman Year Engineering Courses

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
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Hello Everyone! I’m an incoming freshman to Texas A&M’s honors engineering program. I was wondering what courses you all would recommend for me to take my freshman year.

I’ve taken these AP courses:
AP Physics C: E&M + Mech
Calc BC
Physics 1
Comp Sci A
Govt, English, Human Geo, etc…

I’ve heard that taking Calc 1 and then skipping over on to Calc 3 freshman year is a good idea.

What do all the class numbers(i.e.MATH 131 MATH 151) correspond to?

Also I’ve been told that honors students get smaller classes and get preference for classes. Could someone explain how that process work as well?

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What scores did you get on the ap calc exams? My son got 5’s on them and skipped both 151 and 152 and started in calc 3.it was a lot of work but he got an A in the class and was very glad that he took the credit for both of those classes. He also took credit for physic 218 (mechanics) but from what I hear, now that they have changed the physics classes that might not be an option for you.
He in in engineering honors as well. He took honors for engr 111, 112. The class size for these were much smaller than the non honors versions would have been. You also have a better chance of getting a good group for your group projects. The other advantage of being in honors is that after this summer’s registration you get to register early. This is very helpful although it still can be a challenge to get the sections you want as some departments, particularly chemistry, don’t release many seats at a time.

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Priority registration is a nice benefit for university honors and engineering honors. However, not all professors understand that honors classes are not supposed to be more difficult. My son had some bad experiences with professors that reversed-curved honors students. In other words, honors students had to get higher test scores than non-honors students on the same material to get an A. Ultimately, my son dropped out of both the university and engineering honors programs, which was quite a common experience for his recent graduating class. Ultimately, the Latin honors designations (Summa Cum Laude, > 3.9; Magna Cum Laude, > 3.7; and Cum Laude, > 3.5) are far more meaningful on a diploma than “university honors” or “engineering honors.” Employers and graduate schools understand Latin honors; the others may require explanation.

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@rosegeo
Thanks for the reply! I haven’t received my AP scores for neither Calculus or Physics C yet. I’ve been looking at websites such as RateMyProfessor to select potential professors. Are there any specific professors I should avoid or jump on to?

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@Beaudreau Thank you for that advice I’ll look into how difficult the honors classes are. At my NSC will I be able to choose which professors I get or merely which classes I take.

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@canadianbutter Yes, you can choose your professors. I just got back from mine a few days ago. I’m not sure if this affects you or not, but most if not all of the ENGR 102 and MATH 151 classes don’t have professors assigned yet and are TBD. I can answer any other questions you may have.

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@canadianbutter We also just returned from our NSC. Here is what we were given regarding AP credit:

*Physics C – Mechanics
Minimum Score 3 = PHYS 218 (3 hours of AP credit will count for PHYS 206)
Students should only accept credit for PHYS 218 if they earned an AP score of 5 and only after completion of MATH 151 (exception: students interested in mechanical engineering are not encouraged to accept AP credit for PHYS 218.)

Physics C – Electricity
Minimum Score 3 = PHYS 208 (3 hours of AP credit will count for PHYS 207)
Students should only accept credit for PHYS 208 if they earned an AP score of 5 and only after completion of MATH 151 and PHYS 218 or PHYS 206 (exception: students interested in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or nuclear engineering are not encouraged to accept AP credit for PHYS 208.)

Calculus BC
Minimum Score 3 = MATH 151, Minimum Score 4 = MATH 151, 152
The College of Engineering recommends students make a conservative decision about accepting advanced placement credits in math. Students who earn a 4 or 5 on the Calculus AB exam or a 3 or 4 on the BC exam are recommended to still begin in MATH 151. Students who earn a 5 on the Calculus BC exam are recommended to begin in MATH 151 or MATH 152.*

The upperclassmen we spoke to all took their AP credit and were glad they did. We don’t have as much AP as a lot of posters here, but we will take what we’ve got as every little bit helps.

It helped immensely to have the CRN numbers ready to go for the NSC registration. Use Howdy to look up classes and Aggie Scheduler (or another class scheduler) to work out a few schedules. Have backup CRNs in case you can’t get into a particular section.

When looking up classes/sections in Howdy, pay close attention to the restrictions. There is a restrictions link you can click to see who can and cannot register for a particular section. Some sections may be open to everyone while other sections may be just for certain majors.

You may want to email engineering advising to let them know which AP credits you’ll be using and see what they recommend for your freshman schedule. There is little to no time during the NSC. We only had a group advising session with no personal one-on-one advising.

IMPORTANT: Since you’ve been admitted to Engineering Honors, check your Howdy portal under “My Record” then in the center look for “Student Information” and click on it. There is a line for “Honors Cohort” that should indicate Engineering Honors. If it says NA, you need to contact Engineering Honors asap. There were a few honors kids at our NSC that didn’t have the honors designation in the system, and they couldn’t register until it was added. By the time it was added, some of the classes were already full, and they had to redo their entire planned schedule.

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Thank you so much @chercheur. Could you describe the Course Registration process in further detail? I’d like to know what exactly I’m expecting.

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@Evon1254 Thank you for the reply. Could you describe the Course registration process just so I can know what to expect

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@canadianbutter Course registration is a mess, first and foremost. It will be stressful and confusing at first, but thankfully, everyone is in the same boat. The process for registration is fairly simple once you get down to it. On the Howdy portal under the “My Record” tab there are two important links: 'Search Class Schedule; and ‘Add/Drop Classes’. The first will allow you to view what courses and sections are available to register for. On the second day of the conference around lunchtime, major specific classes such as CHEM and MATH will open up sections for you to plan out a possible schedule to register with at 2:30. Each individual class section has a CRN (Course Registration Number), write this down in notepad or word and as soon as 2:30 hits the ‘Add/Drop Classes’ link will allow you to paste all the CRNS in at once and submit. Assuming the class is open and not conflicting with another class, you will be good to go. If not, it will tell you what is wrong and register you for what it can.

When you attempt to register, the tool that is the most useful by far is called aggie scheduler (http://www.aggiescheduler.com/) in one tab have that open and in another have the ‘Search Class Schedule’. Cross-reference the class schedule and you can plan out your courses for the semester. Practice using it so on the second day you can fill it with the updated courses at lunch.

I hope this was helpful and easy to follow. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

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@Evon1254 gave a great summary.

I will add that your NSC daily schedule will be posted one week before your NSC. Here is a link in case you haven’t seen it http://newaggie.tamu.edu/family-and-guests/at-your-students-nsc/nsc-dates/

Here is a sample daily schedule which includes engineering http://newaggie.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FR4-Schedule.pdf

I wrote a little about our NSC experience here (http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21584521/#Comment_21584521) in post #334.

As mentioned above, use aggiescheduler.com to make a few schedules, but make sure you verify the CRN numbers in Howdy. Also, somebody posted a while back about leaving at least 20 minutes between classes so you don’t get an error message.

Check Howdy to make sure you don’t have any “holds” which will prevent you from registering. Examples of holds would be not having your direct deposit set up with Heartland, proof of the meningitis vaccine not turned in, etc. (see https://newaggie.tamu.edu/holds/ for more info on holds).

Visit the Engineering channel in the My Record tab of your Howdy Portal for all of the NSC information.

You are way ahead of the game by doing so much preparation. Most of the kids who registered with mine did not have any schedules planned out in advance. If you do, you should be out of there within 5-10 minutes. I think @Evon1254 was out even quicker!

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Yep, I was done in 15 seconds and it took me another 15 to check out. You will be in and out within a couple minutes if you are prepared and a little lucky.

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@Evon1254 @chercheur @Beaudreau @rosegeo
Thank you very much for yall’s advice I did well on the MOE and got all the classes I wanted except one of my UCC’s.
I really appreciate the help!