For incoming engineering students, there’s a current Aggie Reddit post that provides some good advice: https://www.reddit.com/r/aggies/comments/60285y/tamu_engineering/
@lee6666 I read and saved that exact post this morning! Definitely helpful!
@Thelma2 It’s called Health 236. Yeah it is through TAMU, they offer only one health class online per semester and I believe 750 students can sign up, but the class is very popular, so signing up early is important! I had a lot of my friends take other supposedly “easy A’s” for their ICD, but they were required to do a lot of work, and once I told them about this class, they dropped their ICD’s and picked up the one I was taking. We all received very high A’s, for a 3 credit hour course. It honestly doesn’t feel like you have that class, since the work-load is so light.
That is good to know. I will pass it along. With engineering classes satisfying the bulk of UCC, save for TX Govt. and needing just one more ICD, and like you say, not wanting to add to the work load, this sounds like it will do the trick. I will tell son to look into it. Thanks
@Thelma2 My son also took Health 236. Very easy online course to satisfy the ICD requirement.
Well, darn. Health 236 is in the Social and Behavior Science and that is what he took this semester with Into to Human Geography. Only needs the Creative Arts category filled and it needs to be ICD. Possibilities are:
*ENDS 101 Design Process
*THAR 201 Intro to World Theater
*THAR 101 Intro to Western Theater
*ARCH 249 Survey of the World Architecture History I
He is very musically inclined, so he’s looking into one of the music classes as well, that is NOT history of rock or guitar heroes.
Any recommendation appreciated. Would like one that is not a lot of extra work.
@Thelma2, my son really enjoyed ENDS 101 with Rodney Hill. Lots of ‘group think’-type stuff, but an easy A. I’ve heard the other prof’s ENDS 101 grades are not as high. He also took THAR 201 with Anne Quankenbush. That was an easy A as well.
@Thelma2 I know you said your son is very musically inclined, but if he does not end up finding one he likes, and wants another ICD that is an easy A, I took Thar 281, and it was another easy A. Daily clicker quizzes for participation worth about 20% of the grade (so guaranteed 20% as long as he goes to class every day). One online quiz every two weeks that is usually 5 questions sometimes 10 questions (the quizzes were homework so no actual homework), I never got below an 80 on any, and I barely ever did the readings (they are short but I got lazy). The tests are not very hard either, 45 questions I think online, a midterm and a final. Opportunity for extra credit as well, I finished with a 95 I believe, and I didn’t try much, just had to go to class pretty much.
Great suggestions @lee6666 Quackenbush is is preference for Thar 201. I think it is on his list, as you had maybe mentioned that before and I made a note of it. and @TamuEngineer. I will pass these along. Were you able to take Thar 281 II without That 280 I?
I’ll cosign TamuEngineer’s suggestion. Thar 281 was the easiest class I ever took. You don’t need to have taken Thar 280 to take it.
Be sure to ask what the average gpa for freshmen engineers is. At a school where the average gpa is 3.2 or 3.3, it will be much easier to maintain a 3.5 than at a school where the average is 2.7 or 2.8 (such as Purdue).
@Thelma2 yeah they let you take Thar 281 II without taking the first one, so I would definitely take it if possible. 
My DD is committed to A&M and Honors and Engineering as well. She wanted to attend a good Engineering school so didn’t even consider trying to go somewhere else because of the GPA requirement for the scholarship. It is definitely what you do at your school that matters, and you don’t have to go to a Top 10 or 20 school to get a good education so for those that opt to go to another school, you will do fine. However, I do think that there are employers that seek out hiring graduates from strong engineering schools like TX A&M over other less known programs, particularly in engineering. My DD never shied away from challenging courses before so I’m not going to tell her to worry now. If our kids are NMF (and assuming most were in extracurricular activities that kept them busy in HS, took APs, etc.), I think they are prepared, especially with living in the Honors dorms with other like minded students.
But I do have to admit that we are in State, so I can understand if you could lose the in state tuition status by dropping below 3.5, that is worth much stronger consideration. I will say that from my own experience in engineering, the first 2 years were not that hard to maintain 3.5, and agree to focus on keeping high GPA during those years to give buffer for when the upper classes get harder.
Good luck with your decisions.
and thank you to everyone else on sharing some of the classes to take!
@izelkay Thar 281 was awesome, and Thar 280 was in that same mold.
Thar 280 is nearly as easy as the famous 281, and if you get Eleanor Owicki, she is a phenomenal lecturer. 201, 280, and 281 are what you want to knock out ICDs.
OP here,
I just wanted to provide an update. After much debating, we decided to go on a college visit tour and keep our options open, as well as ask during our visit how many NMF engineering students do end up not meeting GPA requirements.
When we got there, the day after visiting another college my daughter loved, she said she doesn’t like it already - mostly because it’s too big. We parked the car and did campus tour, after which she said definitely not, I am sorry dad, I am not going to school here, no way.
So on one hand there was a little disappointment in me, just briefly, because it was a very long drive for us to get there. On the other hand, it was a huge relief as we no longer need to entertain this issue I posted about.
I’d like to thank all posters for offering their advise and suggestions. Much appreciated!
If I had to make the decision I would give a good look at the schools with lesser GPA requirements because nothing is for sure. Having said this my son who wasn’t NM anything graduated from engineering Suma and had time for research, EC’s etc. A 3.5 is very doable. There just isn’t room to mess up.