Hey guys, I was offered full admission into Purdue for civil engineering back in October and I recently found out that I was accepted into the Engineering Academy at Texas A&M. Is it worth it to do the Engineering Academy at A&M and then apply into civil engineering or should I just go with Purdue? I know there are a lot of other factors but I’m looking at it in a strictly engineering point of view. Thank you for your replies!
Are you sure about Purdue admitting you to your major? Purdue admits to first year engineering; students must complete first year courses and then apply to their majors, competing based on GPA: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear (but you may have to ask directly to see if civil engineering is more or less competitive)
Texas A&M has a similar system: https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major
But it looks like the engineering academy at Texas A&M is a transfer pathway from a community college; you need to meet a certain GPA to make the transfer, then apply to your major once at Texas A&M: https://engineering.tamu.edu/academies
What kind of costs are you looking at for each, and have you been admitted to any other school where either you are directly admitted to your major, or your major is not difficult to enter?
Sorry about that @ucbalumnus , I was admitted into first year engineering at Purdue. I live in Texas, so we’re looking at around 20k-25k at A&M versus 40k at Purdue (didn’t apply for scholarships). I was also admitted into Penn State and University of Houston which I believe admits directly into your major. I’m also waiting on a decision from Virginia Tech as well.
If you can afford Purdue, I highly recommend their engineering department rather than Texas A&M. Their admission to an engineering major process has been in place for many years & is much better at placing students in their first-choice major. Because Purdue’s student enrollment number is less than 20% of Texas A&M’s student enrollment, you’ll be in a better learning environment. Classes will probably be smaller and you can expect more personalized attention from their College of Engineering.
Look very closely at websites for both Texas A&M and Purdue. I recommend that you call the department for your first-choice major at both Texas A&M and Purdue. Inquire about their advising & get details about their “entry to engineering major” process.
As parent of Texas A&M engr sophomore, I have many reservations about Texas A&M.
The Texas A&M “admissions to major” process is a “moving target.” My son entered in Fall 2014 & wasn’t given entry to major requirements until he was already taking classes. He was admitted to his first choice major the first time he applied, but unfortunately that is NOT the case for many, many excellent students at Texas A&M.
The entry to major policy changed for students entering in Fall 2015 (??who knows if it will change again for students entering in Fall 2016??). The advantage of 2015 revision is you’ll get automatic admission to first choice major IF you have GPA of 3.5. That’s not easy for many excellent students to attain. Quite a few A&M Calculus & Physics profs aren’t good & don’t teach what’s needed to pass “common exams” that all students take for those courses. If you’re fortunate enough to get good profs &/or if you’re both highly motivated and academically gifted, getting a 3.5 would be attainable. And IF the “entry to major” policy doesn’t change Again for students entering Fall 2016, you’ll get into your first-choice major at Texas A&M.
Here’s a link for entry to A&M engineering major info (for students who entered Fall 2015):
https://engineering.tamu.edu/28784.aspx
As a potential Texas A&M student, I think you should be concerned about this:
“The ETAM process utilizes a priority method that is designed to place students in the highest rank major based upon capacity and student performance. Students will no longer have the option to accept or deny a decision. For the case that a student determines that the highest rank major is not a good match, students have the option to pursue a change of curriculum to a different major within the Look College or Texas A&M University.” Also from the website:
“Students must apply to three majors with the option to select up to five majors.”
Because you’re required to apply for 3 majors, they can place you in 2nd or 3rd choice (unless you have a 3.5 GPA). If you don’t want to be in your 2nd/3rd choice major, you can take courses in general engineering for another semester & take your chances by applying for 1st choice major again. Or you can transfer out of the College of Engineering. Please know it’s very difficult to transfer into any desirable major at Texas A&M. My son has a friend who is leaving Texas A&M after two years. He wants to transfer out of a Physical Science major & is unable to get into any major of interest at A&M.
Texas A&M is trying to fill available spaces in less competitive & less desirable/marketable majors within the College of Engineering. That’s why you must apply for at least 3 engineering majors.
Use the link below, then look at admissions stats for Spring 2015, Summer 2015, Fall 2015 (lower right area of page). The stats for admission to highly competitive majors like Mechanical Engr, Chem Engr, & Civil Engr were dismal. Some of the technology majors & less desirable engineering majors have much higher acceptance rates.
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major
Texas A&M Dean of Engineering (Dr. Banks) came from Purdue & is trying to model the “entry to major” policy after Purdue’s admissions policy. As you can see by looking at admissions rates above, it’s not working well for many Aggies. Freshman admissions standards are quite different for Texas A&M and Purdue, and that has made it difficult for the Purdue admissions policy to be used effectively at Texas A&M.
Another issue with Texas A&M is their “25 X 25” goal. Dr. Banks wants to increase College of Engineering enrollment to 25,000 students by 2025. See link below for more info. A&M needs to focus on retention rate of freshman engineering students, quality one-on-one advising by a professor in their major, & quality instruction Before They More Than Double Enrollment in the College of Engineering.
https://engineering.tamu.edu/25by25
Engineering advising at Texas A&M is very poor & has been for at least a decade (according to my friends whose students previously attended & graduated). Your freshman advisor very possibly won’t be in your first-choice major. My son was “advised” to take a second semester course which was not required for his preferred major. A very costly mistake (financially & timewise for my son because it was a class with LOTS of busy work). Another student was “advised” to take ENDG 105 his first semester. After completing the course, he was told ineligible to apply for entry to major because he needed ENGR 111 instead of ENDG 105. Even though ENDG 105 is STILL On The Degree Plan for that major (as an option to ENGR 111). This miscommunication delayed the student’s admission to major by one semester.
When I was an engineering major in the late 1970s, I had a PhD engineer advising me from day one & throughout my time at the university. Unfortunately, this will very likely not be the case for you at Texas A&M. Many Texas A&M engineering advisors are NOT ENGINEERS & they don’t really understand the process, what’s involved in the courses, etc. During our campus visit when my son was in high school, we met with a Chemical Engineering “advisor” who was a student. He was a senior & was advising other seniors about courses they should take. By the time you’e a senior in college, you should Absolutely expect advising from a PhD professor in your major…not another student who is a peer in your major.
As a parent, when I’m paying $25,000/year for my son’s college, I expect quality one-on-one advising from someone with an engineering degree when my student is a freshman and from a PhD professor in my student’s major once they’re admitted into the major. In my experience (and from conversations w/ other parents of Aggie engineers), that is most likely NOT what you will get at Texas A&M.
Please verify info I’ve given by contacting both Purdue & Texas A&M. Best wishes to you as you make the very important decision of which university to attend!
Here are links for Purdue.
https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M
Correction to a paragraph in my previous comment:
Texas A&M Dean of Engineering (Dr. Banks) came from Purdue & is trying to model the “entry to major” policy after the Purdue policy. As you can see by looking at admission to major rates above, it’s not working well for many Aggies. Purdue and Texas A&M have very different standards for admitting freshmen to the universities. That has made it difficult for an “entry to engineering major” policy similar to Purdue’s to be implemented effectively at Texas A&M.
Virginia Tech has a similar first year engineering followed by applying to the major, though it appears that the threshold college GPA for most majors is 3.0. Not sure why colleges think that this is a good thing compared to directly admitting to the major – it increases the stress and weed-out factor for entering frosh who have to grade-grub (granted, less so than pre-meds in most cases) their way into their majors.
If University of Houston gives direct admission to the major and is low cost as a Texas resident, it is likely to be one of the more attractive choices.
Agree with you ucbalumnus about “admission to engineering major” policies being stressful. Also causes competition rather than teamwork for students trying to do well in weedout classes. Also agree that University of Houston could be an excellent option if guaranteed to start in engineering discipline of choice. Pace124, did you apply for a merit-based scholarship at UH? My son was offered a scholarship there for SAT reading plus math score of 1220. Priority deadline was Dec 1, but it might not be too late. From UH website:
“Admissions file must be completed by December 1 to be considered for priority funding. Please note that this is the priority deadline and scholarships will continue to be awarded as long as funds are available.”
I am going to play a bit of devils advocate here. I’m not an engineer but my D is junior Chem E at Purdue. I think it makes a certain degree of sense to give all budding engineers a year to determine if 1. The rigor of an engineering curriculum is for them and 2. Just what area of engineering most interests them. To say I want to be a Chem E and end up with C’s in your college Chem classes doesn’t bode well. Struggling in Calc 1 and 2 might be something to consider when you have Multi variable calc, linear algebra and diff. equations waiting for you in the future. Struggling in Physics could make Thermodynamics harder than it already is. The opposite could also happen. A student may struggle in Physics but love the Chemistry. At least at Purdue a Chem E is required 1 Thermodynamics course (they do have to take 2 Organic Chemistry classes and Physical Chemistry), while a ME requires 2 and Thermodynamics 2 at Purdue is considered one of the hardest courses anywhere.
Engineering is a sought after path because at least as of now it is still a place one can potentially do quite well with an undergraduate degree. It is also a degree that some go into without really understanding what it entails. Trying to make that clearer to new students before they get themselves committed to a specific degree may not be a bad idea.
Re: #7
However, when it becomes a competition for grades to avoid being “weeded out” due to high GPA thresholds to get into majors, the situation becomes much more stressful for students and encourages cutthroat competition that pre-meds are reputed to practice.
From a student’s point of view, the ideal situation would be that it is easy (from a grades/GPA perspective) to enter an engineering major, like the situation at the most well endowed universities, to have the situation idealized in #7 without the “weed out” or “cutthroat competition” characteristic. However, many public universities cannot afford to maintain extra capacity for this purpose, so they enroll to their maximum capacity, which means that more of their majors have to be more selective to avoid going over capacity.
@CollegeMom789 @ucbalumnus @Ivvcsf Wow, thank you guys so much for all the information! Purdue is the leading choice for me, and I was offered a merit based scholarship at UH so I’ll definitely reconsider going there based on you guys advice. The admission stats for the specific engineering majors was also very helpful. CollegeMom789, overall, what would you rate the quality of teaching at A&M?
My son and I were at and Admitted student visit at Purdue and I asked what percentage of FYE students actually change their major after the first year? The group of engineer students told me it was about 50% . I was concerned about my son not being accepted into his field of choice but it looks like many students do change their minds after their first year. This may be appositive rather than a negative. We were very impressed with the engineering dept.
Pace174, that’s a good question but I’m not qualified to rate overall teaching. Comments in my original post were mostly based on objective information & I don’t have much info on A&M teaching quality. My son has had some excellent profs (chemistry, political science) and some awful ones (especially calculus prof who barely spoke English). For each of the very large math & science classes that are engr prerequisites, I think you’ll find a wide range of teaching quality. Reviews at www.ratemyprofessors.com are helpful, but it’s difficult to get in classes with best professors. My son isn’t far enough into his major to know about teaching quality, but the one prof he’s had so far is fantastic. My friends whose Aggies recently graduated from A&M were VERY disappointed w/ undergraduate teaching quality in mechanical engr & petroleum engr. I don’t know anyone whose Aggie majored in Civil Engineering & my son doesn’t know any current Civil Engineering students.
Another topic: My major reservation about UH is the crime rate. A&M campus is safe & I’m sure Purdue’s campus is too. No campus is free of crime. But during my 15+ years in Houston, I’ve heard way too many news reports on serious crimes at UH. If my son were there, I’d wouldn’t want him walking on campus alone at night. If my daighter had considered UH, I would have begged her not to go there.
I’m in the exact opposite situation as a high school senior. I live in Indiana and was accepted into engineering at Purdue and Texas A&M. I chose Texas A&M for their petroleum engineering over Purdue for their Aerospace Engineering. I was granted an OOS tuition waiver through two scholarships at A&M (one of which being the Nelson scholarship for Petr. Eng.) On visits to both univerisities, here is what I’ve found.
-Purdue is a smaller school but it seems less “close knit” than A&M
-Purdue’s campus is more spread out, where as A&Ms campus is packed together
I have not experience the engineering aspects yet, so I cannot make assumptions.
@Asil65 Yeah I can definitely see the pros and cons of FYE engineering. It can potentially destroy the teamwork aspect between students going for a particular major, but at the same time, it provides flexibility for students if they decide to take a different path.
@CollegeMom789 Thank you for your insight on the teaching aspect at A&M! The crime rate at UH is a big concern and was what put me off of really considering it as an option in the first place.
@Ptownrunner Ya, I don’t think the Aggie community can be beat but it seems really crowded there and I would probably prefer a more spread out campus!
But if you are admitted into the “engineering academy” program at Texas A&M, doesn’t that mean that you will be doing most of your first year or two at a community college, and need to make a certain GPA to transfer to Texas A&M, then clear the threshold GPA at Texas A&M to get into your desired major? Seems like that path provides multiple ways you can be stopped from getting into your desired major, so you may have to consider backup plans (e.g. send transfer applications to less selective universities with your major if there is uncertainty about either transferring to Texas A&M or getting into your major after transfer.
Pace174, I’m curious about which university you decided to attend & how it’s going. I wish you all the best!