TAMU 2022 parent questions and answers

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
161

I had two students, both business - one did first NSC available to business, one did last NSC. Differences: at first NSC they only open some new sections of courses (not all) this occurs at each NSC as you go through the summer. The last NSC has basically everything open with lots of 1-2 seat options. As they go through they seem to leave open the remainder seats but have new sections open up (full classroom capacities). Being in the first group really didn’t have much impact vs the last group. It was knowing how to take advantage of the system that is the differentiating factor.

The key to NSC is to be organized and know your ‘plan B’ so when a course fills, you can jump to your next option. Students ONLY are allowed in the sign up computer rooms, parents are not allowed in until the very end if they are still struggling to find a schedule. Oldest tipped off the youngest: practice using keyboard for number inputs - the fastest fingers win every semester. Techniques include entering your MUST have class & then adding the others in a second attempt, you can hit enter at any time in the process (one, two, three, etc. classes) or put it all in as quick as possible. They count down to the opening of the courses and all of NSC starts at the same moment- you get immediate results ( you’re in or it is full). My youngest was done in the first two minutes - schedule worked out in advance, got all classes first try with lightening speed typing. My oldest struggled, maybe 45 minutes & still wasn’t sure if she had the classes she wanted. She didn’t realize the urgency of hitting the buttons and many classes were filling, pushing her into her plan B, C, D… She did end up changing her schedule during the first week of school, as courses open again at that time (they are only open to you for your personal NSC time slot, then closed to you until school starts).

There is no priority the first semester for honors students, that begins semester #2. They are assigned earlier time slots each semester. Honors courses are open to any student with a 3.5+ GPA if they are available when you get your sign up time slot. Graduating with honors (looking ahead …) is pure GPA based, no honors courses required nor membership in an honors program. There are 3 levels of honors listed on diplomas: Summa Cum Laude (3.9-4.0), Magna Cum Laude (3.7-3.89) & Cum Laude (3.5-3.69) no extra GPA points for honors courses, straight up GPA calculations and majors are irrelevant - same numbers for everyone.

We padded their first semester with an extra course to allow to a drop & still be full time (12 units). Some scholarships require more units so do check.Most insurance companies require full time student status too (health insurance). GPA boosting courses & easier CORE classes are listed online by other students (google away!). Those courses usually fill fast. Courses taken at other schools do not count in your GPA, just units only.

162

Great thanks, AGmomx2.

I went through a lot of threads on TAMU and just realized how competitively this university is. I guess I need to push my daughter harder to meet the future challenge. We have been expatriates for the past 18 years and are glad to be back to Texas for good this summer.

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Another tip: for those doing hotel reservations… become “loyal” to a brand if you travel much. College Station has Hiltons, Marriotts & a Hyatt as well as others. Use points for ‘big’ weekends to save lots of $$. Rooms open a year in advance & are filled fast for: Football games, Ring Day, Graduation, Start of School, End of School, Parents weekends,NSC,muster etc. The summers also host athletic & scholastic events for HS age students which also fill the hotels & dorms. During Football season it is not unusual to see hotel rooms at over $300/night and up, if you wait to book and often there isn’t a room to be had for the ‘big’ games.

There has been lots of building in recent years, but the stadium also increased capacity. Check out your favorite hotel brand to see what they have available in College Station. There are also boutique hotels here, B&B types and private party rental homes. Parents are VERY welcome at this school & many attend events. Alumni (Former Students) return for many of the events as well.

Regarding NSC hotel vs dorm - just choose what works for you. They spend very little time at the hotel or dorm & are extremely busy with scheduling prep when they have down time. It is not a ‘social’ moment, so do not feel your student is ‘missing out’ if you choose one or the other.or even a rental option. Personally we did hotel to get some down time to ourselves & have breakfast provided without clean up. The hotels are also filled with parents & new students just like the dorms (parents can & do stay in dorms too). The social moments are fish camp & howdy week (week before school starts, beginning of dorm move in) for the freshmen.

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I should add there will be social moments within the NSC schedule on campus – breakout groups by majors & only students/parent divided time. You will meet other students & parents during the busy two day (and a half if you go to pre-reg day…highly recommended) NSC. There are many multi-generational families that attend TAMU - you can get tons of information by getting know the person next to you in a line or auditorium. Attend as many sessions as you can, some will be optional. We enjoyed the late night one with the yell leaders - it will get you into the Aggie Spirit!

165

I find allowing only the student in the room to register for classes at NSC a ridiculous practice. My son’s older sister, a recent A&M grad, wants to go in with him because she is familiar with the system and has faster fingers than he does. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get permission for her to do this? It’s his registration so I don’t think the school should tell him he has to come in alone anyway.

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@TexasMustang Maybe they are leveling the playing field. My son will be a freshman and unfortunately will have to go through this process without help from someone “familiar with the system”.

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I understand that perspective GManmom123. I think a parent should be allowed in with them if that’s the reason. Honestly, limiting the student to who they can bring in with them during a very important part of their college career is just wrong. They are only allowed to drop 4 classes over their whole time at A&M so getting in the right classes is a very big issue.

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Definitely have them play with schedule now on their Howdy. You can see all of the class times, number of seats, profs (most are listed), etc. Then take that profs name and go to rate my professor site and scope them out. You can also go to TAMUs registrar and look at prior semester grade reporting by prof. REALLY handy tool to see what percentage of their class compared to others get As, Bs, etc. It’s a problem when one prof has 5% As and another has 60% As… very telling. Most aren’t the skewed, but you’d be surprised.

169

Thank you for the good suggestions AggieMomhelp. I use those resources but yes, I need to get my son familiar with them.

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My older student at a different college had a personal advisor who worked with him on his freshman schedule. As they went along, if something wasn’t fitting or the time didn’t work for my student, she changed things around. She worked with my student until everything was sorted out - it took about 30 minutes. Expecting students to type as fast as they can is ridiculous. I’ve read that students spend a lot of time trying to plan their schedule only to find out at the NSC that the sections are full, so they are left alone and frustrated, not knowing which classes to substitute with. My student hasn’t committed yet, and this is giving me serious pause. We really, really like TAMU, but it sounds like OOS are at a serious disadvantage not knowing how to work the system.

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@AggieMomhelp Where do they look to play with their schedule on Howdy?

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@TexasMustang - I was not aware of this. Does dropping/adding before classes start count or does this pertain to after classes start. Thank you so much for mentioning this!

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I called the registrar to ask if I or my daughter could go into the registration at NSC with him, and of course was told no by the advisor in his college, which is where I was directed. I was told that there is a week in August after the last NSC, during which freshmen can add and drop courses. The business school has advisors on hand to help answer any questions, I assume the other schools do too.
Yes, students only get 4 drops their whole time at A&M. This pertains to classes that have already started - I’m not sure if there is a grace period of the first week or so of classes or not. The state of Texas only allows 6 across all state colleges total. There are a few exceptions, but they are not common situations - things such as if you totally dropped out of that college.

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Thanks for the explanation, @TexasMustang

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@trish02 For schedules look under My Record. On the left hand side there’s “search class schedule”. You can see all the classes being offered in the fall.

Q drops are strictly drops that occur during the semester. Only allowed 4 at TAMU. You get 6 in the state. So say you took a class at Blinn and ended up q dropping, you still have 4 left at TAMU and 1 left elsewhere. There is an add drop period during the first week of school that does not count towards this.

As for NSC…registering is the “scariest” part BUT it all works out. Your student will get classes they need even if not at the best time. There are advisors for every college/dept. helping them through this process. Parents wait right outside the room. If your student doesn’t like what they get, there’s time to rearrange in August. People add and drop during the first week. It’s really not an issue or at least I haven’t heard of it being an issue.

Hope this helps. There’s really nothing to “worry” about…I promise.

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I am somewhat relieved that classes can be changed during that week in August. That’s also good because my son is signed up for an NSC in June and won’t have his AP scores back by then. So he may need to take a class he didn’t get credit for from his AP. I’m not thrilled about shutting parents out of the initial registration but that’s how it’s done at most colleges.

There are some things to be concerned about. Having had 3 of my children graduate from A&M so far, I know there are some very good professors and some bad professors. The advisor in the NSC registration has a goal to get your student into classes that fit into their degree plan, not to help him/her avoid classes with terrible professors. Terrible professors lead to drops and bad grades. All that being said, why don’t we start a new thread on Tips on getting what your students needs out of A&M academically, including registration?

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First of all, we were OOS – do NOT worry, your student will be fine-- both of mine were fine. It really ISN’T a big deal, just a change of method versus how you sign up for HS for most students. The speed of submitting is just due to the limited number of seats in a course – you all start at the same time, so obviously the one who hits enter for that course # gets spot #1 and so forth.

The class decisions are made in advance (you create your own list) and the schedule is open for viewing once the NSC starts, so you will see your actual options then not just when you enter the sign up portion. Most student options are basically looking at first semester choices which may involve about 8 possible courses or so and you’ll only take maybe 4 or 5. It isn’t like you are swimming through the whole course offerings, just those that apply to you.

There is lots of help available but most students just find the counselor to turn in their printed off schedule which they check before letting you leave. If something is amiss they will double check with the student ( my D got over zealous & signed up for an upper division course in another major - she had AP credit so was eligible for the course, but they alerted her that it might be a more intense course to take as an elective). She ended up revising her schedule a few times to include add/drop week.

The ONLY reason I mentioned that they go in by themselves is that your STUDENT needs to figure out the scheduling vs. just MOM/DAD knowing & them relying on you(or someone other than themselves). Some parents were all set to register but the student didn’t take part in the prep & had that deer in the headlights look on Day 1 when the procedure is announced.

The first week of classes are add/drop week every semester – you can view syllabus, requirements, go to the first lectures/classes and then decide. There is NO penalty or limit to the number of courses you can change at that time. Q-drops are normally well after that date when you have to petition to get out of a course --normally due to a really really bad performance on an exam. It provides ‘an escape route’ which is a nice option if you truly are in need of it.

Bottom line is that you will get enough information from the combination of various online information sites (including this one) and at NSC that your student will be well prepared for the challenge. You can look up various professors but do know there is no guarantee – many math courses it seems are TBD professors for example – so you just sign up for the course.

Why do classes open in the first week? Some sections have open slots after all the NSC’s, some students change their minds as to the courses they want to take, some use courses as ‘placeholders’ so they have enough units until their actual wanted course opens and sometimes they just add another section to a course.

Getting courses isn’t a huge problem here - you may not get your ideal schedule but it seems most do get something - there are (of course) exceptions. They do have the goal of getting you out of TAMU ASAP since there is a big pipeline of students waiting to take your spot in the student body.

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Agmomx2 is absolutely right! My two Aggie engineering students went through the process (and, yes, they prepared before we went down to CSTAT with multiple schedule scenarios) but it wasn’t a big deal. One went early in the summer to her NSC and the other later in the summer— no difference. No need for a parent to go in-- in fact, I think mine were pretty glad I wasn’t allowed in – haha. My kids found was harder for them to get their schedules set up later in their college careers but they had to get through that as well. It is a huge university and it made them more self-sufficient and more mature in the long run.

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Practice how to read the course sheet now and practice making schedules. Thanks to this forum, that is what my son did (rising Jr) so on actual registration day, he was finished in the time it took him to enter the CNR’s. He made his schedule during lunch with his back up classes, when a lot of the students are just figuring out how to read the course catalog and how to make a schedule. That morning is group advising (at least for engineering) where they go over how to register and other stuff. Then you break for a 1.5 hr lunch and this is when others are trying to learn how to read the course catalog in Howdy and make a schedule.

My son’s freshman, at large pot luck roommate, didn’t fare so well. He didn’t practice ahead of time and had a terrible time getting classes and ended up being in the room the full time. He was in tears, which upset his mom greatly, because he was not the crying type, so they let her come in and in the end, some more classes did open up and he got his schedule. We attended a June 20/July 1 NSC.

Going forward, in Nov freshman year, to register for spring, it took my son two weeks to get a Cal II seat. 30 seats would open up and would be gone in 30 seconds. One must be constantly checking. He walked out of class one day and checked immediately and there was an open class with seats. Thankfully, he got one, because they were gone within seconds. It was a not desired prof and was able to switch stuff around in add/drop. This past winter, he came home with needing 2 required classes. Was unable to secure them since registration opened. After New Years, he was able to get both and both. Patience and persistence.

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My son and I use Aggiescheduler dot com. It is much easier to visualize your class times and days while playing around to build an ideal schedule.