first choice public health
second choice Education and Human Development
hoping to track into nursing
Figured I throw in my 2 centsā¦since my son is waiting for a decision as wellā¦applied in October. My husband is an Aggie (90)ā¦his father was an Aggie and in the corpā¦we live in Texas and our kids have enjoyed many Aggie games and traditions. Our kids all have been enrolled in a small Catholic non-ranking high school and as you know, this puts you at a disadvantageā¦sonās GPA 101, SAT 1280, 200+ volunteer hours, NHS, State Championship basketball title, Varsity baseball & golf. The list goes on and onā¦just like all of your amazing talented children.
Couple pointsā¦
- Since a huge chunk of the freshman class admitted is top 10% or academic admits (high SAT 1360?) & letās say TAMU has 20,000 REVIEW applications to sift throughā¦why is it taking so long??? Lots of other schools have the same/ I can give TCU as an exampleā¦they also review 19,000+ applications and they seem to get answers out in a timely manner. Same for all these other top notch schools that families are posting. To those of you with an offer to PURDUEā¦Go for it!!!..Iām from the Midwest originally and thatās a great school!!!
- I think A & M has grown to big too fast.
When I read many of these posts about even current students FIGHTING to get classes they need to graduate on timeā¦I think to myself is that worth it? When the 4 year engineering graduation rate is about 30%ā¦and the engineering retention rate is 50+%? Those arenāt great numbers.
And reading how many classes in engineering and business are weeder classesā¦not sure itās fun to go to school with that kind of pressure
Iāve read on here tooā¦that because the engineering enrollment is so big/ some student may have Labs until 10 PM at night?? Thatās ridiculous
Also, Seems like kids canāt get parking spotsā¦dorm roomsā¦or a table at the dining hall without fighting for spotsā¦
GOOD ARTICLE TO READ BELOW
THIS ARTICLE has me worried for TAMUā¦
- Personally, waiting and waiting to hear from TAMU makes the school less and less attractive with each passing dayā¦
IF POSSIBLE
I think taking an offer from a college that WANTS YOU from the start is a great way to begin your college career!
Especially those kids that are getting scholarship $
CMR 1997
GO to PURDUE! 4 hours away is perfect!!!
One more thing!
God forbid you want to change your major to one of the more competitive majors like business
Sounds like you have a snowball chance in hell
Maybe you can switch to Poultry Science (no offense whatsoever)
To be honest not every 17 or 18 year old knows exactly what degree will serve them best
Maw1970, agree things are way out of hand with acceptance process, notification, etc. Your notes on engineering though are incorrect. I graduated from UT Austin with Mechanical engineering in '91. I had all the statistics for top engineering school, including Purdue. 30% success rate of starting Freshman class has always been about the same for all large, engineering programs. Nothing new there and that includes Purdue. I was considering Purdue for Masters in Engineering. What is ridiculous is if the student decides engineering isnāt for them you are correct that they have little chance of switching over it seems.
@maw1970 I am glad to read someone is thinking the same as we are over here. My daughter was admitted on Dec. 22nd. But after about reading about retention rates and scheduling nightmares we are considering a different school.
@dallastexas123
My 30% comment was regarding the 4 year graduation rate for TAMU engineering majors
50% was retentionā¦freshmen that start out in engineering and actually finish their degree
Trust meā¦I get itā¦engineering is a very tough program!
@agforlife
Wellā¦I am certain that TAMU is a top rated school but for many it not be so easy to navigate
I also read poor reviews on engineering Advisorsā¦not saying thatās true across the board
However with the 25 x 25 program seems that quality individual attention will be difficult???
Our oldest is at TCU and the price tag is high! However he has had an amazing first year experience
Easy to get face to face time with counselors
Quick responses from professors
Walkable campus
Awesome sports/ school spirit
Very manageable process
Smaller school definitely has itās advantages
Once again just my two cents
@maw1970 absolutely agree about growing too big, too fast! My husband and father-in-law are Aggies, so my kids have grown up going to many Aggie events. I went to another SWConference school down the road. There is definitely something to be said for smaller size! A&M truly is an amazing school, and my daughter is one of the 1,000 who has gotten into Mays, so weāre very thankful! But the overall size of everything does scare me. Iāve heard many complain itās too difficult to eat quickly in the cafeterias, the dorm selection process scares me to death, as well as trying to buy a parking pass, and even trying to park on Aggieland Info day was a total nightmare.
Bigger isnāt always better.
@noah4151 With those stats, unless you are like close to being out of 2Q as in almost to 3Q, I would think you would get some type of offer for TEAM or Gateway. That 29 is really solid as are your ECs. Depending on where your rank falls, I could even see full admit. But again, if youāve read up on this threadā¦ there hasnāt been a whole lot to go on for review admits yet. So frustrating. Best of Luck!!!
@52AG82
Of course my husband is all for A & M but Iām personally hoping for a smaller campus and smaller class size for our son
I must admitā¦reading all sorts of threads on here about Engineering students struggling to get into classes that they needed to graduate on time made me feel nervousā¦thatās just simply a pressure cookerā¦
The reality isā¦my guess is full admission to CS engineering is a pipe dream at this point. Iām sure the engineering academy at Blinn/ Bryan would be a great choice since youād at least be starting out and staying in College Station
Though I read TEAB 80% gain full admissionā¦but what about the 20% that donātā¦Hmmmm?
As far as TAMU Galvestonā¦feel like your first year in college is importantā¦living 2.5 hours away from your dream school doesnāt sound that great.
@AggieMomhelp thanks! we donāt rank but I would guess the lower half of second quarter
Hi. New here. I have a junior in HS and an engineering junior at TAMU. I came here to read some of the boards bc we will be going through all of this for the next coming year. Let me start by saying that Iām so saddened to see how long it truly takes for review students to hear back from the admissions office. Sorry to all of your kiddos going through this. My older son applied for fall 2016 and had academic admission, so he was accepted into engineering in Sept, 2015. They didnāt review engineering holistically back then. It was just first come, first serve as I recall for automatics and academics.
My HS junior, not sure where he will land as for gpa and test scores yet, but, after reading so many of these postings, I will make sure he definitely has backup choices other than TAMU. I had no idea that itās gotten so so competitive and so many great kids are not offered full admission.
I have a little random story to tell and maybe yall can get a little chuckle out of it. I can laugh about it now, but I didnāt back whenā¦ At my older sonās NSC, when it was time to register, he went into a computer lab on his own (no parents allowed, lol) to register for their fall classes. My son was prob in that room 40 minutes and came out with glossy eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he said he could only get into 2 classesā¦What the heck, I said. He said everything else he was trying to get into was already full. He turned to me and said āI donāt want to go here anymore, mom.ā As a mom hearing your firstborn say this about the college he was to be attending, broke my heart and then I had tears in my eyes. I took him outside and we went on a very long walk. During that walk, I told him, Iām not sending you here to take 2 classes. So, what does a mom doā¦ we went back to the computer lab and I walked in with my son, and told one of the young ladies that was helping advise, that my son could only get 2 classes and he needs more classes, can you please help him get a couple more? She said absolutely and sat with him and looked at the classes he had already gotten. She prob spent 30 minutes one on one with him and was able to get him into 2 more. Thank goodness! So, I know some of you are prob shaking your heads and canāt believe I walked back in that computer lab with my son that day and pretty much demanded one on one help. If I wouldnāt have done that, my son would not have bc he was just so defeated and disappointed in how the registration process went. It was a little better the following semester but not much. Thankfully, that day was the only time I ever had to intervene with any of his college stuff. I think he learned a huge lesson from me that day and it was not to just settle. If you want something, speak up! He actually told me that he was impressed that I went back in there to make them help to find a couple more classes. Speed up 3 years laterā¦heās doing well in the engineering program (studies about 10 hours a day lol) and even got into a Masters in Finance program that he will be starting soon.
Now, I canāt believe Iāll be starting this college application process all over againā¦any prayers and advice is truly appreciated! Good luck to all of your students!
@puffy71 That is a great story and trust me I would have done the same. My son is a freshman econ major and is going to apply to the MSF as a sophomore (so I guess he would start summer after that year if accepted). It sounds like an amazing program. How competitive is it, do you know? Does he have any idea how many students he was up against? Seems a stretch for a sophomore to apply, but he was told thatās the best time to get as many internships as possible. Any insight is appreciated!
@Puffy71
I LOVE your story. It brought tears to my eyes, just imagining your ālittle boyā feeling so defeated & changing his mind (even if it is temporary) is enough to put a parentās stomach into knots. Donāt you wish you had a recording of that talk to play for him upon graduation? Thank you for sharing that story. Itās a good one!!
Have to admit, weāre really nonplussed with the TAMU process, as well. My dd applied to all of her colleges the same week. Weāve heard back from EVERY SINGLE ONEāexcept TAMU. Tarleton, CSU, Washington State, Oregon University, and University of Washington (sheās gotten acceptance to all but TAMU thus far). Itās absolutely annoying. And, for the record, she was a āreview admitā for all of them. Right now, weāre 95% settled on Tarletonāin-state and 4 hrs from home.
I know thereās different finance masters programs offered. The one my son is doing is called TRIP. I think it stands for trade, risks, investments program. There were about 50 kids applying through a 4-5 hour interview process and they took 25. The neat thing is the program directors find the internships for you and youāll get 3 during the program. I wish I could be more help but I only get bits and pieces from my son and heās still learning too. But, I would definitely say tell your son to research all the finance masters programs offered first and go with the one that specializes in the one heās most interested in. Good luck!
@stewbie2 bit off topic for this thread, but howād your daughter hear back from University of Washington this early? Everything online seems to say that they only release acceptances after March 1. Also just wondering what major she applied for.
Itās also one of my sonās top choices (for engineering) so Iām a bit curious.
. @Puffy71 I wish you had found this forum back in the day with your older son. I too, have a Jr engineering student. This forum was instrumental in learning how to make a schedule and read the classes way in advance before go to NSC, and how to make a schedule during lunch before you go into register and having back up classes.
Thanks to this forum and all of the help, my son walked into the lab to register and was out in under a minute with a full schedule.
My sonās OOS roommate had the same problem. He stayed and someone helped him finally, but he was in tears. It shouldnāt come to that. The general advising session I donāt think was enough for learning the process. Maybe that should be covered on day 1 instead of day 2 right before you register.
I do not normally get anxiety but waiting on this decision is the most anxious I have been in my entire life. 1290 SAT, 3.1 GPA, 150+ service hours. I wish I had taken school more seriously my first two years of high school. I applied and was accepted into Arizona State as a safety school but man I would love to go to A&M and be close to family.