When did you apply: 10/10
When did you get your UIN: 10/12
When did you receive your admission decision: N/A
Are you an Auto-admit or Academic Admit or Review Admit: Review
Major/College of Choice: Engineering
Class Rank: (70/307) 23%
SAT (with Sub Scores) 700 R 650 M
EC’s: Chamber Orchestra, Swim Team, Church service hours,
It seems like certain majors fill up pretty quickly, does Kinesiology fill up fast? Is it bad if my DD put it as her first and second major? Would it be better to list a different 2nd option, would that benefit her?
I’m new here but I’ve been waiting (like most everyone else) to see what A&M decides for our son. A&M is his first choice but he’s already been accepted to Baylor, Texas Tech, UNT, and UH (most with university offered scholarships). We are anxious to hear from A&M and hope it’s with good news!
Here are his details:
When did you apply: 10/15/2018
When did you get your UIN: 10/18/2018
When did you receive your (engineering) admission decision: WAITING
Auto-admit? Academic Admit? Review Admit?: Review (by 10 points on the SAT)
Major/College of Choice: Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering
Did you get in: WAITING
Honors program: College & Career Readiness High School (60 credits - will graduate with 2 year degree)
Class Rank: non-ranking school but A&M put in top 25%
ACT/SAT (with Math Subscore): 1350 (Math: 680/Reading 670)
He is also active with our local PTA and competes on the Academic Decathlon team. He has been a lifeguard for the past three summers and has been promoted three times. He is now a Supervisor for the company. He has done some volunteer work as well but had to balance that with college classes and AcaDec time commitments.
Do you think he has a decent chance for full admission to A&M Engineering? He will not be able to do one of the other programs (Blinn, Galveston, etc) since he will have two years already completed so he said “no” to that question.
@Frankie2011 Does your son have a GPA?
My GPA was 4.7/6.0 I believe, and my class rank and SAT scores were very similar to his (Top 17%; I had a 1360 630 on Math and 730 on Reading, also had a 1320 with 660 on both, not sure which score they looked at; I’ve heard academic admit makes a difference in chances but I’m not sure) and I got (and accepted) an offer for Engineering Academy at Blinn (TEAB) as well as McAllen and Galveston. I would say if your son gets into full engineering, it would be because of his extracurricular activies (I think I looked very lazy on my resume, I didn’t have many extracurriculars and had it not been for that I probably would’ve been full admit).
My first choice major was Computer Science.
I’m not great at chancing people but I saw someone with similar stats to mine and I figured I’d try. Good luck!
Also to anyone else deciding whether or not Blinn (TEAB) is a good choice, it’s a great one 
It makes life a lot easier as a freshman and really does allow you to adapt to the new lifestyle that is being a college student. The Blinn classes are very small (around 25 people in both of my Blinn classes) and it’s a cohort, meaning you will have the same people in all your academy classes (meaning lots of friends!) The only bad thing about it is the 30 min bus ride to the RELLIS campus, as I live in an A&M dorm.
@DrMcSwag Being a review applicant, your daughter will not be able to chose an admission decision or chose any other major. If she applied to A&M and put engineering as her first choice major, she will be reviewed for entrance into the university only as an engineering major and will be offered one of the following: full admission to general engineering in College Station, OR Engineering at Galveston, OR Blinn Team Engineering Academy, OR Engineering Academy at McAllen OR Pathway to System Admission.
Only auto/academic admits to the university who applied for an Engineering major, and who do not receive a full admissions offer into Engineering at Collage Station will be allowed to choose an offer of one of the following: Engineering Academy at Blinn, Engineering at Galveston, be placed in their second choice major at College Station, or offered to chose an open major in College Station.
@flyer36 Great seeing you pop back on here. Your situation is one I go back to for academic admits who were not offered full admission to college station engineering. It was so helpful when you shared all of your admissions options. Glad you have enjoyed the Engineering Academy and that it has been a good experience for you. I think it is a wonderful program and hear great things through the Aggie Parent Groups.
@Thelma2 I wonder why she has 1st and second choice on her app then? Why do they ask for a second choice? In fact she swears she put engineering as her first choice but when you look at AIS it has Biochem first and biomedical engineering second. Confusing.
@DrMcSwag Every applicant can list a first and second choice major and for every major, other than engineering, it is all the same. An applicant is offered admission to the university, whether it be an auto/academic admit or a review admit. When offered admission, they are placed in their first choice major, except engineering applicants. If the first choice major is full, like Mays School of Business fills up its seats before the application deadline, any auto/academic admit or review admit that is offered admission and their first choice major is full, they are placed into their second choice major. @AggieMomhelp son was a review admit and he was offered admissions last year in December. However, his first choice major was full (Mays) so he was placed in his second choice major.
Engineering applicants undergo a completely separate process from all other majors and review applicants for engineering are offered an engineering route only. Review applicants are not offered admission and then they wait to see if they get into the engineering program. Review applicants will learn of their complete admissions to the university and which engineering program they will be offered in one decision.
If her first choice major in AIS is listed as Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, that is the major she will be placed into if she is offered full admission to the university and she will not undergo holistic review for engineering. She could also be offered Blinn Team or Gateway to Success. Blinn Team will follow a course sheet of classes and if she is offered Gateway, after a provisional summer program completed successfully, she will be a full admit.
Does that make sense?
@Thelma2 Yeah I think so. So I guess she messed up and put engineering second for which she won’t even be considered. That said probably easier to get full admit in biochem so may it was fortuitous I guess. Thanks a bunch. She could try to switch later if grades good and wanted to that badly maybe.
I meant to add that, to my knowledge, biochemistry is not an impacted major with limited seats. If it is, and she were offered full admission, and Biochem was filled, if engineering review was still going on, then she would be placed in that pool for holistic review. But if it was finished/closed etc, then she would be offered to pick from an open major. Only full admits, regardless of type (academic, auto, review) sometimes have options. Other admission decisions, also known as pathways, have no admissions options than the one they are given, and they are only given one. Again, the exception to that is the auto/academic admit engineering applicant that isn’t offered full admission to the major.
I know it’s a muddy explanation and since they began holistic review for just one major, and yearly tweaking of the general engineering program and adding the new McAllen Academy as an admission decision last year, each cycle is a learning experience.
@Thelma2 Could call monday and try to switch but I think it is late to do that and might be risky. I think we will just cross our fingers and hope for the best.
@Thelma2 and @Sybylla we are out of state. My son applied for regular decision as his school took a long time to send all the documents. His portal showed under review on 11/28 and accepted on 12/7. (about 10 days) He did fill up the scholarship application when applying and his portal shows a green check for scholarship application received (10/8/2018). So we were wondering when do we hear about the scholarship as his acceptance letter does not mention anything on the scholarship. My son got admitted to Mechanical engineering which was his first choice in his application.
@Thelma2 you think they send you the scholarship intimation after winter break or later is that correct? Thanks for all the information. My son has good stats, also he has strong EC and he is a Research assistant in Chemical Engineering for the past two years in a big university.
Also @Thelma2 do you know about honors application? Is there a separate application for Honors college?
@AAA124555 I’m sure Thelma2 will be along, but I can provide links to the honors programs.
Overview of all honors programs:
https://honorsprograms.tamu.edu/
University Honors - deadline 12/15
http://launch.tamu.edu/Applications/University-Honors
Engineering Honors - deadline 1/11 for scholarship consideration
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/eh/admission.html
You can be in both University and Engineering Honors.
No, your son did not get accepted into mechanical engineering @AAA124555 No freshman is accepted into a specific major. All freshmen are accepted into general engineering and the first eligibility to apply to get into a major is April of their second semester.
Out of State applicants can qualify for academic admission.
What was his SAT/ACT scores with subscores and what is his class ranking/assigned rank?
All applicants to engineering undergo holistic review for the major. The Texas top 10% and all academic admits receive admission of a rolling basis, as their applications are processed.
Sorry @Thelma2 thanks you are correct, but in his portal it still shows under General Engineering (Mechanical) as he requested.
My sons SAT was 1560, his school does not rank. We were just not sure when we hear about the scholarship as my son filled in the scholarship application when he submitted his application.
Also @chercheur thanks you for the valuable information on the honors college.
@Thelma2 It seems like certain majors fill up pretty quickly, does Kinesiology fill up fast? Is it bad if my DD put it as her first and second major? Would it be better to list a different 2nd option, would that benefit her?
@AAA124555 With a 1560, and according to the grading scale your son’s school sent A&M along with his transcript, they assigned him a rank in the top quarter of his graduating class. This designation will be reflected on his AIS. It also helps to explain why your son’s decision came so quickly, when other auto and academic admits have been waiting for their admission decision.
It is a confusing situation that A&M still lists the preferred major the applicant applies to, but yet, they again, have to apply to the major they want and it is a competitive process.
If you aren’t familiar with A&M’s process of ETAM (Apply To A Major), here is a link https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/entry-to-a-major/index.html A 3.5 overall GPA and the first year engineering core classes complete satisfactorily, earns the student a spot in their first choice major. Explore the links on the pages for more useful info. There is also a sample application they will use to ETAM.
Though you are waiting on other schools and A&M may not be his final choice, do the following if he has any inclinations, as the NSC dates do fill up and housing has a priority deadline.
Be sure to sign up for housing within 30 days of his acceptance for priority housing.
Sign up for your New Student Conference and make sure the engineering major is on the schedule of the dates you choose. All majors are not represented on all dates. Opt to stay in a hotel if someone is accompanying him.
If he will be bringing a vehicle to school, parking passes go on sale the first week in April and ends in July. If you want the best shot at getting a spot, put in the order the first week or two.
Out of state tuition waivers are very competitive and requires 4K in departmental scholarships. https://scholarships.tamu.edu/Non-Resident-Tuition-Waiver The unfortunate part is that not all of them are awarded before the May 1 deadline to accept or decline admissions so many oos applicants have a tough decision to make sometimes. While A&M does have some great awards, grants and scholarships for students, be prepared that they are considered stingy compared to the generosity of a lot of other schools, in that they do not seem to give out a lot of merit money or other incentives to attract applicants to accept admission and there are many high stat students in state and out of state who are offered nothing to offset the cost of attending.
With a review admits receiving acceptances last week, is that it for December?? I hope not. [-O<
@txmom23 The only impacted majors for space are Mays Business School, Engineering majors and as I was reading last night on the Facebook page for parents of current Aggie students, the visualization major has a cap on the number of seats for incoming freshmen. Kinesiology should be fine.
@Thelma2 thank you so much, you know a lot about Texas A&M. I have just send you a message can you please check. At this point can you please help what will be our next steps? 1st is sign up for NSC and 2nd is signing for housing? Is this correct? Also please do look at my message that I have sent you.