@mattb01 Okay, that helps to know for sure. But probably not what most want to hear. Does it give you the option to change to a different major at cstat campus?
My son received same notification. He selected Blinn Engineering Academy. His AIS now says being considered for this option. (quick stats - Review, 1310 SAT, rank 14%)
@AggieMomhelp my daughter was a review, first quarter (non ranking high school), just missed academic admit.
I believe she was given the option to change to a different major at CStat today because her original choice was Viz. Because full, she cranked out the Engineering essay and changed major to Eng.
I’m guessing that she may not have this option of her original major choice was Eng and not Viz.
She is likely going to do Blinn Team and I’m excited for her!
@AggieMomhelp thanks for the great info. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get full admission but after realizing that Blinn is treated the same as a full admit, and being able to possibly get into my first choice engineering major after the first year has made it a great option.
Out of curiosity, what is the difference between Blinn Team and being a part of the Blinn Engineering Academy?
@sdwims from my understanding its basically the same thing, but Blinn Team does not include engineering, like its own thing. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
OK, I’m feeling sick to my stomach now, lol. We have been looking at the same Howdy and AIS since my son was an auto admit in September. We have had no changes today. AIS still says the message about Early Admits being deferred until the January Review. I guess it’s possible that they didn’t offer him any engineering options but honestly, I would be really surprised. And if he needs to change his major, we really need to know…Is it possible that they have not released the final wave of full admits. It seems like the Blinn Engineering and Galveston could fill up quickly. I’m kind of freaking out!
I with you @aggiemom96. My son is not auto or even academic, but was very close. First quarter, 1360 SAT with 720 math. I felt confident about him getting an academy but our portal says the same as yours. I’m freaking out. My husband & son say I need to calm down. It’s hard on moms!
@DaughterEngineer @crestfrew @tkb10403 @mattb01 @sdwims @tamuhopeful2023 @A&MHopeful
Do not accept any of the three offers of admissions for Galveston or Engineering Academies until you know everything about each one. There are many similarities as to curriculum and applying to major but they all have differences as well and you want to make the best educated choice.
@aggiemom96 Don’t give up hope yet. Today’s admissions seems to have been for applicants that were offered all three options. That doesn’t mean other decisions won’t be forthcoming for Galveston only or an academy only decision.
If he is not offered an engineering option, being an academic admit, he will be given the option to chose any open major.
Galveston nor the academies will fill up from this release if there are still more decisions to come out. They don’t mean for you to chose your option today or your out. It means carefully weigh your options and make the best decision for yourself but don’t be lazy and dilly dally until April. They send out more offers of admission than they know will accept.
@sdwims The Blinn Engineering Academy is an admissions offer for engineering applicants. That is what you are offered for admissions. Blinn Team is offered to non engineering majors. You have 2 years in TEAB program to satisfy and get into a major.
My son is an academic admit from a non ranking school. TAMU placed him in top quarter. 1420 SAT (Math 770). He’s still under review and, after reading DaughterEngineer’s post (that no additional offers will be made) we’re concerned. Does this mean that he will not even be offered Blinn? Would greatly appreciate any input. Thank you so much!
@Thelma2 2 years is the maximum right? If I have a 3.5 gpa my first year I would be guaranteed my first choice major in engineering college station right? If I don’t have that 3.5 gpa, I would have to wait until I meet all the requirements such as meeting all the credit hours, and etc?
Same situation here and also feeling sick to my stomach. Have you heard anything else that could possibly put our minds at ease…?
An Aggie Mom whose son is in Engineering at Galveston is going to share their experience about the program soon. She was waiting for the decisions to come out.
I encourage everyone to research all of the options before selecting to make sure they select the one best for them.
I will post the info for the different decisions: Starting with Blinn/Bryan Engineering Academy
Here is a link for the Blinn Engineering Academy. Reed all of the links on the right side of the page. https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/academies/blinn-bryan/index.html
At an engineering academy, you must maintain a GPA of 2.5 at the Community College, which is where you will take your math and sciences taught by an A&M professor. At College Station or Galveston, you have to maintain a 2.0 in to remain in good standing.
These are the requirements for engineering academy students to apply to a major
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/entry-to-a-major/engineering-academy-program-etm/index.html
The 3.5 overall GPA only applied to the cycle in April of freshman year. After the first ETAM cycle. Not everyone is eligible to be placed in a major at each ETAM cycle for different reasons. !. They dropped a required course to save their GPA and thus must repeat it 2. Did not pass the required course with a C or better and must repeat it. The student will still go through the process of ETAM, they just will not be placed in a major. Regardless of GPA, a student going through ETAM a second time is not guaranteed first choice major.
Thank you @Thelma2. I’m wondering now if our answer of “no” to Galveston & McAllen are why we weren’t in this wave? We’ll keep holding our breath…thanks for all of your help.
@AjerMom The decisions that went out today are those offered options. That does not mean that full offers will not be given to Galveston. Academic Admits Have to be offered full admissions at College Station or Galveston or Blinn Engineering Academy. My best guess is that those academic admit decisions are made but just not released yet. That would make no sense for an Academic admit not to get a full offer of admissions unless it were not to engineering and then you son will be offered any other major. With such scores as your son, I have not seen any auto or academic admit not be offered an engineering decision of some type.
I would not lose hope and would wait and see what else is forthcoming.
@Thelma2 2 years is the maximum right? If I have a 3.5 gpa my first year I would be guaranteed my first choice major in engineering college station right? If I don’t have that 3.5 gpa, I would have to wait until I meet all the requirements such as meeting all the credit hours, and etc?"
@sdwims Yes, 3.5 overall GPA WITH the required freshman engineering courses complete guarantees first choice for the first ETAM attempt. You have 4 semesters to complete them. Each semester, the odds of getting your first choice major decrease. At the end of 4th semester and you have not satisfied all the general engineering requirements (yes, it happens more than you think) and you do not want to accept the major offered to you or no major is offered to you, you are removed from the program.
Thank you so much for betting back to me. I can breath again! We never considered that he may not get any engineering offer so this has all come as quite a shock. Feeling a bit more hopeful now. Thank you again!
@Thelma2 asked me to give you my observations about my son’s first year (this year) in the Engineering at Galveston program.
Stats: my son ended up 29% percentile in his senior class after some lackluster early high school grades, 1360 SAT (680/680), varsity swim team, 12 AP and dual credit courses, engineering magnet classes and CAD professional certification, Eagle scout. I knew his admission situation when he applied and am very grateful for him to have a chance to be a full A&M student, but my son has also been satisfied with the life he’s made there, too.
There were about 400-450 engineering freshman in the program last fall. When it finally really hit our son that he was admitted unconditionally as a full TAMU student, and yes, it took some repeated reinforcement for this to register, he became pretty satisfied with his situation. His GPA after his first semester in Galveston was 3.375, and he seems even more confidently motivated due to his successful grades so far. We keep in close touch with him, which I cannot recommend too much for any freshman parent.
This has actually been a good year for our son in Galveston so far. The campus is maybe 140 acres in size, with two very nice, very large new high-tech buildings. He lives in Atlantic Hall (housing spots there can be tough to get), which is on one corner of the campus, and he can get anywhere on campus in only a few minutes (he skateboards a lot, too). He has made friends with students from Engineering and from the maritime majors there, especially through his interest in cars. There are a lot of car shows in Houston, for example, and he goes there with his friends. He has enjoyed some other sights in the wider area, as well. The food on campus is OK/reasonable by his fairly high standards. It can rain hard there, and yes, it is definitely more rainy there than in CS, but it can be beautiful there as well. Overall, and he is fairly picky, he likes it. There seem to be enough formal clubs and activities if a student wants to get involved, for sure. He dabbled for a while with lacrosse, which is definitely a thing there.
The professors seem caring. Our son had a tough time at first getting used to the online learning management system there, as anyone might anywhere. But the main Chemistry professor, bless her forever and, unknown to her, my fellow Lake Highlands High School alumna, looked at the timestamps on lab assignments that were stuck in some pending state, and gave him full credit for all of them. Not everyone would do this, folks. There are only a few choices in professors for a few classes there, and maybe just one for the core curriculum breadth classes. Our son came in with a lot of credits and will absolutely run out of courses he could take in Galveston for a Mechanical Engineering degree after next fall (he didn’t study for the math placement exam and will spend 3 semesters there–long story for another post), but he is going to be able to finish out all the remaining state core curriculum classes before transitioning to CS. The engineering professor he has this semester is rated 4.7/5 stars on ratemyprofessors. In fact, there are two very high rated engineering professors with slavish student following, and his math professor is also quite highly rated. There is competition for good professors during registration, but it’s not monumentally difficult. At least these students can get their classes.
Our son has seen several Engineering at Galveston students already fail some classes, and some have left TAMU or left for other programs, for example, the Austin Community College-based TAMU Engineering Academy. Therefore, it has not been a walk in the park for some of these engineering students.
Downsides: the campus can be quieter on the weekends, but of course it’s not empty. A number of the students probably live in the greater Houston area or so. Yes, the students MUST, MUST have good car access somehow. REALLY. The public transportation to Hobby Airport or the downtown Houston Greyhound station involves several transfers that would have to work out on schedule to make this possible. There is no apparent Uber service on Galveston after about midnight. We sent our son without his car last fall, and he ended up starting to make the 5 mile walk back from the UTMB emergency room in somewhat poor weather on a dark night at 3 a.m. back to his dorm. I called campus police in my horror, and the officer dropped what he was doing to go get him. We sent our son back with a car after Thanksgiving, needless to say, and he uses it from time to time. It gives him and us peace of mind, for sure, and it’s a quick drive off Pelican Island to the Galveston Walmart and Target. I am not enchanted with his not having a medical clinic on campus, because I believe UTMB services are expensive. Also, there is no transportation service to the CS football games. This I am definitely not satisfied with; I believe A&M should use some of their jillion dollars to involve these students in CS activities. But my son did get to 2-3 games by driving with some Galveston friends, and crashed afterwards in high school friends’ dorm rooms. Just an adventure to them. TAMU-Galveston definitely has its own culture.
Galveston itself is a pretty big island. To our son, there seems to be enough for these folks to do there and in the wider area. I believe this situation was a good one for him, less stressful and easier to navigate in every sense, I believe his grades are better than they could have been otherwise, and he has made a good situation for himself there. Yes, there are maritime students there that are certainly OK with spending their entire college career there. I believe the overall student enrollment there is about 2500 students.
Please write back with any questions.
@Thelma2 @AggieMomhelp If I get offered blinn team, what happens if tamu dorms have reached capacity?