One good option for Plan B is the Engineering Academy at Blinn-Brenham - (different from Blinn-Bryan). You can apply directly to the program today while waiting fro TAMU. You probably get a response back before TAMU. It doesn’t hurt to try.
Personally, I like the facts that all engineering students live together in a residential hall - which was completed in 2018 and look very nice - in a living-learning community and go to classes together. After 1 year, he can apply for ETAM. If your kid has a 3.5 GPA, he is guaranteed to his first choice major (just like all engineering students).
I would seriously look at options like UTD and UTA as well. I assumed you are in Cypress so UH engineering is a good option too depending on what he wants to major in. Good luck …
@AggieMomhelp So my DS’s “Change major” button in AIS and Manage Applications went away yesterday but it says he is still in review. Both majors still listed: 1st Kinesiology and 2nd Liberal Arts: University Studies as well as College Station as the location. Applied in July and this is the first glimpse of any update.
Does this mean PSA is imminent or other possible options (PTA, Straight transfer)?
Don’t know what we would do without the valuable feedback on this forum. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
@AMM1989 PTA or straight transfer are options you can consider as alternatives to PSA but only PSA can be offered to you by TAMU as an application decision. Wishing you a positive outcome !
“Change Major” button is gone this morning from Howdy and AIS. We were fairly certain PSA would be in her future. My oldest Aggie went straight Blinn for a year and then got into TAMU. It was a perfect path for her, and it’s probably best for our youngest too. It’s not about where you start, it’s about where you finish. She’ll join her two Aggie sisters in due time.
It is relative .. 88% were placed into 1st or 2nd choice majors - with 82% got 1st choice. So if you know how your kid performed in the past in HS, then you probably has an idea.
non engineering applicant… Waitlisted 1/24 and still waiting with change major button still active. Top 25%; ACT-28. So we took a day trip down to talk with admission. We live in the Dallas area so just a little day trip. Here’s what we found out (for NON-engineering applicants): The admissions counselor was amazing with a fantastic personality; however, keep in mind they are just the counselor and have to get information from their boss that might be a little stale… But, full admit is done. CSTAT is full of freshmen acceptance. Only Blinn Team will be coming out going forward. There were 1000 applications still to review and should be done this week with those (maybe PSA or waitlisted). If you are waitlisted, it could be mid April before you hear something (could be sooner depending on the luck of the draw if your app is pulled). They have to give people time to accept their Blinn Team offer…if they still have room after their deadline to accept, they will RANDOMLY draw more waitlist apps and send Blinn Team offers. Again giving them a deadline. If room after the deadline they will RANDOMLY draw more waitilist until Blinn Team is full. Gateway is also full. they used to do 600 Gateway, they only had room for 200 Gateway this year. Folks, this year with UT changing their auto admit to 6% pushed a significant of Texas applicants to A&M. Based on the volume, I think they have done the best they could. This is Texas, we’re polite and hate to reject people. It’s one of the reasons they try to help the kids and find pathways to get you the A&M such as PSA, PTA, Blinn-TEAM, Gateway, etc… It’s a process and not uncommon for every counselor to have over 75 messages on a Monday morning. Best of luck to everyone still waiting with us…
@kbbeale Our daughter was offered PSA…all of the System Schools’ acceptances have been rolling in since offer was made last week. I’m sure will continue, until she gets all 8. I think she was auto-admit to all.
Hi. I have been researching TAMUG online. All freshmen have to live on campus. There is an engineering LLC in the Maritime Academy Hall so they can all live/study together, so I am happy about that. We are in Sugar Land which is literally right down the road. All engineering students (CS, McAllen, Galveston, and all academies) take the same coursework and then apply to ETAM. The entire goal the freshmen year is to make that 3.5 so they are automatically admitted to their first choice major. I think the smaller environment at Galveston or the academies is probably a benefit since I know the coursework is rigorous. I don’t know the answer to all your questions, but if they complete the coursework, they transfer to CS the second year. If they don’t make a 3.5, I believe they rank their majors and get placed. I don’t know about a minimum GPA, but obviously 3.5 is the goal.
I asked if there are still full spots left as I read they were all gone. And I asked how long those that have already been given Blinn team have until they must respond.
I just reached out to an admissions counselor today ^, and they said that they do still have full admission spots. And that we, non-engineering waitlisted, probably won’t hear back until the end of March. (They will know by then how many more spots they can open up to us)
The only part of this that doesn’t make sense to me is why is TAMU admissions giving the people who were offered Blinn Team so much time to accept? Didn’t it say on their offer that seats were limited at Blinn, and once they were full, they’re full and the offer for Blinn wouldn’t be an option any longer for those folks? I would think that if the students REALLY wanted TAMU Blinn Team, they’d respond quickly, allowing other students to take empty seats. Just makes me wonder why they are giving those students so long to reply. I know many might be weighing their other decisions, but there are students out there that would give their right arm to end up on the CS campus.
@AggieMomAgain That’s fantastic about your daughter!!! You should be extremely proud of her. I’m sure she’s a fighter and will definitely go far in life! Congratulations on her transferring into A&M main campus and finishing up her studies! Whoop!
I emailed admissions yesterday on behalf of my son and here is my email and reply:
Good morning,
I submitted my application 9/27/2019 for Early Application for Engineering. 1/31/2020, I got offered options and chose “Engineering Academy at Blinn-Bryan.” My current AIS status is “You are being considered for Engineering Academy at Blinn-Bryan.”
Do you have any idea when decisions will be made?
Thank you!
Howdy!
The deadline to request a pathway is April 1st. We expect most decisions to be released in April after that deadline.
I would suggest continuing to monitor your AIS portal weekly for updates.