@OhioTransplant I’m not the one well versed in engineering. That’s @thelma2 department as she has a son in engineering and has been around for many cycles.
I will say engineering has a certain number of spots at cstat campus. After those are filled (after reviewed) then options may be given to other students (academy or Galveston). Psa is not an option. But there are many academies you can apply for directly at community colleges that will lead you down the same path as Galveston, McAllen and Blinn engineering academy.
@AggieMomhelp I asked A&M about rankings. They said that when they assign ranks, it’s all dependent on test scores, nothing to do with school demographics or GPA.
@gogogogobruins hmmm I don’t doubt that’s what they told you. Just doesnt make sense by past ranks. For instance, my nephew is home schooled and got an 1080 on sat. His gpa was upper 3s. He was assigned 1st quarter. From my friends in admissions, they look at gpa, demographics and rigor. Otherwise they would have to rank everyone by test score to make it fair playing field.
If your school does not rank, a school profile from the high school must be provided along with your transcript and Texas A&M will assign a class rank based on reported GPA.
@AggieMomhelp I emailed admissions and asked about the school profile a couple of months ago. I was told with the new SRAR being used that they no longer need a school profile. I’m still not sure how they do the ranking but sounds like things may have changed and they haven’t updated their website yet. I think they still use the GPA but not sure what all plays into the decision on ranking.
All engineering applicants will be offered an engineering admission of some type, be it to College Station, 1st year general Engineering at Galveston, one of the Engineering Academies: Blinn Rellis or McAllen, PSA (Pathway for System Admissions) where 8 degrees in the College of Engineering are offered http://admissions.tamu.edu/PSA/. Or the applicant is denied admissions to A&M and thus the major but that is a different piece of fruit.
Getting in is not as big of an issue as staying in. Calculus readiness is a big component. There is a math placement test that they take on campus at their New Student Conference to see what math they need to begin with.
Some kids find out very quickly that the rigor and difficulty of the major is not for them. Other times, the classes dictate it for them. A&M is a very academically competitive university and a top ranked engineering program is going to be also. Getting into a specific major through ETAM (Entry to A Major) is also very competitive, competing against peers, and one must prove themselves through their abilities. A&M is not always for everyone and having a back up school that is less competitive that admits directly to major may be better suited for some.
At the end of the day though, to be a licensed engineer, wherever they attend, they must still be able to pass the FE exam before graduation and the PE exam after working for a specific amount of time in that engineering field.
Frankly, I don’t know what to make of them either. I’ve been mulling around what the stats could mean. I do think that engineering options that are considered full admits to TAMU are included in the large admit number.
But it seems to me that STEM is more of a focus at TAMU in terms of admissions. It’s hard explain the high percentage of admitted engineering students otherwise.
I have run the numbers (Percent admitted) from the above DARS link. That link looks at applied/admitted/enrolled. A stat complied after census day. So the general studies is where they group kids coming off Gateway - I believe.
Ag 53%
Arch 46%
Business Admin 48%
Education 48%
Engineering 85%
Geo 67%
Gen Studies 100% (But that is the Gateway etc kids)
Liberal Arts 56%
Science 62%
Vet 72%
Public Health 57%
Based on this breakdown, the admission process at TAMU weighted toward engineering and science majors.
I just don’t see what TAMU gains by having an 85% admission rate to engineering published without caveats. (hence the yield) Certainly TAMU’s “facts and figures” page are opaque to the max. Only a certain amount of families dig in to ETAM stats. It can’t be claimed that TAMU engineering is highly competitive, yet have that admit rate, and then talk about getting to a 75% (lofty goal) retention rate. It would be better to be clear that many kids, high stats and not, just don’t really know what an eng degree looks like. Most engineering schools in big publics suffer the same loss rate.
@AggieMomhelp apparently most homeschoolers would get top 25%. my son got 33 on ACT with 36 on science and English (clearly didn’t do well on math haha) and 4.0 but got top 25% because of his math score. I guess if you get auto admit score on tests, you get assigned top 10%.
@gogogogobruins I just found this under SRAR questions on TAMU’s site:
Will the assignment of class rank for home schooled students be impacted by the SRAR?
The rank for home-schooled students will be assigned based on the official SAT/ACT scores per Texas Legislation. (Sounds like this is how it’s always been done??)
What happens if I’m at a non-ranking school?
The Office of Admissions will assign a ranking based on the information included in your SRAR. Students can see the quartile ranking assigned in the AIS checklist. (Sounds like what I’ve been thinking, but thought it applied to both home school and unranking schools).
So from this, do you read it that unranking high schools are done differently than home schools? That’s how I read it, but not sure I’m right.
That 85% includes the academy and galveston campuses so if Galveston or academy were an admissions offer, your son could not change his major because those would be his only options. No way to get to College Station except after 1 year at those campuses.
Major isn’t considered when accepted to the university. And as a review admit for engineering, if you don’t have high scores and the calculus and physics readiness, Galveston, an academy offer or PSA is typically the admissions offer.
I know you were teasing about that but wanted to clarify it for others who might actually think this was a good way in as a review applicant. It isn’t.
I want to emphasize what @Thelma2 is saying. In no way am I suggesting that listing engineering as a major makes it “easier” to get admitted to the College Station campus.
The academies are a huge factor. There are more alternative, full admission spaces available, compared to Mays and the Visualization program in Arch - that have a finite amount of spaces and are now filled by auto and academic admits. Viz was filled by early Nov and Mays before that.
@Thelma2 Thanks for clarifying for all. You are correct, I am only teasing, but I would not want anyone to be misled based on my joke.
The 85% is much higher than I would have thought.
I hope students and their families admitted to A&M engineering do their homework to understand the high percentage of admission into the different engineering paths, and their realistic probabilities of ultimate success in A&M engineering.
@AggieMomhelp when my son applied 3 years ago, I was told that homeschoolers will be assigned quartile depending on the test scores. since I saw someone post here that her child got top 10% assignment, I’m assuming that now they do give top10% assignment if the test scores are that of academic admit or better. as for non-ranking schools, I think they’re treated differently than homeschoolers.
